Do you know what these are? Just some of my favourite tools in an arsenal of circle making things. Front and centre is my compass and elementary school geometry set. School supply nerds take note! You can find out about these and how I use them in the new book from Lucky Spool, The Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmaking.
This great book is like taking a workshop from each of your dream teachers - Jacquie Gering, Denyse Schmidt, Penny Layman, Angela Walters, and more. If you can't be in the classroom with us, this might be the next best thing! Each teacher has a chapter devoted to a specific concept or technique. You get the benefit of their experience and all their Quilter to Quilter tips. And then you get a pattern that uses those techniques.
At the end of the book is a phenomenal gallery of modern quilts. Some serious eye candy there.
My quilt in the book might be a new top favourite of mine. It comes with my chapter on Circles and Curves. You could probably call it a sampler of the techniques, but it is more than that. Inspired by two favourite fabrics it takes geometric block design to a really fun place. You could make the pattern as is or you could change up the layout to suit your own preference. Or maybe make repeats of your favourite blocks for a completely different look.
I debated long and hard about the colour selection for this quilt. It needs high contrast and I really wanted to keep it to two colours. But it is me and where one fabric will do I will pick 10! You could say this is a pretty masculine colour combo with just navy and gray, but I call it calming. Despite the bold geometry of the quilt, it has a very serene quality. Keeping the background fabric to a single choice really helps with that.
To check out the other contributors and see what they are saying about the quilt, you can follow along with them.
Kari Vojtechovsky teaches on The Principles of Color
Alissa Haight Carlton teaches on Working with Solids
Dan Rouse teaches on Working with Prints
Denyse Schmidt teaches on Improvisational Patchwork
Jacquie Gering teaches on The Alternate Grid
Penny Layman, of course, teaches on Paper Piecing
Heather Jones teaches Large Scale Piecing
Angela Walters teaches Modern Machine Quilting
Heather Grant then takes us on a Study of Modern Quilts.
Lucky Spool is a new publisher on the book scene for quilting. Led by Susanne Woods (formerly of Stash Books and Craftsy) they are bringing a number of exciting books to the market. Their Essential Guide for Modern Quiltmaking looks like it is going to leave its mark for quilters everywhere.
Right now you can get the book on a great discount from Taunton Press (Lucky Spool's distributor). If you buy it from them get a 20% discount between now and July 21.
Click here. Use the discount code EGMQ20
UPDATE: the correct code is EGQM20. My apologies for the typo.
