It seems like I’m currently on a roll, blogging-wise, right now!  I attribute it to a couple things — my husband is out of town (therefore, I stay up late reading; and the more books I finish, the more I have to blog about); and this week is a bit quieter than usual — my daughter is in a M-Th dance class from 9:30 AM to 12:30 AM all month (another mom is carpooling her this week), but also this week my younger son has been in a cub scout day camp that runs from 9-4, so there is quite a few hours that it is just my older son around; and he tends to sleeps in anyway.  I’m getting a taste of what it’ll be like when they all return to school in four weeks.  Yes, four weeks from now.   I won’t remind them of that fact, though!

Speaking of being on a roll, here are pictures of a pencil roll I recently made.  I wanted to do this project because of Danny Gregory’s books (see my review here of them) about drawing, and I needed a way to store a small sketchbook and pencils.   My pencil roll is based on directions from the book

“Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts”, by Joelle Hoverson, but I modified it.  The ties are some decorative yarn that I braided.  Sorry about the quality of the pictures; I took them with my iPhone.

Here is the pencil roll, all rolled up:

The unrolled back of the pencil roll:

And, the inside of the pencil roll:

The pattern could be modified for crochet hooks or knitting needles, as well.  I was inspired to show my pencil roll here, partly because it’s been such a long time since I’ve shown anything coming out of my studio (I hope to remedy that after the kids go back to school…in four weeks!) but also because Marie at The Boston Bibliophile  is taking a book-making class, and a couple of her recent projects have the same fabric way as my pencil roll.  Take a look  at her projects (with better photos) — pretty neat, and it’s a reminder how much I’d like to learn how to do bookmaking.

Are you on twitter?  If so, you might be interested in a couple (new to me) hashtags you’d like to follow: there’s #translationthurs in which Winstondad’s blog is asking us tweeps to recommend translated works every Thursday on twitter.  Tomorrow, among other translated works, I will probably mention “Girls of Riyadh” by Rajaa Alsanea; while the translation doesn’t feel flawless, it’s the most recent translated book I’ve read (working on a review of that now).

Also, on twitter, is the hashtag #followreader — see  Follow The Reader for more information.  They have a weekly twitter discussion on various bookish topics, and last week, it was about book bloggers and independent booksellers collaborating together in various ways.  Indirectly, as a result of this discussion, I discovered that  Tattered Cover  in Denver has an affiliate program.  I’m all for supporting indie booksellers, so I’ve signed up for this affiliate program — as a result, you will now see on my blog sidebar a widget that will take you to Tattered Cover’s website.  After I figure out more how this works (such as linking  book titles), I will be sure to disclose affiliation in blog posts, and any financial benefits I get from this (not much; but that isn’t the point of why I’m doing this).  I don’t get out into Denver often enough — it being an hour’s drive from home — but when I do, I love going into Tattered Cover. Be sure to check out Tattered Cover’s blog also, called Between the Covers.

I’m not sure how I found out about Sepia Mutiny, a cultural interest blog for and about the people of the South Asian diaspora (including those known as Desis) – perhaps I stumbled across it when looking for background info on one of the South Asian novels I’ve read — but at any rate, I’ve subscribed to the blog feed ever since. They have a recent post about a poetry book I now covet: “Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry”, edited by Neelanjana Banerjee, Summi Kaipa and Pireeni Sundaralingam – and what’s more, this post shares links going to almost all the poets featured in this book. 

 Read about “Indivisible” here at Sepia Mutiny.  Then go back there later for a Part II post they are planning based on this collection.

One last thing, again about poetry.  I subscribe to Poets.org‘s Poem-A-Day daily e-mails, and I especially like today’s poem, “The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart”, by Deborah Digges.  Here are the beginning lines, and go to this link to read the poem in its’ entirety.  What do you think of this poem?

The wind blows

through the doors of my heart.

It scatters my sheet music

that climbs like waves from the piano, free of the keys.

********

I hope that the rest of this week goes well for all of you!  Any interesting news or books that you would like to share?

For the month of March, I finished the Theodore Roosevelt block (based on the book Presidential Redwork: A Stitch in Time
by Michael Buckingham).  I have a slide show of each block but haven’t been able to figure out how to install it here in wordpress.  The learning curve is still going on!

Here is Theodore (he didn’t like being called Teddy, by the way):

Presidential Redwork: Theodore Roosevelt

I’ve also been experimenting with beadwork, and finished the below project.  It’s part of a series I’m slowly working on–pink and black, green and black, whatever color and black–and body parts.  This is for the eyes.  I wanted to do one eye in a more abstract manner and was inspired by some paisley fabric that was lying nearby.  Looking at this again (and I’m not too happy with the picture; I need to figure out a better way to photograph these) I think there are some things I would do differently now, but it was fun experimenting.

Green and Black with Eyes, 10 1/4" by 10 1/4" inches

I have some new ideas that I want to pursue, so I may be setting aside the one-color-and-black idea for a while. 

But before I start new projects, I’m very nearly done with a beading sample book I started in a beading on fabric class I took at the end of February.  I expect to finish it today.  I should be able to put up pictures of that within a couple days.  Now I better go spend some time in the studio!