Your Perfect Offering

The birds they sang
At break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

You can add up the parts
But you won't have the sum
Strike up the march
There is no drum
Every heart
To love will come
But like a refugee

(leonard cohen, Anthem)

Today my dear sister-in-law Tracy, who died of breast cancer in 2006, would have been 45. She was, and surely still is, a beautiful and radiant soul, and a teacher. I have been searching, on the back burner, for a beginning point for the Take It Further challenge for January (Sharon B's monthly exercise for  textile artists) and I think Tracy's it, as a person I admire. In art and craft, I'm not a fan of overly literal interpretations of personal experience -- they can too easily become banal; but I like the idea of letting my experiences inform my work, and that is the challenge, after all.  I'm a little late getting started but glad to have a point of departure.

Coming very soon: I have a whole slew of new magazines and books to review. The current harvest of fiber arts magazines seems to have finally emerged from complete surrender to super-fast-and-easy concepts geared to beginners. There is a place for those, and the more the merrier, but I'm mighty relieved to see more complex and challenging ideas and projects that celebrate craft, skill, and creativity.

The stack includes current issues of Fiberarts, Threads, Vogue Knitting, and Selvedge, and the books The Painted Quilt, Simple Sewing with a French Twist (from the inimitable Laura, thank you),  Print Pattern & Colour, and Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts, and I may also post a review or two from my library of older books. I'm working on getting my bibliography page started and posted.

I'm really a total book and magazine slut; I have few boundaries when it comes to these things, and I am in fact resisting going to the bookstore at this very moment. I like to think that every book and magazine helps me to be a good writer and editor as well as a good artist and crafter, and all the better if I can share information on this site. The challenge is always to stop reading and start making.

All for now, readers. Back soon.

Comments

[Louisa]

"I'm really a total book and magazine slut;..."

Me too! Maybe we should start the online chapter of Bibliophiles Anonymous? I've bought a shameful number of books and magazines in the past few weeks. My husband is concerned about the integrity of the floor in my studio/study due to the combined weight. So now I'm trying to stay on the wagon at least until the CC bills are paid. Though I did just order some books for him at his request - and couldn't help adding another for myself...erp.