Focus Friday- Patchwork Quilted Gifts Book Review

This week we have a special reviewer guest— Jo from Bearpaw Blog!!!   I love it when others want to share their knowledge and talents with us. Don't you?   {If you ever want to be a reviewer you just need to contact me….easy as that!}

Here is a bit about Jo before she starts:

About Me

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Hi! I'm Jo Avery, I live in Edinburgh and, along with my husband, run Jonathan Avery Homestore. My 2 lovely sons are all grown up now which means I have more spare time for making patchwork quilts, crocheting and generally mucking around in my sewing room while singing along to the radio!

So here goes Jo's review:

Hi! I'm Jo from Bearpaw blog and I am delighted to be taking part in Focus Friday!  Becky asked me to review some of the patterns I had made from the wonderful Last Minute  Patchwork and Quilting Gifts book and I was very happy to oblige. I have just moved house though  and of course this book just had to be in the last packing box I opened!  I love this book and bought it after I saw it in the window of Purl Soho during our 'trip of a lifetime'

to New York last November. I didn't buy it at the time, as I was worried about exceeding my  luggage weight from all the fabric I was buying! So I ordered it from Amazon when I got back  home to Scotland, and set to work as I still had a few weeks left to make some handmade Christmas  presents.

I have been sewing since I was 6 years old and spent a lot of my childhood making soft toys, so as  soon as I saw 'Peanut, the Wee Elephant' I just knew I had to make him. In fact I made 2!

I really enjoyed making these elephants and found the patterns were pretty accurate. I know this pattern has been covered in a previous week so I will just tell you about the few 'improvements'  (IMHO!) I made to the project: I used quite a few different fabrics for the different pattern prices rather than just the ear lining, after all these are 'patchwork' gifts! I changed the felt eye to a button  and crocheted a little blanket for the back (and added a wee tassel!), mainly because I like to use as many different textiles as I can and because I thought the elephant would be snugglier with a crocheted blanket. My elephants were given to 2 sweet little baby boys called Ewan and Oscar

Quick link to her post about the elephants– just in case you would like to read it

It is hard to come up with a new idea for a sewing project but I probably would have bought the book for the Coloured Pencil Roll alone as it is such a good idea and so easily adapted. I made 2 versions of it for Christmas presents, one for pencils for my niece, Ana, and one for crochet hooks  for my sister, Jane. I think this is one of the best ideas in the book.

Again I found the instructions very easy to follow. My only criticism would be of the dimensions  given, '1 and 5/8 inch' seems an incredibly clunky size for a strip width, couldn't it have been '1 and  a half'? Of course, it would have been so much easier in centimetres…

It was great fun choosing the rainbow of fabric to match the pencils and I didn't really need to make any improvements to the design this time as it is such a perfect little project.

here is a link to the photos of the crochet hook version

For the crochet hook version, I made the roll with just 14 sections, but still gave the fabrics a rainbow 'bleed'. My sister taught me to crochet when I was a child (and as I am a bit thick, she taught me again and again until I eventually 'got it' a few years ago!), now I am a total crochet addict! I really should make one of these for myself! You can read a bit more about how I made the crochet roll on this blog post here (http://bearpawandbearpaw.blogspot.com/2009/12/handmadechristmas- part-2.html).

You can also make a roll for your knitting needles and I would love to think of another use for them as they do make such a lovely present. Have any of you adapted this roll for any other purpose? I'd love to hear about it!

Christmas will be here before we know it so it's a good time to get this book out again and pick some projects for this coming year. I really fancy trying the Scrap Books and the Bird Ornaments. Some of the projects are very simple and would be good for building the confidence of a quilting beginner, but there is plenty for the more experienced quilter, such as the Colour-Wheel Quilt (which I saw hanging behind the counter in the Purl Soho shop!!) and the Puzzle Ball.

There is also a fantastic reference section at the back with lots of personal recommendations from the author for her favourite haberdashery products. AND you get a big fold out sheet with all the patterns on! All in all I would heartily recommend this book.

What has Jo been up to lately?

 Great review wasn't it?  Thanks Jo!! 

 Check out her blog here  Bearpaw blog   *** I am working on the focus friday poll for next month…….I know, a little late- but you know. ***