Review: Creative American Quilting

Better Homes and Gardens Creative American Quilting
by Better Homes and Gardens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Creative American Quilting / 0-696-01800-4

This is a very generic quilting book, despite the promise of "creativity" implied in the name. There's nothing really wrong here, but if you have any other quilting book, there's little here that you haven't seen before. In fact, this book left such a little impression on me that I have to flip through it regularly to remember why I still keep it and haven't sold it at the local second-hand store.

The answer to that question is the Broken Star. This book does one thing really right, and that's absolutely *huge* quilted wall hangings - absolute floor-to-ceiling eye-catchers. There's one with hundreds of tiny triangles that is quite breathtaking, but my favorite is the rainbow Broken Star. It's quite gorgeous and it's accompanied by speed-piecing machine quilting instructions, which I greatly appreciate. The speed-piecing is strip based, not unlike the "Trip Around the World" technique, but the squares are eventually cut to form triangles. I keep thinking I'll try this one, although I'm probably just dreaming - I always seem to stretch the bias incorrectly when I deal with triangles. Still, it's there, and with a good speed-piecing technique for those who want it.

I recommend picking up this book if you can find it for a dollar or two, or if you plan on doing a Broken Star or Texas Star by machine and need to know where to start.

~ Ana Mardoll

View all my reviews