Barbara Persing‘s latest book, Listen to Your Quilt, is here and offers a tight little process to Select the Perfect Quilting Every Time * 4 Simple Steps. In prepping to write this post, and having seen only the cover, I will say, the teensiest bit of skepticism had come up (terms like “Perfect” and “Every Time” and “Simple” all in the same place just do that to me sometimes). My trusty Bernina 1180 has seen me through piecing and quilting of several dozen projects, and I’ve “hummed along” through a scant amount of hand quilting pieces – some projects with design in mind, and some not. The majority of my time and energy has been spent on piecing, so I have a lot to learn about quilting. Well, guess what? The process of listening – in Persing’s suggested 4 steps – really is…simple!
By way of encouragement and inspiration, Persing shares her story and a few gentle reminders like this one, “Quilting is a form of self-expression, and as such, it doesn’t need rules. Rules are necessary in many places. For example, I have rules at home—but I am raising two children, and, without rules, there is conflict. For quilting, however, following good guidelines will help you be technically better. If you already have a method that works for you and that achieves the same result, stay with your method. There are no rules in quilting.” Delightful freedom? Yes! None of the suggestions call for marking? Fantastic! This can even apply to Traditional projects? Uh, whoa there, missy. Traditionals are the most challenging for me, so I had to put on the brakes and dig a little deeper.
Here’s what I found: Simple category breakouts plus chapters that follow Persing’s suggested process make this book a pleasure to page through….and practice.
Category Breakouts: Listen to Your Quilt is easy to navigate because of the categories: Traditional, Contemporary, Art, and Children’s. In my own projects, I have strengths in some categories and weaknesses in others. Art quilt designs come easy for me, but ideas are always welcome. Traditional pieces just plain intimidate me, so I need more support, information and ideas in order for me take on a traditional project. The breakouts are simple and easy to identify and follow because she explains how and why she is identifying her categories (such as a Contemporary quilt vs. a Children’s quilt).
Chapters Are Full of Examples: The 4-step process is shown and spelled out for each project. It’s like being taken through Persing’s process quilt by quilt.
Test Driving the Process
I unearthed a quilt top that qualifies as Traditional, just to test drive her process. As I’m among friends, I’ll confide that I’ve been stuck on how to finish this for years. Like, almost 10 years. So, I cleared my brain about “You don’t know anything about traditional quilting,” turned to the Traditional chapter, read it and went through the process. In framing Persing’s simple steps around my own UFO (unfinished object), I found I was looking at this project and thinking about it in ways that turned out to be listening. Ideas came – and some went – but chances now are much better that I’ll actually finish it. HA! Who knew?
Now for the giveaway…one lucky person will win a copy of Listen to Your Quilt! (Yeah!) To enter, leave a comment on this post telling us about the types of quilting you most enjoy, which ones are a mystery, and which you are working up the gumption to try.
For a second entry, log in to your Amazon account and “like” this book, then come back here to leave a separate comment saying you did so.
Deadline to enter is Sunday, 5/20/12. One comment will be drawn at random to win…the winner will be contacted via email and listed here as an update to this post. Good listening & good quilting to you!
5/21/12 UPDATE: Kay is our winner – congratulations!
Related posts:
- Introducing Maverick Quilts by Alethea Ballard
- Building a Quilting Sisterhood
- Lone Star Quilt Project
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