Book Review – A Quilter’s Ark

A Quilter’s Ark

by Margaret Rolfe

Published by Martingale, 1997

Review by Monique Plamondon

The guild library is growing and we want to highlight the different books so members are aware of all the great resources. If you would like to help by writing a review, please fill out the book review form in the member area. A big thanks to Monique for reviewing A Quilter’s Ark for us. This book stood out to her because of the modern animal patterns, she used it to make a quilt for her niece. Please note: This post contains affiliate links. This means that, at no cost to you, the Boulder MQG will receive compensation for purchases made after clicking the link.

What about this book were you most interested in?

  I was trying to design a quilt for my 2 year old great-niece. My niece wanted the quilt to have African animals and be “girly-girly” pink. This book had all the animals I wanted. The technique is foundation piecing which uses a very light no-woven and non-fusible interfacing as the foundation, instead of paper. This means the foundation stays on the block and does not need to be removed, as the paper does in paper piecing, which for me was a tremendous bonus! Also, the interfacing adds a stability to the very small fabric pieces.

What did you learn from the book that you didn’t know before?

Although I had dipped my toe in paper piecing, I was not a fan because I dislike the process of removing the paper. Using a foundation was new to me and I really enjoyed it. You can make very small intricate pieces in your block with no distortion.

Is this book more project based or technique based?

For me, although I picked the book for the various animals, the technique was the primary learning from the book. There are patterns for each animal but the projects in the book are mainly small wall hangings. It was great for me because I wanted to design my own quilt. I ended up using the one large quilt shown in the book as my guide and went from there.

Did you make any projects from this book?

I made my great-niece’s quilt in 2017 and gave it to her at Christmas. The instructions for the technique were very easy to learn. If you have done paper piecing then foundation piecing is a breeze. Since I made 36 small (6″x6″ blocks) animals and one large giraffe for the quilt, by the time I had done 3 or 4 I felt very comfortable with the technique. I also used the some of the instructions to embellish the animals. In addition, the workshop from Latifah Saafir was very timely! I made the monkey tails using her bias tape method.

Why would you recommend this book?

If you are looking to make a modern quilt with animals in it, then this is a good choice. The animals have a modern feel to them and can be made even more modern by the choice of fabrics. In the quilt I made, none of the animals are done in a color reminiscent of the true animal. All were in tones of pink, purple and some coordinating colors.   A Quilter’s Ark is available for Boulder MQG members to check out from the guild library, and is also available for purchase on Amazon.