Autumn Bounty: 18 Quilts and Wool Appliqué Projects to Decorate Your Home

As you can see by the pictures on Amazon, this book has some nice designs. Since I typically read my new quilt books from cover-to-cover, I often notice a book's pluses and shortcomings. What I liked about the book was that it has several projects that work for autumn but can also transcend the season. A couple projects interested me because they were different. For example, "Acorn Wreaths" (22" x 22") has four of the same appliqued acorn wreaths but each block uses different fabrics so that the four blocks look different. What I really liked was the tiny (2" finished) paper pieced log cabin blocks that surround the acorns. (Yes, those are pretty small blocks but the results are wonderful.)"Crescent Wrench" (looks like a full-sized quilt in pictures but is actually only 25" x 25") is made up of two different sizes of monkey wrench blocks. The half-square triangles for the two sizes of blocks finish at 1" and 2" for a finished block sizes of 2.5" and 5". That is pretty darn small.Don't worry, the other quilts and projects in the book use more traditional sizes of elements and blocks.Some applique shapes and paper-piecing shapes are included with the individual projects. Other shapes are on tear-out pages at the back of the book. Those pages are printed on both sides.This book is not appropriate the beginner or confident beginner quilter because of the following shortcomings:- Instructions are very basic. Cutting details are complete but when it comes to assembly and stitching detail, you are more on your own. For example, in the little paper-pieced log cabin blocks used in "Acorn Wreaths", there is no mention about how to paper piece the blocks other than the order of the fabric strips. No mention of trimming the seam allowances down to 1/8th inch. You have to know or look up the process in another resource. Also, the author gives no mention of a preferred applique method...you are on your own. Do you like raw-edge applique, go for it...Needle turn sure. Again, no mention of or guidance is given. The book does mention that the applique shapes have no seam allowance provided so you need to know where to go from there.- In "Crescent Wrench" instructions for the half-square triangles (HST) are written for using STAR SINGLES papers. No reference is given for those papers. Renee does state that if you are not using the papers you should instead cut your fabrics to 1 7/8" and 2 7/8" for the two HST sizes needed. No mention then is given about sewing or trimming those HST. As a result, the instructions become kind of confusing if your not using the papers.- Several of the projects include embroidery stitches but no instructions are provided for how to make the stitches. The instructions simply will say to "whip stitch" the wool pieces down, or "stem stitch" the pumpkin stems. In the "Crazy for Pumpkins" (55" x 55") project, there are 12 different crazy quilt stitches used to adorn the pumpkins. A sketch of the stitches is shown but the stitches are not named and no stitch numbering sequence is given. Since no stitch names are provided, it makes it harder to look the stitches up in another resource.If I was offered purchase do-overs would I purchase this book again? Because of the book's shortcomings using the book feels too much like work instead of a fun easy project. Because of that, No, I wouldn't buy the book again.I hope this review has been helpful. Take care and stitch-on.

Was a gift for my mother-in-law, who is an extreme quilter. She looks the book, had shown interest before I purchased and was elated when I gave it to her.

I disliked nothing and want to make almost everything in the book. Instruction are easy to understand and photos beautuful!

There are a good number of projects and patterns in this book. It’s hard to choose which one to sew first!