501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks and The Border Workbook Book Reviews

I hope everyone is having or has had a wonderful Friday!  You may recall this post where I spoke about building my quilt reference library.  Today I have two other excellent books that are wonderful if you are wanting to build your quilt reference library as well. 

The first book is 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks written by Judy Hopkins and published by That Patchwork Place.  There are a few things I sincerely appreciate about this book.  The first is the Gallery of Blocks on the first few pages of the book.  All 501 blocks are included and they are in color, as you can see below.

The colored blocks makes it very easy to see the shift in the piecing and design. I choose my own fabrics (that is what makes it original for me).  Another thing I appreciate about this book is that each block has an extremely well written diagram with labeling.  Depending on weather you want a 4 1/2" up to 12" block there are diagrams showing you the dimensions to cut your fabric.   This is a no-fail book....if you can read and look at the diagram....everyone can cut the blocks.  If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times....I'm visual and I need the directions to be extremely clear...and I"m telling yo,u Judy has done a fabulous job of accomplishing clarity! 

The next book is The Border Workbook, Easy Speed Pieced and Foundation Pieced Borders by Janet Kime.  

Janet has done a great job of explaining how to choose fabrics for the border as well as a discussion about weather or not to put a border on your quilt.  I find these discussions very helpful.  They stretch my thinking and give me great ideas that help fuel my creativity. 

There are 27 different borders to choose from-although you could combine a few of them to increase your options and stretch your creativity.  You can choose one for the sashing, another for your borders and/or make them smaller to outline your blocks if you like.  The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and creativity. 

Each of the designs in The Border Workbook, comes with a table for planning your border.  It explains great directions for determining the length of your border based on the number of repeats you will need to fit your quilt.   Below that table there is another table that gives the exact measurements for cutting each piece of fabric for the border.   Following that information are excellent diagrams that show how the pieces are fit together.  There are arrows and numbers on the diagrams that illustrate the placement of each piece and the order of sewing the pieces. 

At the end of each border there is a table that helps you calculate the size of blocks needed to change the dimension of your border pieces.

Here is an example of the clarity of the diagrams and instructions.   You will find the foundation pieced border patterns in the back of the book.  I just love the clarity of directions and diagrams!
 
Both 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks and The Border Workbook are part of my quilting reference library and I highly recommend each of these books.  In fact, I like them so much and want others to have the opportunity to build their quilt reference libraries that I'm running a special.  This special is available to IHAN Blog Followers ONLY.  CLICK HERE and see the nice discount you will get if you purchase both books before Monday, October 10, 2011.
 
Tomorrow I'm taking my first offical machine quilting class with Patsy Thompson at a local quilt shop.  I can hardly wait.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend as well.
 
Smiles,
Kelly