Quilt Book Review: Start With Strips

**This is a repost of Friday’s post.  The pictures didn’t come through.  They are here now**

Do you remember that a bit ago I told you that I want to tackle my strip bins and get some quilts made with all of those strips???  I have not made big plans yet for specific quilts but I am looking for ideas and have it on my brain big time as once I finish up with a few of the projects I have going, I REALLY-REALLY want to get started…so, I’ve been doing some looking to see just what I might want to make.

The other day I was writing a blog post and hopped over to Amazon get a link for the Scrap School book.  That’s when, in the recommended book section, I saw this book Start with Strips by Susan Ache.  The front of the book looked promising…and if you read the smaller print it says, “13 Colorful Quilts from 2 1/2″ Strips”.  Hmmm.  I better check this one out, right??


After looking…I ended up buying the book.  I liked it.  One of the reasons why I did was because so many of the quilts don’t look like they were made of 2 1/2″ strips.

Check out this one…

This one does look like it was made from 2 1/2″ strips…but I love the use of the background fabrics.  I love the border that changes up.  Yep, I could see me making this one.

I can totally see me making this from reproduction fabrics and goodness knows I have plenty of them.

I love churn dash quilts so this one caught my eye…

The author made this a two-color quilt but if I’m to use a lot of my scraps I’d have to alter that.  Hmmm.  I do love it.

I was all over this one and immediately wanted to make it.  It’s called train tracks and I think it’s the first from the book that I’d like to make.

I have tons of scraps that would be perfect for this!!

I wouldn’t use a ton of scraps for this one…but I liked it too.  Yes, it’s scrappy but I don’t have a lot of scraps in these colors.  Well…that’s okay. Not every quilt has to use only scraps…right??

I liked this one…

This one was a favorite of mine from the book.  It’s not fancy at all…but boy oh boy, I could use lots of scraps.

I loved this one…it’s not personal colors but I could come up with a different color palette.

…a fan quilt.  Oh my. I love this too.  I’ve always wanted to make a fan quilt.  Maybe it’s time.  It’s another quilt that does not look like it was made with 2 1/2″ strips.

There were three other projects in the book.  They were good but the ones I showed were my real favorites.  You can check out the others HERE.

You can see why I bought the book.  With my goal of wanting to use the scrap bins, it’s the perfect book.  I’ve been on a roll buying a few books…but I am balancing it out with not buying much fabric.  I do notice that after paging through a few of the books and seeing the quilts I’d like to make that maybe I’ll need to buy some white or cream solids for the background.  That’s okay.  If it gets me to narrow down my scrap bins, buying a quilt book or some background fabric is totally worth it.

If you’re interested in the book and want to sew along with me.  You can find the book HERE on Amazon.

17 thoughts on “Quilt Book Review: Start With Strips”

  1. I do not need another quilt book, but these are gorgeous. I only have half dozen jelly rolls that need to be used! Thanks for the reviews that help us determine which books are worth the purchase!

  2. Two pictures appeared only after I refreshed the page. The same thing happened with one of the other recent reviews. I was bummed cause you say such specific things about the quilts that it really makes me want to see them. Ah well, cannot get another book anyway!

  3. I had to refresh several times before I got all the pictures. I love this book and will probably order it as I have so many strips…..thanks for the review Jo.

  4. There must be a problem with attaching the photos. I didn’t get any. I, too, love looking at the ones you pick out and the details.

  5. Thanks for reposting! I got all the pictures this time. So many beautiful quilts. I can see why you love this book. FYI: I use Firefox for my browser.

  6. I have two jelly roll quilt books that I love by Pam and Nicky Lintott. One called Jelly Roll Quilts and one called Jelly Roll Quilts In A Weekend.

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