Classic Quilts, Contemporary Style

On our travels last week, I found this book:  Classic Quilts, Contemporary Style, by Reiko Washizawa.  If you have read much of my blog, you know how I like Japanese quilting.  When I am in New York City on business, I often try to fit in a side trip to Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore, to check out the Japanese quilting magazines and books.  I have a small collection.

But what makes this book special is not just the lovely Japanese-made quilts and quilting projects.  Lovely though they are, what is noteworthy is that the directions are in English!  So naturally, I had to buy it.  Here are a few of my favorite quilts shown in the book.  (Sorry, my photos turned out blurry for some reason.)

I think this might be a good project for my various Fig Tree scraps.

This is a small wall hanging.  Could be good for my first-floor powder room wall.

I just adore both of these small quilts.

The book shows a lot of smaller quilts and includes several medallion style quilts (some with feathered star centers) with wonderful pieced and appliqued borders.  I think it is great for inspiration and will probably make a few projects directly from it or at least inspired by it.  But the directions in the book are not for beginners.  Though the directions are in English, they are not detailed and are for hand-piecing.  Most will easily adapt to machine piecing, if you know what you are doing.  If you are interested, you can find the book at Amazon.com here.