A wonderful indulgence
Deborah Kemball's newest book is a wonderful indulgence for those who love needleturn appliqué. It provides patterns for 40 realistic flowers and insects and instructions on using them to make 17 different projects, including table runners, wallhangings and bed quilts. Deborah's appliqué method requires no special tools other than freezer paper, so it's simplicity itself, allowing you to focus on colour, layout and embroidered embellishments. She provides an excellent overview of her techniques at the beginning of the book, and then each flowers receives a detailed exposition, accompanied by photographs illustrating steps in its construction. The projects fill the second half of the book. Full-size patterns, however, are provided for only some of them, requiring you to enlarge the remainder on a photocopier or computer scanner or download them from a dedicated website. While this is a bit of a nuisance, it seems a reasonable trade-off given the number of patterns provided.
