A treat for you today! Julie Herman's book is out: Skip the Borders: Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts.
If you don't know, Julie blogs at Jaybird Quilts and she's pattern designer as well. I'm lucky enough to call Julie a friend and I'm a big fan of her work. So I guess you could say it was highly probable I was going to like this book. But the thing is, I like her work for good reasons...
Right off the bat, I'll tell you the title gives it all away. The patterns are modern, simple, and without borders. Definitely what Julie excels at is designing cool quilts that are not ridiculously hard to achieve. And if you've ever sewn one of her patterns, you know how precise and easy-to-follow her directions are.
And there is a ton more information in the book than just the patterns. She gives a lot of pointers on designs and helps you understand what quilts do or don't work without borders. And a whole chapter on binding!
(notice the Kingdom fabrics?!)
Julie came up with her own interview questions to us bloggers to answer. She answers all of these at length in the book, but here are my short replies:
Q: All of the quilts in Skip the Borders are... borderless! Do you skip the borders on most of your quilts?
My first thought was that, yes, I skip the borders on most of my quilts. But it's not totally true. Looking back I see a bunch with borders and even some more recent ones have them. I think it's most recently that I've been using them less and less, though a few in my book had them. I like that Julie discusses some of the purposes of borders and how some quilts really need them. And she even gives you permission to use them on her patterns if you'd like. I'd say I'm tending towards modern designs without them for the moment...
Q: In the intro to my book I give you permission to Break the Rules. Do you break some quilting rules? What is the number one rule you break and why?
What rules? I always encourage others to "sew fearlessly" and part of that is doing whatever the heck you want. I do think technique is important to learn. Shoddy craftsmanship is a shame because who wants a quilt that turns out sloppy or falls apart? But once I've learned and practiced techniques, then I do whatever I desire. Quilting is fun-time and who wants to get caught up in a debate if raw edge applique is good enough or whatever? I love to learn and challenge myself to try new things, but I'm certainly not going to answer to anyone's rule book.
Q: It's no secret that I love binding! In Skip the Borders I included an entire chapter on binding. So the million dollar question, is do you use bias or straight of grain most of the time?
Mostly bias cut for sure. Once I learned to sew the continuous kind out of a square, it became second nature and it really doesn't take much longer. It does take a little more yardage though. I do have a beloved quilt that had straight grain binding and t has been used and washed so many times that there are gaping holes along the edges of the binding. Would that have happened with bias? Maybe. But I'd rather be safe. Plus, I feel I can get bias binding to lay perfectly flat a little better. And my other secret (a rule Julie would never break!): I sew all my binding on completely by machine. Quick, sturdy, and very clean looking. Guess I should have put that down for a rule I break!
As part of the blog tour, I get to give away a ebook of Skip the Borders for one lucky winner to enjoy. You all probably have ipads or kindles, unlike me (not, bitter.....no...), so you know you want one. :)
Just leave me a comment and tell me about quilting "rules" (I use the term loosely) you can't stand, break a lot, or maybe even would never dare break. :) I will chose a winner randomly on Oct. 6th.
The schedule for the rest of the blog tour is below. Check it out. If you don't already read thses blogs you're going to want to.
Sept 10th - Generation Q magazine
Sept 12th - PS I quilt
Sept 14th - Beyond the Reef
Sept 17th - Pink Chalk Studio
Sept 19th - Fat Quarter Shop
Sept 21st - Bijou Lovely
Sept 24th - Red Pepper Quilts
Sept 26th - Swatch and Stitch
Sept. 28th - Juicy Bits (me!)
Oct 1st - V and Co
Oct 2nd - Martingale Publishling
Oct 5th - Carolina Patchworks
Oct 8th - I'm a Ginger Monkey
Oct 10th - Blue is Blue
Oct 12th - Quilting is My Therapy
Oct 15th - Quilt Dad
Oct 17th - Jaybird Quilts (Julie herself!)
Good luck!
JT