 Home » Books & Patterns » Patchwork » Sweet Treats: 12 Delectable Quilts from 2 Easy Blocks |
Create 12 intricate-looking but easy-to-make quilts from just 2 simple blocks.
- 10 matching dessert recipes from Sandy's kitchen-choose from Lemon Chiffon Pie, Chocolate Decadence, Blueberry Cobbler, and other luscious treats
- Give your quilts a unique flavor using Sandy's secrets for working with color and value
You won't believe the tasty effects you can create with four-patch and half-square triangle blocks! Popular teacher Sandy Bonsib shows you how to combine the principles of color and value with 2 simple blocks to make quilts that look like you worked a lot harder than you did. As an added bonus, the quilt projects come with recipes for 10 decadent desserts. Sew, eat, and enjoy! An excerpt:
The concept of quilts and desserts evolved innocently enough. In February, 2004, my dear friend and mentor, Trish Carey, and I were discussing, over coffee and scones, what classes I could teach at In The Beginning Fabrics, the wonderful quilt shop in Seattle where I taught for 15 years. Trish scheduled all of In The Beginning's classes. In the process of brainstorming, we began talking about how much fun it would be to coordinate food, especially desserts, with quilts. Trish and I both love desserts, so the idea of quilts and food was appealing. And funny. We laughed at what we thought was a silly idea. Little did we know where this idea would go!
Since starting the Quilter's Dessert Series in the summer of 2004 with the first quilts and the first classes, Lemon Chiffon One and Lemon Chiffon, Too, there have been many more quilts in the series and desserts to go with them. Why, you might wonder, were there two first quilts? That's another story. I've never made a quilt that I wouldn't change something about it if I made it again, and Lemon Chiffon One was no exception. The concept behind Lemon Chiffon One is working with all light values - light background fabric and light values of assorted colors.
Everything would be light, so the contrast would be subtle, I thought. I had no trouble choosing a light background fabric, and I didn't think I had trouble choosing light-value fabrics for the other colors. I chose all the lights of a single color, for example, light blues. In the light blue pile, I chose the very lightest blues. I did this for all the colors. I expected a quilt that had some contrast, but not much. To my surprise I discovered, when the quilt was finished, that the light colors look medium in value next to the almost-white background. So, although I love Lemon Chiffon One and it has been a very popular quilt, I decided to try again to get more blending but with some contrast. Lemon Chiffon, Too, uses the same fabrics (yes, the exact same ones) as Lemon Chiffon One.
I did, however, change the background fabric to a not-quite-so-light fabric. It's a creamy fabric with a blue design on it, so it doesn't read as light as the background fabric in Lemon Chiffon One. Lemon Chiffon, Too, did what I wanted Lemon Chiffon One to do, so I moved on, and I created a Lemon Chiffon Pie recipe to go with my Lemon Chiffon Quilts.
Next, I decided to work with all medium values, creating Caramel Sundae (and homemade caramel sauce for a caramel sundae). The next quilt was Chocolate Decadence, working with all dark values, and creating a chocolate (my favorite food) dessert by the same name.
Making desserts was especially fun. My best friend's twin twenty-year-old sons were my taste testers (and I never found a dessert they wouldn't eat, no matter how it turned out). I started by looking in cookbooks and looking online for desserts with the same names as my quilts. Then I started cooking. I never made a dessert exactly from the recipes I found. I always changed them by adding or deleting ingredients, taste testing, and trying again. I wanted my desserts to be unique, easy to prepare, and delicious. I hope you enjoy each and every one of them.
Working with the concept of value with quilts and desserts to match proved to be addictive. When I teach the classes locally I take the matching dessert for the students to eat. Everyone spends six hours sewing, chatting, and eating. It doesn't get much better than that.
And so I carried on, and over the next year and a half created additional quilts and desserts of the same name: Blueberry Cobbler, working with all blues; Mud Pie, working with all three values - lights, mediums, and darks; Mud Pie Leftovers, working with the many Four-Patch Blocks I didn't use in Mud Pie (and who doesn't like leftovers?); Apple Crisp, working with neutrals; Pumpkin Pie, working with a single color again - rust (dark, burnt orange); Hot Fudge Sundae, working with black, white, and a touch of red; Periwinkle Cupcake working with blue violet; and Key Lime Pie, working with two complementary colors, red violet and yellow green.
I never expected my first quilts and desserts to evolve into a book. As I write this, more desserts and quilts are in the making - and tasting - stages. Look for more quilts and desserts in the future!
