Quilt Love

Few of us are fortunate enough to have a handmade quilt handed down through our family. In Quilt Love, Cassandra Ellis teaches her freeform design techniques, which rely in part on intuition and improvisation, to enable you to create a contemporary heirloom. Cassandra takes a refreshing, non-intimidating approach to quilting. She demonstrates how to use your eye and trust your instincts to gather together fabrics that remind you of a special time, person or occasion. This wonderful collection of 20 projects is presented in four chapters `Big Events', `Love', `Friendship' and `Memories'. In addition to full-size quilts that are true labours of love, there are simple designs that you can complete in a couple of hours, including cushions, framed artworks, a tote bag, a pet blanket and a simple curtain. It is also possible to improvise - patches from any of the designs can be sewn up to make a cushion cover, for example, or used as the building blocks for more elaborate designs. Piecing together patchwork and quilts is the perfect opportunity to recycle fabric and use up scraps to make something beautiful and significant. Cassandra shows how to incorporate fragments of fabric that have special meaning, using a piece that you love as the starting point and core of your design. This could be a cherished item of clothing, a tablecloth or curtain, a piece of embroidery, or specially chosen contemporary fabric that excites you - whatever you love the look of.