Shape by Shape

After laboring over a quilt top, the next challenge is to come up with quilting motifs that complement and enhance all your hard work. Noted long arm quilter Walters is here to help with her engaging new book, detailing quilting designs to fit specifically into squares, triangles, circles, hexagons, and borders. Step-by-step illustrations guide you through each of the motifs and multiple variations. Quilter's Newsletter, January 2015 Even the most experienced machine quilter sometimes has trouble deciding what sort of a design to quilt. This book is divided into three sections, each addressing a different part of a quilt; blocks, borders and negative space. There are over 70 free-motion quilting designs to use in specific shapes such as squares, circles, triangles, diamonds and hexagons. Section 2 covers negative shape or the background and section 3 borders. Each design is illustrated with a photo and diagrams showing the start/stop points through the entire motif. I love the full-page quilt photos and the photos of the close-up details of stitched designs. Angela has sprinkled tips throughout the book. There are so many design variations in this book that I doubt you will at a loss ever again on deciding what motif to use in your quilt. The quilt designs are shown using specific geometric shapes but you are encouraged to take these designs and modify them to fit your needs. If you can't find what you are looking for in one chapter, look in another where you will find many of the designs used in different ways. Angela's work is always inspiring and I am sure you will be inspired as well. The Applique Society, November/December 2014 Angela Walters is a prolific writer on free-motion embroidery and her books are always worth a mention being well explained, illustrated and executed. In her latest book, she looks specifically at the machine embroidery of quilted shapes. Here there are squares, triangles, circles, diamonds, hexagons, negative space and borders and they are all great designs, ready to combat 'quilter's amnesia' for those times where you look at a shape and cannot think of the best way to quilt it.The author provides clear and simple instructions which are useful in enabling some complex patterns to be broken down into lines and stages. Now, if only she could teach me how to sew as exquisitely as she does, I'd be laughing! Workshop on the Web, December 2014