Weekend Review: Sew Over It

Sew Over It / Barbara Emodi
c2023
68 p.

I read this quick e-short this week when I discovered it on Hoopla thanks to my library. It's part of the Gasper's Cove mysteries by Barbara Emodi, also known to many of us as a sewist and sewing book writer. Her sewing cozies are pretty fun, so I quickly checked this one out. 

This is kind of a prequel to the whole series, a short mystery (involving the murder of a sewing machine rep) that still satisfies, while it introduces us to Valerie Rankin and her world. In this book you meet all the characters who will make up the series, and get a feel for the town and Valerie's position as a recent returnee. 

It's a little clunky in parts -- for example, Valerie's dog's name changes suddenly halfway in -- but it's a fun intro to the series. I found that in this story, the sewing puns and sewing content are in peak form, with comments that made me laugh out loud. I really enjoyed this, after having read the first two in the series. I'm falling behind, with book 6 coming out in October. I'll have to find book 3 and get busy!

 

Literary Sewing Circle: Author Feature!

Today is the day we get to learn more about our author! Riel Nason is a Canadian author and textile artist/quilter.  She writes for both adults and children.  She is best known for her debut novel, The Town That Drowned,  which won the Commonwealth Book Prize for Canada and Europe among other awards, and her bestselling picture book series starring The Little Ghost Quilt. She lives in Quispamsis, New Brunswick. Nason is also a textile artist (quilter) and has had several exhibits of her original work as well as writing two nonfiction books on the topic.

We are so fortunate that Riel was available and willing to give us an interview on her writing for our Literary Sewing Circle! 

1. Welcome, Riel, and thank you for taking the time to do this interview for the Literary Sewing Circle! 

Thanks for having me here!

2. Can you tell us a bit about how you came to write All the Things We Leave Behind? What was the genesis of this story? The setting of All the Things We Leave Behind is so strong; readers can feel the forest (and its animal residents) and the river almost as characters themselves. Why did you choose this setting, and also the decade of the 70s, for this story? 

This novel was the follow-up after my debut The Town That Drowned. I knew I wanted to write another story set in the same New Brunswick region, with the fictionalized main event of TTTD now ten years in the past. (The event was the permanent flooding of the St. John River Valley due to the building of a hydro-electric dam, which completely changed the landscape of the area.)  In ATTWLB the story is largely centered at a roadside antique shop with an endless forest behind it, which characters find many reasons to visit. I love the forest and I grew up in rural NB with a forest as my backyard.  But as lovely as the forest can be, it can also be very dangerous.

3. Violet's voice is compelling as the main character and narrator, and her close relationship with her brother Bliss while he struggles is a strong thread of this story. Her parents are absent for much of the book, leaving her to manage on her own, but despite this, the theme of family and connection is so important to the book. How did you balance all of these elements?

I really can't put much description as to how I figure out what to emphasize where/when or what a story needs at any point.  I certainly have a huge awareness of how it is all coming together though.  When it comes to characters I am constantly thinking about the subtle combination of what would really, truly happen in this situation, with what needs to happen to advance the plot.  I often hear other authors say something like "I just create the characters and follow along to record all the surprising things they do." That is very, very far from what happens for me.

4. How did you decide to include the hard topics that you explore in this story? There is a thread of loss that runs through this book, from the Boneyard to the Vaughn estate to the reflections on the lost town of Haventon from your first novel. But there is also light, and connection, and just daily life that keeps going on. Do you find it difficult to fold this all in together? I'm wondering, because I felt it was so effective throughout the book.  

I think I'll answer about the "hard topics" here, a big one of which is mental illness. The character of Bliss really struggles in the novel.  As an author I write fiction, but fiction still has to be "true" -- in that there are some big topics that you don't want to guess at, or kind of try to figure out as you go. Mental illness can be just too devastating and overwhelming and perhaps impossible for a person to understand when looking from the  outside-in rather than the inside-out. So anyway, I have OCD and have had it for most of my life.  As an author I follow the write-what-you-know path. I am absolutely not the character of Bliss, but I do have a proper lens to look at him through.

5. As someone who is involved in sewing and textile arts yourself, do you see a connection between the making involved in textiles and in writing? Do they inform one another for you? If so, how?  

They are both creative pursuits that involve elements of fun and frustration for me.  But I definitely use the backspace key and delete things more than I use my seam ripper.  As to one informing the other, it's fun to put "quilting" into my stories. In my middle-grade novel Waiting Under Water one character is a textile artist/quilter.  And it was especially fun to turn a quilt into a main character in my picture book The Little Ghost Who Was A Quilt.

6. I know that like the readers in the Literary Sewing Circle, you are also a sewist, particularly in your work with quilting. What are some of your favourite creations, and where can people find out more about your creative pursuits?  

My favourites are always changing.  But lately I've had a lot of fun making small bags and other small accessories.  I sometimes post things I'm making/have made on Instagram @rielnason

7. Are you working on anything else that you'd like to share right now?

My next book comes out in August. It is the second in The Little Ghost Quilt series called The Little Ghost Quilt's Winter Surprise. Then the third in the series should be out late next year.

