French Braid Obsession: New Ideas for the Imaginative Quilter

by Jane Hardy Miller

Take your French braid quilts in dramatic new directions with bold new shapes and sizes, techniques, and colors. 8 projects.

Genres: Quilting

66 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jonquil · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you purchase a copyrighted published/printed quilt pattern, you take home a zip-top bag that has a color photo of the finished quilt and several folded sheets of paper detailing cutting instructions with fabric yardage; step-by-step assembly instructions with periodic drawings illustrating the tricky steps and the final assembly guidelines. You'll know that you have joined the ranks of the seasoned quilter if you know that the patterns usually end with the paragraph: "Quilt as desired." The book, French Braid Obsession: New Ideas for the Imaginative Quilter, is basically a quilt pattern without the plastic bag. To be cost-effective, quilt patterns have you refer to specific previous steps rather than reprinting instructions from an earlier page--similarly, you'll be doing lots of flipping back and forth to construct one of these projects. The typical quilt pattern assumes prior experience, knowledge, and skill, as does this book. Miller outlines how to construct a French Braid. However, in her lovely, inspirational quilt named "Flashback", which uses an innovative combination of a multi-columned French Braid background and appliqued vines and flowers, she suggests you "applique pieces to the top, using your favorite method." Now, I understand that the title only promises French Braids, but this book sells for the same cost as comparable quilt publications with more than twice the pages. In other words, books where the authors would have covered the steps of at least one applique method. I'm sure I'm not the only quilter who starts projects late at night on holiday weekends, expecting to complete the top in several days. I would have used many naughty words when I realized at 4:00AM that I should also have purchased a book on applique. That said, I loved these quilts, and plan to suggest the book to friends who are intimidated by selecting fabrics since having this book in-hand at the fabric store should make fabric selection a bit less overwhelming.