Little Bits Quilting Bee Book Review

 Good Morning! How are you doing today? I hope you are good. I have another treat for you today! Would you like to have the chance to win a free copy of Little Bits Quilting Bee by Kathreen Ricketson? I bet you would! The only thing better than quilt book is a free quilt book, right? Well, read through my little review and then answer a question in my comment section and you may be the lucky person.

So, Kathreen's book is about how to make 20 Quilts using Charm Squares, Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and Fat Quarters. She has a bunch of other books available as well. Actually she is quite the media superstar with her blog Whipup. Each visit to that blog fills my mind with inspiration so I had very high hopes for this book.

 These items are also called "precuts". Well, I have quite a collection of precuts. I used to buy them when we were stationed in the Australian Outback and there was not a good quilting shop anywhere near by. So, when I would order these charm packs from online fabric stores it was like getting an entire quilt shop delivered right to my APO. It was a lot of pleasure for $8. I don't make quilts with them very often regrettably. They normally just lurk about my studio feeling sorry for themselves. Well, when Kathreen told me about her book I was quite excited. You may not know this about me, but I am a quilt book junkie. If you ever loose me in a book store, odds are I have wondered over to the quilt book section and am sitting on the floor surrounded with books.

 Chronicle Books pretty much always produces a superior book. They feel nice and the pictures are normally wonderful. Kathreen has a folder at the front with patterns and templates inside. A folder is great for keeping things organized. There are several templates that will need to be enlarged with a printer.

 The first part of Little Bits quilting bee is full of great community quilt projects that you can get involved with or be inspired to start your own. Everyone needs a quilt, you won't have to look far to find someone special to give one too. You can read about me on page 15. Me and my Bush Fire Quilt Project back from 2009. That was awesome. Many of you contributed to make that such a smashing success, and I thank you again! I signed my page for myself. I can sign your page too if you like. Just kidding, but I will if you want me to.

 The next part of the book is what tools you will need and the basics to quilting. It is quite informative and I like the little sketches.

 So, my favorite section of the book was the section on quilts to make with Layer Cakes. Layer Cakes are my favorite Precut and the quilts I have made in the past with precuts tend to involve Layer Cakes. I am just going to go ahead and tell you about the one thing I found irritating about this book. It was only one thing, but pretty big in my opinion. Several of the most interesting quilts do not have full pictures of the finished quilt (or any picture at all - the 65 roses Charity quilt on page 16 only has a black and white sketch). That drives me crazy. I love a causal shot of a quilt in use, but if I am actually going to use the pattern and make the quilt I want to see the whole thing first. Most of humanity are visual. I am a lazy reader, and sometimes I just want to look at pictures and figure out how to make the project on my own (dumb, I know).

 This is a quilt I would love to make. I could see it being used by everyone in my household. I love the simplicity of the design and it would be a fabulous beginner or just really quick quilt.

 I made a quilt top like this one yesterday. My friend came over to sew and and while she worked on her project I stitched this up in about 3 hours (the pictures are below).

 While I did follow the instructions on how to make the blocks, I did lay out my quilt differently. So there is really good inspiration in Little Bits Quilting Bee. Kathreen is a good writer, so she does not have to include many step by step pictures. And for me that is fine. You can refer back to her "how to" chapter for individual techniques.

 I liked that Kathreen had several applique patterns in the book. I really like applique, and I am so happy to see it becoming more popular with the Modern quilt movement.

This was another quilt I wanted to see more of, but it was just a tease. Maybe she has done that intentionally so we will not rest until we have made our own so we can see the whole shot. What do you think? Brilliant trick maybe.

 Her how to quilt section was great too. I do similar exercises before I quilt or teach a quilting class. We scribble out designs to get the feel for free motion quilting. It works great before sitting down in front of the sewing machine.

 So, here is my version of Prismatic (page 103). I made all the Half Square triangles, but I just arranged them differently. There is so much you can do with HST. And with such large blocks this quilt basically made itself.  I did not use the pinks in the collection because I didn't want to. I used a grey KonaModa (United Notions) last weekend and he said so.

Oh, the Layer cake I used to make this quilt is City Weekend by Oliver+S. I have been saving it for something special and as soon as I finish this blog post I will be loading it up onto my Long arm to quilt. I know just what I am going to do with it!

Overall this is a super book and it is sure to inspire you to slice into your charm packs, jelly rolls, layer cakes and Fat quarters rather than just having them sit around. If you don't win the book on this blog or another you should certainly go seek a copy for yourself.

OK...So you want this book and you live in the US, right?  It will be a great addition to your quilting library. Tell me below what was you very favorite charm pack or jelly roll and what you did with it. It is fine if you did nothing with it and just have in in  your sewing room. That totally counts! I will choose the winner on my Birthday Nov 23!

Tomorrow fabulous John of Quilt Dad will be reviewing it so you have lots of chances to win.