Yo, Nov. Weekly Quilts 1 and 2

 Nov. Week 1--6 x 6"

It's been quiet here at Laughing Girl.  A broken sewing machine, a new class to teach, and National Novel Writing Month have taken their tool on my quilt output, but I finally finished the handstitching on my October Quilts, and I've finished my Nov. weeklies.  Yeah.  (I'll post October later this week.)

Liz Schneider presented a great workshop last Monday on textures to the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network study group.  She had great slides, amazing examples, and inspiring books to show us.  I love the texture hand stitching creates, so I thought I'd explore texture with my November quilts, since I was a week behind anyway.

Now, if you'd said to me even two weeks ago that I'd be making yo-yos, I would have laughed heartily.  But one example she showed used large yo-yos across the lower third of the quilt.  It used a mix of beige tones on a beige background, and I found it very compelling.

Nov. Week 2-- 6 x 6"

The yo-yos are made out of a silk dupioni tank top that someone gave me years ago.  The background is a metallic cotton. I may add some beads, but I like the simplicity.  They evoke the foam of the waves on the seashore for me.

The "And More" Part

Okay, I love fabric and I love thread and scissors and needles and sewing machines (sometimes, except when their circuit boards sizzle and fry and I can't sew on them, like now, but I digress).  That's why I decided to blog, to share my quilts and other fibery things.  But I have another love (besides Tony, Marshall, Connor, Olive, and Maggie), and that love is children's books.

So. . .as I was closing the covers of my latest beloved friend, I thought, "Well, I said 'Quilts and More.' Couldn't writing about the kid's books I love be part of that more?"

So, here I am telling you that though I had my doubts about Kate DiCamillo's latest book, The Magician's Elephant (after all, who wants to read another boring story about a magician anyway), I finished the book completely enchanted.  Whenever I finish Kate's books (I know I'm supposed to say DiCamillo's books, but I know her and I love her, I truly do, though we've never met), I find my eyes again opened again to the wonder and beauty in the world.  I open them to the mysteries of stars and snow and love.  And I remember again all the things, good and bad, that can happen to one little boy (or little girl) in this world. 

The title, The Magician's Elephant, conjured for me (of course it was intended, silly) a story focused either on an animal, like many of her books have been, or on a magician.  The cover didn't invite me anymore than the title did.  But I love Kate, as I think I may have mentioned, so I had to give it a try.  I'm so glad I did.

She breaks rule after rule in this book, as she does in most of her books, but the story is wonderful and transformative, even so.  There are too many characters, not all of them children.  The point of view shifts with little warning.  Many of the POV characters are adults.  The character, Peter, has nothing really overly dramatic happen in the parts of his life we see in the present.  Indeed, the worst event in the story happens to an old aristocrat.

Peter is a  little boy in a terrible situation with no hope and the vague sense that he's missing something important.  But in the opening scene of the book, he spends the single florit meant for food on a visit to the fortune teller who gives him an unbelievable fortune that sets into motion a chain of events (would they have happened if he hadn't had the courage or stupidity to waste that florrit?) that leave a woman crippled, a man in prison, and Peter seemingly no closer to the goal of his quest.  That goal is a sister who may or may not be alive.  Don't doubt, dear reader, that the story comes to a satisfying end.  But Kate's stories aren't about the destination, they are about the journey and all the kindness, pettiness, and humanity that her characters meet along the way. 


Kate's sentneces are spare and lovely, and the book is rather short, word wise, for a mid-grade novel.  But the story is, indeed, magical.   As I finished the book, I felt that same feeling that I had at the end of Edmund Tulane, that Kate is telling us stories from a different age.  The stories really shouldn't work.  They shouldn't be so compelling or believable.  But in Kate's magic fingers, the stories come to life.  And I feel wiser and calmer and better for having read them.

Like some of Kate's other books, there are more illustrations than you'll usually find in a book of this level, and I found the round faces a bit disturbing, so I can't say I was particularly enthralled with the illustrations, but they enhance the text by giving a sense of space and timelessness to the book.

The movie rights have already been sold to 20th Century Fox and a script is already in the works.  I have enjoyed the movies based on Kate's books (Because of Winn Dixie and Tale of Despereaux, but watching even the best made movie can't capture the magic of reading one of Kate's beautifully written books. 

