Alex Anderson (1) (1955–)

This felt more like a pamphlet than a book. But it was otherwise very good. There are lots of pictures of quilting using a thimble techniques using both a right and a left hand which I've yet to see in any other quilting book. The quilts themselves are very simple but the patterns for hand quilting are good. Unless I missed it, there are no directions or guidance on how to transfer these quilting patterns to the top of the quilt which is something I'd have loved guidance on.

This is a lovely book, chock full of information--but not the ultimate reference its title would suggest. It's apparently a compendium of several smaller books she had written earlier, and it shows--each section is well-done and interesting, but lacks cohesiveness and an overarching sense of how it all comes together.

Unfortunately for me, it's therefore not nearly as well-suited to a beginner as one might think from the title. I personally know nothing about quilting, but as I'm learning how show more to use my sewing machine this summer, thought this might be a fun hobby to pick up. Sadly there are great swathes of necessary information missing from this book--I can supplement by reading other books, or googling things, or taking a class, but it would have been nice to have a step-by-step "this is how you make a quilt" section, rather than assuming a lot of prior knowledge.

For instance, I think you sew small shapes of fabric to other small shapes and then connect the result to yet other small shapes until you have a block (a square, usually), which repeats, but whether there is a seam allowance left on the block to connect it to other blocks and so on is never really stated. As an absolute beginner, I feel I have to do a lot of guessing here.

(And the several pages of "types" of fabric patterns are pretty, but unnecessary). show less

Shadow Redwork by Alex Anderson shows a really fun and easy method for doing shadow embroidery. Redwork is very popular now, and if you can do hand embroidery or want to learn how, this technique offers suggestions on adding a new dimension to your embroidery or quilting projects. I've been thinking about reading this book for a long time, but kept putting it off because I thought I would be learning how to do traditional shadow embroidery, with the added sheer layer over embroidery and show more stitching over this and I did not want the extra time involvement for a simple embroidered block.

Now, I can't believe how easy it really is. Anderson offers several patterns and projects for the redwork, but this technique is very versatile and adaptable to other projects. Included in the book is the alphabet in nice lettering, so I am planning on adding this to my next embroidered quilt block. If you enjoy hand embroidery, this book will offer suggestions to increase your creativity! show less

Alex Anderson has made quilting accessible to the beginner while not writing a "Idiot's Guide" to Quilting. The practical suggestions and start-from-scratch approach to quilting helped me take my first steps toward becoming the quilter I am today. I have shared this book with friends who were interested in learning the craft and they have found it very helpful. Even after 5 years of quilting, I still reference this book when I come to steps like binding that I may not do every day.