Putting Herself in the Picture
Last week, in one of my favorite used book stores, I found the book Women’s Worlds: The Art and Life of Mary Ellen Best 1809-1891. Mary Ellen Best was a professional artist active… Continue reading
Category Archive: Books
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In Awe of a Master Designer and Stitcher
You think you know a person… … and then you find out she’s been interviewed by NPR and the BBC, had an offer from the Guinness Book of World Records, turned down that… Continue reading
Basting, Bingeing, and Books
A while ago Kerry at Love Those Hands At Home mentioned in a post that she had tried this quilt-basting method from Sharon Schamber. The main idea is that you roll the quilt… Continue reading
Spectacular Spirals
I am part of an online art quilt group called The Endeavourers. When our current theme, Spirals, was announced, I thought it was a good time to dig into my Kindle inventory and… Continue reading
Narratives Embedded
“Each artifact has a narrative embedded within…” Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim Earlier this year, I got an email from the Texas Historical Commission, asking me if I would like to write about… Continue reading
We Can’t All Be Christo, But…
At the same time I was reading about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work, I was also reading Common Threads: Weaving Community Through Collaborative Eco-Art by Sharon Kallis, and that book gave me additional insights… Continue reading
The Milliner’s Secret
Having just read about the couturiers and milliners of WWII Paris, I was excited to find a novel set in that era. I was hoping that maybe more information about Théâtre de la… Continue reading
Creativity Triumphs – Theatre de la Mode
In the closing days of WWII in France, couturiers in Paris created an exhibit which would both “show the continuing vitality of the fashion industries” and raise money for war relief. After the… Continue reading
Laura I. Baldt and Clothing for Women
One of the vintage textile manuals I have is Clothing for Women: Selection, Design, and Construction by Laura I. Baldt, published by Lippincott in 1916 and 1924. Baldt was an associate professor… Continue reading
Glimpses of Textiles in Old Novels, Part Two
Eben Holden, A Tale of the North Country is a coming-of-age story set in the Lake Champlain area in the 1800s. The story starts when the narrator, Willy, is 6 years old and… Continue reading