Book Review: Deep, Down, Dark

One of my goals this year is to add some non-fiction to my reading.  I tend to read fiction almost exclusively, and somewhere along the way I realized that I'm probably missing out on some good reading -- and learning.  I'm trying to broaden my reading horizons a bit this year.  So I've set myself the goal of reading a nonfiction book each month, roughly.

And then at some point recently I heard Ann Patchett interviewed on National Public Radio.  NPR's Morning Edition has started its own book club, in which they plan to have a well-known writer choose a book he or she loved.  Ann Patchett's pick for January is Deep Down Dark:  The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free, by Hector Tobar.

I should probably add that I'm a wimp when it comes to reading about certain difficult things.  (I avoid things about the Holocaust and incest like the plague, for example.)  And reading about miners and mining, let alone miners trapped underground for weeks, is hardly something I'd normally choose.  But as I listened to Ann Patchett's interview (you can hear it here), I was reminded of how enthralled I was watching news footage as the miners emerged, one by one, from the mine.

On that day in October, 2010, I was at the quilt retreat I often attend.  One friend had her Ipad sitting on her table, streaming the live coverage of the rescue.  We gathered around as the "Fenix" rescue pod brought each man up to the surface, and we cheered and hugged.  There we were, miles and miles away, a group of financially secure, middle-aged white woman, cheering and wiping tears from our eyes as men whose lives we couldn't even imagine were rescued from an ordeal we had even less ability to conceive of.  Over the course of that night, we continued to watch and cheer and feel such joy as each man emerged from the mine. It was a funny sort of bonding experience, but I think it made each of us feel connected to the events unfolding in Chile in an unusual way.

When I started the book, to my surprise I found that it was hard to put down.  This book is one of the few inside accounts of those 69 days in the mine, because the miners banded together and agreed that they'd tell their story together.  Tobar's writing is very good, and he personalizes it all by telling each man's individual story.  You get a sense of each man's life and personality, both before the mine collapse and as the story unfolds. There's a bit of history about the area in Chile, about the mining company that owned the mine and the mine operations.  There are stories about the miner's families, how the rescue operations unfolded, and how politics and egos affected things.  All of the pieces are woven together skillfully to tell an amazing story.  Gripping, I'd even say.  I had a hard time putting this book down.

But what comes through is how these ordinary men coped in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.  They weren't perfect -- they struggled.  They felt and expressed fear and anger.  I found it especially interesting to hear how the men have fared since their rescue. Hailed as heroes, they were thrust into a spotlight that was freakishly strange to all of them.

Watching each man emerge from the mine back in October, 2010 made me feel a bit connected to the experience, but reading this book showed me so much more about each of those men, and about the human spirit.  I'm really glad I read it, and I'd recommend it.

I think my nonfiction reading plan is off to a very good start.   

Book Review: Urban Watercolor Sketching

Recently, I was sent a copy of Felix Scheinberger's new book "Urban Watercolor Sketching" and asked if I'd review it.  I'll happily read any book on sketching and watercolor painting, so I readily agreed.  I figured it'd be another in the line of books featuring sketches by someone and I'd love looking at the pictures and I'd be inspired.

But when I sat down with this book, I discovered immediately that I was wrong.  This book is SO MUCH MORE than that.  Really.

The first thing I noticed was the quirky style of Scheinberger's sketches.  I wasn't familiar with his work and the idiosyncratic style is not one that I'm drawn to, at least on first blush.  But I liked that every page featured his sketches, even the technical pages were illustrated by his sketches of pens, paints, etc.  It makes for a book that feels visually exciting and fun and even surprising.  And the more I looked at his sketches, the more I fell in love with his variable line, with a style that expresses his unique view of the world, and his use of watercolor -- oh, it's fabulous.  Such gorgeous color and such splashy, confident work with paint.  It's remarkable and very inspirational.  I have come away feeling that I'll learn a lot by studying his sketches, if just for the placement of color, how he leaves white, how he lets the color splash outside of inked lines. 

And then I started reading, and I was equally surprised and impressed.  I've read a lot of bookds on sketching and painting, and most of them -- while wonderful books -- tend to follow a fairly basic formula.  This book is different.

It talks about what's in paint, and it gives a bit of history of basic color pigments.  It was full of interesting facts.  (Did you know that yellow is said to have originated from camels that were fed a diet of mango leaves, and then their urine was boiled and reduced to a pure pigment? That most mammals can hardly see red?)  He talks about the different aspects of color -- local color, iconographic color, how light affects color.  He talks about how to use color to portray distance.  He talks about leaving white, and even shows a page of sketches, with the same one in black and white and then again with color, to illustrate that neither is better, but that they are excitingly different.

