Gwen Marston's latest book, A Common Thread, is one I've been wanting for YEARS. It is full of beautiful photographs of beautiful quilts. I also think it has the perfect title, A Common Thread. The book shows Gwen's varied quilt styles from traditional, to applique, and liberated but every quilt also clearly reflects HER style.
The chapters in the book include Traditional Patchwork, Applique, Liberated Patchwork, String Quilts, and Abstract Quilts in Solids. The entire books is filled with photographs interspersed with introductions Gwen wrote for each chapter. The left side of each spread is a full shot of each quilt. The right side of each spread has one, two, or three close up photographs showing details and interesting parts of the quilt.
This spread shows the quilt, Little Stars, that inspired my Twinkling Stars quilt.
The photography is beautifully done and you can see every quilting stitch in the detail shots. You can even see the quilting lines in the full quilt photos.
I love looking at all the details. I can even study how the pieces were sewn together.
The quilting in the little liberated log cabin quilt that I'm currently working on was inspired by this quilt, Abstraction.
If you like to look at beautiful quilts, this book is for you. If you want to be a quilter, this book is for you. If you know how to quilt and have mastered the basic liberated quilt making techniques, this book is for you.
I would keep writing more to convince you that you need this book but I need to go sew. This book has given me lots of ideas of things I want to try in my next quilts. I have a few log cabin ideas to explore, I want to dig out my reproduction fabrics, and of course I love the Little Baskets on page 36. What should I work on first?
Thank you Gwen for making such beautiful quilts and an excellent book that features them.
You can get your own copy of A Common Thread from Amazon with this affiliate link.
