Nature's Studio: A Quilter's Guide to Playing with Fabrics & Techniques

I was looking for something that would help me expand my creativity along the lines of being 'artistic'. Being of limited talent and budget in the area I needed help! Her techniques and ideas send you in creative directions it might have taken you 20 years to reinvent by yourself. Worth the $. I ended up with a variety of interesting experiments that looked amazingly good when put on the wall. Buy it an go off to 'play' for a while.

If you are looking for inspiration on 'how to' this is the book for you. Very generous with personal techniques develpoed.

I love books and tend to buy a lot on whatever subject I am interested in. This has to be my favorite pick of the fiber art books I have read. My dream is to someday take a class from Joan Colvin. She is an incredible artist and her book has just the right balance of technique and inspiration. She is truly gifted, as is any artist and or quilter who is lucky enough to own this book.

Joan Colvin acts as a gentle yet strong guide for anyone who wishes to find their style and understand elements of the design process in making a quilt. She generously offers some of her techniques and methods which work for her (and maybe you) and gives you great insight in how to express yourself creatively through fabric. However, as any good creative teacher will tell you, this is only the beginning of your personal creative process, and this book is not a project based one but instead will jump start you in other ways as you feast your eyes over her quilts (with details of some shown also). I just wish she included photos showing some alternative choices and decisions she inevitably had to make whilst she was making the quilts to illustrate this further because she does mention the value of photographing your options- but maybe I just can't get enough of her unique work.

This a must-have for folks who make or want to make landscape/art quilts. Joan Colvin is one of the best at this, and is able to really get her techniques across to her readers. I've been waiting for another book from her.