Leni Levenson Wiener - 3-Fabric Quilts. Quick Techniques for Simple Projects

Y ouve probably thought about it beforehow nice it would be to learn to make a quilt. But all those little points and squares may have seemed intimidating, not to mention how old-fashioned some quilt designs look. Well, these are not your grandmothers quilts! They are fresh and modern, quick and easy. These quilts are designed to look more contemporary, and to show off the large-scale prints that are available these days. Because there are no little points to line up, it is easy to be successful from the start.

For those readers who do have quilting experience, these patterns are different than the traditional quilts you have made in the past. For you, these projects will be especially quick and easy and will allow you to relax and have fun with the process.

I have been teaching traditional quilting for years, and although my students are different ages and have different reasons for making their first quilt, one thing is always the samethey want it easy, they want it quick and they want it to look great.

The first thing that makes these quilts easy is that each quilt only requires three fabrics. With easy-to-follow guidelines, you will find the process of fabric selection less intimidating.

Next, you will learn the rotary cutting and strip-piecing method of quilt constructionguaranteed to be faster and more accurate than cutting each individual piece with a template like your grandmother did.

Unlike traditional quilt designs, the seams in these quilts do not need to line up perfectly, making it easier for a beginner to complete a quilt that looks artistic and fantastic without lots of pinning or frustration.

Finally, the blocks are large enough that you will not need to make a lot of them in order to put your quilt together. The added benefit of larger blocks is that the fabric you love will really stand out in your finished quilt. All those gorgeous large-scale prints wont get lost in the cutting.

Most of the projects in this book are about 40 (102cm) square and can be used as wall hangings, lap quilts or baby quilts. I always have my beginner students start by making a smaller quilt.

This way, you can successfully finish a quilt in a reasonable amount of timewithout taking on an overwhelming project that will end up, unfinished, in a closet. Another advantage to working on a smaller quilt is that the quilting wont be as cumbersome as it can be with a larger project, and you can use a single piece of fabric for the back (no piecing of the quilt back required). Several projects are pictured in a twin-bed size, but all the instructions provide yardage for making both a small-size and a twin-size quilt.