New book by Jane Sassaman coming out in June

Jane Sassaman’s new book – Patchwork Sassaman Style: Recipes for Dazzling Quilts (Dragon Threads, 168 pages, $29.95) – is coming out in June, and I can’t wait to see it! Dragon Threads publisher Linda Teufel gave me a sneak peek of her latest book.
The basic idea is that you can take all those luscious large-scale prints, like Jane’s latest “Early Birds” line, and put together basic blocks with minimal piecing to produce very graphic, bold quilts. Like the one on the cover:

Jane Sassaman made this quilt using fabrics from her “Early Birds” collection.

Drool, drool, drool! Isn’t it spectacular? I fell in love with Jane’s style when her quilt Willow appeared on the cover of a national quilt magazine in the mid 1990s. You can see Jane’s art quilts – including Willow – on her gallery page. Here’s what Jane has to say about the book:

“This book has been written for all of the quilters who love fancy fabrics but don’t quite know how to use them and for the new ‘modern’ quilters who have already embraced personality prints and made them part of their creative palette. So the goal of this book is to show some basic ideas for using those big, bold and beautiful  fabrics.

“These quilt designs are inspired by simple traditional quilt patterns. Consequently, there is plenty of room for flexibility. So much of the creative decision making happens during the process of making the quilt. This process is part of the fun. The surprising relationships between fabrics can guide a quilt as you work.

“Quilting is an organic process which includes listening and looking for the character in the cloth... color, line, pattern, scale, and then mixing characters to make an interesting reaction. Just like in the kitchen, we can personalize the recipe according to the ingredients at hand or to suit your own taste and make it spicier, sweeter, juicier or richer. A personality print can add some unexpected and exciting flavors to these simple recipes.

“So these ideas are just a place to begin. You will see variations within each category and I will attempt to describe the creative decision making along the way.”

I’ll give a full review of the book when it is released by Dragon Threads in June! By the way, if you are curious about what publishers think about when they are getting ready to design a book, check out publisher Linda Teufel’s blog. She talks about what goes into deciding on cover photos and layouts, and the titles of the books.