And there's a lot more here.  Finding your own style.  Selecting the most important part of what you want to sketch, and accentuating it.  Using the negative space.  He talks about the tools -- the choices for paint, how to choose paint brushes, how to stretch watercolor paper, and he gives tips for sketching outdoors.  I loved his page on how to illustrate air, smoke, and fog with paint.

And for all of the content, none of it is dry.  It's written pretty conversationally, as if Scheinberger is talking to you and urging you on and giving you is sketching tips and philosophy.  

So here's my conclusion:  if you think, as I did, that this is just another one  of those books that show some artist's sketches, think again.  There's a ton of valuable information here, presented clearly with great illustrations.

The only thing I was wishing for as I read this -- and really, it was the ONLY thing -- was more information about Felix Scheinberger himself.  I like knowing how someone came to sketching and what it means to them, and especially because Scheinberger's sketching style is so individualized, I really wanted to know more about him.  The back cover reveals that he lives in Germany and that he's an illustrator, artist, and designer who has illustrated quite a few children's books.  I remembered that his art is featured in Danny Gregory's book "An Illustrated Journey," and there is more about him and his sketching background there.  I also found this video in which Danny interviews Felix.  So I'm going to go watch that now.  But really, do buy this book.  It's amazing.

*  I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.  But I would have written this exact same thing if I'd bought it myself.

Book Review: The Mermaid of Brooklyn

I read a lot of novels, but a lot of time can pass before I find myself engrossed in a novel that I just love.  And to my surprise and delight, "The Mermaid of Brooklyn" by Amy Shearn was one of those books.

First, I have to say that the title is so intriguing and perfect.  Just that made me want to read this book.  The first line was a real grabber, too.  But what really got me about this book when I started reading it was the narrator's voice.  Jenny, the young, stay-at-home mom of a toddler and a new baby, is wry and honest and snarky and funny and depressed.  She's struggling with two kids, the constant feeling that she's never good enough, and trying to figure out how she got where she is.  And, with all of that, her husband leaves the apartment to buy cigarettes one night and doesn't come back.

This isn't a mystery.  But a complex story unfolds as Jenny is left, angry and sad and overwhelmed, to carry on mothering and trying to keep things going.  Then a mermaid enters her life -- and by enters, I mean, starts inhabiting her and bucking her up and challenging her and prodding her forward.

There was so much in this novel that rang true, about child-rearing and marriage and friendship and competition and being a grown up.  So many women, especially moms, will relate to this.  And with all of this, it stays light while covering deep, important life themes.

I loved it. 

The New and Improved Art Quilting Studio

I have to confess that when Art Quilt Studios came out originally, I wasn't crazy about it.  I WANTED to like it.  I'm not sure if I saw all of those first issues, but I generally came away thinking that the publication's idea of art quilting was anything that had stitching on it, and that the editors had called upon their stable of collage artists, painters, and mixed media artists, given them bits of fabric and thread, and then published everything they made as "art."  And not that it wasn't cool and fun in a spontaneous sort of way ... but I was disappointed that the magazine didn't seem to have much range, or feature any of the beautiful, complex, art quilts that so many talented artists have been making for years.

So when I heard that the magazine had been revamped and was starting up again, I was eager to find a new issue.  I think I missed the first new issue, but I did stumble onto a Winter, 2012 issue recently.  The magazine will be issued twice a year, by the way -- in June and December.  You might be able to find the Winter issue still on magazine stands.  And I really, really liked this issue.  It looks like the editors figured out that their magazine needed more range of actual art quilters, and they really did put together a magazine that has a great and interesting assortment of art and articles.

There's great stuff in here, including:
     * an article by my friend Terri Stegmiller on getting a "painterly" look with fabric collage;
     * a piece by one of my favorite quilt artists, Valerie Goodwin, about using maps to inspire art quilts; 
     * a terrific piece by artist Eleanor McCain on pattern, proceses, and color relationships;
     * a profile of artist Mary Elmusa by Rice Freeman-Zachary;
     * a colorful piece on the "grout quilting" small quilts of Robin Ferrier;
     * an interview with British artist Bethann Ash;
and more.

Oh,and it has that wonderful, nice paper and rich feeling that Stampington uses in all of its publications. 

I really enjoyed looking at this magazine, and found a lot of inspiration and interest there.  I'm glad to see it back and improved, and I'm looking forward to future issues.

Book Review: The Ultimate Applique Guidebook

Several years ago, I was lucky enough to make friends with Annie Smith. Some of you know Annie for her wonderful Quilting Stash podcast.  Annie is just a delight -- she's fun and funny and she has a lovely enthusiasm for all things Quilty.  She also has the perfect voice for a podcast host, so listening to Annie makes you feel like you've had a chat with a dear friend about what she saw at the latest quilt shop or show.

