This book takes you on a year-long journey and allows you to explore and expand your quilting skills.  It begins with a wonderfully written and illustrated chapter entitled "Essential Instructions".  Here you will find the authors' suggestions for supplies, choosing fabric, rotary cutting, machine piecing, pressing, and pinning.  They also provide primers for paper piecing, a quick method for piecing triangles, machine appliqué, needle-turn appliqué, decorative stitching, adding borders, quilting, making a hanging sleeve and adding labels.  I particularly like the highlighted notes and tips that are interspersed within the instructions in this chapter.

Once you have read "Essential Instructions", you are ready to begin the monthly projects.  Each month offers two coordinating projects that correlate to seasonal or holiday events.  For example, October offers a paper-pieced "Pumpkin Patch Wallhanging" with 3-dimensional leaves and a "Pumpkin Patch Quilt" with similarly constructed pumpkins topped by a blue sky while February offers a strip-pieced and needle-turn appliquéd "Lover's Knot" wallhanging and quilt.

My favorite month is June.  I was born in June and I wed in June.  I couldn't wait to see what the authors' offered for my favorite month of the year and they did not let me down.  The June projects are simply gorgeous!  The subject is a paper pieced swan floating on strip-pieced water.  Looking at the finished photograph of the "Serenity Quilt", I thought that it must be one of those fussy, paper-piecing patterns that requires lots of little tiny pieces and patience.  Upon turning the page, I was astounded to see that the swans were actually constructed from relatively simple blocks: Snail's Trail and an H-like block.  I have a soft spot for traditional block patterns and seeing the Snail's Trail block used in this manner was thrilling.

I like the concept of this book.  It entices you to move out of the comfort zone of your favorite "technique" and to try other methods.  I must admit that I am not comfortable with needle-turn applique.  There are two small projects in this book that call for this method of applique and it is such a small portion of the finished quilt that I feel that I can do it!  I know that each successfully completed project will bring confidence, and my quilting "bag of tricks" will expand.

Who needs this book?  Anyone who is looking for an introduction to new techniques and well-designed projects with a seasonal theme will find it invaluable.  This is a must-have book for every quiltmaker's bookshelf.  

Review by Kim Noblin, BlockCentral.com