Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy: A High-Country Guide to Natural Dyeing and Making Heirloom Quilts from Scratch

by Sara Larson Buscaglia

Artist and quiltmaker Sara Larson Buscaglia invites readers to her Colorado farm to learn the secrets—and beauty—of making natural dyes from foraged plants and stitching natural-fiber quilts by hand.

Learn to make naturally dyed quilts by hand with Farm & Folk founder Sara Larson Buscaglia’s beautiful aesthetic, informed by the extraordinary landscape surrounding her farm. Her creative practice centers on simplicity, working with nature, and using naturally derived materials and processes—and she is sharing that practice for the first time in this book.

Farm & Folk: Quilt Alchemy explores natural dyeing methods and details the process of creating a quilt from scratch. With an emphasis on the slow and intentional aspects of hand stitching, Buscaglia’s quilts are artful and satisfying to create. By focusing on select dye plants and recipes, which are all ideal for cotton and linen specifically, Buscaglia teaches the reader how to achieve consistent and beautiful results using traditional handwork techniques.

Features 20 Color Formulas to Create 10 Projects, Including 7 Full-Size Quilt Patterns

Includes Full-Color Images

Genres: Crafts, Quilting, Nonfiction

176 pages, Hardcover

Published September 26, 2023

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

To start with, I found this book to be oddly organized. There is an extensive discussion about fibers for quilt fabric and thread at the beginning of the book but no mention of batting materials until the final section that contains instructions for making quilts. Information about keeping a dye notebook is at the end of the chapter on dyes and dye formulas instead of at the beginning when the dye studio and mordants are discussed. The dye section is organized by color with the colors highlighted with larger, capital letter headings but information about the plants used to create the dyes precede these headings requiring the reader to expend additional effort figuring out how information fits together.

The quilts are pretty, for the most part the dye and mordant information is correct, and there is some good advice for creating multiple colors from the same dye bath but there are better dye references and better quilting books out there. There is some odd information in the section on indigo, the authors does not seem to understand that indigo is a pigment, not a dye and sits on top of the fiber and does not react with the fiber.

I am not sure who the intended audience for this book is - it contains a fair amount of technical information but someone who was interested in technical information could find better sources. It doesn’t seem to provide enough basic detail to be useful on its own to a beginning dyer or a beginning quilter.

[Liesl Back · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I did not read all the words. Once it got into the chemical explanations as to how different balances of tannins and iron create different color dyes, I couldn't keep up.

BUT the photos are absolutely beautiful (at least if you are like me and love quilts and colors). I found it very restful and inspirational.
If you ever have time to create your own natural dyes to color fabric to make into quilts.. this'll be the book to go to.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEAUTIFUL: the photos, the quilts, the natural dyeing information. great addition to a quilter's library.

[Merci Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful and beautiful read! Full of beautiful and inspiring images. Sara doesn’t gate keep, full of tips and tricks to help make working with botanical dyes as easy as possible. Sara also introduces quilting projects suitable for a beginner, and beyond. I loved that you could feel Sara’s passion for creating and sustainable practices.

As someone who enjoys dabbling with botanical dyes I felt I still learned a lot! And as someone who is just starting to learn how to quilt, I felt these projects are very accessible and inspiring to a beginner. I’m looking forward to making my first project!

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her end products are beautiful and I appreciate the way she grows the plants, creates the dyes/pigments, and handcrafts the quilts. The photographs of the quilts and her processes are lovely.

That said, as others have noted, the organization of information doesn't flow. I'd get to a new section, and think oh! I needed to know that FIRST! This book is more about creating the dyes and dyeing the fabrics than making the quilts since that section is very modest relative to the information needed.

[Candy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating!
If you think YOUR quilts are precious, wait until you EXPERIENCE Sara's quilts.
Imagine starting your quilt by planting seeds that you will use to dye the fabric, which itself takes many steps to be ready to accept the dye....and we think it takes us a long time to produce a quilt!
Her quilts are amazing, and her simple directions for making quilt blocks are the best I've ever read, and that is saying something!
Even if you don't read every word, I think you will come away with a new appreciation for fabric and quilts. I know I sure did!

[Tyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

For several months I've had a stack of quilting books checked out from local library. I hope I get a chance to review them all. I'm going to take a moment and write a review for this one today.
The overall vibe of this book is just lovely and inspiring. There's not as much about quilting as there is about dying your quilting fabric. The dying is impressive. Maybe in heaven I can grow, spin, weave and dye!
The patterns are so cute and the quilted poncho is genius.
I found the quilting information to be informative and clear.
Very beautiful book.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a wealth of knowledge for anyone interested in natural dyeing of plant-based fabrics. The author shares detailed recipes and sources to create just about any color in the rainbow. The instructions for quilting are less detailed and I think they would be frustrating to follow for a beginner, but they are totally doable for someone with experience. Some parts of the book hint at the author's views on non-quilt topics and I could have done without that content.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has an extensive description about dying your own fabric using natural dyes, and how you can get a really impressive range of color variation when you do it. This is really not an area of crafting that I am ready to think about getting in to, but the quilt pattens that are included (which in her case use her own fabrics, but could use commercially dyed fabrics) are interesting, including one that you could use small scraps with.

[Lu Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you wanted to know (and more) about dying plant based fabrics with natural dyes. There are some simple patterns for quilts as well as a tutorial on quilt construction basics. It made me appreciate how much labor goes into hand-dyed fabric.

[A M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sara never misses. I enjoy what she stands for and her instructions are always perfectly articulate and open. She doesn’t have any gatekeep-y verbiage and is open and honest about her work which I enjoy in an age of online pretending. I always come back to this for winter projects!

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the purist quilter who wishes to dye her fabric , hand cut and hand piece and quilt by hand. A slow method of quilting that is soothing in this world of how fast can one accomplish a task.

[allyson dunn-worthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

legendary jen rec. 10/10 quilts, mycelium rocked my world

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

So inspirational!

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Elizabeth Humphreys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down five stars. I was so happy to see that my library had a copy of this after following Sara on Instagram for awhile. This made my natural dyers heart so happy. I might have to buy myself my own copy though because there is so much valuable information in this that I would love to have this as a reference book on hand in my own studio.