Book Review: Modern Patchwork Home

As a newly married adult shortly out of college, I didn't see the value in owning a sewing machine -- my short exposure through a sewing unit in junior high gave me basics but I left it at that. I was early in my knitting abilities when I started teaching English at a middle school. However, the teacher next door to me changed that. She was my age, also a knitter, and a huge resource to me as I taught. She became an informal mentor, able to give advice and answer any questions. I learned she was a quilter, but I imagined it as a fuddy-duddy activity, with dated-looking results.

Then one day, another teacher brought her quilt in to show off to my mentor, who had taught her. The colors were playful, the pattern modern. That day was when I envied that skill and vowed to acquire a sewing machine. I put it on my Christmas list, but my husband and I loved exchanging gifts way early, so by Thanksgiving I was already in possession of my new toy. After a lesson from my mentor, I was off. I made quilt samplers for everyone in my family the following Christmas, and my sisters have gotten various quilts from me for different big events (they are of varying quality, but my heart was in it).

When I saw the cover of Modern Patchwork Home: Dynamic Quilts and Projects for Every Room (edited by Vivika Hansen Denegre), I was delighted to get an advance copy. The quilt on the cover draws you in, and as I'd seen similar patterns but didn't know how they were constructed, I was ready to dig in.

Graphic Cross Quilt

The photographs are well staged, and the book is replete with colors and patterns that draw you in. I love the Braided Table Runner as well as the Reflected Wedges Runner. I can so easily see the Twisted Flower Tote filled with a current knitting project and my Kindle, as long as I make duplicates for my girls so they don't steal mine. The Sketchbook Cover caught my eye. And someday I'd love my make the Module Quilt or Urban Trek Quilt, and something about the Graphic Cross Quilt catches my eye.

Twisted Flower Tote

While you see there are several projects I would love to make, the tips at the start are the exact education I need before beginning. I am too much a beginner to know some of the tricks of the trade, like how to make multiple blocks at a time; there are instructions for how to make half-square triangle blocks two at a time, even as many as eight at a time, with cheats on how to alter to your own needed size. I've watched friends work with paper piecing, but that was another elusive detail, now revealed.

Reflected Wedges Runner

Such a beautiful book with helpful tips and clear directions is bound to inspire others to visit fabric stores and sit down at their sewing machines again.

(I received a digital ARC from NetGalley and F+W Media in exchange for my honest review. I've used Amazon Affiliate links here; should you purchase through these links, I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you)