[.ca] Quilted Memories (ISBN 1571201661)

From Amazon.com:
More a vibrant parade of richly hued celebration quilts than a straightforward instructional guide, Mary Lou Weidman's Quilted Memories: Celebrations of Life seeks to inspire quilters and would-be quilters to "increase their creativity quotient." To this end Weidman offers a number of helpful pep talks on gaining artistic confidence, working in a supportive atmosphere, and finding life events to immortalize in fabric. She gives a very general nod to working with color, choosing backgrounds, and adding fun embellishments like buttons and lace. The nine "projects" are actually just pattern templates of finished quilts; no real instructional guidance is presented other than a very brief list of extremely basic directions. What makes the book a pleasure to peruse are the dozens of intensely colorful, joyfully primitive quilts that fill the pages, produced by both the author herself and her circle of talented quilters. These delightful creations not only mark events as important as birthdays, weddings, new babies, and official holidays, they also celebrate such seemingly inconsequential but no less quilt-worthy happy memories as a snowy family outing, an afternoon in Grandma's garden, or a sunny day at the beach. --Amy Handy

Quilted Memories:
This book is fantastic. If you need inspiration, ideas, or just a chuckle, this is the book for you.

Inspirational!:
This book is one of the most inspirational books on quilting I've read. Mary's approach to applique is inspirational and has gotten my creative juices flowing. I own both this book and "Whimsies & Whynots" by Mary Lou Weidman - in Whimsies & Whynots there are more large quilt examples to look at, while Quilted Memories has more smaller projects. Both have tons of beautiful examples of Mary's applique quilts, but if I had to choose between the two I'd pick Whimsies & Whynots because there seem to be more quilts in it. But, this is still a 5-star book, well worth your money.

Capture your life in fabric:
Others have written books with this same premise. No one has done it better. Mary Lou approaches her free form quilts with energy, imagination and an art background. She shares with the reader thoughts on creativity, suggestions for themes and ideas and the personal stories behind her quilts. I found the entire book captivating and fun to read. Her method is clear and sets just enough structural boundaries so the neophyte will not feel overwhelmed. Practice projects will help you to warm up.