Happy New Year! Yes, I know I’m a month and a half late and Valentine’s Day has come and gone which means that we’re already halfway through the month of February, but my writing muse seems to have taken a bigger hit last year than I’d realized. For some reason I just could not get “in the zone” or whatever writers call their place of creativity. I’m going to try and correct that though and have actually written a bit of a story for a contest that I ran across last week. I figure if I can write for a contest I can surely write for my beloved ladies, and gentlemen, who have connected with me through this medium of blog postings.
So, without further ado, I’d like to share with you my thoughts on a new book by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings fame. This book actually came out last month, but I was supposed to have been at the beach all of last month so had cancelled my standing order with Martingale for new books during the month of January. After all, I didn’t want them to be delivered and have to sit on the front porch for three weeks before I got back home. Even with a wide front porch we still get rain blown in underneath, sometimes all the way to the front door even. That’s just not a good environment for books.
Lisa’s new book, as indicated by the title, contains 101 2″ stitcheries that cover just about any and every occasion you can think of, and then some. They are grouped together by season and theme. Hers were done in wool, but I will make mine using our great selection of wool felts. Thankfully, I have a good set of scraps from where Miss Martha did her stitching over the years. The pieces in these little projects are so tiny that I’m sure I’ll be able to find what I need among those scraps. I’ve already told one of my ladies that I think we’re going to need some tweezers to pick up and hang on to these tiny bits. Thankfully, we both have the wonderful Wonder Clips by Clover to help us keep things together while we stitch.
Some of the samples in the book have been clipped to a wooden board, as you can see on the cover, and could be changed out weekly, monthly, quarterly, or with 101 of them, almost daily. One of my first thoughts when I looked through this book was how perfect these would be for those folks living in a tiny house. Even after clipping them to the wooden stand they’re not going to take up very much room, which is a good thing since tiny houses aren’t blessed with a lot of room as a general rule.
One of the other display options that was shown in the book was a group of these little designs placed in a drawer of what appeared to be a small case that had three vertical drawers. I’m going to have to find one of these now because it was beyond cute. These itty bitties could also be worn as a pin, used as a bookmark or scissors fob with the addition of a bit of ribbon, sent to a friend who’s in need of a little day brightener, or mailed to a special someone who is having a birthday. Stitch up several of the ones with a birthday cake and you’ll be set for every birthday boy and girl on your calendar this year. These little designs are right up my alley being that I’m a miniature everything fan. I think I’ll have to stitch them two at a time though when I intend to gift one, maybe one in my colours and one in colours that would better appeal to the recipient. While I know it’s hard to imagine, not everyone likes the colour purple (gasp!).
Needless to say, I love this little book. If I were to give any unsolicited advice to Martingale on a future book of this type it would be to include an index that gives both the design name, i.e. birthday cake, schoolhouse, strawberries, and the page where it could be found. An alphabetical index as well as an index by theme or season would be most helpful. That would save both time and lessen the opportunity for distractions. Knowing me as I do, I’ll look for one design and get sidetracked by all the others. I sure do hope none of you have this same problem;-).
There are no affiliate links in this post. All links are given for ease of reference only.
Hooked on Quilting 