Debbie Shore is a best-selling and award-winning author. She began her career as a children's television presenter and since then has appeared regularly as an actress in various popular dramas and as a presenter on shopping channels. Debbie has developed her own range of fabrics, designed her own patterns, writes for several popular sewing magazine and has written over 30 books for Search Press with several more underway. She is the winner of Craft Influencer of the Year 2020 in the Craft Business Awards, and Social Media Influencer of the Year 2019 in the British Sewing Awards. Debbie has over 230,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, which has over 30 million views. In 2018, Debbie launched her Half Yard Sewing Club, a monthly subscription service based on the mega-selling Half Yard™ series, and won the 2019 IPG Digital Publishing Award. For more details about the club visit www.halfyardsewingclub.com. Debbie lives in Lincolnshire, UK. Visit her website: www.debbieshoresewing.com Melissa Nayler is an avid quilter and sewist, and has been sewing seriously since her teens. For several years and in her spare time, she worked on mainly dressmaking projects, until her move to Bude in Cornwall, UK, changed her direction in sewing. Melissa discovered patchwork and quilting while volunteering at the local Citizens Advice Bureau, and became hooked before she’d even sewn a stitch. When Melissa retired in 2014, she contacted Debbie Shore to offer her sewing skills for making samples for her TV shows. It was at the time when Debbie was really busy with TV demonstrations, and she was delighted to have some help. Over the past 10 years Debbie and Melissa developed a great friendship, and Melissa and Debbie have collaborated on several quilting projects, including the Block of the Month Quilts on Debbie’s award-winning Half Yard Sewing Club.
Publishers Weekly This cozy guide from Shore (Half Yard Autumn) and Nayler details how to create 52 fabric blocks that can be assembled into a large quilt. Writing for beginners, the authors recommend tools (rotary cutters “are useful for cutting around curves”) and show how to make blanket, overcast, running, and slip stitches. The blocks build on each other, with techniques from simple early designs later recurring in more creative configurations. For instance, week one’s flying geese design is incorporated into the upper-left-hand corner of week six’s “Bird 1” square, which is otherwise filled out by a half log cabin design, and week 26’s “Small Flower 4” square, in which the triangular “geese” are arrayed around a heart. Several blocks take inspiration from nature, such as the “tall bird,” created by sewing a triangular beak and teardrop wing on a half-circle, and the “tall flower,” which features an octagonal flower head with applique leaves. The authors also provide thorough instructions for assembling the blocks and attaching them, either by hand or sewing machine, onto quilt backing. The one-block-per-week conceit will help novices ease into the craft while learning a variety of design strategies. This is well worth seeking out. (Dec.)