Annie has a lot of quilting talents, but her love of applique is highlighted in her brand new book, The Ultimate Applique Guidebook  (C&T Publishing 2010).  I was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy when I ran into Annie at PIQF, and I've been savoring it since.

I'm the first one to admit that I don't do a lot of applique, unless you call Wonder Under an applique method.  But I have to confess that this makes me feel like it's do-able.  Annie covers both machine and hand techniques, all of which are illustrated with charming abstract flowers designed by Annie.  I really like reading through this book -- it has Annie's voice throughout, giving you tips and tricks on both machine and hand applique to make things go more smoothly. 

You can listen to Annie's podcast on how she wrote the book, her submission process with C&T Publishing, and more here.

This book seems most appropriate to me for a beginner to intermediate quilter who hasn't done much applique.  Or someone like me who has quilted a lot but is reluctant and/or mildly intimidated about getting into that much handwork.  Annie's book will make you want to give it a try.

Book Review: Collage + Cloth = Quilt

I haven't posted a book review here for a long time -- did you think that meant that I wasn't looking at (or buying) new books?!  Au contraire!  I continue my love affair with books and even when I'm not spending much time with fabric or my sewing machine, I'm always looking and reading and gathering inspiration.

So here's a book I've added to my collection recently. It's Collage+Cloth=Quilt: Create Innovative Quilts from Photo Inspirations by Judi Warren Blaydon (C&T Pub. 2010).  Because of the subtitle, I wondered when I first picked this book up whether it'd be another book on using photos transferred to fabrics.  But no, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed.  The main idea of the book involves choosing a few photographs, cutting them up to assemble a pleasing collage, and then using the collage as the basis for a quilt.

It's a great concept, and I'm impressed at how beautifully this book works through the process.  It makes the process of moving from images to collage to quilt very accessible and quite do-able.  There's a good discussion about choosing photographs for scale and composition.  There is a very useful connection shown between various collage arrangements and quilt formats.  The brilliance of this concept, of course, is that cutting up photos and arranging elements for a collage feels much less intimidating than cutting fabric and designing an art quilt.  So really, once you've got your collage set up in a way that excites and interests you, translating that into fabric feels like an easy jump.  You've already designed your quilt.

As is often the case with me, my favorite part of the book is the gallery at the back, which shows photo collages by various people (the author's students) and the quilts that resulted.  It's a very inspirational set of work.  I'm all set now to scour my photos to play with this idea. 

If you're looking for a new way to jump start your art quilting, this could be a fun new approach.

Book Review: Quilting Art

I recently received this new book by Spike Gillespie, called "Quilting Art," and I have been saving it as my reward for when I finished a massive work project. The day after I finished my project, I made myself a cup of tea, settled myself down on the couch, and dove in to this beautiful book.

This book immediately struck me as something different from what we quilters usually see. For one thing, the author is not a quilter -- she's a writer, first and foremost, who stumbled onto quilting as an art form while in the process of writing another book, and then decided to take a close look at artists who use fabric as their medium. So, the book is an examination of twenty contemporary quilt artists and their work.

Gillespie asked each artist how they felt about being known as "quilters" versus "artists," and the explorations on that all-too-tricky line of discussion are interesting and varied. I really enjoyed reading about these twenty women. The artists covered in this book are: Deidre Adams, Pam RuBert, Lisa Call, Mary Beth Bellah, Sarah Williams, Angela Moll, Joan Dreyer, Loretta Bennett, Jane Burch Cochran, Dominie Nash, Malka Dubrawsky, Susan Else, Boo Davis, Karen Kamenetzky, Ai Kijima, Mary Louise Butters, Margot Lovinger, Joanie San Chirico, Robbie Joy Eklow, and Jeanne Williamson.

Some of the artists were ones I was very familiar with -- others I'd not known, and was delighted for the introduction. In each profile, Gillespie explores how each artist got involved with quilting, what processes she uses, her views about quilting in the art world, and more. I found each profile interesting and inspirational.

Works from each artist are featured, in beautiful photographs. I thought there were enough representative photos from each artists to give you a good sense of what her work is like, with great detail shots and even studio shots. (Seeing the workspace is so revealing, isn't it?)

I'm very happy to add this book to my library, and I know I'll be look back at it often. I've already gone to explore other works by some of the artists in here because I was so fascinated by what I'd seen. This would make a great addition to your holiday gift list if someone asks you what you want, or if you have a an art quilter to shop for!

Need Inspiration?

What with the summer travel, painting the house, getting Caroline squared away for 8th grade, and general exhaustion (!), I've not been making any fiber art. I just think about the unfinished projects I have going -- which I really do want to finish one of these days! Really! -- but I haven't had any hunk of time to dive into a fabric project.

