Book Review: Urban and Amish

MYRA HARDER

Review by Kat Cottington

I am an avid reader (and purchaser) of books to feed my passion which is patchwork and quilting.

I am experienced and usually like to do my own thing but a few months ago I joined the LMQG as I liked the fresh look of the quilts I had seen. However, I have found it difficult to get my head around altering traditional blocks to give them an up-to-date spin and then I was asked to review this book.

The greatest part of this book is that it shows traditional and modern takes together and helps to open your eyes to the possibilities that a few alterations can make. Of course once you get this you can change things even further to make them your own.

The instructions for both traditional and modern are well written and clear. The photography is very good and I really like the descriptions for the quilting which is lacking in a lot of publications.

The only thing I would really criticise is that the basting is limited to the use of safety pins as there are other options available, namely thread basting by hand, basting by machine using soluble thread and, my favourite, spray basting.