Review from Popular Patchwork, March 2017

This is a gorgeous self-curated collection of more than eighty quilts made over a forty-year time period by celebrated quilt artist Gwen Marston. She began her quilt-making journey in the 1970s, studying traditional hand quilting and piecing techniques with Mennonite quilters in Oregon. She later became interested in folk art applique, and created many bold and wonderful designs inspired by the quilters and piecers of the mid-nineteenth century. Some of the most effective quilts of her early years combine applique with traditional blocks which are then used as borders around a one-block repeated layout. Gwen has always been very interested in antique quilt techniques, adopting a less precise or formal approach to quilt design, cutting, folding and placing many objects by eye and allowing herself the freedom to let a design grow organically as she sews. During the 1990s, Gwen found herself experimenting with pattern free traditional blocks, and was an early pioneer of the liberated quiltmaking movement. The book documents each stage of Gwen's varied career, showcasing her favourite pieces from each era, and providing great photos and close up shots to show quilting and fabric placement details. There's not a lot of text, and certainly no project instructions, but this is a lovely book to inspire and you can certainly learn a lot about Gwen's technique through the photographs. I thoroughly enjoyed the progression from early work to the colour study series of abstract solids in her 2015 pieces.

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