Small art quilts Explorations in paint & stitch

*Starred Review* Quilts can involve more than sewing fabric sandwiches. According to South Wales-based artist O'Hare, one of the more versatile and artistic methods is to create a picturelike textile, using plain-Jane white cotton sheets as the foundation and embellishing them with paint, embroidery, and other stitchery techniques. There's no guesswork involved; O'Hare is deliberate about her methods, often using step-by-step color photographs and captions to lead practitioners through the specific how-to's. She covers the simple stuff, beginning with preparing paint and mixing colors, and moves to more complicated tactics, such as crafting landscapes using rotary-cut fabrics and applying appliqué and decorative stitches. Almost every page highlights at least one of her small creations (each about 17 by 17 centimeters), adding real results to what can sometimes seem like stand-alone instructions. All directions and tips come together in the two included projects, Autumn Sunlight and Moon Hare, followed by seven pages of templates. When straight stitches take on an aesthetic all their own.--Jacobs, Barbara Copyright 2018 Booklist