Book Review Day: A Two-fer

Today is a rare two-fer day I get to review two books, and give away a copy of one of the books.

Celtic Woven Knots
Raymond Houston
72 pages
$18.99 availabe on Nacho Grandma’s Quilts link below.

I first “met” Raymond Houston of Nacho Grandma’s Quilts on Alex Anderson’s first quilt show. He created a system of tesselating blocks that have endless possibilities with no two quilts ever being the same. The concept is brilliant giving the quilter the opportunity to explore patchwork, design and color with the basics all right in front of them.

Raymond has been exploring Celtic knots as applique for quite a while. Each knot a unique creation and incredibly complex. Visit here to see some of the quilts. The book, Woven Celtic Knots offers quilters the opportunity to design, and create Celtic knots of their own. Raymond begins with a simple knot that shows the steps to create the design, then moves on with a series of components so we can create our own knots. I have to say it’s looks easier than I ever suspected and I’ll probably make one or two down the road just to try it.

UPDATE: Congratulations Commenter #7 Terry Knott! You are the winner of a copy of Modern Patchwork Home! I’ll contact you shortly

Modern Patchwork Home Dynamic Quilts & Projects for Every Room
Edited by Vivika Hansen DeNegre
The Quilting Company
144 pages
$22.99

As often happens it is the Introduction of a quilt book that captures my attention, asking me to hang with it and enjoy the beauty contained there in. It’s not so much the words, though essential to the work, it is the feel that grabs me. Vivika speaks of modern quilting in a way that invites me in on the journey of exploring design, color, shape, and quilting, their work together, and how they fit into our daily life from the bedroom and living room to the kitchen and walls.

As a quilter I enjoy the dynamic look of modern quilts, the different use of the background (negative space) the simplicity of quilting (a lot of straight lines) and the use of solids which I adore.

The first part of the book focuses in on piecing technique with clear directions and good illustrations. The directions for making a envelope pillow adds to the where and how we can use quilts in our home and make as gifts for friends.

Islands in the Stream by Pamela Cobb uses three colors to create a visually interesting quilt. I can see this living on a wall offering the warmth of art, or living on a bed keeping us warm on cold winters nights, all the while offering us a moment to day dream of all the quilts we’d make on said island. Sigh.

Twinkle Little Star (not pictured) designed by Debbie Grifka offers a strong nod to our quilting heritage with its use of color. It is a play on a carpenters star, in a grand scale.

Modern Log Cabin (cover quilt see above) designed by Tara Faughnan gives us a different way to make a log cabin, both in construction, and in the use of the varied strips. By varying the width of the strips we get to fool the eye a little bit and create visual depth in the quilt. A design wall would come in handy as we can step back to see how the color is working together, and move blocks around until we have a quilt that is pleasing.

I get to give away a copy of Modern Patchwork Home. Excited? Because I am. This book is beautiful. Leave a comment on on the blog answering the question, “what is your favorite color?”.  I’ll draw a winner on Thursday October 11, 2018 (US ONLY – with apologies to my international followers.)

Happy reading,

Teri