[.ca] Rotary Magic (ISBN 0875969887)

Loved the book:
This is the best purchase I've made learning to quilt. The tips have allowed me to do fairly complex blocks as a beginner. She covers all the basic tools and how to use them, not only how to pin but what to look for a pin. She covers how to press correctly not to distort a block. The formulas for calculating and cutting shapes for blocks me greatly when I designed my own quilts. I also like the projects the book. Quilting classes are hard to come by where I live. This book is wonderful for the "self taught", best I've found and it improved my quilting. It is also a great reference book to have on hand for trouble shooting. It also makes a great design aid for you if you want to design your own quilt using more than just rectangles. I highly recommend it.

good reference to rotary cutting for blocks:
Extremely useful in rotary cutting all your pieces in a block w/o using TEMPLATES!!! The information has enabled me to graph out, figure out the measurements and rotary cut pieces for illustrations or pictures of block patterns(that have no instructions or are the wrong size). I already made 8 blocks. Plus the 2 pages on how to cut with the grain helped w/ keeping the blocks squared. I wish I had found this book before purchasing alot of other beginner books. This one covers rotary cutting, piecing,pressing, and finishing. Plus all the other sound adivce she gives. Also there are projects-easy to feathered star. Good illustrations, color photos. Also rotary cutting illustrations for lefty. It saved me alot of frustration and time, made quilting enjoyable.

The BEST quilting book!:
I have purchased numerous quilting books and this one is the absolute BEST! If you are a new quilter, this book is for you and if you are an experienced quilter, this book is for you too! It has great instructions, wonderful pictures to show you how to sew it and 12 projects to do. The project names are "Floating Stars", "Pine Tree Delight", "Campbell House", "Monkey Wrench Times 2", "Indian Puzzle", "Ferris Wheel Flowers", "Dancing Star Table Runner", "Square within a Square Miniature", "Country Potpourri", "A Celebration of Cats", "Black Star Eruption" and "Stars at an Angle". If you can afford only a few books, buy this one. It is that good.

I agree:
I agree with all the reviews. This is a great book. It's a great beginners book that offers a lot of sound advice. BUT it is also a good book for experienced quilters. I had been quilting for over 10 years when I got the book, and I still learned a lot of new techniques. It especially helped with my pressing. I recommend buying the hard cover. I have the soft cover book and pages are falling out.

Highly practical...:
I ordered several books when I decided to learn to quilt, and found this book to be one of the most practical. In particular, she provides a guide to brand names for rotary cutters, mats, and rulers, which I found to be extremely useful in deciding what to buy. The book is filled to the brim with very practical tips on everything from setting up your sewing room to use of the rotary cutter. The presentation of the material is very concise, with lots of charts and lists presented in an interesting way. This book was very helpful to me as a beginner, but I think it would be useful for intermediate to advanced quilters as well because of all the tips.