Picture Patchwork: 15 Charted Patterns for Novelty Quilts

Pictorial quilts are often appliqué, sometimes very free-form. Lifelong sewist and experienced quilting instructor Lepore takes a different approach. These quilt patterns are charted, much like cross-stitch patterns, and pieced of mostly squares and half-square triangles. There’s a wide range of designs: a guitar, a whale, a bicycle, shoes, lipstick, and much more. After practicing with these new techniques, cross-stitch patterns can be adapted for additional designs. Lepore teaches all the basics of quilting here, from start to finish, with an added emphasis on ironing during the piecing as necessary, with the abundance of two-inch squares. For larger or smaller projects, the size of the square could easily be changed. Lepore provides charts for an alphabet in upper and lower case and suggests that filling an initial or name with fabric pictures telling a person’s life can make a great wall hanging and would be a nice gift for a special occasion.