Book review: Snowflakes & Quilts by Paula Nadelstern

If you're familiar with Paula Nadelstern's kaleidoscope quilts, then all you need really know about this book is that by applying the same construction techniques to only blue-and-white fabrics, you get the most spectacular snowflake designs. If you're not familiar with Nadelstern's kaleidoscope quilts, then the first thing you need to know is that they're unlike anything you've ever seen before. And yes, they really do look like kaleidoscope patterns and are equally mesmerising.

Don't be put off by the fact that Snowflakes & Quilts contains diagrams for making only four snowflake designs. Nadelstern is an author who believes in telling her readers all about her design process. As she says in her introduction, she's "not going to get to sit next to you at your sewing machine and demonstrate what I left out because it seemed too tedious or involved to explain. Like a much appreciated trail of bread crumbs, those are precisely the details that will lead you out of a conundrum."

Nadelstern assumes that her readers have already made a few quilts, and her techniques are certainly not those who want simple, quilt-in-a-day patterns. Nor those afraid of a bit of geometry and graph paper. Her techniques require some thought and working through, but the results, the results!

Part one explains drafting, template making, and machine piecing techniques in careful details. Part two the "common hexagonal pattern, the endless variety of structural details inherent in real snow crystals, and colour and fabric guidelines to help make the translation." Part three takes you step-by-step through the construction of four snowflake designs, combining what you've learned in the first two parts.

Don't be put off by the fact that there are only four patterns, once you've worked through this book, you'll be able to design your own. Nadelstern emphasises: "As you read through the text and study the diagrams, keep in mind, there are no real rules. I made this up! But the only way I know to pass on my guidelines is to cloak them authoritatively in black and white terms." (Or in this case, blue and white terms.) So remember, if you'd rather do something another way to achieve similar results, it's not "wrong".

Even if you end up never making a snowflake quilt, you should browse through this book. The author's entertaining, personal writing is an inspiration in itself, and a confirmation of the joy and value of being a quilter. For instance: "Don't stop to question a material instinct. When asked, 'What are you going to do with that' just smile knowingly. Personally, I feel sorry for the ones who don't get it." And "I know it sounds wicked, but I turn my silk into cotton with fusible woven interfacing ... it strip-pieces like a crisp cotton."

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