Friday Flowers: Another Type of Rose

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that a lot of you stitchers out there are also readers. If so, did you grow up reading and loving the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE books? I know I did.

This summer I had the privilege of reading an advance copy of a book by Susan Wittig Albert called A WILDER ROSE, that tells the fascinating story of HOW those wonderful Little House books actually got written and published. You may think you know all about Laura Ingalls Wilder and how, as an older woman, she sat down and wrote all those charming books about her early pioneer life. Well, come to find out, there's an entirely different story about the writing of those books that has been hidden from readers all these years.

In A WILDER ROSE, Susan Albert has meticulously researched and written about Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, the behind-the-scenes author and editor of all her mother's famous books. Rose Wilder Lane was a well-known writer whose books and stories were widely published during the 1930s and '40s and on into the 1960s. [And here's an interesting fact for us stitchers: being an accomplished needlewoman herself, Rose Wilder wrote the Woman's Day Book of American Needlework in 1963. Who Knew?!?] 

But back to the Little House books.... Throughout the 1930s and '40s, Rose took on the challenge of editing and shaping her mother's stories so that they could get published, and never asked for or received any public recognition of her work. A WILDER ROSE reads like a fictional novel, with lots of wonderful details about life in those Depression years; yet there's also the building drama of Rose's struggle to shape her mother's books and still be true to her own needs and visions as an artist and writer.  I found the book to be an absolutely riveting story of a relationship between a strong-willed mother and an independent but dutiful daughter.

I have to tell you, I am a great fan of all of Susan Albert's books; I love her Beatrix Potter Cottage series, her Darling Dahlia series, her China Bayles mysteries.... the list goes on and on.  But what really impresses me in ALL of her books is how respectfully she treats her characters.  The same thing applies in A WILDER ROSE; she treats mother Laura and daughter Rose with the greatest respect and dignity, and above all, truthfulness.  Reading about Rose Wilder Lane made me a little sad, to realize how her contributions to the Little House books were unknown for so many years. Yet now that I've read Susan's book, I'm glad to know the real story behind the Little House books, and happy that Rose's part in those classic books has finally being revealed. I'm exceedingly grateful to Susan for telling us this very important story.

So, if you're a fan of those Little House books, or just love a good true story about an independent woman trying to make her way during those hard Depression years, you really must read this book...

And psssssst: following in the footsteps of all her independent women characters, Susan Albert is herself traveling into uncharted territory by self-publishing this book.  You can find it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or better yet, go visit Susan's website dedicated to Rose Wilder Lane, called www.awilderrosethenovel.com.

Enjoy The Day

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy the long weekend!
(And don't forget to do a bit of stitching, too...)

Next in the Series: A New November Design!

 
So often, after I create what I think will be a single one-of-a-kind design, it will become so popular, someone will ask if it's going to be part of a series and will I be creating more?  And then I get busy designing more pieces for the newly created "series".   That's what happened with my very popular INDIAN SUMMER and INDIAN AUTUMN pieces from my American Quilt Collection (shown above and below).

When I got to thinking about what to do for an INDIAN WINTER design, I wanted to use a different color scheme -- with colors that evoked winter on the plains, snow-covered golden fields and brilliant blue skies, something like this:

(winter photos from FreeBigPictures.com, 

because, ahem, we don't normally get scenery like this in Sonoma County!)

And I pulled a Watercolours thread 279 called "Martinique" for my variegated foundation, and then created a blue and gold palette for this brand new piece called TA DA -- INDIAN WINTER:

I really enjoyed working this geometric quilt design.  It was very relaxing, with easy stitches, yet challenging enough with all the elements changing directions to create interesting light effects. Here's a close-up:

I like it so much, I'm hoping I can stitch it again sometime, using another color scheme.  Although for this model I specifically wanted a variegated thread that could support four separate accent colors.... but you could also use a variegated thread that just had TWO main colors, and then you'd alternate the colored blocks!  Fun, fun, fun....

So if you're in the mood to hunker down in front of a November fire, with a design that captures that special autumn-into-winter feel, please visit my website for all the INDIAN WINTER details and ordering information!

Changing Colors

 Are the trees in your area changing colors?

Do the leaves look like they are being hand-painted by nightime elves?

Does this time of year inspire you to work on projects with autumn colors of red & gold? 

 If so, here are a few of my favorite fall designs:

 FALLING LEAVES, from my American Quilt Collection

 

and CHEROKEE STAR, which has the same red and gold colors 

(also from the American Quilt Collection)

  a more elaborate TURNING LEAVES, from my Impressionist Collection

and a blackwork version of AUTUMN LEAVES, from my Sampler Collection

As the weather gets cooler, don't you think it's nice to work on a project that reflects 

the colors of the season?  I certainly do...

so Happy Friday, Stitchers....and enjoy your lovely long Veterans Day Weekend!

Tonight's the Night!

  Have you got all your candy?

 Found your tall pointy hat?

Cut holes in your sheets?

Fed your familiar?

Let the bats out of the belfry?

Lit up the jack-o-lantern?

Then you're definitely ready....

 Hope you have a fun-filled Halloween!

Is Your House Decorated for Halloween?

Time to gather the pumpkins....

Decorate your entry....

Stock up on your favorite candy..... and get ready for the spookiest holiday of the year!

Pssst:  That's my HARVEST MOON HOUSE, stitched last year and still a favorite with counted canvas stitchers!

Bargello & Butterfly Stitchers!

Hey, all you BARGELLO AND BUTTERFLY Stitchers!  I just want to alert you to a boo-boo in the Butterfly Graph....  The DMC numbers are reversed on the teal and blue symbols, so here's how they SHOULD be:

In other words, the BLUE thread - DMC 791 - should be the LOZENGE symbol; and the TEAL thread - DMC 991 - should be the FLOWER symbol.  And you can see where the teal stitches are if you look at the butterfly photo at the top of this post. 

And if you purchased one of the first patterns, you might not have DMC #5 791 listed on your back Materials Page.  You can stitch with DMC 791.... or if you have DMC 792 or 797 in your stash they also match the royal blue metallic ribbon that is used on most of the butterfly wing -- any one of those blues is equally electric!

So very sorry for the charting mistake and hope this doesn't cause you too much of a stitching inconvenience.....