Embellished Mini-Quilts: Creative Little Works of Art

by Jamie Fingal

The quilts may be small, but the design innovations are BIG! Each one of these mini-quilts measures less than 36" long by 36" wide, and features the most creative, detailed, and beautiful embellishments you’ve ever seen. Created by top-name quilters, and with spectacular images by an acclaimed quilt photographer, they showcase both traditional and contemporary techniques for personalizing your work: the quilts are adorned with beads and buttons, sequins and jewels, metallic cording, foil stamping, wire, photo transfers, fabric painting, seashells, and Cracker Jack prizes, as well as lovely ribbons, lace, and embroidery. Many of the projects have appeared in gallery collections, and the designers provide detailed instructions and materials lists so quilters can easily replicate the embellishments on their own pieces of art.

Genres: Nonfiction, Quilting, Crafts

127 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up during breakfast at my parents'. I have no idea why my mother had it -- she can't even sew on a button. (That's not a criticism. Thanks for the chocolate croissants, mom!)

I prefer the more traditional art quilting, where the fabric and sewing take the spotlight. Some of these pieces were completely covered with hard objects, so the cloth was no longer visible at all. Why even bother having it in the first place? I get that many of these artists are regarding their pieces more as collage-with-fabric than as quilts, but it still seems odd to include materials that won't be visible at all in the final product. Some of these looked like the craftsperson could have glued on the items on a board and gotten the same effect with less work. These were my least favorite pieces, too busy and cluttered.

I also thought it was odd that detailed instructions for recreating each art piece were provided, especially given that the personal nature of the designs and objects was emphasized in the accompanying text. Why would you want to copy someone else's art? Just describing the techniques involved (which stitches, etc) would have saved space for more pieces to be included.

My favorites were the ones by the author, one of which is featured on the cover. Hers have the best color balance and incorporate the fabric in ways which are more true to the original quilting craft.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

looks lovely and after it came in the interlibrary loan delivery I thought - hey - I don't have time to do these things right now, so a quick skim and back it went. I am rating it high for clarity and detailed explanations about how to make these lovely quilts - I can see doing this at some less frenzied time.

[Jocelynne Broderick]

Although beautiful to look through, the projects featured are WAY past more complicated than anything I'd ever try. I know I could use the techniques for simpler projects but I was majorly overwhelmed. Maybe there's a "dummies" version, or one with simpler sample projects.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of great ideas for embellishing quilts (of any size) in this book. It also gave me a lot of ideas for little quilts I might make.

[DeeAnn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book, but the artist's style is not to my liking at all.