Scrap Quilts

Roberta Horton is a national treasure. I have never met her or had her for a class, but I have learned as much about quilts and constructing folk art quilts from her books as I have with many terrific courses with big name quilters. Scrap Quilts is a workshop in a book! There are no patterns--she makes you create your own paper appliques in a chapter near the end of the book. She also has a chapter of pieced block diagrams that work well with scrap quilts. She does not waste your time printing templates of classic blocks that you already have in other books.Also--you can glance at the diagrams and rotary cut the pieces towhatever size you want--so you are not locked in to a certain size block. The color plates of the the scrap quilt examples are awesome. (So are the photos of Roberta's toy sewing machine collection in the sidebars-- a bonus for all you tiny stitchers!) Roberta has taken her evaluation of the scrap quilt process a step further than Gwen Marston in Liberated Quiltmaking (which is also an awesome primer on creative scrap quilts.)Gwen focuses on the process--but Roberta focuses on how to manipulatecolor and design to enhance the process. She also shows you how to add freeform applique to pieced quilts and still retain the scrap quilt flavor. There is always attention to value, color, and fabric so that your quilt will end up a piece of original art and not an imitation of someone else's work.If you see your quilts as identical blocks of classic patterns--this book will confuse you. If you hunger to quilt your life--this book will help you immensely. For instance, Roberta has a picture of a quilt about her Singer Featherweight. She loves that featherweight and it shows in the quilt. It inspired me. I spent most of last night on my EQ designing a wall quilt for my Elna Grasshopper. I love it--but it has a totally different personality than Roberta's featherweight.My quilt will be very different--but she has several ideas that I will probably borrow. (such as the plaid background around the machine.) Also, her idea about using old sets of scrap blocks for a border has got me thinking and looking. I want to call my quilt"Grasshopper in the fabric stash" surrounding an applique center block with scrap rail fence fabric--but I may audition some scrappinwheels that I pieced at random in Gwen Marston's suprise quilt class.That's one of the things I love about Roberta's books. She gives me lessons that fit in perfectly with the classes I've had with Gwen Marston, Joen Wolfron, and Margaret Miller. I can take projects I've started in their classes and incorporate them intosomething she's pushed me to dream up.A great book--don't miss it!:)

Although I have a fair collection of quilting books, and I keep buying new ones, this book is my favorite. Roberta Horton encourages her readers to be adventurous. She gives a really good treatment of ways to combine fabrics to make a quilt that looks inviting and interesting. She especially likes directionals, and she likes them slightly off-grain.There are some wonderful color pictures and a wide variety of color combinations. The last part of the book invites readers to create picture quilts.All in all, this book makes me feel like I can create a quilt and enjoy what I create.

I bought this book through a book club several months ago and am ordering a another for a gift for my quilting bestfriend.This book explained to me what was special about the quilts that I loved and was drawn to.... I get an ache inside because I want to create what I see so badly and don't know how. Based on my experience as a quilter, this book is much more that a quilting book, it seems more like a curriculum on how to see quilts, fabrics, colors, and to interpret in fabric what one sees and loves about scrap quilts. Each time I sit down with the book, I study it, and pick up a new piece of information.In my opinion, Robert Horton is a very talented lady. Thanks for writing it, Roberta!

I'm a big fan of Roberta's bboks, particularly this one and "The Fabric Makes the Quilt." This is a great book, it will teach you how to make your quilts stand out among a sea of boring traditional quilts. Use ugly fabrics together with beautiful ones, prints solids, plaids and stripes, all the same quilt, the results are awesome! This book will inspire you to go to your scrap bag and start sewing without making a special trip to the fabric store! After all, if you actually use some fabric from you existing stash, you can tell your husband you have to have more fabric, and mean it!! The pictures of new and antique quilts are very inspiring. I guarantee after you read this book, you'll never look at quilting the same way again.

This is a wonderful book that inspires and teaches you how to create quilts that are uniquely your own. Each section that instructs, (ie. color, fabric, value,...) includes pictures that fully illustrate the what is being taught. As an aside, if you enjoy quilts, the pictures in this book can provide a vacation for the mind. As a beginner quilter, I have read many quilting books. This book has provided me with a confidence to create a quilt that I, in the past, could only covet from afar.