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Book Review of Passionate Patchwork : Over 20 Original Quilt Designs

Passionate Patchwork : Over 20 Original Quilt Designs
reviewed on + 177 more book reviews


This book is improved by not reading it. The pictures are nice to look at, but Kaffe Fassett's writing is like a little child shouting "Lookit what I did!" throughout the book. And of course, the fact that he never does any of the actual WORK in his "crafts" really bothers me. In his knitting book, he just designs the patterns and has someone else make the garments (sometimes having the gall to complain that she didn't keep her tension tight enough and so the weave was too loose) and his quilt book is just the same--he lays out the color patterns and Liza Lucy is left the work of assembly. (He says she is thereby spared the "potentially arduous task of designing.") And then the quilts are sent to someone else entirely to be quilted. Kaffe admits that he doesn't even know how to sew.

He is new to the field of quilting and it shows in his designs. His block choices are simplistic traditional ones--courthouse steps, pinwheels, tumbling blocks, handkerchief corners, sixteen patch. His fabric choices are primarily large prints in similar values and result in quilts that to my eye look washed out--all the colors bleed together into a muddy tone. I recommend spending a half hour with this book at your local library and saving your credit for a different book.