Japanese Flowers in Appliqué

by Eileen Campbell

      Inside this book is the pattern to make a most glorious quilt, inspired by the authorfs visits to Japan and where the quilt was entered for a Japanese exhibition. It depicts the flowers associated with that country; water lillies, camellias, irises, chrysanthemums, peonies and more. Here too is how to make it yourself.

This is a very hands-on book that jumps straight in and tells you what you need to buy, what sewing machine feet to use, what size of needle and other important things as simply as possible. If you are a beginner at quilting and appliqué then this book is not for you; you don't have to be very experienced to make it but this is not a book of beginnersf instructions. Each block is shown individually, but to acquaint you first with the method and how to use double-sided fusible webbings there is a staged example. Not staged as in lots of photographs and steps, but showing how to break up the design, transfer it and what it looks like cut out in fabric, and then stitched. This made the rest of the book remarkably easy to tackle in my opinion, and all you then need is access to a computer (which you already have or you wouldn't be reading this) and a graphics program to enlarge some patterns. Large- scale diagrams show where to put the accent stitching that brings the blooms to life, and smaller diagrams show how to combine the shapes. Towards the back of the book the patterns get smaller and more complex, but by then you should have mastered how it is done and be up for a bit of a challenge. There are also instructions on cutting the rest of the material to make up the quilt, and how to put it all together. At the very back is a short glossary of terms, so the project should not be too advanced for anybody who has had a bit of experience in this type of thing before. The finished result is beautiful, and the whole slim volume is beautifully simple and direct to work from.