Books and Blocks

I was at a discount book store this afternoon looking for ideas for wedding decorations for my friend.  I wasn’t particularly successful in that venture, but I did discover a couple of “quilting” books that I decided to grab for the heck of it.  Some of you have probably heard of the author and her books.  She is Lisa Boyer and I am currently reading her book “That Dorky Homemade Look: Quilting Lessons from a Parallel Universe”

Books And Blocks

And soon I will be starting “Stash Envy: And other Quilting Confessions and Adventures”.

Books And Blocks

If the second book is anything like the first, then I will be laughing for a bit.  Although written almost 10 years ago, I think that the sentiment still rings true for modern quilters. (She does seem surprised that friends buy fabric online…clearly we’re a bit past that!)  But oh there are so many funny pieces to this book that have had me laughing out loud literally.  She has a strange affinity for “special” scissors, a compulsion to buy the ugliest fabric in the store because she feels sorry for it, and a great reluctance to let anyone judge her quilts.  In short, I think that a lot of us can relate.  After all, her fabric speaks to her.  Doesn’t your fabric speak to you?  lol

The first book, as I’m sure is the second, is definitely a quick read…and perhaps not the most brilliantly written book, but I found so much to relate to that I couldn’t put it down.  So if anyone needs a quick pick me up…or at the very least wants to read about another woman’s dilemma in explaining yet another fabric purchase to her husband, you may want to find a copy of these and see what you think.

In quilting bee news, I finished this block quite a while ago, but I didn’t have time to blog about it until now.  Casey asked us to make the block entitled “Interlocking Seasons” found over at the Parfait Cafe.

Look complicated?  Well, it is!  Those squares are cut at 1.25″ square.  That’s tiny people!  And there are a lot of them.  I think that the tutorial is actually pretty well written given the amount of tiny pieces that create this interlocking ring.  I of course made my life more difficult by sewing pieces in the wrong order more than once.  And my seam ripper got a nice workout.  Sigh.  But that just makes it more rewarding right?  This block is not for the weak of the heart…but I think that it would make a fabulous pillow or wall hanging if you enlarged the scale of the pattern.  I think that a part of the difficulty is working with the really tiny pieces!

I’m working away on my bottled rainbow quilt and my zig-zag quilt.  I’ve even managed to connect the two quilts by using some leftover scraps from one in the other.  The benefit of working on two rainbow quilts at one time.  But more on that soon!

7 thoughts on “Books and Blocks”

  1. We were in Hawaii on time, and on the island where Lisa Boyer works or owns the quilt shop. Anyway, she was in the quilt shop at the same time I was in there. It was cool. That quilt block looks, um, amazing/amazingly difficult.

  2. That is a beautiful block, well, executed, and I love it on point. I am going to spend the next hour trying to figure out how to not have those 3 tiny squares in a row for each quarter block. Then I will go to bed frustrated.

  3. Love the block. I was looking at it and wondering if some of those pieces couldn't be cut as one piece. So you would have fewer of those tiny squares to piece. Of course now that means I have this overwhelming need to make one of these blocks to test my theory. Thanks for the great inspiration. I'll be sure and let you know if it works for me.

  4. Lisa has a blog I used to follow, but she seems to have quit posting on it-you can Google it as it's still up. I was interested in her stuff because there just aren't too many quilting bloggers from here in Hawaii

Leave a Reply

Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top