In a fit of extravegance earlier this year, I ordered a whole bunch of things to equip my studio in preparation for writing my book and making the sample quilts. While I was on this spending spree, I bought books….rather a lot of them…ahem! So I thought I’d share my reviews here!

The Surface Designer’s Handbook by Holly Brackmann is a must-have reference for anyone interested in (as the subtitle says) dyeing, printing, painting and creating resists on fabric. Click on the title to visit the amazon.com page for this book.

This book is SO comprehensive, that I think anyone interested in even one or two of the techniques covered would find it a useful reference. Lately, I’ve been seriously bitten by the bug to do screenprinting, and the chapter on that alone is worth the cover price of the book for me.

This is not a book to sit down and browse, although there is plenty of eye-candy in the form of projects ranging from garments to art cloth to art quilts. It is intended to be a how-to manual, and it is. It belongs on the shelf next to Ann Johnston’s and Elin Noble’s books (click on their names to go to the Amazon links). The chapters in Holly’s book are:

Intro
Studio Practices and Safety
Dyes, fibers and fabrics
Color
Fiber-reactive dyes
Acid Dyes
Vat Dyes
Disperse Dyes
Discharging
Screen Printing
Monoprinting
Stamping
Stenciling
Resists
Devore
Textile Paints
Embellishments

These are followed by valuable appendices:
*Dye Worksheet
*Preparing Fabric for dyeing
*Rinsing, Washing and Drying Fabric
*Calculating Stock Solutions, Dye Quantities and Color Mixing
*Thickeners and Printing
*Steaming
*Weights, Measures and Water Temperatures

Which are followed by
Glossary
Bibliography
Resources and
Index.

The only thing I can think of that isn’t in this book is printing photos onto fabric, which is related but kinda different.

Oh…and a technical note: the book is hard cover with an enclosed spiral binding, so it helpfully lays flat while you are working! Just cover with plastic so as not to glop paint and dye on those useful pages!

Today is April 5. Yesterday afternoon it began snowing. In APRIL. A lot. At 6 a.m., we checked and school was cancelled…a snow day (so much for spring…the Easter Bunny will need a sled….)! So I rolled over (had taken the laptop upstairs anticipating this) and went back to sleep. By 9 a.m., breakfast was over, so I trotted upstairs grabbed my 24 inch quilting ruler and camera, and took one step and a long reach outside the garage, and took this photo.

Yes, that is THIRTEEN INCHES OF SNOW in less than 24 hours. Now why didn’t that happen back in December when we wanted snow? We had maybe five inches prior to Feb. 14…since then about every two weeks, it is a big snow. This was the single largest snowfall since we moved here in July 2004.

Needless to say, we caved in and called the plow guy to come dig us out! Here’s Eli, 4’6″ tall, in front of the plow ridge at the end of the driveway!

It is absolutely gorgeous out,

so of course I had to enjoy the day and quilt (and make bean and noodle and meatball soup from scratch, and choc chip cookies, and cornbread….I need to work out!). In the interest of keeping my loyal readers reading, here is some actual quilt related content:

This is what I’ve been working on…lotsa stuff. Alas, I can’t share too much detail as it is for publication in three different places…woohoo! Now, if all the deadlines (two real, one self-imposed) weren’t May and June (the latter) I’d be fine! Actually, I’m doing fairly well….have two articles drafted and revised and almost done, one project drafted and made, and another project ready to start. Phew! And I may play some serious hooky from what I’m supposed to be doing and make a quilt to enter in Houston…I want to SO much, and it is just screaming to get out of my head. Anyway, hope you like what’s on the wall!

Last night, I looked out the window at 6 pm, and this is what I saw:

May I remind everyone that it is APRIL, and even here in Maine (where we didn’t have snow until late January) it is STILL April!

This is what we saw this morning:

Of course, it was beautiful:

I think there are more quilts in the “Sense of Place” series….

And guess what is predicted by the National Weather Service for every day for the rest of the week: Sleet / Snow. And tomorrow, there is a Winter Storm Watch!!!!!!! We may actually have a snow day or delayed start on Thursday.

SHEEEEEESSSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!

On a happier note, here is Widgeon trying to convince Yeti to play. Yeti decided to sleep.

Today’s post is a bit of a miscellany!

First and foremost, the wrestling season wrapped up for the year on Saturday, with the Pine Tree Wrestling League state-wide meet. Joshua made it to the quarter finals before he lost…WOW!

Here’s Joshua about to get his hand raised for the win for the last time this year:

Hubby and I are trying to convince Joshua to attend a wrestling camp away from home this summer; he absolutely loves wrestling more than anything (even skateboarding he told me, though I expect not more than guitar!). But, he is not wild about going to unknown places where he doesn’t know anyone, either. We’ll work on him! We are incredibly proud of him–even though Maine is a small state, it has some awesome wrestlers, and Joshua is in one of the most competitive weight brackets. It is FANTASTIC that he has done so well (and yep, I’m crowing!).

When the wrestling season began, I dug out my knitting (and ordered some new patterns from Just One More Row). Due to me being lazy and not doing a gauge swatch, I ended up knitting this hat about three times, but that’s OK! It kept me busy. I used a chunky chenille style yarn, and finished yersterday. I’m probably an intermediate pushing toward advanced knitter, and I learned new things and stitches from this pattern and another, so I’m quite happy with them. Asked hubby what he thought: “I’m glad you like it,” he said. Oh well. And I DO like it! The front view, taking picture of self:

and the side view (please ignore my profile…ugh!)

And finally, gratuitously cute pug puppy pics:

In the continuing book spree, I thought I would share these books by Graham Leslie McCallum, which may become as indispensable as my favorite Flinders Petrie book. W.M. Flinders Petrie, nearly a century ago, compiled 3000+ images and designs from the ancient world. Reproduced at low price by Dover, this book is my favorite source for design inspiration, from ancient Sumeria and Babylon to the medeival period, it is a treasure trove of design . Truly, what is old is new again. Check it out at amazon, here.

Not too long ago, someone told me about one of McCallum’s books. A quick surf on Amazon (my on-line “books in print”!), revealed not one but THREE of these gems:

Pattern Motifs
4000 Animal, Bird and Fish Motifs
4000 Flower and Plant Motifs

The books are softcover, and easily 1.5 inches thick, about 9 inches square-ish. Arranged in roughly chronological order, you can pick designs from the ancient world through Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Here are the three books opened up to sample pages:

Although the designs are listed on the back cover as copyright free, the inside does stipulate they are for personal use. At a mere US$12.21 each, in the US you can get free shipping (via the slow service and mailing option anyway) if you order all three. So of course I had to do just that! At the end of each book is an index so, for example, you can look up “rose” and have it send you to the appropriate page in whichever time-period.