The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History by Joseph M. Marshall III

We listened to this audio book on our trip to and from Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. It is the story of Crazy Horse written by a Lakota Indian and read by the author. Since history is usually written by the winners, this was a fascinating look at a man and a culture from the inside - not the history we learned in school. I highly recommend it.

The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson

Ambrose Zephyr, at age 50 or so, is told he has a month to live, more or less, and so he and his wife, Zipper Ashkenazi, take off on a tour of places that he has always wanted to visit or places he has always loved, from A to Z. It is a beautifully told sad story of love and life and death. I rate this book 5 out of 5.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Fifteen year old Michael Berg becomes ill on his way home from school one day and is helped home by Hannah, a woman twice his age. Michael and Hannah become lovers, then Hannah disappears. Michael sees Hannah again several years later when she is on trial for Nazi war crimes. Much of the narrative is Michael's thoughts and feelings about Hannah, his relationship with her, and his feelings about Germany's actions during WWII. I rate this book 4 out of 5.

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

This is book four of the Thursday Next series. While it was enjoyable, I didn't think it was as good as the earlier books. After spending 2 years as Head of Jurisfiction, Thursday decides to return to the real world to get her husband back. I rate this book 3 out of 5.

The Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan

Book 3 for my World War II Reading Challenge, and April's selection for my book club. Louis Belk, a soldier who has recently completed a bomb disposal course, is sent to Alaska on a secret mission: the Japanese are making bombs and sending them out in balloons, hoping that they will reach the US and explode here. I had never heard of these balloon bombs before; maybe because the news media cooperated with the US government in a policy of silence in order to reduce the chance of panic among Americans and to deny the Japanese information about the success or failure of their program. The story is told by Belk, who after the war becomes a priest and returns to Alaska. The story goes back and forth between past and present. This seems to be a very popular way of telling a story these days; several of the books I've read recently have used this method. It was quite effective for this story. I rate this book 4 out of 5.

Migraine Journal Page

I had a particularly bad migraine episode Thursday night; this is my response to it. I started it Friday and finished it today.

Spring???

My latest journal page, done yesterday during the snow storm.

Zentangles

For the first two Zentangles I did, I doodled a random shape, and then divided it up into sections and made patterns in each section.





After that, I traced a CD and divided the circle up. I'm not sure why I never thought to just fill the whole page. You could also leave a space for writing in. I did most of these while we visited our son and daughter-in-law. I'm SO glad we traveled when we did - our whether was perfect. Tonight, on the other hand, it is sleeting!













Anyway, these were fun to do, and really not as hard as they look. You just do one section at a time, and there isn't any right or wrong. You just put patterns into the sections.

Shades of Grey

I'm taking another online class (I know, I'm addicted to online classes, but they're so fun and I learn so much from them). This one is called Shades of Grey, and it's being taught by Pam Carriker. You can see a description of it here (scroll down a bit - it's the third class listed).

If you've read my blog for very long, you'll know that I've been interested in art journaling for over a year, trying several different ways of doing it, not completely happy with any of them. Well, I think I've finally found a way that I really like. What appeals to me so much about this is that it combines doodling with lettering, and I love both. The first journaling I did involved drawing actual objects, which I'm not all that good at. I know enough to know that drawing is a skill that can be learned, and I could learn it if I devoted enough time to it. The problem is, I'd rather quilt than learn to draw.

I've tried other forms of journaling too; mainly painting and collage. The painting is fun, but not exactly portable. Plus it's messy and it takes up space on our dining room table. My DH doesn't complain, but still . . . And somehow, collage just doesn't seem very meaningful to me. I save things, thinking I'll put them in my journal, and I usually don't.

But recently I started playing around with Zentangles, which you can see here (I'll post some pictures of the ones I've done when I have a chance). I really like doing them, and I figured out what it is I like - it's just pattern, and you can do any pattern you want. You aren't trying to make it look like anything - it's just decorative. So this journaling that Pam is teaching in her Shades of Grey class is similar, with the addition of lettering. It can be words you write yourself, like about the day you've had or your feelings or whatever you want to say. Or it can be a quote, or words from a song or a poem, or whatever. I also happen to love quotes, so this seems perfect for me.

