I am a huge fan of the Elm Creek series. I adore reading, and to be able to read about quilting to boot, well, that's a huge plus for me! That was the initial draw for me; it was an Elm Creek quilting book.
As I started paging through it, I realized it's actually a compilation of blocks done by several *real* women, who entered their blocks in a 'spirit of Elm Creek quilting' contest. The finalists' blocks were then put together into an Elm Creek sampler quilt, which is quite beautiful. There's lots of eye interest!
The book is well laid out, with clear instructions for each block. That being said, however, I wouldn't recommend it to the beginner quilter! There were plenty of well-shot photos, and a nice "Quilting 101" section at the back of the book. The templates were all concise and clearly labeled.
What I missed in this particular book was story dialogue. It didn't feel like there was anything, other than the title, that actually connected the book to the series. Even a small blurb about why each woman created the pattern she did would have been nice. This may not be a big deal to some, but because what drew me to this book was my love for the series, the lack of story dialogue disappointed me greatly.
