Outstanding book of great workshops for modern quilting

Lucky Spool’s Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making: From Color to Quilting: 10 Design Workshops by Your Favorite Teachers

By: Editors of Lucky Spool

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a fantastic book on many facets of quilting. While the book focuses on modern quilts, the skills taught in the book apply to all genres of quilting.

As the book is a compilation of ten workshops, rather than a book written by a single author, each of the segments reads as a small book written by someone who is an expert at that particular quilting skill. The workshops include: The Principles of Color, Working with Solids, Working with Prints, Improvisational Patchwork, The Alternate Grid, Circles and Curves, Paper Piecing, Large-Scale Piecing, Modern Machine Quilting and A Study of Modern Quilts. Each workshop (except the last) includes a project or practice exercises that involve that particular field of study. There is also a good number of templates are included at the end of the book. The section on A Study of Modern Quilts has a large number of color photos of various modern quilts, along with a blurb by the quilt artist regarding the making, inspiration, or comments about the making of the quilt.

I am very impressed by the compilation as a total and each workshop individually. The only thing that could make it better would be access to a video workshop from each of the teachers via one of the craft sites for that kind of thing. Kari Vojtechovsky’s explanation of color principles really made the process of determining colors for my quilts make sense for the first time. Jacquie Gering’s chapter on the Alternate Grid made me realize how boxed in I have been in my thought processes, and finally, Heather Jones’ Large-Scale Piecing made me understand (and itch to start) a project with a single traditional block can become modern and fresh when made in a larger-than-life fashion. I could say something about every chapter, but instead, I suggest highly that you consider adding this book to your quilt library. I have been a traditionalist when it came to my quilts, whether they be piecing, paper piecing, or applique but I am now ready to tackle some modern pieces.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, Lucky Spool Media, via Netgalley. I will be purchasing a paper version to have handy in my crafts library.