Thursday, April 14, 2011

Natural Patchwork - book review

I've been waiting for this one for a while to make it to my library. I finally got notification yesterday, and picked it up today. Read it right after lunch, and, well, I'm done.  I don't know, this one didn't do it for me like Suzuko's other book, Patchwork Style. This is a very small book. It measures about 7 x 9 inches. And at only 125 pages, I'd be hard pressed to plunk down $20 for it. 14 of the projects are for bags, which I feel like I've seen a few hundred times already.
The project that most interested me was the hexagon book cover. I could use it as a journal cover (I believe I've established my love for journals, with journal covers being part of the obsession.) However the pattern never actually says what size book it will fit.  Then there's the little detail about the 148 1/2" hexagons that you need to cut out and piece together. I get that this is a patchwork book, but that is too much emphasis on the work end for me. The directions refer to general patchwork piecing instructions given in the book, but those instructions are for sewing 4 patches and joining them into rows. If you know anything about hexies, they do not exactly sew together in tidy rows.
A second intriguing project was the octagon tote. But, again, with 72 octagons & 100 setting squares to be pieced, ain't gonna happen.
The photography in this book is minimalistic and beautiful, yet lots of the projects are hard to see, so you don't know quite what you're getting into. And when you get to the "How To Make" section, you don't get much more of a look. Just a business card sized repeat of the original picture, but minus all the color.
If you can pick this up at the library, do so. It's a nice book, perfect for flipping through before bedtime ~ my kind of bedtime story.

1 comment:

greeblygreebly said...

Thank you very much for your review, I will wait for our library to get it. It looks awfully pretty but pretty looking books tend to gather dust around here if they aren't also useful.