Book Review: Vintage Quilt Revival
Book review by Kari H. (our fabulous secretary!)
Vintage Quilt Revival by Katie Clark Blakesley, Lee Heinrich, Faith Jones
My copy of the Vintage Quilt Revival arrived in the mail at the beginning of February….I’m not sure if I can recall ever having been so excited to get a book before and I was really excited to get this one. I came across the book while checking out various blogs and fabric sites for modern quilting. The ‘Fresh Lemons Quilts’ site by Faith Jones, one of the book’s authors is a very informative site for quilters of all kinds.
The book itself goes through how make 20 blocks that are of a modern design from classics. For each block there are three parts. There are the instructions for the individual blocks, then the instructions for the project that the block is the focus and finally little mini history lessons on either that particular block or style of quilt. Many of the project ideas in the book are quilts and there is also a table runner, a pillow, a carry-all bag, a couple mini-quilts and finally the 2 sampler quilts that contain all 20 blocks.
I find myself constantly picking up the book and flipping through it…..I just love looking at the pictures, the design ideas and the colour ways that the authors have done the different projects in. The instructions seem very easy to follow and a number of the blocks would probably work well as BOM ideas or block exchanges for a quilting bee.
If you have thought about picking up this book I totally recommend it….buy it! I can see coming back to the book and these blocks time and time again. I don’t have a project start date yet and my plan is to do a sampler quilt at some point, though I have to say there are a couple blocks in the book that I just can’t stop looking at….I’m not sure if it’s the colours they were done in or the designs themselves I just think they are fabulous, so something with just a single block style may come first.
I hope you have the chance to check the book out and that you are as excited about it as I am.
And here is a bit about Kari herself:
Hello Quilters, my name is Kari Hutchison and I have called Victoria home since 1987. I am originally from Saskatchewan (where I was born), though through my youth my family lived in BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. I have 4 sisters, 3 here in Victoria and 1 in Vancouver. I have 4 children, 1 boy and 3 girls (ages range from 27 to 13), a husband of 8 years (this year), a German Shepard (who is 4 years old but still acts like a puppy) and finally a cat who is about 13 years old, I think. I work full time for a non-profit social service agency and have been there for about 19 years.
How long have you been sewing/quilting?
I don’t sew-sew really anymore. I mend things now and only if I really, really have to. The person asking for the mending really has to love the object needing repair. I did the usual sewing in high school and when I was a little kid attempted barbie and other doll clothes.
I started quilting when I was in high school. The very first quilt was a baby quilt for my son. It was an appliquéd Sunbonnet Sue & Overall Bill. Took a “bit” of a break when I was in college and the rest of my children were younger. I continued to buy magazines and fabric even though I wasn’t necessarily making anything. I picked quilting back up again full force in 2005 by making a quilt for one of my husband’s nephews who got married and then the following year for one of my nieces.
Favourite quilt you’ve made?
Right now I think the favorite quilt I have made is the second one I did for my son (my oldest daughter really likes to remind me that she only has one quilt & her brother has two, like that is going to light a fire under me or something..!) it was a pattern I found in a magazine and had large plain squares with flying geese sections on each side. Kind of modern and kind of traditional, just a good mix and maybe what I like best about it is the variety and colours of the fabrics that were used.
What are you working on now?
Right now I have a quilt for my husband to complete that is a disappearing 9-patch with a really fun geckko fabric he picked out, it will be his camping quilt. I have some pillow cases to finish for my mom to match the Feathers quilt she got at Christmas this year. This was the Anna Marie Horner pattern that appeared in one of the issues of Quilty Magazine.
I probably have a couple more projects in the pile that I am not remembering at this moment as I think that is just how it goes in quilting….many things get started and we tend to take our time getting back to them.
Thanks Kari for the book review!