Jane Austen's Quilt and other books.

Sharon from Vroomans Quilts is running a new challenge this year 'Let's book it'. The idea is simple, to use the books or magazines we have sitting in the book shelf to make a quilt or other project. Over time we all tend to collect a lot of books on our hobby and there are so many lovely quilt books out there full of gorgeous patterns. I would love to join in with this challenge but I at the point she announced this challenge I only owned 2 quilt books (and I had read her instruction as if it could only be a quilt). 

The book on the left ' Learn to quilt' I won in a raffle at a lace day back in 2009. At the time I wasn't doing any quilting and not a lot of any other craft. It would have been easy to pass the book on to someone new to quilting or take it to the charity shop but I'm very pleased I didn't When we made the mini quilts for prem babies at Guides several of the girls got interested and borrowed the book. The techniques book I bought for myself when I started quilting again as so many of the techniques had changed over the years and a lot of new methods had been added. Last time I had quilted we still used scissors for cutting out! Ahh the rotary cutter so much quicker and more accurate especially when used with all the lovely rulers available.

My new book 'Jane Austen Quilts Inspired by her Novels' by Karen Gloeggler was a belated Christmas present. My two daughters and I absolutely love the novels of Jane Austen and in particular Pride and Prejudice. We all love the BBC adaptation of the novel ...all 6 hours of it. The girls wore out 3 sets of the video and 1 DVD through watching it so much. It is now safely stored on the home server (and on the back up) so we can watch anytime. 

I was fascinated to learn that Jane Austen loved fabric and was an excellent seamstress. The quilt that inspired this book was made by Jane,her mother and sister Cassandra. You can see more about her quilt here. The quilt (below) is on view at the Jane Austen Museum in Chawton Hampshire. I haven't visited this museum yet but intend to later in the year.

Picture from Google - Jane Austen Centre Bath.

There are two Jane Austen inspired quilts in this book that I would like to make. The first is inspired by Pride and Prejudice.

and the second is inspired by Persuasion. I love the hexagons and nautical theme which is very appropriate as the male characters in the book are in the navy as were 3 of Jane Austen's brothers.

When I read the reviews of this book several people had commented that the quilts were not authentic. The words of the title make it clear that the quilts are inspired by Jane Austen and even the Jane Austen quilt is not an exact copy of the original. The author also makes it clear that you can make the quilts look as traditional or contemporary as you wish by the fabric choices you make

Although I only have 3 quilt books I have a large collection of embroidery books of different types. This is just a small selection. In 'Kate Greenaway Cross Stitch Designs' by Julie Hasler there is a cot quilt I want to make. 

I stopped looking through my other books at this point as my head was reeling from the possibilities of new projects. Maybe I need to retire to make time for all the projects? Now my only choice is which pattern do I make first?

Have a look at Sharon's challenge. There will be a monthly link up party with prizes. You don't have to complete the project in the month just show progress. 

I'm now going to get on with cutting 2.5 inch squares for the Guides quilt project. I've got a new blade in my rotary cutting and I don't fancy having to do any first aid this evening so I'll do the cutting myself.

I'm linking this post with Connie at Freemotion by the river for her Tuesday link party (yes I know it's Wednesday) as I'm sure they may be other people who want to join in.

I hope you have a good day with some time for sewing.

Lyndsey