“Japanese Quilt Garden” by Karen Kay Buckley is a large quilt project (96 x 96”), made from 12 circle blocks. The quilt is beautiful and well designed. The twelve blocks that make up this quilt are detailed and would also work well appliquéd to plain blocks to make an easier quilt.
Buckley’s book gives well-planned instructions in the Japanese Quilt Garden. She teaches how to make perfect circles, and flower stems, and how to sew soutache (a kind of braid that you can purchase at fabric stores) onto your blocks. She also shows how to manage the trickier, more difficult aspects of the quilt. Buckley goes into detail about the tools you will need, and even goes into detail on how to use some of them to make your quilt more beautiful.
The Japanese Quilt Garden is not a book for beginners. It is a perfect book for those who do hand appliqué, or are proficient on their sewing machine. It would be a wonderful quilt for entering into quilting contests or shows!
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