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Retro Quilts: 15 modern designs with a vintage vibe
Join Maude, the Retro Quilter, and bring a touch of vintage cool to your quilting designs! With step-by-step instructions, beautiful photography, and easy-to-follow templates, this book has everything you need to make your retro quilting dreams a reality.
Timeless Designs with a Modern Twist – Maude’s signature blend of nostalgic colorways, retro motifs, and contemporary flair makes this a must-have for any quilter looking to try something fresh and fun.Projects for Every Quilter – Featuring 15 retro-inspired quilts, each with instructions for four sizes, you can create everything from small wall hangings to full-size bed quilts.Beginner-Friendly Guidance – A comprehensive skills section covers essential techniques, from selecting fabrics to finishing your quilt, ensuring that even new quilters feel confident.With Maude’s "fun and done" approach, quilting is about progress, enjoyment, and creativity—never perfection. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced quilter, this book will help you find your quilting joy. Pick up your fabric, thread your needle, and start stitching your way to retro bliss today!
Timeless Designs with a Modern Twist – Maude’s signature blend of nostalgic colorways, retro motifs, and contemporary flair makes this a must-have for any quilter looking to try something fresh and fun.Projects for Every Quilter – Featuring 15 retro-inspired quilts, each with instructions for four sizes, you can create everything from small wall hangings to full-size bed quilts.Beginner-Friendly Guidance – A comprehensive skills section covers essential techniques, from selecting fabrics to finishing your quilt, ensuring that even new quilters feel confident.With Maude’s "fun and done" approach, quilting is about progress, enjoyment, and creativity—never perfection. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced quilter, this book will help you find your quilting joy. Pick up your fabric, thread your needle, and start stitching your way to retro bliss today!
144 pages, Paperback
Published August 26, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 26, 2025
This book has some really great patterns, but as a beginner to quilting I did not find this to be truly beginner friendly at all despite there being projects geared towards beginner through advanced quilters…I would say this is definitely more for an experienced quilter.
I found the directions for how to pin and turn things inside out to be too 2-dimensional and confusing right off the bat in the Quilting Essentials section early into the book, before even getting to the patterns. The visuals were limited and the pacing felt as though it zoomed too quickly through each step. While I am new to quilting, I do sew, I’ve made things from patterns, I’ve even made my own patterns - I still found the directions in this book to be rushed and confusing.
Later while reading through the patterns, I felt even more of my depth with terms like “fussy cutting” being used without a glossary or explanation. I would be interested in a beginner specific book in the future from this quilter as she clearly does beautiful work, this book just did not feel approachable for me.
Even the appliqués and placemats felt confusing to me and I figured those would be the most easy and straightforward directions as they’re the simplest and smallest projects, and I’ve made sewed coasters and placemats before. Pattern-wise this is a beautiful book, I could see myself using the shape templates in the future, but as a new quilter who was hoping that I might be able to create one of the patterns in this book…I think I would have to develop my quilting skills and familiarity with quilting language and terminology elsewhere, and make several quilted projects, before I could really attempt to pick up this book again.
TLDR: Beautiful work. Not approachable for a beginner, and realistically this feels more for advanced quilters.
I found the directions for how to pin and turn things inside out to be too 2-dimensional and confusing right off the bat in the Quilting Essentials section early into the book, before even getting to the patterns. The visuals were limited and the pacing felt as though it zoomed too quickly through each step. While I am new to quilting, I do sew, I’ve made things from patterns, I’ve even made my own patterns - I still found the directions in this book to be rushed and confusing.
Later while reading through the patterns, I felt even more of my depth with terms like “fussy cutting” being used without a glossary or explanation. I would be interested in a beginner specific book in the future from this quilter as she clearly does beautiful work, this book just did not feel approachable for me.
Even the appliqués and placemats felt confusing to me and I figured those would be the most easy and straightforward directions as they’re the simplest and smallest projects, and I’ve made sewed coasters and placemats before. Pattern-wise this is a beautiful book, I could see myself using the shape templates in the future, but as a new quilter who was hoping that I might be able to create one of the patterns in this book…I think I would have to develop my quilting skills and familiarity with quilting language and terminology elsewhere, and make several quilted projects, before I could really attempt to pick up this book again.
TLDR: Beautiful work. Not approachable for a beginner, and realistically this feels more for advanced quilters.
August 20, 2025
Thinking out of the box type of quilt book. l was lucky to review this and from the beginning, the pages make you want to turn, from meeting the Author to what you need in tools and materials to achieve the quilts.
The author also talks about assembling your quilt, which is very helpful. If you have never finished making a quilt you started.
The Author also goes through the difficult sewing of sections for blocks, like Drunkards Path, Half Circles, Dresden Plates, etc.
The section on Appliqué is also helpful.
l loved the piece about using your pattern pieces as a wall hanging. something to give you confidence to then progress onto a quilt.
Then onto the projects from The Chivy with slanted lines in the quilt to Squared blocks. All the sizes for the pieces are there, as well as pictures and cutting instructions.
l loved the lantern quilt project and each step with this is shown.
There are 15 projects within this book and all seem to have a vintage vibe to them.
She also goes through an intermediate section, where you learn about adding appliqué to your quilts, cushions, and wall hangings. something different to achieve amazing quilts, etc.
There are templates at the back of the book, which have to be scanned at a higher resolution. She says to a 50% increase.
This is more of a book for a person who is confident in making quilts, but I also l think a confident sewer would also manage to make quite a few in the book
Definitely going to have a go.
Well done to Maude MacDonald for something different in quilt design and to David and Charles books for publishing it.
The author also talks about assembling your quilt, which is very helpful. If you have never finished making a quilt you started.
The Author also goes through the difficult sewing of sections for blocks, like Drunkards Path, Half Circles, Dresden Plates, etc.
The section on Appliqué is also helpful.
l loved the piece about using your pattern pieces as a wall hanging. something to give you confidence to then progress onto a quilt.
Then onto the projects from The Chivy with slanted lines in the quilt to Squared blocks. All the sizes for the pieces are there, as well as pictures and cutting instructions.
l loved the lantern quilt project and each step with this is shown.
There are 15 projects within this book and all seem to have a vintage vibe to them.
She also goes through an intermediate section, where you learn about adding appliqué to your quilts, cushions, and wall hangings. something different to achieve amazing quilts, etc.
There are templates at the back of the book, which have to be scanned at a higher resolution. She says to a 50% increase.
This is more of a book for a person who is confident in making quilts, but I also l think a confident sewer would also manage to make quite a few in the book
Definitely going to have a go.
Well done to Maude MacDonald for something different in quilt design and to David and Charles books for publishing it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews