Laurie J. Shifrin

Often I buy a quilting book for that one pattern that catches my eye, but I do expect to find a few more patterns, which I will find useful. And so it was with this book.

Batiks and Beyond has a variety of quilt patterns of varying difficulties. The author keeps the cute stories and chit chat short (I like that). It has a one page ‘introduction’ and a few general paragraphs on each of a few batik basics; such as, “right or wrong side”, “weave”, “dyes”. The author then moves on to a few general quilting topics; such as, “Choosing a fabric” and “Preparing your fabrics”. As a skilled quilter, I skipped the introduction and skimmed the other, hoping I might learn something new, but I did not, thought the pieces would be useful for someone new to the use of batiks. There is the usual few pages at the end of the book which covers “finishing” the quilt.

I am in the process of making a quilt from this collection. Shifrin’s narrative directions regarding cutting and assembly are concise and clear. The photos are well done and the graphic diagram of the quilt is easy to read. However, I found the charts of quilt sizes, dimensions and blocks needed, and the list of pieces and their dimensions to be hard to read¬—okay for when you are on the sofa thinking about making a quilt, but not when you have your rotary cutter in hand. The charts, which are spread across two pages, all look alike and the lines are done in three varying shades of yellow/marigold. Since each of my blocks had 12 or 13 pieces, 10 of which are different sizes (varying only by ¼ inch)—perilously easy to screw up, so I retyped the charts for the block pieces, reorganizing it slightly, and boosting the font size. I printed this out to have on the cutting board with me. The page layout is lovely but it has to be more than just that, it has to be easy to work from.… (meer)