Collaborative Quilting: A book review

I made a mistake.  One of those mistakes that you realize it's just too much effort to fix it so you accept it.

When I was at the International Quilt Festival of Ireland, there was a book stand FILLED to the brim with crafty books.  I had a thumb through the primarily traditional books and found a copy of Liberated Quiltingmaking II by Gwen Marston.  I liked what I briefly saw in the sample copy, so I picked up one of the plastic wrapped for-sale copies stacked behind it and happily paid the nice vendor lady.

You see where this is going, don't you?  Too bad I didn't.

I carried it around all day in the back pocket of my messenger bag and never looked at it again.  When I sat down in the sun with my friend Ester for a coke (me) and ice cream (Ester) I saw a patchwork appliquéd chicken peeking out of the pocket.  I thought that was odd, but quickly justified it as the back cover/advertisement for another book.

Once I got home I realized my mistake.  I bought the wrong book.  I bought this....

Luckily it was still in its plastic wrapping!  So, I contacted the vendor and they were super nice and willing to take it back for a refund.  I packaged it up and brought it to the post office to ship it off.  Here's the snag.  It would cost me nearly what I paid for the book to send it back.  I'd still be out the full cost in total AND would not have a book.  I brought it home and unwrapped it to have a look.

And I fell in love.

How fantastic is this?  

Goodness knows why they put clucking chickens on the cover when the book is CHOCK full of gorgeous modern improv quilts!  They are spectacular!

This book is really on collaborative quilts created by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston.  There's a large section in the beginning where Gwen discusses design and Freddy discusses color.  The chapter on color was really interesting to me.  Want my two favorite half paragraphs? 

"I am fearless in my use of color.  I feel comfortable with almost every color with the exception of brown, which I consider a non-color.  If there are no bad colors, just misunderstood ones, I can say for sure I do not understand brown."  -Freddy Moran

It's like this book is written for me!  And here's my aspiration...to be this comfortable in quilting:

"Red is a neutral.  I've never met a single color that didn't look better with red."  - Fredy Moran.

If only I could be that bold with quilts.  Maybe some day.  

They take you through their philosophy of color, design and block interplay and show you a glimpse into both studios.  If only we'd all be so lucky to have studies like theirs.  Amazing.  But, possibly my favorite part beyond the eye candy, is the inclusion of some really basic patterns for pieced borders.  This one in particular is interesting for my Granny Mania quilt with a little twist using pin wheels instead of four patches.  Same idea, though. 

I am completely pleasantly surprised by this book.  I will find lots of inspiration in their gorgeous quilts and will happily use their instructions for a little twist on my quilt borders.  All in all, the old lesson rings true.  Don't judge the book by it's cover.  Give this one a second look.