Japanese Circles and Squares - the workbook

I have been teaching the fat quarter friendly Japanese Circles and Squares since around 2002 - that's the date on my first worksheets - and there have been so many lovely versions made since then, with a few interesting variations invented as well. The photo above shows the L-layout which was an accidental new design from an early workshop and of course there is the random art quilt arrangement as well, as shown in the block layout here. Both these are my patchworks.

For a while I've been wanting to write a workbook based on this class, partly because it isn't possible to cover all the variations in a day (some require a little more planning with the finished blocks at the layout stage) but also because there are so many possibilities for this very economically cut block. I would be looking at around 72 pages, possibly 96 pages, full colour and retailing at around £12.99 (less if possible). As my books are often translated into other European languages, I would like to look into producing this with three languages in one book - English, German and French - which would be possible, as the book would be heavier on photos and diagrams than text. I would also like to offer bundles of books with a kind of 'teaching licence' for others to teach this as a workshop - 16 - 18 copies (a workshop's worth) at a special price with a teacher's pack, which would include suggested lesson plans, tips on preparing samples for the different stages, learning points etc. etc. What do you think?

Here are some more pictures of finished quilts, often sent long after the workshop - but I still like to see them!

Mike Hannan -


Dot Sherlock -


Lorna Henshaw -

Jean Bickers -


Davena McKay -


I'm looking forward to seeing more in future. It would be great to include some student work in a book, but I would need to have very high resolution photos to be able to do this (hint).