Jennifer Clouston has taken the traditions of Crazy Quilting and fused them with her South African influences to create her own unique style of Crazy Quilting. These days Crazy Quilting has taken on a more contempo- rary look with new fabrics, threads, ribbons and beads. This book is a visual guide featuring 25 stitch maps and 100+ embroidery and embellishment stitches. Jennifer guides you through the process of creating a Crazy Hexa- gon block. There are 25 Hexagon blocks total and each one offers different stitches, ribbon embroidery, beading and other embellishments. Each Hexagon is a lesson onto itself. Each and every stitch is demonstrated in the “Ba- sic Embroidery Stitch” section with a photograph as well as a drawing. There are also sections on “Silk Ribbon Stitches”, “Beading Instructions”, “Insects, Webs, and Miscellaneous Embroidery”, “Embellishment Instructions,” and finishing and joining the hexagons. There are also full size patterns to create 9 hexagonal crazy quilt blocks...you need these before you can get on with all the lovely stitching.

– Applique Society Newsletter

Clouston, an Australian quilt teacher who grew up in South Africa, presents her fabulous crazy quilt composed of colorful fabrics cut in hexagons, then embroidered, beaded, and beribboned. In her introduction, she explains the imprint of her family and their varied lands on her, and she briefly describes the history of crazy quilts: what began as garish in the age of Queen Victoria became a "gentle art"; nevertheless, she allows, it is "time-consuming...and a little indulgent." Clouston lists her preferred threads and needles, cites no-no's (avoid too many patterns), offers tips, and instructs in methods such as foundation peicing. In the closing gallery, Clouston pictures variations - bags, box, and cozy - on the crazy quilt theme. Throughout, pictures and graphics (hexagon patterns are given in the back) are maximal; text minimal.

– Publishers Weekly

How awesome that the author managed to combine Victorian crazy quilting with her heritage of South Africa..... very inspiring!

– Doris Read

Nothing shows off beautiful stitching and embellishments like the blank canvas of a crazy quilt. Jennifer Clouston’s gorgeously illustrated primer, Foolproof Crazy Quilting, introduces your customers to the joys of making their own heirloom crazy quilts. Learn how to pick fabric, threads and needles. Learn how to piece crazy quilt blocks and how to embroider with thread, ribbons, beads and other embellishments. Includes complete instructions for over 100 embroidery, beading, and embellishment stitches, full-size patterns for 9 hexagonal crazy quilt blocks, and 25 stitch keys showing proper stitch selection for 25 different blocks.

– FabShop News

Crazy quilting can be very free-form and experimental, but there are some essential fundamental techniques which can be finicky and hard to master. Jennifer Clouston's book attempts to demystify the processes involved, and does so very successfully. An interesting potted overview of crazy quilting leads on to effective guides on materials, foundation piecing and seam treatment, and also a rather brilliant idea for storing scissors and thimbles for easy access, which we won't give away here... There's an almost forensic dissection of the constituent parts and techniques for many blocks, accompanied by some excellent, detailed photographs, that will prove extremely instructive and informative for quilters of all levels. Overall the book is a good exploration of a sometimes overlooked, but nevertheless fascinating, area of quilting.

– Popular Patchwork