Find an excerpt here: http://www.themagicianselephant.com/#excerpt

Find more about Kate here: http://www.katedicamillo.com/

New Google Tool Bar

Patrik Ervell
http://www.google.com/help/ig/art/artists/ervell.html

How cool is this.  A menswear designer named Patrik Ervell is using rust dyes in his clothes, and there's a google toolbar celebrating it.  Guess who has it as her new toolbar?  Way cool.  So I thought I'd share.  I know I'm probably breaking some copyright rules here, but maybe Google and Patrik will forgive me if you all go there at look at this awesome link. I tried to find his use of this fabric in the posted collections, but I couldn't.

September Weeklies: Three and Four

I used Zentangle doodles to create these little embroideries on Radiance Fabric.  Not surprisingly, the silk was hard to stretch on the frame, so for these last two, I used a cotton binding and backing.  I'm enjoying the doodling, and I like the simple lines.  I might use this hand stitched doodling to integrate the rust quilts I'm working on that aren't quite working yet.  The top one (blue and orange) is all hand stitched except for the frame, and the bottom one (yellow and red) is machine stitched in the center and then hand stitched outside the circle. 

I couldn't get a good shot of the red and yellow quilt.  But if you look close, you'll see some bearding.  The silk doesn't resist much, so with Size 8 Perle Cotton, I tended to pull too much of the batting through.  I'll try Size 5 next time I hand embroider the Radiance.  

Top: Zen 3 6x6"
Bottom: Zen 4 6x6"

Sept. Weekly Quilt #2

 Bobbin Doodles #2

6x6"

Well, as promised, this week includes both bobbin drawing and hand stitching. I did cheat a little bit on the hand stitching as I outlined the circles with invisible thread before I started working the hand stitches. I know, I know, it looks like a Christmas wreath.I don’t know why I didn’t think of that when I choose this color way for this design, but it’s too late now.

This week, it’s almost all hand stitching, but I’ll be hanging out with a friend who isn’t feeling well on Tuesday, so I should have plenty of time then.The Radiance is nice to stitch on, even with the interfacing, but it isn’t very forgiving of mistakes.

I’m really having fun with the Zentangles designs.I’ve been making some samples for a youth class that I hope to teach, and it’s hard to mess them up.It is very meditative, especially if I remember to breath.

Seed Stitching

 Queen Anne's Lace

8.5 x 11"

Back in June, I posted this bobbin-sketched journal quilt , but I decided that it needed "a little" something extra to make it really pop.  I didn't like the waviness in the background caused by some bad interfacing. So, I started seed stitching it, placing my stitches fairly close together.  Well, about seven hours later (for a 8.5 x 11 inch quilt), I finally finished.  Who knew that seed stitching took so much time?

When I decided to add the embroidery, I had already "finished" it, so I got a bit of draw in and some warping.  I mounted it on my 1x2 stretcher bars (like I do my weekly quilts) and that helped a lot. I like how the dense stitching really makes the flower puff out, giving it a trapunto effect, but I think that next time I decide to seed stitch something, I'll put a bit more space between the stitches. 

This quilt is off to Visceral Gallery in Centerville, where I hope it will be juried into the Color Restrained show.  And I'm off to Cleveland for the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Ohio North Conference.  Yippee!!

Week One, September: Doodles on Radiance

For September, I've decided to use some Zentangle sketches to machine and hand embroider.  Last week, I used bobbin drawing to create this sketch of fern fiddleheads that the Zentangle people call fescu.  I had some problems machine quilting on Radiance, so I added some light fusible interfacing to the back of the fabric before I made the quilt sandwich.  For this design, I didn't need to do any handwork, but all of the next quilts are either entirely or partially worked by hand.  

The Radiance worked nicely with the interfacing to stabilize it; I didn't get the puckers I was getting before.  You can see, on the left hand side, where the machine tension changed, so I'll have to be careful to keep consistent tension even as I switch bobbins.  Oh, and how is this circles, you might ask?  Well, silly, those fiddleheads on the top are circular, aren't they?  That's my story, anyway.