*****************************

I hope you are enjoying All the Things We Leave Behind so far! Please leave any thoughts on your reading or this interview here. You can also find more about Riel at her Instagram.

A Visit to the Thrift Stores!

This weekend was a relaxing one, but of course I had to spend some of it thrifting! We went to our favourite thrift, but also travelled a bit further to a few others in a nearby town. I ended up finding a bunch of fun things. 

I found some fabric - while I'm trying to reduce my fabric intake, I couldn't resist these. All in my colours and all on the 75% off tag sale. So 7 metres came home with me. 

Magenta: textured synthetic -- Rayon floral
Green linen blend

At another shop, I scored with some great 80s patterns. All from someone named Eileen (her name was written on the front of many of them). I ended up choosing 10 patterns from Eileen's stash, 9 of which are uncut. The ones she didn't get to, I will now try to make in her honour. We were obviously the same size and with the same tastes - thanks Eileen! 

And I finished off my discoveries with these two books by Jennie Rayment. I have her first book, Tucks, Textures & Pleats, which I enjoyed, and have been looking for book two for ages. I found it today, but also found book three, which I didn't even know existed. She is quite hilarious and eccentric, but her books also have some great ideas for fabric manipulation in them. I'm enjoying skimming through them already. 

I didn't do much sewing this weekend, unfortunately - it was in my plans but I only got to about half of what I wanted to do. This thrifting trip wasn't really planned but it was a fun sewing-related outing so I'm calling it even :) 

Weekend Review: Unraveled

 

Unraveled / Maxine Bédat
Portfolio, c2021.
336 p.

Today's book is about fabric in a way, but really more about one specific garment made with one specific fabric -- it uses one pair of jeans as a way to travel through fashion's supply chain and follow a ubiquitous garment beginning to end to reveal so much about the fashion industry today. 

Since it is Fashion Revolution Week this week and also my local Trashion Week, I thought it was a perfect time to talk about this book. 

The author began as an entrepreneur in the fashion world, but realized fairly soon that her attempt to create a responsible brand was stifled by so many suppliers not knowing their own supply chain. So she pivoted to education and work on that end of things. In this book, she is educating readers on the worldwide production of fashion and all the steps in it that are not necessarily following the same regulations. 

From growing the cotton in Texas, to weaving and dyeing in China, to sewing in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, then shipping from warehouses like Amazon ones in North America, all the way to a pair of jeans being discarded after just a few wears and ending up in landfill or shipped off to African second-hand markets. So many issues to discuss at each step! She does have an American perspective so her examples are grounded in the US, but much it is the same across the world. 

Each chapter takes on one of these steps and discusses the problems jeans can cause. From massive water use to grow monocrops of cotton, to the chemicals (most banned in North America) that are running into the water systems across China, to the terrible working conditions for mainly female seamstresses sewing your clothes (yes, all clothing is handsewn by someone), to demanding warehouse jobs with poor pay and outrageous expectations for employees, to the shopping habits of consumers who will toss something after a wear or two, to the conditions in landfills and the economic and environmental effects of massive piles of used clothing dumped into African markets, it's all here to read and learn. 

I found her style perhaps a touch dry at times, but overall very readable. She brings in personal stories to enlarge on the facts she is sharing (some of them quite shocking) and the central concept of following a pair of jeans along a production path is relatable to most people; she notes that American women own an average of 7 pairs of jeans. I don't really wear jeans, and only have some I thrifted a few years back for when I might need a pair -- but I can see the thousands of pairs out there! I thought this was a great way to make these ideas understandable to general readers. If you've been reading on this topic for a while, you will be familiar with the facts shared here. But it never hurts to get a new perspective, and this one might be a good choice to hand to someone interested in the ideas but who hasn't read everything yet. Jeans are kind of in your face fashion, and so this might hit home in a strong way. This one is worth checking out! 

Literary Sewing Circle: Book Talk!

 

Today's the day for some beginning book talk! How are you doing with the book? Have you started it yet? Finished it? Finding it slower or easy to get through? Do you have any reactions you'd like to share? 

Here are a few questions to ponder today and for the next while -- whether you have begun reading, or you've only read blurbs & author interviews so far and still have something to say, join in! Although there might be a few spoilers in the questions and discussion below so if you haven't got too far yet you might want to come back to this post.

I'll add some of my own thoughts and you can reply to them or add your own impressions. If you want to hear other takes on a part of the book that you are curious about, leave your own questions in the comments, too. We'll be having another book discussion on the last post of this round if you would like to add more thorough comments there, after we've all finished it. 

1. If you decided to pick up this book and read it for this round, why? Was it the description or just the challenge that caught you first?

I've wanted to share this book for a while, but it was out of print for a while so I couldn't - when I saw that the ebook was in print again I thought it was a good time to choose this title. I've always liked Riel Nason's writing style and this is my favourite of her novels, perhaps because of the textile elements, the antique store, or the compelling family story. I hope that if you've been reading along, her story has caught you as well. 

