The Uncommon Quilter

In 1999 Jeanne Williamson decided to make one small quilt every week for a year, made exclusively from found objects. 7 years later she had 365 small art quilts, 52 of which are featured in The Uncommon Quilter .

I was a bit dubious about this book at first, but was soon hooked. They are so easy!

I found it amazing. The things you can make quilts out of - paper, bus and metro tickets, potato and onion bag netting, leaves, the bark from birch trees, sushi grass, plastic carrier bags - the list is endless. It has certainly expanded my quilting horizons.

She has divided the book into sections - plastic, paper, surface design and fibre - the description and how to make the quilts up are well written and easy to understand (which is more than I can say for some quilting books).



I love the way she has told the story behind the making of each quilt. Heartbeat (right) was so called after she noticed the red netting that covers clementine orange boxes. The discovery practically gave her heart palpitations!!!!

On her Amsterdam and Paris trip she sewed pieces of netting together to make 9 pockets, collected objects along the way and then stitched the pockets closed.

I can't see myself making an art quilt quite yet - got too much on my plate at the moment - but I'm eyeing up the potato and onion bags and seeing plastic carrier bags in a different light.

If you are into art and journal quilts then this book is a must have! At $25 I think it is a bargain!

You can read Jeanne's blog here, and see the other quilts here.