Organic Appliqué

About Kathy Doughty

Kathy Doughty began making quilts over 20 years ago after a move to Australia with her family. She opened a patchwork shop in 2003, and eventually developed the popular Material Obsession shop with her husband/site photographer, John. Kathy lives in Sydney with her family. http://materialobsession.typepad.com

British Patchwork & Quilting

This dazzling book combines colourful quilts in many colours, all hand stitched and hand quilted.

Needle turn applique, English Paper Piercing, Broderie Perse and fussy cutting, plus other techniques are explained well. Hand quilting with perle 8 thread is shown in stages with photos and words. Simple exercises encourage individual style.

The quilts have bold designs often with large flowers and leaves. Liberty's Tana Lawn is used for the hexagons on a large quilt, surrounded with a border of plaid fabrics. Some quilts have suggestions, rather than instructions, for the quilts' layout.

www.karenplatt.co.uk

The intro chapters are more Doughty's philosophy on life than quilting per se. I am very attracted to the colourful quilts and appliqué shapes in this book. I am particularly drawn to the organic flowers and plants. There are useful exercises for choosing fabrics. Instructions include basting, needle turn applique, EPP and hand quilting. You'll also find a chapter on inspiration, although the photos in this are not very inspiring and poor quality. Design tips for those who prefer to use the book purely for inspiration and projects for those who need something more concrete to follow. If you are a Doughty fan and a lover of interesting fabrics and applique, you'll most likely love this book. Something of a pot boiler perhaps.

Sew

With its free-forming lines, hand applique is the perfect technique to express your creativity! In-depth instructions will explain the whole artistic process starting at picking the fabric and choosing a pattern, then moving on to mastering needle-turning and making bias vines.