Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell ~ A Review, A Pillow & A Giveaway!
Quilt Lovely: 15 Vibrant Projects Using Piecing and Appliqué By Jen Kingwell
Fons & Porter/F+W; $26.99
Recently I was asked if I would like to review Jen Kingwell’s newest book, Quilt Lovely: 15 Vibrant Projects Using Piecing and Appliqué . Considering her Gypsy Wife quilt pattern is on my quilty bucket list and her eye for unique fabric selections and placement fascinate me, I jumped at the chance.
As a fairly inexperienced-newbie quilter I have often put Jen’s patterns in the category of ‘I’m simply not ready for yet’. I love to look at her work and look at others who have completed one of her patterns. So when I started looking through the book I found myself thinking, “Hey, I can actually make some of these!”
Quilt Lovely has 9 beautiful quilt projects and 6 pillow projects with step by step instructions and plenty of beautiful photos and images to help explain steps. This book was also made with a matte finish, so while you won’t see glossy smooth pages, it has no effect on the visual directions or the quilt images.
Some projects in the book are very elaborate. Not necessarily hard, but would make a good long term project. Others, like the Flea Market Dash (a twist on the simple Churn Dash block) would be easy to make and customize like Jen did below.
Quilt Lovely – Flea Market Dash Quilt
Projects in this book are also made so the quilter can easily adapt it to a different size. Jen gives ideas at the beginning of each pattern on how to make it your own. The same goes for the pillows. They are designed by block and finish at a specific size, but can easily be made into quilts.
My favorite pattern in the book is the Wheel of Fortune pillow. One look at it and I knew it needed to be made. I purchased some of my favorite KONA Snow and a Jelly Roll of Jen’s new fabric line Gardenvale by Moda and got started. Here is my finished Wheel of Fortune (on right!):
This pillow was very straightforward and easy to sew. The only trouble I ran into were the 1/4″ seam allowances. She states at the beginning of the pattern that it’s included in the rotary cutting method, but that we had to add it ourselves after we traced the pattern. Okay, easy to do. But why not just already include it in the template? (May be a newbie issue..) I foundation pieced the blocks, all 16 of them. Was it hard? Not at all! Was it time consuming? You betcha, but SO worth it.
Jen Kingwell displays her unique and funky color choices and spins on traditional designs perfectly in this book. Same goes for her Gardenvale fabric. When you look at each fabric you may like them but wonder how they will mesh together. But then you play around with the fabric and realize it all works!
The back of Quilt Lovely has two large sections detailing her methods for fussy cutting, piecing, applique and hand piecing. Information about the quilt assembly process is included as well. The templates are in the back (in a large pull out section) so you can trace and/or copy what you need.
At the end of Chapter 2, she shows a way to finish your pillows. (See above!) I have never tried this method before, but I will be using this fabric/hidden zipper method on every pillow I sew from now on. Love it!!
This pretty, called Mrs. Bannister’s Stars is going to be the next pillow I make. I just need to master my Y-seams a bit better first!
I hope you have enjoyed this peek into Quilt Lovely and my review. This is truly a lovely book, full of wonderful designs and inspiration. Since I will be keeping my copy forever, you can get your HERE. And last time I checked, it was on sale for $19.88. Yeah!
Be sure to check back tomorrow. I have a bit of my jelly roll left from the Wheel of Fortune pillow so I cut up a few mini charm packs to give away to a few lucky readers who want to give the Gardenvale line a try! See you tomorrow!
That pillow is just amazing. That will definitely be my first project from this book too!