In the midst of the August Stuff, Jean Wells' new book "Intuitive Color and Design" arrived. I blocked off an hour and parked myself in a lounge chair in the back yard, and fell in love.

Wow. That was my immediate reaction to the book, and it's still my reaction every time I pick it up.

You all probably know Jean Wells from the big Sisters, Oregon quilt show, and from her appearances on Simply Quilts, and her books with her daughter Valori. But this new book shows a whole new side of Jean and her work. Jean says right up front that she was inspired by a workshop with Nancy Crow, and it's clear that Nancy Crow's work with linear design and solid colors have heavily influenced Jean's new direction. Still, the work shown in this book has that simple, direct, clarity that is instantly appealing.

What I especially like about this book is how Jean provides small lessons on seeing the world in a new way -- looking at lines and shapes, mainly -- and then on translating those new sights into cloth. She covers the artistic elements of design and composition, and then addresses sewing techniques for how to make designs in fabric. Jean pieces, so these aren't fused works -- but they're easily accessible to all levels of sewing ability.

Jean shows how she plays with designs in sketches, and then how the ultimate quilt resulted. (I love seeing the contrast between the original concept and the finished work.) She doesn't just stop at the quilt top, either. She discusses how to incorporate a quilting design that is compatible with the overall piece design, and she goes on to show various finishing techniques (including one that strikes me as rather odd an unappealing -- a square, pillow-esque construction she calls an "off the wall" quilt -- but that's just me... it's definitely different, and it may well appeal to some who want to finish their small pieces in a new and interesting way.)

This book is the first thing that has made me itch to get back to fabric -- not that I've been able to yet, but when I do, I'll probably have this book open and I'll be playing with an exercise or two!

Book Review: Fearless Design for Every Quilter

In my last post, I mentioned the Practical Design workshop I've participated in for the last few years. I recently got my hands on the newest book by design teacher Lorraine Torrence, Fearless Design for Every Quilter (C&T Pub. 2009) and was delighted to see that she has presented a workshop in design in book format.

Basically, the idea of the book is this: focusing on elements of design and composition, a group of quilt artists take on small challenges and all of their results are shared and critiqued. So this book provides a lot of great information: basic principles on design and composition and color; aspects of positive critiquing; specific challenges; examples of what the artists did; and the critiques each result garnered. It's very instructive.

The book features artists of different styles and abilities, so the challenge pieces they produce vary and will appeal to different tastes. Even when the resulting piece wasn't something I was wild about, I found that I enjoyed reading about the artist's process, the problems she encountered, etc.

Working through the exercises in this book would be a great way to give yourself a home design course, or to work through with a friend. And there are springboard ideas, too, so you're not limited to the specific assignments set out here.

I was very glad to find this book, and I'll be recommending it to my friends.

Book Review: Art Quilts at Play

I was so excited to get my hands on the newest book by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston, Art Quilts at Play (C&T Publishing, 2009.) I love the work of these two amazing artists, and their first book, Art Quilt Workbook (C&T Publishing, 2007) is one of my favorites.

If you're not familiar with Jane and Elin's work, then you are in for a treat. They are both talented quilt artists and teachers. They're both bloggers, too, and you can find regular inspiration at Jane's blog Chary Sprouts, and at Elin's, will.love.logic. Both are on my regular reading list.

I'm drawn to Jane and Elin's work for a variety of reasons. I like the graphic quality of their compositions, their use of color, the perfect balance between simplicity and complexity that their work often shows. I can look at their pieces again and again, and always feel like I learn something new from studying it.

But back to the new book. The focus of their first book (and their terrific DVD) is on jump-starting creativity in art-quilt making through exercises and some techniques. The new book focuses on experimentation with surface design techniques and playing with new materials.

I've mentioned before how I dip my toe into the surface design world cautiously. It's not that it seems difficult -- it's that I tend to get overwhelmed by the processes. The lists of materials and preparatory steps and safety precautions and workspace set up suggestions tend to exhaust me before I've even started, to be honest. Someday I hope to have a dedicated wet studio space, but for now I'm stuck with the kitchen table or backyard patio, which means I have to set up, do the project, and clean up in the same session. So call me lazy, but sometimes I'm just not up for all of that.

That's why I'm encouraged when I find ways of playing with surface design that are quick, easy, and not terribly mess-making. And Jane and Elin's book has me chomping at the bit to experiment a bit more. They make it look easy, and not daunting. I know, I know, it's NOT hard stuff. But they make it look do-able and fun, without a ton of time and money invested in supplies and set-up.

