Stained Glass Quilts

I got my first "baby present" the other day from dear friend. Completely non-practical for the baby, can't see them playing with it, but I might use the inspiration from this book to make something for them.

The book is called Stained Glass Quilting, and my friend got it for me after reading my post on Frank Lloyd Wright and how I wanted to do some quilting inspired by his work.

Essentially the book is about an applique technique but on steroids. Rather than little bits of applique, the overlay is quite large and intricate, creating that stained glass effect.

At first glance, you might think that all the cut out fabric is a waste. But if you are a quilter, you will know that you never waste fabric!

There are some cute projects that are "baby" friendly. I can imagine making some cloth building blocks using this technique.

I hadn't thought much about how I would do the Frank Lloyd Wright quilting piece, but this book gives me some good direction on how I might construct it. I'll let the ideas bubble away in my head until I get the spark and the time in my sewing room to start to put something together.

Purchase online from Boomerang Books, an Australian online book seller. And if you are interested in books, keep an eye on their blogs. In particular, George Ivanoff's Literary Clutter blog.

Edit: I also did a book review for this book over at the Boomerang Site.

"If you have every patched together a quilt you will know that there is a certain methodical approach that needs to be taken. The material is cut, blocks get constructed and then the design is carefully pieced together. Only then do you finally sandwich your quilt together and sew on the top stitch, bringing it all together. The quilt block technique has been used for centuries and is often the basis of many of the quilting books that you see in shops or online.

Stained Glass quilts takes on a different approach to constructing a quilt. With the end very much in mind, the book takes you through some intricate appliqué techniques designed to give your quilt a very different look from the rotary cut blocked quilts that many people make. This book takes advantage of all those beautifully large printed panels that are available online, and allows you to frame them beautifully to create a unique quilt.

I first came across this book after doing some research on constructing a quilt inspired by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. A friend thought that this book might provide me with some good techniques to achieve my dream of an art nouveau inspired piece and she was right. The book is technique heavy and has lots of tips an hints on how to achieve the look with minimal errors. The hard bit about this quilting technique is the preciseness of it. You have to carefully cut out the stained glass border from a contrasting piece of fabric and then iron it on using double sided interfacing onto your fabric or patchwork, and then sew around the edges to ensure that it doesn’t move. A technique that is not for the feint hearted!

Stained Glass Quilt provides the quilter with lots of patterns to get you started and lots of little inspiration boxes throughout the book to ensure that you don’t run out of ideas.

Not quite for the beginner, this book would provide a good challenge for someone who has put together at least one quilt and knows some of the pitfalls of working with fabric in this way."