Design Then Quilt: A Dynamic Guide to Creating Stunning Modern Quilts

Roderick (Improv Quilting) presents an insightful primer on how to utilize visual design elements when quilting. She defines value as “the lightness or darkness of a color in relation to other colors” and analyzes how one quilt uses concentric squares of increasingly dark hues to create a sense of depth. Emphasis refers to how viewers’ attention is directed within a piece, Roderick explains, noting that some quilts create focal points through a prominent central design while more conventional block pattern pieces distribute emphasis over the quilt’s entirety. Detailing a variety of advanced techniques, Roderick describes, for instance, how to do English paper piecing, which involves wrapping fabric over cardboard shapes that are removed after the textiles are sewn together. Though there are no instructions detailing how to complete a quilt from beginning to end, Roderick includes some fun exercises that will flex readers’ creative muscles. For example, she suggests cutting out eight black squares of varying sizes and trying out compositions in which the black squares take up more visual space than the white background, and vice versa. The impressive quilts made by Roderick and her students more closely resemble modern art than traditional block designs, showcasing the craft’s avant-garde potential. Intermediate and advanced quilters will be inspired to up their game. (Apr.)