The book covers a host of design play to try: screen printing, painting fusible web, stamp making, bleach discharging, paintstiks, shrink film, angelina fibers. The steps are clear and simple. Best, to me, are the examples of what they made with the techniques -- inspiration abounds. The artwork shown here -- from Jane, Elin, and various students, is exciting and gorgeous.

They also cover the fun of collaborative projects as a way to explore creativity. They suggest different types of challenges, swaps, and online connections.

So, if you're thinking that you might like to try some new surface design techniques but want a simple way of experimenting, give this book a try. I highly recommend it!

Book Review: Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts

I know a lot of quilters who aren't confident about their color choices and who are always looking for information to help them. I also know quilters whose instinctive color choices are great but they don't know how they choose what they choose. Whether you're in either of those categories -- or whether you just like exploring color in your work -- you'll be interested in this new book by Maria Peagler. It's called Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts, and it's terrific.

You might know Maria from her blog, Quilts and Creativity. Maria teaches color classes to fiber artists of all kinds, so she's working from a wealth of experience when she sets out some basic principles to guide working with color.

The principles are clear, well-explained, and beautifully illustrated. Maria not only shows different ways of working with a color wheel, but also PROVIDES a color wheel with the book! What more could you ask?! The principles are explained through projects which Maria made pulling from her stash -- with the idea that this book can help any quilter work from her stash, and/or understand what her stash is lacking to make colorfully dynamic quilts.

The nice thing about this book (well, ANOTHER nice thing) is that it's really suitable for all levels of quilters, and the principles apply to all methods and techniques. Whether you make art quilts or traditional quilts, the color concepts can make or break your final piece.

This book can definitely help you improve your work with color. You can order your copy here.

Check back here soon, by the way, for an interview with Maria herself!!

Speaking of the Secretary of State...

Madeleine Albright is one of the women I admire most in the world. She's smart, she's funny, she has common sense, and she has clear ideas about how to help women throughout the world. She also has the ability to make complex ideas sound simple, but not simplistic. So I was delighted, recently, to find her newest book, Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership on my library's sale table for $2. I snatched it up, and I've been reading it since then.
I'm not usually one to read political books. But this is easy reading -- still thought provoking, still instructive -- but a very accessible look at US political history, where we are now, and what the president elect will need to understand and do to get us headed in the right direction. It's actually uplifting -- in part, because it's reassuring to know that people DO understand the complexities of the multitude of global issues, and of course because we know that Obama will be taking the reins and things can only get better.
And it's funny. I've found myself laughing aloud several times. Here's a favorite line: "The men who wrote the Constitution did remarkably well, considering the absence of female guidance."

In any event, it's a surprisingly enjoyable book to read. And for an overview of the issues, you can watch a recent, wide-ranging talk by Madeleine Albright, here:

Book Review: Quilts on the Double

I seem to have mounds and mounds of quilt scraps in the form of strips, so I was eager to see the newest book by Australian quiltmakers Judy Hooworth and Margaret Rolfe, Quilts On The Double: Dozens of Easy Strip-Pieced Designs (Martingale & Co., 2008). Graphic designs in bright colors really call out to me, so I'm a big fan of Judy Hooworth... I just love Hooworth's Razzle Dazzle Quilts -- such great use of color!

This book promised to show "dozens of strip pieced designs" -- and you know, it delivers. I mean, look at that one on the cover... it looks exciting and fun and challenging. But, once I read through the technique section, I realized it's quite simple. For one thing, Hooworth and Rolfe use a lot of striped fabric (uh oh, another reason to start collecting a new variety of fabric) and a lot of those pieces in that cover quilt are actually large sections of striped fabric. But the technique boils down to this: you sew two strips of specific widths together, and cut triangles from the strip sets. From the various combinations of strip sets, you get different sorts of triangles ... and the book shows you how reassembly into blocks creates all sorts of amazing patterns.

The trick, really, is in how you place color and using some consistently-sized strips so that when you assemble the triangles into squares, they look mosaic-y, not jumbly. Not that there's anything wrong with jumbly...I LOVE jumbly... but the appeal of this book to me is that it takes something that COULD be confusingly jumbly, and shows you how to organize it into something bold and dramatic and graphic.

I'm making this sound more complicated than Hooworth and Rolfe do. But the result, in the book, is that by varying in small ways a basic strip-piecing technique, you can get tons of really dramatic quilts. Oh, and the "on the double" part -- as you cut triangles from the strip sets, you end up with two different triangles. So the book shows you how, from that one strip set style, you can use one type in one quilt and the second type for a totally different quilt with a totally different look, or use them together and incorporate the differences into the overall pattern for even more complexity.

