Mariner's Compass - book recommendation

I have wanted this book for some time, so it is good to know that you are happy with the instructions and getting your money's worth! Maybe I can put it on my Christmas wish list. :)

-- Jo in Scotland

Hanne, I have her previous MC book, and it was quite good, so I'd expect this newer one to be even better. It's good to hear that it lives up to expectations. Judy Mathieson is the "queen" of MC quilts.

Like Sandy, I have her previous book, but I also took a class from her as she was writing this one (and spent a week at a retreat with her last January -- she was working on a quilt where RED was the neutral. *grin*). Lots of fun! My only disappointment was that I had always heard that MCs are hard to do and the three I've done following her directions have been downright easy. :)

Yeah, I was surprised at how easy the thing went together. OK, next time I might pay a little more attention to the points, but things like having the circle and then background square to go around it pretty much just fit, that to me is just downright amazing. The MC would have to be really complicated for me to look at it and think "that must be hard" by now - even then I will know it is only a matter of doing it one step at a time, not so much _if_ I can do it.

There are so many things were we just need the right instructions (the definition of right depends on the recipient!) to make something work.

Hanne in London

Do you happen to know what the difference is between the older book and her new revised one?...Mary

" snipped:...

I don't actually *know*, Mary; but I would imagine that it is the foundation paper piecing method that she uses. I know in the new one she uses freezer paper, with the design drawn on, but then for each seam, the paper is folded back and the seam is sewn alongside the paper fold. I have tried the system and it is very straightforward. I think her first book was using the traditional method of foundation paper piecing.

Hope I'm not being impolite, when I don't know to whom you are actually addressing the question. . In message , MB writes

Actually her first two books (yours is number three IIRC) relied more on templates, with just a tiny nod to paper piecing. There were a few patterns, but most of the book was clear directions on how to draft your own.

After taking the class when she was writing number three, I'm really sold on the freezer paper method. No little bits of paper to pick out of the seams -- hooray!

Pat, that's the same method she used in the old book, so I don't have any idea what's different in the new one. :S

In the "New Directions" book (1995 -- eek! is it THAT old???), she has instructions for traditional paper piecing, where you sew to the paper and pick it out later. In "Setting a New Course" (2005), she has directions for doing a freezer paper foundation where you fold back the freezer paper at each seam line and sew *next* to the paper, never actually sewing fabric to the freezer paper.

Oops! You're right, Kathy -- of course. I was remembering wrong because she taught us the freezer paper method in the class I took from her. In the book I have, she does use freezer paper as one method of construction, but she recommends taking that FP off of one side of the fabric before sewing. That's not how she taught us, and I got confused. Sorry!

Gee, that's NEVER happened to me! *cough, cough*