"City Quilts" By Cherrie House

This is another cross-post from my other blog. I cross post when I think that my friends who read only this blog would enjoy a book that I post originally on my book blog

"City Quilts" by Cherrie House is new book hot off the presses at C&T Publishing. Since I love quilts that are both simple and make use of solid color fabrics I knew from the beginning that this book would hold interest for me. Having grown up in New York City the photos in the book were quite evocative for me. I think that Ms. House did a remarkable job of designing simple but dramatic quilts reminiscent of every day city living images. Although I love using solid colors I think that the quilts in this book also lend themselves equally well to using prints.

The beginning of the book includes a well done section on the basics - I like everything about this book and am looking forward to beginning one of the patterns. Also included is an excellent section on color choices, a bit of theory and tips on developing your ability to "see" patterns in everyday sights. I have collected quite a quilt library over the years and so there are not that many new books that come out that I truly want to spend the money on to add to my ever expanding collection - but this one is a good bet for your permanent collection! I don't think it will disappoint!

Going on the premise that a picture really is worth a thousand words I have included scans of some the wonderful quilts in this book - and the great photos that led to the creation of the pattern!

The Last Of The Fall Leaves

If there was any question about the season today pretty much sealed the deal. This is how it looked outside of my door this morning. Since then we have had a strong cold front move through and the last of the leaves, those that have not been tracked into the living room, are on the ground now. The most insidious things to be brought in on un-wiped shoes are the pine needles. They get into everything and refuse to be removed without having to bend down and actually pull them out and insert them into the nose of the vacuum cleaner!

Recently I have become more and more involved in the book and book blog communities. For some time I have been rolling the idea of a separate book blog around in my head and, this weekend, I finally did it. I will do some cross posting at times when the books are very pertinent to both blogs, but more or less if it's about books it will be on my brand new blog ! I named it Books By The Willow Tree because of the willow tree that I used to go sit in to read at my Uncle's Jim's house. This grand old dame willow spread her branches lazily out over the Hudson River in upstate New York. I adored that tree & I loved my Uncle who was a large part of the reason that I am so book addicted today. He had a separate little house that served as his library. It was complete with a small wood burning stove and kerosene lamps. Peace in a little place. Anyway, if you're into books I would love it if you would join me at the willow tree!

Books: Teaser Tuesdays

 I have recently set about on a course of intensive pleasure reading, amply peppered with the requisite amount of non-fiction historical times too!  Teaser Tuesday is a fun way to say just a bit of what you're reading. The 'simple directions' for Teaser Tuesdays are shown below!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 
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• My teaser begins below: a full review will follow when I have finished this very interesting book !
  
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• ... There is pause, til the jug is fetched and the boy has gone. This time, he does the pouring himself. The old men exchange glances again and one says, "the magister believes that he would dislike the English climate. The fogs.And also, the island is covered with witches. "......"
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• From "Wolf Hall" by Hillary Mantel
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New Hand Painted Cat Cards For Some Special Friends

Here a few newly hand painted cards. I used with a combination of inks: J.Herbin inks , J.Herbin Calligraphy inks, J. Herbin Pearlescent inks, Dr.Martin's India inks - and just a touch of Golden Interference Red/Gold. These will be off to new owners this morning. One a "huury back" rather than a "good bye" for a favorite doctor who is leaving and one for his nurse who will, once again, have to 'train' another new doc. The third card goes to the great, friendly people at the front desk of our Medical Center who somehoe seem to manage to always answer those blasted phones with a smile! Did I mention they get home made sugar cookies too?!

New Favorite Matte Acrylic Paints & Some Great New Art Books

I have used acrylic matte craft paints for a lot of years - generally Plaid, Americana or whatever other brands that places like Michael's sells. I really like the flat, almost chalky, matte-ness of the paints & they look really good in certain situations. I recently sold a couple of things in order to fund an order from Dick Blick and, while I spent hours going over my 'wish list' again & again , I had a look at Blick's matte acrylics -of course I had to try a bunch. There were very reasonably priced and the colors looked divine! I am happy to report that these colors are, in fact, divine and they do perform very nicely on a variety of media; cold press watercolor paper, various journal papers, pastel paper. Nice, creamy, saturated colors that give me better coverage than a lesser priced brand and retain that matte-ness that I like so much! Give them a try - I think you too will be most pleasantly surprised at the rich colors that you can have on hand for very little money! No. They won't take the place of my beloved Golden acrylics - but they all certainly have their uses - and these paints from Blick deserve a place in your paint box!

I also had a bit of a spree - also funded by the sale of some other items, at Amazon. I got the three books shown here - all of which are well worth the price. Mixed Emulsions is geared more to the mixed media painter I think (ATC's, Art2Mail, journal pages etc). One of the things that I find particularly interesting in this book is a 'time line' that runs along the bottom of the pages and describes the history of the item or technique being described.

"Acrylic Revolution" and "Rethinking Acrylics" are filled with information that I wanted to learn more about. The chemistry of acrylic paints, the differences between all of the mediums, gels and grounds and the different types of paint - transparent, opaque - and which colors give you which effects. Having never had an art class, this sort of information is really important to me - as I like to understand why things do what they do! There are also a lot of very interesting techniques ,that are suited best to acrylic applications (rather that oil paints), explained in much needed detail. I am happy to have found these two books. Initially I had thought that there might be some over-lapping of information and, to a very minimal degree, there may be a bit of that. All in all though these two books provide different ideas and information about my favorite kind of paints. I love the smell of oil paints - but I prefer the faster clean up and greater flexibility that acrylic paints and mediums offer.

I already have another order in my cart at Blick's so I guess I need to figure out something more to sell! Thanks, as always, for checking in. Seeing your comments and seeing folks 'follow' my blog with Google really makes me smile! A lot!

Have a very happy, creative weekend!