I was delighted to receive the latest edition of Franklin Springs Media’s wonderful Homestead Blessings series for review (and a giveaway – keep reading!):

Homestead Blessings: The Art of Quilting

The West Ladies welcome us back with their familiar warmth and charm, this time into a cozy sewing room complete with a lovely old treadle sewing machine.

After a little introduction to the history of quilting, we dive in to a start-to-finish tutorial.

Looking at a lovely Amish quilt may make the entire process seem intmidating, but the West Ladies break it down into simple, managable steps that really made me feel like it was possible that I could make a quilt!

They touch on color selection, fabric, and laying out your quilt, then delve into the mysteries of piecing the blocks together, assembling the quilt, the actual quilting, and binding.

During the course of the video they make a complete (if small) “country” quilt, as well as adorable quilted potholders. They also show and discuss “whole fabric” quilts, including tied quilts.

I was a little disappointed by this DVD, which seemed skimpier than previous installations.

The cover of the box has a lovely quilt image on it, but more complex designs are never more than mentioned in passing. The intro to the DVD shows what looks like a quilted casserole dish cozy, but that is not shown or mentioned in the program.

Although a quilt is, indeed, a large undertaking, it seemed like it either needed a lot more depth, or perhaps needed to include another small project or two (such as the potholders) to fill it out.

Some of the instruction was also frustratingly vague, and the closeups of Jasmine attaching the binding showed only the back of her hand, rather than how to perform the task.

In spite of that, though, it was a great way to inspire confidence in our ability to complete a simple quilting project, and Jewel and I are anxious to get moved, get out our sewing machine, and give it a try! (And I’m putting a treadle machine on my “Wish List”!).

This DVD would be an excellent starting place for someone who had never quilted, and perhaps never even considered it.

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WIN IT!

TWO lucky As For My House readers will win their own copy of the Art of Quilting DVD!

Make sure to leave your email address with each comment. (Used only to contact the winner. If your email is entered in the form it will be saved for me but not displayed).

1. Leave a comment here and share whether you’ve ever quilted, or even considered it!

Extra Entries (leave separate comments for each).

Once you have completed #1, you can earn additional entries by doing any or all of the following. For those worth multiple entries, please leave that number of separate comments – each comment is one entry when I draw a number at the end!

2. Become a Facebook Fan of Franklin Springs Family Media.

In additon to these, there are MANY more ways to earn extra entries. You know, all the usual stuff like subscribing to the blog, Tweeting, and so on? Just click over to our Giveaway Policy page for all the details!

This giveaway ends Saturday 6/26 at 11:59pm (Eastern).

The winners will be chosen using random.org and announced on the blog, as well as contacted by email. Winner must respond within 48 hours, or a new winner will be selected. Your goodies will ship directly from the sponsor!

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