Material Obsession: Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots by Kathy Doughty
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
I first found this book on Kathleen’s “Little Hunting Creek’ blog. Then I saw it written up in the Spring 2009 Stitch magazine. With two ringing endorsements, I made the purchase. And, considering I rarely buy sewing books full price and haven’t bought a quilting book in aeons, that’s saying a lot.
What a pleasure this book was to both read and thumb through! I primarily sew clothing, but I have always loved quilts. This book, in my mind, marries them both. The quilts are arranged from easiest to hardest and use the most extraordinary contemporary fabrics. Using these fun fabrics, the quilts don’t look like what your grandmother would make or what you see in most homes. Instead, you have dresden plates with graphic prints and applique with modern figures. I would recommend this book to someone with much experience or very little. The book will serve you well as your skill set grows.
In addition to great patterns, they have an always useful ‘how to’ at the back. So, it also makes a great reference book for the shelves.
I ordered my copy from Little Hunting Creek. Between her great customer service and being just one state over, I was curled up in bed reading this one less than 48 hours after hitting ‘send payment’.
I’m sure you’re now super inspired to give quilting a whirl, right? If so, check out this fabric giveway on FabricWorm’s blog. She’s opened her first retail store and is celebrating the one year anniversary of the online shop. She’s giving away three fabric prizes!
- 1st Prize: 1/2 Yard Set of Patty Young’s Mezzanine Collection (15 prints total, 2 of the prints have not arrived yet)
- 2nd Prize: A Collection of Holiday Fat Quarters, including Michael Miller’s Funky Christmas and the New Alexander Henry Christmas prints (17 Fat Quarters in all)
- 3rd Place: A large selection of Heather Ross Mendocino Scraps, (4 Yards by weight)
So, go to her blog to enter to win. Make sure you t ell her I sent you 🙂 And, with the money you saved in the win, you can order this book!
Miss Celie's Pants 
You are right! I love that book and as soon as I get the curve sewing and applique skills honed, (I’m using your pie in the sky for inspiration!) I’m all over that bird/windowpane quilt. It’s lovely!
I’ve been searching for this book at JoAnn for a while now (I heard that someone else spotted it there) and used a 50% off coupon! I like it a lot more now that I’ve had a chance to sit down and read it – whenever I flipped through it at the store, I saw way too much applique for my liking.
I have this book and LOVE it. I used to sew clothing, but since having kids I primarily sew quilts. Eventually I’ll get back to clothing, but since kids love to interrupt, and I hate being interrupted when sewing clothing, its quilts for now. They can interrupt me all they want when I’m making a quilt and I can come back to it and not have to figure out where I left off and where I put cut pattern pieces. Anyway, Material Obsession is the best quilt book I own, IMO. Wonderful projects and great inspiration. I’m looking for Material Obsession 2…and will pay almost any price for it!
Hi and thanks for such a lovely review of our book! I hope you all enjoy it. If you are desperate for book two ( which won’t be released in the US until 2010) you can have it sent from my webshop at http://www.thelastpiece.net Thanks again!
Sarah Fielke
Can I just point out though please that you have listed the book as only written by Kathy, there are two of us 🙂 thanks
Thanks for the lovely review of our book, you can get book 2 at my blog if you are desperate, as it isn’t released in the US until 2010. Thanks!
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about
this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that
you could do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is fantastic blog.
An excellent read. I’ll certainly be back.