I need to let go of some of my books!  I won’t embarrass myself by telling you how many I have but I have got to let go of more than just a few.

I am starting with my vintage books.  I love them because they are all about hand work.  There is stuff about machine sewing, quilting and such ,but mostly they cover hand work.

Top :  Quilting, Patchwork and Applique: A World Guide by Caroline Crabtree and Christine Shaw (Oct 29, 2007, $10.00 + Shipping of $4.00

Middle: (right to left):   McCall’s Needlework Treasury: A Learn and Make Book, by McCall’s Needlework and Crafts. (Jan 1964) $10.00 + Shipping of $4.00,     Needlework in America: History, Designs, and Techniques [Hardcover], Virginia C. Bath (Author) $10.00 + Shipping of $4.00 ,    America’s Glorious Quilts [Hardcover] Dennis Duke (Author) $10.00 + Shipping of $4.00

Bottom: (Right to Left):  Hawaiian Quilt Masterpieces, Robert Shaw (1996) $10.00 + Shipping of $4.00 ,     Applique Stitchery, by Jean Ray Laury(1966) $10.00 + Shipping of $4.00,       Homespun and Blue: A study of American crewel embroideryby Martha (Genung) Stearns (1963) $10.00 + Shipping of $4.00

If you are interested in more than one book I can  make you a deal.  Also, I will have to figure out the shipping cost on shipping more than one book.  I will ship everything Media Mail unless you specify differently.

ps- Don’t worry, I haven’t given up on doing a craft book.  In fact, I am part of a quilt book that will be coming out soon.

Doodle Stitching, The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray

You know what’s awesome?  Aimee Ray’s new book Doodle Stitching, the Motif Collection.   When I first started my blog I reviewed Aimee’s original book, Doodle Stitching.   What I love about this book is that her designs made you want to stitch.  Her new book continues this tradition by giving you all kinds of projects and embroidery designs that will inspire you to create.

   First of all, for you beginners, Doodle Stitching, the Motif Collection, starts by filling you in on tools, materials, pattern transfer methods and embroidery stitches.   This book also covers basic applique and hand sewing techniques.  All of this is to get you going on the projects. 

    Let me be honest, I do not make functional items, and I have trouble using a sewing machine.  In reading over all the projects in Doodle Stitching I could tell that even with my skills I would have no trouble creating all of the projects in this book (and I could probably do it with little to no cussing, too).    I particularly liked the projects where you embroider onto existing items, like the Sweet Baby Bodysuits, Farmer’s Market Tote Bag and the Hooped-Framed Embroidery Art.  Those are my kind of projects. 

   My absolute favorite project is the Soft Sculpture Trio.  The Soft Sculpture Trio is freakishly cute and has a detachable squirrel and bird.  I mean, OH my God, detachable squirrel and bird!    There is also a neat idea on making little tree leafs that I had never seen before, but frankly I can’t get over the detachable squirrel and bird.

  What do embroiders really want?  Artwork!  Doodle Stitching has 400 embroidery designs in this book.   They are grouped under headings like Baby, Farm Animals, and Woodland Animal.  Since Aimee is a great artist these designs are really good.  Her images are clean, simple and ever so cute.  In the back of the book is a CD with all of Aimee’s designs so that you can load them onto your computer and arrange them as you like.

I just know in the next few months I’m going to be adding some Doodle Stitching inspired stitchery to my Stitched by Hand Flickr group!

Thanks to Aimee you could have a chance to win her new book,  Doodle Stitching, the Motiff Collection!    Leave a  your name  in the comment section of this post by Nov. 23 at 12:00 am.  I will put everyones name into a hat and let my husband pull out a name of the winner.  The name will be posted on November 24th, 2010.  Good Luck!

Want to know more about Aimee Ray, aka Merwing, and her book?  Check out these links:

Aimee’s Web site-  http://www.dreamfollow.com/

Aimess’s books – http://www.dreamfollow.com/book.html

Aimee’s Blog – http://littledeartracks.blogspot.com/

Etsy store – www.littledear.etsy.com

Artfire Store – http://www.artfire.com/users/littledear

Fickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/merwing/

 On my trip to Texas I was able to spend some little time exploring the town of Las Cruce, NM.  I stopped by a cool quilt shop called Organ Mountain Quilt Shop.  I bought a bunch of fabric and a book called,  Tile Quilt Revival: Reinventing a Forgotten Form, by Carol Gilham Jones and Bobbi Finley.  The beautiful quilt on the cover is what caught my eye.  

