Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Summer Reading

I just finished The Art of Mending as my attempt to read something fun and light to occupy my summer mind.

I liked it, but it wasn't quite a happy uplifting book overall. Not a bad read, however. The protagonist is a quilt artist.

Not sure what's next on my hit list. Have some ideas, but looking for something fun, and have basically already read everything by Barbara Kingsolver.

Summer's almost over. I think I can sneak one more in under the wire.

Ideas? Help me out here bright minds!

10 comments:

Sew Create It - Jane said...

I can highly recommend "The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs. It's a good "summer" read with appropriate laughs and tears.

Debby Brown said...

Hands down, the best book I've read this year was "The Boleyn Inheritance" by Philippa Gregory.

Happy reading!

JoJo said...

Hi Marissa. I do have one recommendation for your summer reading, and that's Water For Elephants.I haven't read it yet,but it comes highly recommended.
I do have a question for you. I've only been reading your blog for a short time so maybe you've covered this already, but I am fascinated by the quilt on your masthead. Can you tell me a little about it and perhaps print a photo the whole quilt. If you've already done that in a previous post, maybe you can just refer me to that post.
Keep up all the good work and all the inspriation.
thanks,

Marisa said...

Hi JoJo.

http://quiltotaku.blogspot.com/2007/05/hugs-and-kisses.html



This is the post with another picture of more of the quilt. I used a book called Make it Simpler Paper Piecing



http://www.amazon.com/Make-Simpler-Paper-Piecing-Technique/dp/1571202226/ref=sr_1_1/002-0562719-8805641?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187758152&sr=8-1



to learn a new paper piecing technique. It's a baby quilt actually, and I paper pieced it on machine, but all the quilting is by hand. I used wash away paper piecing foundation so it would melt off in water, rather than having to rip it off later. That worked out really well.



Anyhow, glad you like the quilt, and let me know if you decide to make one, I would love to see it!

-Marisa

Lauri said...

I've been doing a lot of rather depressing reading this summer, so I should probably try some of these suggestions also! lol!

I was looking at the book you just finished (thanks for the link) and I'm thinking I'll be picking that one up soon.

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

LOL- you said "bright minds" and I just had to step up and share my deep thoughts, and now I am sitting here and thinking: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Good grief.

JoJo said...

Hi Marissa: Thanks for your response and link to your masthead quilt. I love it so. My next project will be figuring out paper piecing.

Jan said...

I was so excited to find your site typing in Yoko Saito in Google search. Love your site. Do you know where I can find the books by her, to order, anywhere in the USA?
Also, you said that you have found fabric. Is there a quilt shop in the USA that has that to order also? If you have any information, please let me know. Thanks.

Marisa said...

Hi Jan.
Ah yes, Yoko Saito - one of my favorites.
It's very easy to get books from her. You can just call Kinokuniya book store with the ISBN you need and they will mail it to you. You can probably enlist their help to give you a list of books available from her as well, although if you look through my older posts I have a few ISBN's of her books.
Bookstore URL:

http://www.kinokuniya.com/

Best place to get taupe fabrics in the US is online at:

http://www.pinwheels.com/

although, there are other places as well. My favorite brands of taupe fabrics are D2, Westex, and Daiwabo so you can google these as well or use ebay to look for them.

Best of luck!
-Marisa

SaraLynnArt said...

I just need to say that this is a very, very beautiful photograph!