Quilter's Academy Vol. 4 - Senior Year: A Skill Building Course in Quiltmaking

Finally, we're quilting with the big kids. Harriet and Carrie Hargrave - with their long awaited Quilter's Academy Vol. 4 - Senior Year - are the tutors who will help you get perfect grades in Y-seams, partial seams, and matching points. Now you don't have to skip over the projects in your favorite quilt books that employ these techniques.Starting with lots and LOTS of hexagons, the authors introduce 60 degree angles, Y-seams, and English paper piecing (projects are a tea cozy, placemat, and an outstanding Mosaic Star). Then they segue nicely into diamonds, half-hexagons, and stretched squares (projects incorporate Tumbling Blocks and various 6-pointed stars; my favorite project is the divinely inspired Diamond Starburst). Our instructors advance onward to 8-pointed stars (projects involve both the classic Le Moyne Star and Lone Star, each with several delightfully more intricate variations); included is the very handy chart from the earlier years that explains how to add on additional seam allowances to various shapes.Senior Year becomes very interesting with hexagon Log Cabins and 45/60 degree diamond Log Cabins (projects include an alternate Pineapple runner and the beautiful Prayer Star). Graduation nears with partial seams and several star variations (projects are a pinwheel quilt and a pseudo Storm At Sea design). Finally, the year ends with grids, designing and drafting, coloration, pieced borders (a short gallery of black and while illustrations), and quilting designs (this section is only about 1 and ¼ pages long and I would have enjoyed more pages).Throughout the book are ample color photographs, truly helpful text (with frequent notes, and tips), suggestions for edge treatments, drafting tips, layout options, various block configurations, and even some unusual block units (many taken from a Jinny Beyer book  The Quilter's Album of Blocks and Borders : More than 750 Geometric Designs Illustrated and Categorized for Easy Identification and Drafting ). This book does build on and refer back to Junior Year  Quilter's Academy, Volume 3: Junior Year: A Skill-Building Course in Quiltmaking , but my opinion is that Harriet and Carrie Hargrave have done such an excellent job with Senior Year that anyone could jump right in and make most of these challenging but doable projects. The best part is, the book incorporates so much flexibility that even someone with a rather short attention span for piecing large projects (um, like me) can improvise smaller projects. And some of these individual blocks are so beautiful they deserve to be bound, finished, and displayed on their own. There are so many options from these two master quilter authors; senior year is going to be a GOOD year for all of us.

I have been quilting since the 70's. I began as self taught and then when things in the quilting world really took hold, I took classes at a local quilt shop. They were GOLDEN. Having that hands on approach and learning tips and techniques was amazing and my quilts improved greatly. Today many friends and families sleep under my quilts and they hang on my walls.I took a class in "Y seams" (one of the major lessons in this book), and struggled a bit. Once I practiced, I got it. Hand sewing them is not hard at all, machine sewing a little tougher (after all the needle falls where the stitch length tells it to, not where you place the needle, like in hand sewing).I picked up this book to see if there were machine techniques I could improve on. The book didn't help at all. It told me everything I had already heard. The key is practice, practice, practice.I confess I didn't buy , nor read, books I, II or III of the series, but from what I read in Senior year, it is all things that are instructed or suggested in other books and classes.The "tips" were nothing I had not read several times before. There is nothing new here. There are tons of tips on how to do things that you can learn in many quilting books and better yet, classes. The thing I learned from this book was how to be anal about it. Instructions like, only use this size thread, this brand is best, iron this way (there are whole books on ironing tips, and it is included in any quilting instructional book), it is just too restrictive. I guess if the thread company goes out of business we have to toss the book in the garbage and quit quilting...OK I am being sarcastic, but it is to the point of taking the pleasure out of quilting.This book has good instruction, but they are restrictive, expensive and time consuming....and probably frustrating. Want to compete at national levels, maybe this is the book for you, if not, don't drive yourself crazy.If you are one of those who wants to compete at high levels and be crazy about exactitude and taking longer to make your quilts than anyone else, AND have a pile of money to do it, this book is for you. If you just want to make a beautiful quilt to keep yourself warm, and to share with your kids and grand kids, don't drive yourself nuts. There are TONS of books out there with easier, quicker ways of doing things that look just as good.You also don't need these books to make award winning quilts.This book is for the perfectionist who doesn't have the time to take a class. Seriously, want to make great quilts, go to a quilt shop and sign up for a class, then buy quilting books that teach techniques and give patterns for those that resonate with you. The Amish say there should be a mistake in every quilt because only God is perfect. They need to tell the authors that.This book takes all the pleasure out of quilting for me, and I am sure a lot of other quilters (at least the ones I know). Quilting should be a joy, relaxing, and fun, not work where the boss is breathing down your neck. Buy a "Quilt In A Day" series book or one by the many other quilters (Thimbleberries, Fons and Porter or M'Lis Rae), who make beautiful quilts. There are many easier techniques than the ones taught in this book, and not only do they look as good, but they keep you just as warm. Quilts are about warmth and love,not stress and perfection. There are books at higher levels of quilting with more challenging patterns that work much easier than the instructions in the Quilter's Academy series. This is the hard and expensive way of doing the same thing that quilters have been doing for years. Not to mention the books are expensive, and I would bet many of them just sit on a shelf somewhere. They are WAY to complicated and expensive to apply. Why go to Harvard when the state college will do...if you are a millionaire and want the prestige , go for it, if you are a quilter who wants to quilt, don't waste your time and money, it isn't necessary.Enjoy quilting, and to do that, don't buy this book!