You all know I'm all about the quilt picures -- and this book doesn't disappoint. There are not only very striking quilts shown, but lots of clear color diagrams to illustrate the various options for assembly of the triangles to create all sorts of different patterns.

The book definitely features bright colors and bold stripey fabrics, because that is clearly what these authors love. But the technique would work just as well with pale fabrics, florals, reproduction vintage stuff, you name it.

I can hardly wait to start piecing my strips.

Book Review: Kaffe Fassett's Country Garden Quilts

You know I love quilt books. But you know whose books I love more than any others? Kaffe Fassett's. Yep, I have every one. And I will probably buy every one that comes out until the day I die. I love how he uses pretty simple quilt patterns to make unusual quilts that just sing with his personality and vision. I love how his fabric choices create a riot of color and pattern. I love how he photographs the quilts, so that each quilt is styled in a perfectly accompanying setting.

So imagine my extreme delight when I spotted Kaffe Fassett's Country Garden Quilts this weekend at the Pacific International Quilt Festival, in the Stitchin' Post booth. I lunged straight for it with a big gasp (to the lady with the blue quilted tote bag: Sorry!) and pretty much dashed for the register. I didn't need to pre-view it. I knew I'd want it. And the whole rest of the afternoon, even while viewing amazing quilts and fondling beautiful fabric, I was looking forward to getting to my parents' house (conveniently located within 20 minutes of the show site), parking myself in the comfy blue recliner, and having a good look.

I was not disappointed. I like this assortment of quilts better than the ones in the last book, for some reason. This book (like the last few) feature quilts by some other designers (using Kaffe's fabric) -- Pauline Smith, Roberta Horton, Mary Mashuta, even english crafty blogger Jane Brocket. The Pauline Smith called "Blooms" just makes my heart sing -- reds and lavenders and blues and happy flowers... A wonderful medallion one by Kaffe called "Knot Garden" that I want to make... An intricate nine-patch wonder that has all sorts of sub-patterns going on... I pretty much want to make every quilt in the book.

I have to say that it surprises me that the techniques they teach for making these quilts involves tracing the templates at the back of the book...no quick cutting or strip techniques here, even though I think they're easily usable on these quilts. Maybe because he and Liza Lucy fussy cut every piece? It seems sort of outdated. And, as much as I like Kaffe's fabrics, I would like to see him include a few others in the book. I like them, but the quilts would be just as stunning with other fabrics and pattern options.

I'll report in the quilt show later, when I'm rested. I'm still in a visual daze, after all of those impressive quilts!

Book Review: Foolproof Machine Quilting

Free motion quilting is one of those things that quilters seem to either love or avoid. I know a number of quilters who've been pretty intimidated about free motion quilting, and I know scads of them who simply aren't interested in learning it. They'll hand quilt and send a quilt out for professional long-arm quilting before they'll drop their feed dogs and hook up the free motion foot.

But one of the best things about quilting is that there is room for every taste and technique here. Those people who don't want to quilt using free-motion quilting -- or those who do but want a different alternative from time to time, will want to check out "Foolproof Machine Quilting" by Mary Mashuta (C&T Publishing, 2008).

Mary Mashuta is an internationally known quilt maker and teacher, and pretty much a legend here in Northern California. She excels at using contemporary and unusual fabric choices with traditional quilt patterns to create innovative and striking quilts. And if you've ever examined them or had a class with Mary, then you know that Mary just doesn't do free motion quilting. Instead, she's developed a way of designing elegant and relatively simple shapes to complement the blocks she quilts, all sewn with a walking foot and a straight stitch.

This book lays out Mary's thoughts, processes, and tips about walking-foot quilting. She tells you how to use thick threads (even #8 perle cotton), and how to select the right needles and batting for your project. Most importantly, she shows how she creates her own quilting templates, using freezer paper or contac paper, to make repositionable quilting guides in any shape you choose. There are lots of illustrations in this book showing variations of quilting shapes and even creative uses for decorative stitches in the quilting process.

My one disappointment about this book? Far too many of the quilts shown in this new book are ones already shown in other books by Mary and C&T. In fact, the cover of this book is a detail shot from a quilt featured in Cotton Candy Quilts (C&T Publishing, 2001), where you can find almost the same picture. You all know how much I love quilt books, and you won't be surprised that I really do look at them over and over for inspiration. Sometimes I'm studying color, sometimes quilting designs, sometimes just general ideas. So as I looked through this brand new book, I was dismayed to find that many of the quilts weren't new to me. To be honest, it felt too much like I was looking at the Mashuta books I already have. Maybe if the book were subtitled or marketed as "an up-close look at Mary Mashuta's quilting using her body of work" -- with some clue that you're going to see a lot of older quilts here, not new ones-- I wouldn't have been so disappointed. I couldn't help feeling a bit cheated as I turned page after page to see quilts I've seen in her other books.

