Wednesday, March 11, 2009

"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.

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6 Comments:

At 10:07 AM PDT, Blogger Sara said...

Quilting is a slippery slope, but also a lot of fun. Not nearly as social as crocheting, but still fun. I've had my eye on that book. Could you bring it tonight to SnB?

 
At 10:17 AM PDT, Blogger Ellen Bloom said...

Will do, Sara!
The book is very "pretty." I may not take that slippery slope into quilting, but the book is a good jumping off point for crocheted afghan designs too!

 
At 11:30 AM PDT, Blogger Ana Petrova said...

I've been saving material for years for one day learning how to do this. So many projects so little time.

 
At 7:51 PM PDT, Blogger Natalie said...

Don't even tempt me with another quilting book! I love me a crafting book. It's too hard to resist the temptation.

 
At 1:24 AM PDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey thanks for the nice comments on the book! I'm so glad you like it - jump in and learn to quilt, it's fantastic and you'll never want to knit again ;-) Come and see my new blog, it's
www.thelastpiece.net

Sarah Fielke

 
At 1:52 AM PDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Ellen,
I got directed to your post on our book. Thanks for you comments. I used to manage professional skateboarders but am now a devoted quilter. Life is long. Go hard. I also love the photos of your family. My grandma was a flapper and her photos are so dreamy I wanted to grow up and be her. Style was born in the '20's. Nice knitting too. kathy doughty

 

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