The Art Of Machine Piecing - How To Achieve Quality Workmanship Through A Colorful Journey

Wonderful book, great instructions and perfect to use as a workbook to improve your piecing.

No matter how many quilting books you own, this is a must have for your personal library. Sally Collins takes it step by step to help perfect the "Art of Machine Piecing". Will we ever be perfect? No, but striving for consistency is a goal that Ms. Collins covers in detail. Belong to a quilt guild? I strongly suggest this book be included in the guild's library so everyone can improve their stitches. Happy Quilting!!!!

This book is a must read for ANY quilter, whether working with regular or miniature pieces. Thanks to Ms. Collins for sharing all these terrific ideas.

this is a wonderful book for a quilter of any level of skill or experience. i have no plans (right now!) to work at the scale the author enjoys, and i do not intend to enter any comptetitions, but i still want to do the best work i can. just one quick reading has improved my technique. thanks to ms. collins, i am more aware of how i am cutting, piecing and sewing, and more aware of what the machine is doing, can do, or will do. some of what she writes about i knew, some i never considered, some advice i've seen in other publications, but having all of this information in one source reinforces the lessons. even if you have other technique or block books on your shelf, you will benefit from this one. as other reviewers have mentioned, ms. collins accepts the time and attention that good craftmanship requires, and encourages her readers to put that time and attention into their work.

Sally Collins has outdone herself with this book. In our modern day society, there is an emphasis on speed - everyone rushes around trying to squeeze in as many activities and projects into each minute of every day. This sometimes has the unfortunate consequence of less attention to detail and the result is sloppiness. In this book, Sally shows the quilter how to slow down and enjoy the process of creating each quilt block.She starts her book with a chapter on Philosophy and Creativity and her deep love for quilting is very evident in the words that she uses. Phrases such as "..take pleasure in the journey", "..experience the joy and bliss that quiltmaking gives each of us". She views errors as "gifts...opportunities for success" and says that "problem solving is a real key to finding the joy in quiltmaking". With these statements, she removes the fear of making mistakes and turns errors into learning opportunities. She states that quality workmanship is not just about perfect sewing, but also knowing how to solve problems as they occur. One would be tempted to skip this introduction and jump right into the technique and block sections - this is a mistake. It may sound a bit corny, but after reading these pages, I was inspired at the prospect of making miniature blocks rather than being intimidated as I know most quilters are by the tiny pieces used in small scale blocks.She follows the introduction with a detailed section on tools and explains what they are used for which is very helpful. A chapter on Color and Fabric is next and she does a wonderful job explaining the importance of color and fabric selection in general and also how to select appropriate fabrics for small scale blocks. There are a number of helpful example images that accompany the text. As we progress further into the book, we begin to learn about designing blocks and drafting. She goes into detail on how to draft blocks from beginning to end, a discussion that I found fascinating. Sprinkled throughout this chapter and each of the ones that follow, there are tip boxes titled "Noteworthy" that are filled with valuable information.For the quilter interested in improving their accuracy in assembling blocks, the chapter entitled "Workmanship" is without question, the most valuable one to read - and should be read through several times to reinforce key concepts. Sally discusses various factors that cause problems from cutting to sewing to pressing. The bottom line is that the quilter needs to pay careful and close attention to each step of the process. Her quilting experience is evident in the tips on pinning, blocking, and measuring that she includes. The last chapter before starting the block section deals with various construction techniques, such as assembling half square triangles, English Paper Piecing, and using bias bars. But, she does not stop there - she ends the chapter with a detailed and well illustrated tutorial on matching seams, a very important