Book Review by Nancy Butler
ART QUILT COLLAGE—Deborah Boschert
Has one of your quilts ever really annoyed you? Something is just off and you don’t know what that is and what to do about it. Or you make the same quilt pattern as your friend and her quilt sings and yours is–well, dull. If you’ve experienced this —and I think it happens sooner or later to all of us—then I have the book for you.
This Christmas I treated myself to Deborah Boschert’s book, “Art Quilt Collage.” I’m not new to art quilting but I hoped to find a few new things to try. What I found was a book that covered a lot of the things I expected but also discussed some things in a new, fresh way that really appealed to me.
First, without making you feel like you flunked Art 101, the book briefly and clearly addresses how to compose quilts. Using line drawings and uncomplicated quilts as examples, Boschert shows you how to lay out a landscape theme, grids, modular layouts, magic three schemes, dancing grids, amazing line schemes and more. The names may seem mysterious but the presentation is straight forward and invites you to try it yourself, making this a great introduction for someone who wants to try art quilting but has not known how to get started.
However, the most interesting part of the book for me was the Design Checklist. Boschert presents a series of questions to ask that helps identify both good and problem areas. They cover things like balance, contrast, harmony and repetition which all figure into the quilt, even if you never considered them. This is the part that may help you figure out what bothers you about that darned quilt that did not turn out right.
For example, consider contrast (whether color, shapes or whatever). ‘Does the quilt have enough contrast?’ You may answer Yes–everything contrasts; or No– everything blends. Neither is correct but it brings up the question of what do you want the quilt to do? Also, the colors may blend just right or are so similar the result is boringly blah. If there is contrast, is it just right or is it ‘too busy’ and things fight and clash?
For each design point, Boschert offers suggestions for ways to consider dealing with things that bother you. If a quilt is just too blah, Boschert suggests adding a ‘pop’ of color. If there is too much contrast, she advises toning it down by changing a background or some other element. Her third option, perhaps the best for a quilt that you thought was finished, is to embellish an area that is bothersome, doing so to either tone it down or highlight the area.
By the time you’ve gone through the entire Design checklist, you will probably have figured out what stumped you about that quilt. And since the rest of the book introduces you to choosing colors and fabrics, surface design, decorative hand stitching and the like, Boschert presents you with the tools to make your quilt perfect for you!
Autographed copies of this book are available in Deborah’s etsy shop.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/474377211/autographed-copy-art-quilt-collage-a?ref=shop_home_active_1
And of course, it’s available on Amazon.
Your book review is enticing. It would be a good book to purchase for our guild library. In our small design group we have practiced several of those concepts to understand the elements of design.