I think that when time passed, and is my case ( I am 63 years old) and we forget how about is the basic geometric for constructing and handling cubes, diamonds, rectangles etc for doing quilts. It is very usefull to learn again how to do them in this book vol. 4 of quilters academy. Specially if we have a lot of time to dedicate to another themes at work. But when we are retired it is very usefull to learn by ourselves this essencial thing when we start to do quilts. So I fell very glad that I bought this book and that it was so easy to learn about all the basic things you should know specially when you want to learn by yourself and do not have to pay a teacher lessons for making quilts and do what the teacher only teaches you. By this way you learn by yourself and do beautiful quilts using your imagination. Specially in my country we do not have many teachers for making quilts.the way this book explains how to join all the geometric forms for giving a good looking pattern for quilts. just using the basic concepts of geometry. So it is very usefull remembring that only by changing the direcctions of our blocks based in geometry we can create any kind of effects doing cubes and diamonds with different colors in each piece. Thanks for recomend this book to me.

I found volume 2 of this series at the public library. It made half square triangles so easy that I decided to read volume 1,3, and now 4. I had been quilting for 20 years and every single volume has given me new tools, new techniques, and new ideas to put to work. You are basically taking a four semester course in how to quilt. but don’t think it is just for beginners; if you do the exercises you will become a much better quilter. Your points won’t have flat tips, your seams will match, your color sense will grow, and you may even begin designing your own patterns. Highly recommended.

Can't recommend this series of books enough. So much even experienced quilters can learn and absolutely great for beginners - if you start with Volume 1. It teaches traditional quilting, but what you learn can be applied in every field of quilting. It will radically improve the quality of your quilts.

This series of books is nothing short of brilliant. this latest installment to the course has been eagerly awaited and has not disappointed.

O conteúdo é excelente e por se tratar de um curso em 5 volumes tenho a intenção de adquirir todos. Porém a edição disponível no Brasil para pronta entrega e somente para o volume 4 da coleção é na modalidade "impressa sob demanda" o que confere ao produto final uma idéia de cópia de reprografia do produto original. Todos os quadros de dicas e notas tem baixa legibilidade : as letras são cinza claro sobre fundo colorido esmaecido e as letras do verso da página aparecem confundindo ainda mais a leitura. Vou aguardar uma resposta e se for o caso fazer a compra da coleção aguardando a importação da versão original.O pedido foi cancelado. Entrei em contato com a editora para verificar se os demais volumes também apresentam o mesmo problema, mas não tive retorno.

If you're an advanced beginner, intermediate or experienced quilter, this series is for you!! If you're a beginner or advanced beginner, I'd recommend you purchase the first three volumes as well. This series teaches you how to piece and design your quilt the RIGHT way! And yes, there is a right way to achieve perfect quilt tops.This fourth volume doesn't hold your hand and walk you step by step through the process of designing a block, that's why it's important to get at least the second and third volumes. If you're looking for a challenge and have never worked with diamonds and y-seams, Volume 4 is for you! I can't recommend this series enough!

Keeping this for last as I work through the series. As usual HH's clear instructions and teaching does the job.