And here is my first original page (I did another page first, but I basically copied one of Pam's pages with a few minor changes of my own):



I really like the way it turned out. We're using Pitt Artist Brush pens in shades of grey for this class, but I will probably add color to some of my pages too. And I'm using a Moleskine Sketchbook, which is great. I may also make my own books in the future, since I have the Bind-It-All.

As always, you can click on the page to see it larger.

Second Finished Face Quilt

This quilt is only 6 X 6, while my last one was 12 X 12. Making the face that much smaller made it much harder, in my opinion. So I don't think I'll be making any more faces this small. But I think she turned out ok. The flowers are silk flowers stitched in the centers, and the edges are satin stitched. I'm having a lot of fun learning to paint faces! It's amazing how different each one is. The 12 X 12 quilt in the last post was made for a swap, and this one is a small gift to the swap hostess. Hope she likes it!

Beppe

We didn't take many photos of our trip to Minneapolis to see our son and daughter-in-law, but I did take this one of their cat, Beppe. Sorry I didn't move the cords out of the way before I snapped the shot.

Finished!

She's finished. She is for a swap hosted by Lenna Andrews of Creative Swaps. I added eyelashes, darkened the outer edges of her irises, and fixed the mouth to make it more even on both sides. I finished the edges a little differently on this - I couched a piece of yarn to the top edge, and then I painted the side edge. I also rounded the corners a bit to make the couching easier. I'm already working on my next one - I can see that this may become addictive!

Faces on Fabric

We got our lesson for painting our face today, and I worked on mine right away. The white highlights you see in the photo are not as bright in the quilt as they are in the photo. I'm really happy with how this turned out. I HIGHLY recommend this class by Terri Stegmiller if you have any interest in learning to paint faces on fabric - Terri is an excellent teacher. We still have one more lesson on finishing techniques, but I've made enough quilts that I may go ahead and finish mine this week.

When Wanderers Cease To Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put by Vivian Swift

I finished this book a couple of days ago. It is a beautiful journal with watercolor sketches all through the book. After spending many years traveling all over the world, the author decided to stop traveling and put down roots. This book is her journal of the next ten years. There is a chapter for each month of the year, with her sketches and thoughts, in her own handwriting. For a much more detailed review of the book, see Jessica Wesolek's review here.

The Known World by Edward P Jones

We often check out audio books from the library before going on a trip. Our recent drive to see our son was no exception. We listened to The Known World both going and coming - it was that long. I always prefer unabridged, which this was, so it was 12 CD's. It was a very interesting story, set in Virginia 20 years before the start of the Civil War. It was about a former slave who owned slaves of his own. The story jumped around in time a lot, so it took awhile to get used to - it might have been easier to read than listen to - but it was really good. I had no idea that any blacks owned slaves - it's an incomprehensible idea.

Face Quilt

Progress on my face quilt - I'm actually caught up now. At least until the next lesson comes out on Monday. That will be painting the face. You can't tell in the photo, but the petals are loose - only stitched down in the centers. I also just realized that the flowers are HUGE in relation to the size of her face!

The white line around the edges is the approximate trimming line - I like to make things a bit bigger and trim them down to size, but I also like to see what the actual size will be. This one will be 12 X 12, because that's the size required in the swap that this is for. I'm going to hate to send this away, but the quilts that have been received by the swap hostess to date are all wonderful, so I'm sure I'll get something even better in return!

