Paper-Pieced Animals On A CD-ROM

A review of Animal Kingdom CD-ROM from That Patchwork Place

Animal Kingdom CD-ROM

Margaret Rolfe's Animal Kingdom CD-ROM software lets you print paper foundations to make wild animals and birds of all kinds.

The software includes foundations for the paper-pieced animals from Margaret's Go Wild books and her book, A Quilter's Ark. In addition to the 74 patterns that you can get in her books, she has included an additional 42 patterns.

Learn more about A Quilter's Ark at Amazon.com

Learn more about Go Wild With Quilts at Amazon.com

Some of the designs, like the cats and the people, are cartoonish and would make great children's quilts. Some of the other designs are more serious.

Used separately, Margaret's designs make nice small quilts, as seen on the front cover of the CD-ROM packaging. These little quilts are nice to display in small places in your home. And they make nice gifts that don't require a large investment of time.

The Patterns

Margaret includes domesticated animals like dogs, cats, parrots, and rabbits. And you get farm animals with the farmer and his wife. You get jungle animals along with Noah and his wife. There is also a set of six dinosaurs and a set of five trees.

There is also a great set of Australian animals. That's not surprising, since that's where Margaret is from.

I only encountered one animal that I didn't recognize. It's called an echidna, and it looks somewhat like Kilroy on a bad-hair day. I looked it up in the dictionary and discovered that the echidna is a burrowing, egg-laying mammal with a spiny coat, slender snout, and a sticky tongue for catching insects. Even with the reproductive strategy of a platypus, the eating habits of an anteater, and the cuddliness of a hedgehog, I'm sure the echidna would make a wonderful addition to any Australian animals quilt.

Good Instructions

One of the best features of this CD-ROM are the instructions for making each block. The instruction sheet, listed under the print options for each block, shows the block completed and also exploded into sections. In addition, sizes of the blocks and colors for each piece are listed. The instructions also explain the assembly order and how to finish the block.

These patterns print with lots of detail and information, making them easier to use than other paper-piecing patterns I've tried. Sections are lettered and marked with heavier lines, so they are easy to see. Unlike other paper-piecing patterns, Animal Kingdom patterns show a circled Match Point to indicate places to align sections, so the pattern continues smoothly from one section to another.

Several of the patterns have been simplified from the original pattern in the book. In most cases the number of background pieces have been reduced. In the Loon block, the number of body pieces have been reduced by three. I don't think the design suffered at all. But the block is now easier to make.

With the exception of blocks viewed from the top, the symmetrical images, and the dinosaurs, a reverse of each block is available so you can make the block facing in either direction.

Limitations

I did find several limitations to the Animal Kingdom software. It offers limited flexibility in sizing options when you print patterns. Most paper-piecing software lets you set the size you want, but Animal Kingdom offers just two or three sizes from which to choose. Typical sizes it offers for square blocks are four, six, or eight inches.

In Animal Kingdom, the pieces are numbered automatically by the software, and that numbering can't be changed. But obviously you can change the order manually by writing on the pattern.

Another limitation is that there is no option to print more than one copy of a pattern at a time. But that's not a big problem, since most printer drivers give you the option of printing multiple copies.

Another thing I would change about Animal Kingdom is that the pattern prints right in the center of the paper. I would rather have the design start at the top of the page so I could flip my paper end-to-end to print another small block on the same sheet of paper.

See A Whole Quilt

I would also have liked a way to see what a quilt would look like using any of the Animal Kingdom blocks. The quilts from Margaret's books aren't available on the CD-ROM as a reference. For this reason, it is nice to have one of Margaret's books that show quilts made from the individual blocks.

While Animal Kingdom has some reduced capabilities, it does sell for less than other paper-piecing software packages, and it runs on both Windows and Macintosh computers. So I guess that's fair.

But what really makes Animal Kingdom worth having is that Margaret's patterns are so much fun. I printed so many patterns that they were piling up in drifts on my work table. Everybody loves critters and birdies, and maybe even echidnas. They all add life and sparkle to any project.

Where To Buy: Animal Kingdom CD-ROM

Learn more about Animal Kingdom at ConnectingThreads.com... click their logo!
Learn more about Animal Kingdom at Amazon.com... click the book!

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