Sharon Hultgren has been on the quilting scene forever it seems. She began by opening a quilt store in 1985 and really hasn’t looked back. Apart from developing some great quilting rulers and other tools, Sharon has written some great quilt books to accompany her quilting tools.

Mile a Minute is a term that is used very loosely in the quilting world. I have seen it referred to some four different techniques over the past few years. Sharon Hultgren’s Mile a Minute Quilts book is one such technique.
One of the biggest barriers to quilting is the issue of large quilts being too difficult to machine quilt on domestic machines. Quilters want to be able to make their quilts from womb to tomb, but the sheer size of some quilts makes machine quilting nigh on impossible.

And not all of us can afford to get the quilt professionally quilted on a long arm system. Sharon Hultgren has addressed this issue and has developed a pretty smart technique for overcoming the huge quilt dilemma.

Sharons basic technique is making quilts in smaller “columns”, machine quilting and THEN sewing the columns together to form the large quilt. This technique is managed by sewing the column seams together and then covering them with a strip of fabric.

The strip of fabric can then become a “sashing” if the seams are joined on the front of the quilt, or a joining piece, if the seams are joined on the back of the quilt.

Mile-A-Minute Quilts is a well written publication offered by Leisure Arts – a leader in quilting publications. I can’t say the cover is very pleasing to the eye, and I think the cover photo is a real let down when compared to the inside of the book. All the photographs and graphics inside this book are outstanding. Sharon has taken her time to find the right phrases to explain the making of the sixteen different quilts, and the diagrams support the instructions extremely well.

I would thoroughly recommend this book, particularly to any time poor quilters who wants to make lots of quilts, quickly and precisely.

Leisure Arts Website