Still, the information here is clear and very useful, and the images do provide good illustration of attractive quilting designs. The images are all about the quilting designs, so I recognize that the use of those same quilts is for a different purposes than in the previous books (where they were generally shown for the pieced block designs).

All in all, I guess I'd grade this book a "B" (can you tell we're in back-to-school mode?). The content is good and the instruction is very clear, even if you may have seen a lot of the quilts before. This book, and the walking-foot quilting ideas taught here, are good ones to have in your quilting bag of tricks.

Book Review: Create Your Own Handprinted Cloth

I've long had the same feeling about the idea of creating my own fabrics with various surface design techniques that I had about learning to dye fabric: I was afraid to start down that road out of the fear that I'd get so entranced with even MORE ways to add fabric to my already-stuffed shelves that I'd never get anything finished. So, while I read Rayna Gillman's blog regularly, I've avoided getting very involved with printing, screen printing, and other surface design techniques.

But earlier this week, a copy of Rayna's new book Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth (C&T Pub. 2008) landed in my mailbox, around the same time I'd been laid low with a nasty sinus infection. I retreated to bed with my antibiotics and this book.
And, I'm afraid to say, I was smitten. Dang it, I knew this would happen. I really want to try some of these techniques.
First, the book itself is really pretty to look at. There are tons of vibrant pictures. Each page has great visual appeal, so it's a pleasure to read this book even if you're not going to rush off to paint fabric right away. I'm much more likely to want to use a book if the pictures are vivid and interesting (shallow, I know, but what can I say?) and this one definitely fulfills my visual criteria.
But for someone like me, who doesn't like making an enormous mess and who doesn't have a dedicated "wet" studio area (I'm left to the kitchen and the patio) Rayna's instructions make these techniques seem feasible. I'm leery of melting wax to try batiking, and I tend to think of screen printing as something complex that trained artists need big expensive equipment to do. I'm impressed at how Rayna explains how these techniques are accessible and easily achievable with relatively inexpensive and/or found items. It's a small thing, I know, but I really liked that Rayna explained how to make a portable work surface to use when trying these techniques. That's the sort of basic information I need.
A lot of different surface design techniques are covered here -- stamping and stenciling with found objects, "random" screenprinting, gelatin plate printing, discharge printing, soy wax batik, and more. And as I read each section, I not only could see myself trying the techniques I'd not yet used, I actually wanted to try them. Rayna's text is very encouraging and she takes a lot of pleasure in the simple concept of experimenting. I've had people tell me about gelatin printing, for example, and the idea of printing with "jello" sort of grossed me out. But Rayna's instructions and pictures made me think again. I really want to give this a try, and I figure it'll be a good mom-and-daughter project one of these days.
One of the parts I like the best in this book is "Can This Fabric Be Saved?," where Rayna shows some examples of pieces she made that she didn't like, and how she changed them with additional surface design treatments to make them better. That was encouraging too for the non-confident among us.
Scattered throughout the book are pictures of art quilts made with various personally-created fabric, by Rayna and others. I would have liked to see more, but of course I realize that the point of the book is simply making the fabric ... once made, it's like any other fabric in terms of how a quilt artist chooses to use it.
I'll confess that that leads to my other vague discomfort about getting on the "surface design" bandwagon. I have the impression that, as surface design techniques are being taught and used more widely, more people are making cloth, adding quilting to it, and calling it "art." I feel like I'm seeing more and more pieces made to simply show hunks of hand-created fabric, without (to my eye) good composition, thought to artistic principles such as balance, focal point, etc. Wrongly or not, I've concluded that a lot of people who delve into surface design end up falling in love with the fabric they make and then can't bear to treat it as actual cloth to cut up and integrate into anything. I can see that making the cloth is an artistic process, but to me, that doesn't necessarily make the resulting cloth "art" in and of itself. I appreciated that the title "Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth" makes clear that it's about making the cloth, and then you're left to use that cloth an element in your art. But I'm digressing. That's my own pet peeve about the subject.
In short, I'm very impressed with this book and how accessible Rayna makes these techniques. I think I'm going to give a few of them a try ... I guess I'd better make a bit more room on my fabric shelves!

Book Review: Simply Stunning Woven Quilts

If you haven't stumbled onto this book -- Simply Stunning Woven Quilts by Anna Faustino (C&T Pub. 2008) -- you'll want to take a look at it. I've been meaning to review it for a while now, because it's one of the most innovative books I've seen in a while.

