The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making

The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making by Jane Brocket

Last December, my aunt mentioned to me that she'd recently visited the lovely Persephone Books in Lamb's Conduit Street where Jane Brocket of yarnstorm was there with copies of her new book, The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making. A sucker for quilting books, I treated myself to this amazing book while I was back in the UK for the holidays.

Inspiration for the floral frocks quilt

For starters, it's absolutely beautiful and looks like it could be a lovely journal you keep by your bed. But beauty is not only skin deep - as you peep behind the covers, it's beautiful there too. Full of fantastic advice and stunning photos of the gorgeous quilts designed and made by Jane.

Throughout this book, Jane seeks to inspire us with colour and design and to not get hung up on technique. She helps us believe that stunning quilts can be created using simple geometric designs using beautiful fabrics in gorgeous colours. Jane explains in the introduction to her book how in the past she had felt daunted by the prospect of making a quilt. I too was unsure that I could ever create a worthy quilt...would my points be sharp enough, my stitches even, my corners correctly mitred? But as Jane's friend tells her, patchwork is basically cutting up fabric and stitching it back together again. This book is not for quilters who want to learn tricky techniques but for those of us who want to have fun quilting and at the same time, produce stunning quilts which we'll both love and use.

The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making is completely inspirational and has made me look at colour and my surroundings in a totally different way. Now I just have to decide which of the wonderful 15 designs to create and with what fabric.

You can purchase The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making here and you can visit Jane's blog here