Creative Tucks and Textures for Quilts and Embroidery

Creative Tucks and Textures for Quilts and Embroidery
By Jennie Rayment
Published by Batsford
ISBN: 9780713490534
Price: £14.99
Reviewed by Ruth Singer

This is a comprehensive, absorbing and enjoyable book. For those with a love of fabric manipulation, this book is a must. It is an easy to use guide to many fascinating techniques, which go beyond the normal realms of quilting or embroidery. It covers tucks, folded and interlocked shapes plus inserted and manipulated shapes which are presented for use in quilt blocks, but could be equally applicable to other textile projects. Rayment’s trademark pleats, folds and tucks are explained in great detail, with endless variations and ideas for embellishment, creative variations and combined techniques. It includes working in circles as well as squares, which adds an exciting new dimension to tucks and folds, plus an interesting chapter on the use of bias cut strips, including how to cut continuous bias. At the end of the book is a comprehensive chapter on piecing techniques, which is invaluable to those wanting to incorporate their creative experiments into larger work. A simple and informative short chapter on quilting completes the techniques part of the book, and a small selection of projects and a gallery round it off nicely.

Rayment’s writing style is very informal and chatty, which makes this book fun to read, though somewhat wordy. The techniques are illustrated with line drawings that are easy to follow, although more step-by-step photographs would help in some places. The ‘useful information’ section at the start of the book is full of great tips information for both the beginner and the more seasoned stitcher and her sewing gadgets page is practical and informative. In all, this is a simply presented but inspirational book.

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