   Tile Quilt Revival book gives a nice history of this rare type of quilt.  The instructions on how to create your own tile quilt is very clear and quite easy.  And, to my extreme excitement, this quilt is best done by hand!  EEEEEkkkkkk!

So, to sum up this book,  wonderful and easy techique,  interesting history, beautiful patterns included, hand work prefered. 

  Also, there is a cry for more Badbird embroidery patterns, in book form.  Your thirst for designs is insatiable, you greedy, greedy stitchers.

I have contacted a few crafters, that have books, to ask them what steps they took to get their books published.  If you guys have any tips PLEASE let me know.

And, finally, for those who offered to be guinea pigs and be my stitchers if need be.  I will keep you names and very well will take you up on your offer.  I only have two hands, which I guess is pretty normal, but I can only do so much stitching myself.

I   Albions Seed by David hackett Fischer.  Ever wonder why your Grandma is the way she is?  Well this book might help.  This book covers 4 british cultural types and explains their customs, clothing, relationships, religion and what societies they created when they became Americans.  This is a big thick book, but I wish is was bigger because I was intrigued by all the information.

  This book is a treat.  Brutal Journey:  The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America, by Paul Schneider.    This book is about the first Europeans that crossed the North American continent by land. This book is bizarrely comical and painful to read.  Schneider’s humanistic writing style makes the events in this book even more real.

  Confederates in the Attic by Tony Hormitz.  This book was a real eye opener.  Apparently, the Civil War is not quite done.  Especially in the minds of some of the inhabitants living in the deep South.   Hormitz’s journey through the South is filled with humor, contradictions, and unfinished business which makes for extraodinary story telling.

  Ada Blackjack, A Tru Story of Survival in the Arctic, by Jennifer Niven.  What could possibly go wrong with a totally unprepared trip to the Artic North?  This is the saddest of the 4 books I have listed.  After reading it I just had to ask, “Why?”  It’s also cool that out of everyone involved in this exploration that little, tiny Ada was the one that survived

Alabama Stitch Book: Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand-Sewing, Quilting and Embroidery for Contemporary Sustainable Style

Primitive Elegance is what I think as I go through the book Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin, with Stacie Stukin, photograph by Robert Rausch.   Here are the 4 things I like about this book, 1) Great story about how Natalie started this style, her business and how she tapped a community for talent. 2)  Using traditional sewing methods in a very contemporary way. 3) Easy method! 4) Sustainable crafting.

Her work is beautiful and has given me ideas for many new projects.  Her use of Cotton Jersey will release the hand stitcher in all of us.

Such is the case of Henry Darger.  Darger was born in 1892 . In the 1930’s Darger moved into a apartment that for the next 40 years he would create The Realms of the Unreal and the Vivian Girls.  The book, Henry Darger, Art and Selected Writings by Michael Bonesteel, contains Dargers biography and the discovery of his life’s work, and of course, his artwork and writings. I won’t go into to much detail about everything in this book, but the artwork is weird, beautiful and unsettling.   

p.s. – One disturbing thing in this book is that the little girls have penises.  It is thought that he had no knowledge of the female anatomy.

Henry Darger

__________________________________

Spangled Blengins, Boy King Islands. One is a young Tuskorhorian, the other a human headed Dortherean

By Henry Darger

Collage, Carbon Tracing, Pencil and Watercolor

For the first time I am recommending a book I don’t have yet.  It will be out real soon and you can preorder it from Amazon at a discount.  But, here’s the deal, Jenn Docherty makes the absolute cutest felted animals ever and any book that helps you to create these little fuzzy creatures is okay by me.   All of her animals, of her creation, have sold out, but at her website, http://www.jenndocherty.com/, you can see all the little critters that have found a home. 

Please, for the sake of all the is cute, visit her site and if you feel so inclined, check out her booK!