Simply Modern Christmas - book review and giveaway

*giveaway closed - Mindy was the winner! Congratulations Mindy!*

My favorite thing about blogging, by far, is the window to meeting wonderful new people it has given. One of those ladies, to be added to my ever growing "would love to meet in real life" list is Cindy from Hiyacinth Quilt Designs. I tease her that I want to be her when I "grow up" (which really just means that I love her style and fabric combos, and I'm pretty sure we could happily share stashes). When she asked if I would like to review her new book, Simply Modern Christmas, I was very happy to do so.



Pros of the book -

• The styling is Christmas, but most of the patterns are universal and lend themselves easily to multiple fabric combinations. Cindy uses really fresh and pretty color groupings throughout, and it was easy for me to envision the designs with various combinations. Cindy blogged about all or most of her patterns, if you want to see some other examples!
• The patterns are thoroughly explained with words AND diagrams (which is nice for multiple learners!)
• In my opinion, the projects in this book are perfect for gifts -- there are some great, beginning to intermediate designs that are easily customized to your gift-giving needs.
• Designs lend themselves to using scraps.
• Some really cute seasonal patterns (stockings, and tree skirt for example).

Con of the book - 

• This is kind of a forced con, but there are not really any advanced patterns in here... so if you're looking for "advanced" designs, then this isn't really for you.

A few of the patterns that caught my eye in particular:

I am really drawn to this "Peppermint Float" star-in-star-in-frame motif. 

Love this tree skirt, "Skirted" (love it).

And this "Hanging Around" pattern I loved so much, I wanted to stitch one up for myself (and did so last weekend on a retreat).

This is my rainbow version of "Hanging Around."

This is going to my lovely friend Kelly, because well... she's lovely. Funny too. And she likes rainbows. And she made me a bag (I don't like making bags).

I used black and white background fabrics and the new Joel Dewberry and Anna Maria Horner True Colors fabrics. See what I mean about how the designs look great with non-Christmas combos?

Giveaway!

Leave a comment here letting me know what kind of quilt is next on your to-make list, or a project you need a pattern for and I'll pick a winner Sept. 29 to win an e-book of Simply Modern Christmas. 

Or, you can save yourself the wait and get the book on amazon, Simply Modern Christmas: Fresh Quilting Patterns for the Holidays, or Martingale.

Good luck!

Linking to Lee's!