Quilting With Liberty Book Review

My love affair with Liberty fabric started about five years ago, and since then, I have amassed quite the collection. I just can’t help it, it’s so pretty! I must admit, I do collect more than I sew with it, but don’t we all have something like that? *CoughPleaseSayYesCough*

Now, when you combine this love for Liberty fabric with the stunning books that Lucky Spool release, you can understand how excited I was when I first heard that Jenni Smith was releasing a Liberty book that was photographed on site at Liberty London. And oh how has Quilting With Liberty lived up to my big expectations!

I was provided with this book for review purposes. All Liberty love opinions are my own.

From a practical position, Quilting With Liberty is a 224 page hardcover book with a stylish sleeve. It looks and feels like a top quality coffee table book with the use of Liberty prints for the cover (Emily Silhouette) and sleeve (Wiltshire). When you first pull it out of the sleeve, you really feel like you’re holding a special book.

Alongside behind-the-scenes information and pictures of how Liberty fabric is designed and made, Jenni weaves in her own story of how she came to know and love Liberty fabric. I love hearing these personal tidbits as it helps to connect with and understand why an author/artist/creative does what they do.

As for the quilting aspect of Quilting With Liberty, there are 15 patterns included in the book, ranging from pincushions and table runners, to cushions and quilts. And the techniques used to make these projects include machine piecing, applique, English paper piecing, and foundation paper piecing.

Each project includes a short introduction to the pattern, and includes snippets of Liberty information too. For example, in the Blossom introduction I learned why I love the Mitsi print so much – this floral print was designed by Gillian Farr in the 1950s and was based on cherry blossoms!

Mitsi and Betsy Liberty fabric used in a Sakura block

The patterns are well-written, with the fabric requirements listed in both imperial and metric, and the instructions are clear and well laid out for easy reading. There’s also loads of diagrams, which is always handy! The full quilt patterns are written with yardage listed, but most are easily adapted to using scraps or smaller cuts of Liberty by simply skipping the strip-cutting and going straight to the final amount and size listed.

One such project is Love And Kisses, where I pulled out a couple of fat sixteenth Liberty Society bundles from Ava & Neve and was able to get one Kiss or two Backgrounds or five Hearts from one fat sixteenth. I concur with Jenni’s tip in the intro to ensure there is enough contrast between the fabrics for the Heart and the Kiss, but I don’t mind a couple of “quieter” blocks in the mix.

After the projects, you’ll find two more sections – swatches, and quilting techniques (to help you along the way). The swatches chapter that shows a little swatch and the name of each print Jenni used in each of the projects in the book. So if you spied a fabric you love while flipping through the book, you can find out which one it is!

So who would love Quilting With Liberty?

Well, the obvious first answer is anyone who loves Liberty fabric! It’s a beautiful ode to the fabric we love, and the patterns included work well to show off our beloved prints. As mentioned earlier, some patterns use quite large pieces of fabric, and many of us stash small precuts, so that’s something to keep in mind. But most of them can be adapted to work with smaller cuts and scraps, so there’s options!

But it also therefore works well for anyone who loves the patterns included to show off whatever fabric they love most, and in what style they like most. Some quilts, like Love And Kisses, lend themselves to a very scrappy look. Other quilts, like Discovery below, perhaps suit a more planned approach to create the intended effect.

Plus, I’ll be sharing more details later, but I will be co-hosting a casual quilt along using this book in April with Ava & Neve! So get your copies ordered now so that you’re all ready to go.

Where to buy Quilting With Liberty

You can buy signed copies of Quilting With Liberty from Jenni’s store here.

You can buy copies directly from Lucky Spool here – With good news for Australians! There’s now a local warehouse here in Melbourne, so you are paying regular domestic pricing.

And if you’re reading this before Saturday February 20, 2021, you can head on over to my Instagram page and find the picture of the book to enter a giveaway to win your very own copy!