2. Are you at all familiar with the setting of this book, either geographical or the decade she's chosen? If so, does this add anything to the read for you?

While I've never been to New Brunswick, I feel like this setting is a familiar Canadian one. I grew up in Saskatchewan where there were also rivers and forests and small communities, also in the 70s, and it feels similar to Violet's experiences in some ways. I loved the rich descriptions of the landscape and the mood evoked, with the sense of time both in the landscapes and in the human items that are always "left behind". 

3. There is a mix of beauty and darkness in this story, with the narrative revealing only glimpses at a time. Did you like this, or find it effective? Did you think the outcome of the book was hopeful or not?

I remember being surprised by the storyline and some of the secrets which were slowly revealed when I read this first. But I also felt all the developments were embedded in the story and nothing felt out of place when it was revealed. It was more like something else being uncovered, that existed all along. I liked the way Violet's recollections moved from more traumatic moments into moments of beauty and comfort, to keep the story on an even footing. I did like the ending and thought it was developed believably. 

4. Is there a particular character that you've enjoyed so far? Any particular themes that stand out for you?

I really like Violet, I think she is an interesting mix of youthful and mature - maybe because of her responsibilities in her family. Her relationship with Jill, her best friend, was also interesting to me, as Jill felt more naive or immature in ways, and yet she was the one getting ready to jump into a marriage. I liked that subtle observation of social conventions through their friendship. And the themes of memory and loss permeate the book in so many ways, including how Violet's narrative moves between recollections and the present. But I really appreciated the way that antiques, both in store and in terms of the Vaughn estate, play a role in representing memory and past generations as well -- maybe because I thrift so much, I felt this concept strongly. And of course, the quilting elements were very appealing too!

5.  Is there anything specific  in the book that has sparked an idea for a project yet? Are you mulling over any ideas?

I have many ideas, some shared in the last post, and some more conceptually inspired, by some images in the book as well. The next inspiration post will be sharing ideas based on concepts like imagery, quotes, the mood of the book, so stay tuned for that. I have looked through my fabric stash and two particular fabrics have jumped out at me as suitable for some of my ideas so I may go from there... 

Has anything leapt to the top of your project list in your initial reading? Let us know if so! If not, let it percolate, and check out our next inspo post for more ideas. 

Beginnings: Project in Process

I've cut a few patterns in the last couple of weeks, so I have a queue waiting for me to get sewn up. I can't leave it for too long or these will become UFOs in a pile! But I'm starting with this one, Simplicity 3684.

I've made my pattern adjustments - mainly shortening the sleeve and the blouse above the waist - and grading between sizes at the shoulder to hip, as usual. And I've got it all cut out, but now I am pondering adding some easy embroidery to it.

I've been testing some ideas on scraps, to check out thread weights and colours, and design and stitch options. Don't feel I've got it yet but I'll do a bit more testing to see if this is something I want to go ahead with. If yes, more embroidery on the horizon. If not, just getting this all sewn up. 

I bought this cotton at a thrift shop recently. It has a nice texture to it but is a bit translucent so I did want to check if I could embroider without the stitches showing up behind. So far so good. I really like the fabric and hope that I got all the pattern adjustments right! And I am planning to have this all finished by the end of the month. More updates to come! 

Weekend Review: Fabric by Victoria Findlay

 

Fabric / Victoria Finlay
NY: Pegasus, c2022.
528 p.

This week I have another fabric focused read! This time I'm highlighting a book that I listened to while sewing - that made it particularly interesting as I went along. 

I thought this was a great read. Findlay covers a whole bunch of fabric types, shares stories of her travels and explorations of the history and current state of each, and also ties this all in with her personal life as she deals with her parents aging and death as her research trips progress. This was moving and gave extra depth to her perceptions of the places she travelled to; it also showed very clearly how long it takes to research and write a book like this. 

With the inclusion of her own story, this book reads more like a memoir, or at least "memoir adjacent". You'll either appreciate it or not, that's up to you to figure out. I liked it, and the final chapter about her mother's death made me, like many other reviewers, cry.

The fabric history parts are more like stories of her travels to find out about the usual suspects like cotton, hemp, wool, silk, and so on, but also some more unusual fabrics like tweed, jute, barkcloth and tapa. I was fascinated, especially by her travels to Papua New Guinea. Really interesting to see how the fabric is a community affair, a marker of identity and skill. She even has a short excursion into patchwork with a trip to Gee's Bend - not a fabric but definitely a fabric related community. 

This is quite long so if you have it in hardback you could dip into it between other reads. The chapter lengths are uneven though, so if you plan on reading one chapter before bed, try say the tweed chapter rather than the 100 page + cotton chapter! Anyhow, there is so much to this it's hard to cover it all. I will just say that I liked it, found her research into things like fabric related etymology fascinating, thought she wove her personal story in fairly well, and that I learned something here. I also thought that the audiobook, read by Carla Kissane, was well done, balanced and very easy to listen to. It's a great addition to the many books on similar subjects, with its own approach.