"Material Obsession"

I am not a quilter. I'm a knitter, crocheter, sometime seamstress. I haven't actually unearthed my sewing machine from the back of the closet in several years. In earlier days I used to sew Hawaiian style shirts for Larry. I have so much great fabric hanging around, that I've often thought about getting into quilting.

I recently came across "Material Obsession: Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots" by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. I was immediately taken by the photography in this book by John Doughty. The photos, diagrams and color studies depicting the quilts really helps in understanding how the quilts are built.

Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty own a quilt shop in Sydney, Australia. They've been in the business for many years and have an innate sense of color and spatial relationships. The patterns in the book are organized by difficulty. As a complete novice, I could definitely see myself working on a few of the easy patterns. "Avalon" and "Candy Store" would be perfect projects for my fabric stash. I admire how the designers turn classic, old-fashioned looking patterns into modern pieces.

"Avalon"

"Candy Store"

The complexity of the quilt "Liberty Fields" intrigues me and makes me want to learn more.

"Liberty Fields"

Designer Kaffe Fassett wrote the foreward to this book. He's a color GENIUS! The fact that he endorses this book makes me want to learn to quilt even more.