Fabric panels are versatile as you can quickly turn them into quilts. I don’t know about you, but I usually just add strip borders to them, as I am afraid to detract from their beauty. No more!
Quilt Woman sent me another very interesting book for review. I call it two books in one, and you will soon understand why. Panel Quilts – We Did the Math, by Lacey J. Hill and Lorraine Freed from L&L Studios, shows you how to turn amazing fabric panels into even more amazing quilts.
Lacey and Lorraine took the guesswork out of working with panels by presenting formulas to up-size or trim them, making them more manageable to use in quilts. They follow it up with 16 sample designs, including quilts – from baby to queen-size, a tote, cafe’-style window panel, and an eReader cover. Thus, you can purchase the panels they featured (the book was published in 2012, so you may still find them in stores), or dig into your own stash for those panels you bought a while ago but was not sure how to turn them into great quilts.
The reason I think this is two books in one: you learn how to easily turn panels of various sizes into quilts with the help of their formulas, AND you learn how to create terrific borders! So, this is also a borders book, as Lacey and Lorraine utilized half square triangles, faux drunkard path, log cabin, pyramid, and other blocks to artfully frame those panels (check out Portraits of a Geisha on page 26, or the off-center design on page 34 for instance).
I never thought fabric panels could be used in such beautiful ways! If you like using panels, or need creative borders to add pizzazz to your work, this book is definitely worth it!
