Quilt Recipes

For Australian quilt designer and author Jen Kingwell, quilts and food symbolise comfort. This book, containing 8 delicious recipes and 12 quilt and cushion patterns, was a decade-long vision, and it shows within the pages. It’s a considered and well-executed book, with a selection of modern traditional quilt projects, each of them beautifully photographed alongside some mouth-watering recipes to bake. Jen’s patterns are for a more confident beginner quilter to experienced quilter. Various techniques are covered, including template-cut and hand-pieced quilts, as well as rotary-cut and machine-pieced items. Each project is made with a scrappy and eclectic palette of fabrics, typical of Jen Kingwell’s style. It is a slightly more expensive book, but as a bound hardcover book the cost is worth it. It would look perfect on a coffee table or bookshelf, and is a real visual treat, as well as offering some delicious-sounding recipes (who doesn’t enjoy a plate of freshly baked biscuits?).– “The Quilter Magazine”Jen Kingwell needs no introduction to most of the quilting world. She has produced many wonderful patterns and books over the years, and this is her latest. In Quilt Recipes, as the title states, Jen brings together quilting and baking. There are 12 quilt/pillow patterns and 9 “sweets” recipes. Jen loves handwork. She does use her machine at times but prefers the peace and quiet of her needle piercing the fabric. There are designs in the book for both techniques. In her introduction, she states “My vision for this book was to combine quilts with beautiful interiors and bring them into the homewares arena.” This is not a “how to quilt” book. The author assumes the reader knows what he/she is doing. Each quilt pattern is presented like a recipe-the ingredients and tools needed to bring it to completion. Everything is very straightforward and streamlined. The last third of the book contains recipes that Jen’s mother used to bake and are still loved by her family. Each one is a tasty dessert to have at the end of a busy stitching day. Cakes and cookies to delight anyone’s sweet tooth. If you enjoy digging into your stash and making do with what you have, these quilts willbe right up your alley.– “The Applique Society”

Jen Kingwell started patchwork and quilting while at nursing school and was hooked immediately. She has taught patchwork and big-stitch quilting to hundreds of classes since entering the quilting industry. Jen currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.