I’m a Kim Brackett fan. I don’t know that I’ve made any of her quilts…but I do have her books. I love looking at them and studying them. I love that her quilts are always scrappy which is a huge favorite of mine. I put myself on the pre-order list when I saw she had a new book coming out. The book is Scrap-Basket Knockouts.
Just look at all of the pretty quilts on the cover. I love that I could just open my own scrap baskets and start sewing (If I wasn’t trying to tackle all of the UFOs).
So many pretty quilts!!  Here are the quilts from the back cover…
I really like so many of them…
If I didn’t have the True Blue quilt going right now, this quilt would tempt me.
I really liked this quilt. The gray is great with it.
One of my favorite things about Kim Brackett’s quilt books is that she gives options. You can see the full layout of the quilt in the lower picture on the left. On the right, you can see that she offered a variation for the quilt by turning the border blocks 180 degrees.
She does that for every one of the quilts in the book. I love it.
I was slightly disappointed that so many of the quilts are in the same color scheme. Check out the next four quilts…
I like each of them…
but they don’t really distinguish themselves from each other. They are all so similarly colored with some variation of squares. At one point when I first looked at the book, I paged back thinking there was a repeat.
I guess I would have liked to see one that was just yellows, blues, and greens or something like that to distinguish that quilt from the others.
To me, if I just take a quick glance while paging through the book, all four of the last quilts just have the same look to them.
Happily, I’m a creative scrap quilter and can do something to make the quilt look different from each other. For example…what would happen in the quilt above if reds were used in the area with squares and blacks were used in the area with rectangles? That would change them up.
I love this modern variation of a basket quilt.
This one is a favorite of mine…
The quilts are all springy and bright looking.
I have long had to make a 30s print quilt on my bucket list. I’d love to make the quilt below in 30s prints.
I like this one with a black background. Just stunning. I never think to do that.
All in all…I really like the book and am glad to have it in my collection. I love that Kim Brackett steps out of the box and creates blocks I haven’t seen before. I love that her scrap quilts truly are scrap quilts. So often I see people say they are making a scrap quilt and it’s really just a fabric line quilt using all of the prints from the line.
In the opening, I told you that I have almost all of Kim Brackett’s books yet I haven’t made a quilt. You might ask why haven’t I? I think the main reason is that all of her quilts are lap size. I never make lap-sized quilts. I always make quilts that are twin sized or larger. The main reason for that is that then someone can always use it as a bed quilt if they desire…I can always donate it too…and all of us Kramers are big people. A twin-sized quilt is what we like covering us when we sit on the couch.
I can easily make the quilt larger but that always takes a little thinking. It is so much easier to just grab something and start sewing rather than to do the math. HA!
Your next question is likely…well if you haven’t made a quilt, then why buy the books? I do really like her designs. I love studying designs so I often take her books to bed with me. I study the various options she gives. I study to see if I can come up with other variations. I study the color. I look to see if I would construct the block that way…I have lots of fun with quilt books even if I don’t actually make a quilt. It’s really not much different than reading a book…only these I reread and reread.
If you’re interested in the book, you can find it HERE. At the time of my writing this, the book was only $12 to Kindle users.
If you are interested in other Kim Brackett books you can see the full listing of her books HERE.
I think this looks like a great quilt book. I don’t think I have seen any of her books before. Don’t you think the reason those quilts all look similar in color is because she was using her scraps and evidently had many, many of those colors. LOL
That was my thinking on this too.
I have made “Charleston” from Kim’s book Scrap Basket Surprises, “Lake Cabin” and “Nova” from Scrap Basket Sensations. I am currently working on “Town Square” from Scrap Basket Sensations and I have another “Nova” cut out to make at the next retreat. I love her patterns!
I love looking at quilt books too. I order quilt books or buy quilt magazines because I like to study the quilts.
I’m a Kim Brackett fan also and have a few of her books. I might just have to get this one though not the Kindle version. I only like the real book when it comes to quilt books.
MarianneK I love physical books as well. I never get quilt books in the Kindle version.
You highlighted one of my favorite quilt designers, Kim Brackett. Out of her first 2-3 book, I have stitched 20-25 quilts. I loved Nova so much I stitched it in about 5-6 different colorways. And it was a quilt I never thought I was up to. I loved her little info boxes on what to cut if cutting straight from scraps which is mostly what I had to work with. This new book was different, but I ordered it as soon as it was available. Still deciding what I will choose to do first.
WOW…Impressive Stephani!!
I love her and have made many of her quilts. I’ve made them bigger than what she has in her books. I have all her books and have wondered recently when her next one was coming out. Most of her patterns are from jelly rolls but scraps work too. I will wait till the price comes down before I buy this new book, patterns and books are getting expensive.
Thanks for sharing that book review, Jo. SEW many pretty quilts!
I love Kim Brackett too, and I’m so glad that you reviewed this book. This was the book I have been waiting for all summer and I bought it as soon as it was released. I have all of her books and I love the way that you can make her quilt designs your own with different fabric choices.
I’m a fan, too! Just ordered it through your link.
Hi Jo, i’ve been following your blog for a few years with great pleasure, thank you, but all of a sudden i don’t receive any more emails at all from you. hope everything is alright, is there something i can do to fix it that you know about? thanks again,
shoshana
s5821140@gmail.com
Jo, don’t let the math stop you. Take her blocks find the basic size and multiply to twin or larger size. Have fun with them. I would almost bet that you know without thinking how many 6 inch, 8 inch and 12 inch blocks are in a twin quilt. The name of thexquilting game is do good and have fun doing it. Hope you’re having a blast at your retreat.