Library Paradise

Musings on creating a book quilt

I’ve been thinking about how to create a book quilt for awhile.  I’d made some sketches of a soft chair with a cat and a book.  “No,” I decided, “too much emphasis on chairs and cats.”  And one day when I was looking for images of open books, I had the idea to photograph an old dictionary. Open book, to the page of a loon and I took several pictures.  Then I wanted the vantage point of the pages of the book on its side as it lies open.  Oh, nice pictures due to the soft green wall in the background showing.  Oh good, some interesting pictures of the stitching to hold the book together.  Creating books fascinates me almost as much as working with mixed media.

I played with the images and put some fabric and book images together.  I did this playing with the images on my computer.  I cut 5 pieces of fabric into rectangles 8.5” x 11” and then treated the fabric and hung it up on a drying rack to dry.  When the fabric was dry, I ironed it flat and placed freezer paper on the wrong side of the fabric.  And then I taped the edge that would feed into the printer to allow it to flow through and print without jamming.  I printed 3 sheets of lovely book images.

 

I thought I was complete and then I decided to add brads, and a bookmark.  That took a few more tools.

I enjoy adding interesting ephemera to my quilts.  In this quilt there are 3 brads, one braided embroidery floss bookmark, and one saying.

 When I felt complete, I added my signature and date.  I like the sepia color for the signature.

 Library Paradise, 12" x 12".

Tundra Swans, Brownsville, Minnesota

Amazing Beauty on the Back Waters of the Mississippi

Tundra swans resting and feeding make a lot of noise at rest.  Take a look at the black tufts in the water.  I took these photos as the sun was going down creating the soft pink in the water and the sky.

 

The tundra swans are making their fall migration to the East or West Coasts of the United States.  The birds  feed and rest near Brownsville, Minnesota then travel to the Eastern Atlantic Coast to winter.  They travel and live in large flocks.  Adult birds mate for life, but if one of the pair dies; the other will take a new mate.  The birds mate in the Arctic Tundra of northern Alaska and Canada in the summer.   

 

The migration is 4000 miles long.  And the young cygnets must learn to fly and make the long migration in order to survive with the flock.  At take off, the tundra swans run for 15-20 feet flapping their wings until they get a lift off.  They fly as high as 6000-8000 feet.  The birds can reach  speeds up to 100 miles an hour with a tail wind.  

The black tufts in the water are coots, a bird that lives in shallow water.  The swans and the coots seem to get along.  This photo by Bob Stuber was taken through a telescope.