Here's the thing that impresses me the most about this book: it takes a basic concept (weaving) and shows you how to do it in increasingly complex and amazing ways. And truly, Faustino's instructions lead you from the basic principles into more interesting and unusual and complicated ways to use weaving. The pieces that result are the sorts of ones that you'd stand in front of at a quilt show or art gallery, looking closely and thinking, "How the heck did she DO that?"

And, even better (for those of us who like relatively instant gratification) it's fused. And while it is very much like the weaving we all did as elementary school kids with strips of construction paper, Faustino's spin on it is much more appealing. If you could do that construction paper thing, you can do this.

The photos and illustrations provide very clear examples on how to cut and assemble to get the eye-popping woven results. Faustino shows how to use the woven technique in both subtle and bold ways, for a very different background or a main feature in a piece. There are woven log cabin pieces that are gorgeous, and woven circles of graduated color that make my fingers itch to start cutting fabric.
As I read this (over and over -- and it amazes me every time) I'm impressed at how Faustino has come up with an easy technique for a complicated look, and then figured out all sorts of different ways to use it, AND she's sharing it all here.

I'm very eager to try this out. There are innumerable possibilities for using this technique.

Book Review: Masters: Art Quilts

I don't know why, but I've been in a creative slump lately. The thought of working with fabric just hasn't interested me. But today I knew I was going to be someplace where I'd be sitting and waiting for an hour or more, so on my way out of the house I grabbed a book I just received: Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists.... and wow. Am I glad I did.

The book is curated by Martha Sielman, head of SAQA, the Studio Art Quilt Associates. And it's a lovely look at art quilts by 40 different quilt artists. I really, really like a lot of things about this book, but one of the best things is that each artist gets an 8 page spread, so you see an assortment of pieces that really gives you a sense of his or her work. The book is mainly photographs -- Martha Sielman introduces each artist with a brief commentary, and then there are a few quotes from the artist his/herself... And then the quilts speak for themselves.

Another of the things I really like about this book is that the quilt artists include artists from other countries whose work isn't as familiar as some others. I was delighted to be introduced to artists I'd not known about, like Eszter Bornemisza, Kyoung Ae Cho, Jette Clover, and Jeanette Gilks. There are, of course, other masters whose work was more familiar to me, including Jane Burch Cochran, Noriko Endo, Caryl Bryer Fallert, Inge Mardal & Steen Hougs, and Velda Newman.

This isn't a how-to book at all. It's simply a collection of selected works by very talented artists who are pushing the art quilt forward and upward. But it's a great overview of the breadth and depth of relatively current art quilting, and it's chock full of inspiration.

My 90 minutes in the waiting room flew by and I didn't make it halfway through the book. But boy, are my fingers itching to get to some fabric and get to work!

the girl who stopped swimming

I interrupt this series of insubstantial posts to tell you something important:





READ THIS BOOK!

It's "the girl who stopped swimming" by Joshilyn Jackson, and it's fantastic. No surprise, really, everything she writes is fantastic. But this? I couldn't put it down.

It's the story of Laurel (a quilt artist!) who is sorting out her relationships with her husband, daughter, sister, mother, and past when a death occurs. It's about seeing and not seeing, about how family members support and undermine each other, how mothers and daughters protect and wound each other ... and more. I love Joshilyn's amazing prose -- lilting and funny and clever -- and I found myself slowing myself down to savor the beautiful writing.

After you read this (and you must! Immediately!) go read her other books if you haven't already -- "gods in Alabama" and "Between, Georgia." They're both wonderful. (Although this one might be my favorite. Or "gods in Alabama." I'm not sure.)

And then head on over to Faster than Kudzu, author Joshilyn's blog which will keep you charmed and laughing for hours.

We now return to our regularly scheduled inanity.

Book Review: Mindful Meandering

I was very excited to see this new book, "Mindful Meandering" by machine quilter extraordinaire Laura Lee Fritz. Laura's machine quilting is memorable to anyone who has seen her amazing work in person -- she can effortlessly quilt in elaborate animals and motifs that take a quilt to a whole different level.

While I admire that sort of work, in my own machine quilting I like having a big arsenal of meandering designs. So when I saw that Laura has done an entire book on meandering machine quilting designs, I figured it'd be pretty great.

And I was right. Laura not only provides some basic tips on machine quiltiing and using meandering designs effectively, but she includes 132 different meandering designs....most of which are something a bit different than the ones I've seen elsewhere. Many of the designs incorporate very simple images -- say, continuous line saiboats scattered among a wavy water design. They have visual complexity but they don't look difficult to sew. She also includes a section on how to use meandering designs in block formats, as well as showing how certain designs look when used in a square format.

I know I'll be referring to this book often as I plan my machine quilting. The book is available for pre-order only now from Amazon.com, but you can get it now directly from C&T Publishing.