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

This is the story of 67 year old Trond Sander, who has decided to spend the remaining years of his life alone in a remote cabin far from civilization. His neighbor turns out to be someone he knew over 50 years earlier, which brings back memories that he would prefer to forget. The story moves smoothly between the past and the present. I thought it was very well written and would rate it 4 out of 5. I read this as the second book for my WWII Reading Challenge, and the subject of WWII is a secondary, rather than primary, theme, being a part of Trond Sander's memories.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

I have to start out by saying that I never would have read this book if it hadn't been the current month's selection for my book club. I'm not sure how to write a review of it, other than to say that I really didn't like the book at all. I didn't understand it very well either. I had a really hard time finishing it, feeling the way I did. If I had liked it even a little bit better, I might have been willing to put in the time it would take to study it, but I didn't. I hope that doesn't make me sound shallow or illiterate, but if it does, it does. The part I had the hardest time with was the third chapter, when the main character attended a 3-day spiritual retreat. This went on for page after page after page after page, and since I am not a Catholic, or even a Christian, I really couldn't read it all. After this, I pretty much lost any interest in the book I'd had up to that point. I rate this 1 out of 5.

Quilt

This is the quilt that took me so long to finish quilting - not because of the quilt, but because of problems with my machine. But it's finished now, and my son and daughter-in-law are holding it up in their apartment. We're visiting them this week. You can also see a quilt I made for my daughter-in-law folded up over the chair in the right of the picture. I don't know what's on top of it - maybe a scarf that she knitted for my son. Anyway, we're having a good visit, and we'll be home on Wednesday.

Faces on Fabric

I worked on the Faces on Fabric class today that I'm taking from Terri Stegmiller. I've got my face fused to the background:



We're going to be adding stitching in the next lesson and painting in the lesson after that.

I'm going to be adding flowers on the right side of the quilt.



I fused two fabrics wrong sides together and cut out some petal shapes. I hooped a water soluble sticky stabilizer and attached the petals (if you didn't have a sticky, you could use a spray adhesive, but the sticky makes it easier). Then I free motion stitched around the edges of the petals and in the centers. That's as far as I've gotten, but the next step is to remove the stabilizer. Then I will put a vase with stems to the right of the face (I haven't chosen my vase fabric yet, nor have I named my girl). The petals will be attached to the tops of the stems in the centers only so that the flowers will be 3D. I will also probably put some beads or crystals or french knots or something in the centers of the flowers.

Ultimately, this quilt will be sent to Lenna Andrews for her Fabric Techniques 12X12 swap. This is the first time I've participated in one of Lenna's swaps, but they look really good. The deadline isn't until April 22, and she's already received 3 quilts. I would be happy to have any of the 3 she's received so far. We have a couple of trips planned in the next few weeks, so I'll be working on this quilt every chance I have in order to have it finished in plenty of time to get it mailed by the deadline.

And speaking of trips, we're leaving in the morning to visit our son and daughter-in-law in Minneapolis. It's a lot colder there than it is here in Oklahoma! I just hope we don't hit any bad weather on the road. I was making them a quilt, and I finally finished it over the weekend. I'll try to take a picture of it with them and post it from there. I had hoped to finish it much earlier, but I was having trouble with my sewing machine. I solved that problem last week by trading my machine in for a new one. The problem was in the electronics of the machine, and the repairman was just going to have to start replacing circuit boards one at a time until the problem was fixed. As he was telling me this, all I could think of was a car we had several years ago that had an intermittent problem that we were never able to fix. After spending much money trying to get it fixed, we were told the next item to replace was the computer. That's when we decided to trade cars. I didn't want to start down that path again (you know - been there, done that).

Two More Faces

This is the face I drew yesterday:



And this is the face I drew today:



I think this last one may be my new favorite.

The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle

This is the story of two couples in Los Angeles: one, a wealthy writer and his real estate agent wife who live in an exclusive hilltop community; the other, illegal Mexicans, just trying to find work to survive. They are thrown together by a freak accident and series of events. The story is alternately told from each person's point of view. It explores the issues of immigration and racism in a very compelling story; it is very well written. I rate it 3 out of 5.

Faces

I didn't have a chance to post yesterday, but I did draw a face - it's my favorite one yet.



