Book Reviews
Foolproof Crazy Quilting Visual Guide
by Jennifer Clouston
Review
Clouston, an Australian quilt teacher who grew up in South Africa,
presents her fabulous crazy quilt composed of colorful fabrics cut in
hexagons, then embroidered, beaded, and beribboned. In her
introduction, she explains the imprint of her family and their varied
lands on her, and she briefly describes the history of crazy quilts: what
began as garish in the age of Queen Victoria became a "gentle art";
nevertheless, she allows, it "is time-consuming...and a little indulgent."
Clouston lists her preferred threads and needles, cites no-no's (avoid
too many patterns), offers tips, and instructs in methods such as
foundation piecing. The body of the book details the 25 blocks in her
hexagon-based quilt. She then describes how to take each stitch,
whether threaded with perle cotton or twisted silk, whether Colonial or
French knots, whether embellished with beads or rickrack. In the
closing gallery, Clouston pictures variations - bags, box, and cozy - on
the crazy quilt t heme. Throughout, pictures and graphics (hexagon
patterns are given in the back) are maximal; text minimal.
(Publishers Weekly, November 4, 2013)
Nothing shows off beautiful stitching and embellishments like the blank canvas of a crazy quilt. Jennifer
Clouston's gorgeously illustrated primer, Foolproof Crazy Quilting, introduces your customers to the joys of
making their own heirloom crazy quilts.
Learn how to pick fabric, threads and needles. Learn how to piece crazy quilt blocks and how to embroider
with thread, ribbons, beads and other embellishments.
Includes complete instructions for over 100 embroidery, beading, and embellishment stitches, full-size
patterns for 9 hexagonal crazy quilt blocks, and 25 stitch keys showing proper stitch selection for 25
different blocks.
(FabShop News, 1/7/14)
Crazy quilting can be very free-form and experimental, but there are some essential fundamental techniques
which can be finicky and hard to master. Jennifer Clouston's book attempts to demystify the processes
involved, and does so very successfully. An interesting potted overview of crazy quilting leads on to effective
guides on materials, foundation piecing and seam treatment, and also a rather brilliant idea for storing
scissors and thimbles for easy access, which we won't give away here... There's an almost forensic
dissection of the constituent parts and techniques for many blocks, accompanied by some excellent, detailed
photographs, that will prove extremely instructive and informative for quilters of all levels. Overall the book
is a good exploration of a sometimes overlooked, but nevertheless fascinating, area of quilting. ( Popular
Patchwork Magazine, May 2014)
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