And here is the one I did today. I'm still struggling a bit with the mouths. Yesterday's is a bit better to me. But this is really good practice - and I'm proud that I've drawn at least one face every day. It's been really fun to see what the other students are doing too.



Terri created a Flickr group for us to post our progress, so if you're interested, you can see more faces here. There aren't a lot of faces there yet, but I'm sure we'll all be adding to the group over the next few weeks.

2 More Faces

Since I signed up for the Faces on Fabric class, I've decided to draw at least one face every day, at least until the next lesson comes out next Monday. So far, I've drawn more than one face each day; here are the two I drew today. Since they will be turned into fabric, that's why the hair on the second one looks the way it does - each section will be a separate piece of fabric. I'm thinking about taking my watercolor pencils to these.

Faces

I drew 2 more faces today. Practice, practice, practice!

Faces on Fabric

OK, these aren't on fabric, but that's the name of the class I'm taking from Terri Stegmiller that started yesterday (I know, I'm addicted to online classes). We're starting out by sketching faces on paper - we'll work up to getting them onto fabric in the next few lessons. I've never really drawn faces before, so I don't think these are too bad. I know I need LOTS of practice, but hey - these are my first 3 faces!! They look weird because I drew them with a 3H pencil (very light line) in my Moleskine sketchbook, which has cream colored pages, meaning there wasn't enough contrast to see them very well in the scan. I desaturated them in Photoshop so that you could see them at all.

More Visual Journalism

I've done some more pages in my visual journal. This first one is the first page in my journal - I had left it blank until I decided what I wanted to do, since it's the first page you see when you open the journal. A friend had given me a set of napkins with these cats on them, and I only had one left, so I decided the best use of them would be to glue them into my journal. I wasn't sure what the best way to glue them in would be, since after I separated the layers, the paper was very thin. First I ran it through my Xyron, but that didn't work well at all; some of the paper stuck to itself. I managed to get the top three cats glued in with just a bit of wrinkling. Then I remembered seeing Pam Carriker put Golden's gel medium directly on the page instead of on the paper that was being glued in while watching her class video, so I decided to try that. It worked much better and I was able to glue rest of the cats and the fishbone border in that way. I really like the way the paper of the napkin almost disappears; I'll be using more napkins and tissue paper in the future. I stamped the pawprints, and did the lettering and hearts by hand. Then I added some shading and I think it's done.



I've shown the next page before, but I've added some outlines to the title and some shading.



I've shown this page before too, but I've added some more doodling and shading to it.



And this last page is new. I've mentioned before that I attend the Tulsa Ballet; they performed Cinderella last Sunday.



I highly recommend this course!

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

This is book 3 in a series, and it is just as witty as the first two. It helps to have an appreciation of the English language and/or literature. The story is quite unusual - set in an alternate England in the 1980's where the prevailing culture is based on literature. Thursday was a Special Operative in literary detection. In this volume, she takes refuge in an unpublished book by the name of Caversham Heights in the Well of Lost Plots. She must battle with Aornis Hades, little sister of the master criminal Acheron Hades, whom Thursday vanquished in The Eyre Affair. Aornis is a mnemonomorph, meaning that she has been changing Thursday's memories. I rate this book 4 out of 5.

Cyber Fyber Random Trade

These are the ATCs I received from the Cyber Fyber Random Trade. The one on the left came all the way from Annica in Sweden, the middle one is from Sarah in South Carolina, and the one on the right is from Barb in Florida. They're all beautiful - thanks ladies!

Valentine ATCs

Terri Stegmiller posted some ATC's for trade on her blog, and I really liked them, so I told her I wanted to trade for one. This meant I had to make one for her, of course. So while I was making one, I made eight. I made them with my embellisher - I love that machine! I haven't used it in awhile, so it was a great excuse to use it again. Here is the one I'm sending to Terri:



I've saved out three for some friends:



And here are the other four:



If anyone would like to trade for one of the last four, please leave me a comment with a way to contact you. I'd love to trade!