I wrote (part of) a book!!! In fact, I wrote a whole chapter! The book is called Embellish Me and it's full of tutorials on ways to decorate and embellish fabric. My dear blog friend, Laurie Wisbrun, asked little old ME to be a part of it. Naturally, I said yes. This has been a year in the making and I am so excited that I can finally share it with you! I got my copy in the mail last week and it is absolutely gorgeous. It's well designed, inspiring and seriously cool. Plus, I'm in it. Just sayin'!!! Laurie wrote a really detailed run-down on the contents of the book, so instead of explaining it to you I will point you to her post!
The publisher is Rotovision, which is actually a UK publisher. So the book has two different versions, depending on where you buy it! The UK version is called How to Decorate & Embellish Your Fabrics. When I saw it, I was shocked and amazed. Three of my images appear on the cover!! The cover of a book, you guys. What?! Is this real life?
The tutorials in the book take you step-by-step through a wide range of techniques for doing beautiful things to your fabrics and enhancing your current projects. I'll show you a sample of what you can expect with a peek into one of the tutorials from my chapter. If you're familiar with my work, you'll probably be most interested in and excited to try this tutorial because it resembles the Wallflowers that I make! I created a more fluffy and relaxed version of the Wallflower for the book so that it would allow for more 'error' and also creativity on part of the crafter. Wallflowers are made very mathicmatically with precision but this version will turn out well even if you don't measure at all. You can pack more petals into it to make it more full and your rows don't need to be spaced precicely. I am starting to think I might even be favoring this style of flower at the moment over the Wallflower!
Another great thing about the book is the full four page spreads with interviews of each designer and photos of their work. I always think it's so much more interesting to get to know about the real person behind the work. To feel more connected to them and learn about who they are makes their work even more intriguing, relatable and personal. The layouts are beautiful too. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful exposure!
Being a part of writing this book was such a cool experience. During the process, I would describe it as hard and even stressful. It's so hard to envision the big picture and the final product, when you're trying to get the lighting perfect on a photo of you hand stitching a button onto a piece of fabric while delicately balancing the tripod leaning over a table by a window - oh yeah - and you're getting more hugely pregnant each day! HAHA. Little Luna definitely made it more challenging for me considering my complete lack of energy throughout 70% of my pregnancy! I think that just makes me even more proud of accomplishing this. It was harder than it would have been otherwise. I am proud to have done all of my own photography for it too. It wasn't really that long ago that I was just picking up a DSLR for the first time. What a completely satisfying project to be a part of, something I've been obsessed with for so long, a CRAFT BOOK!
If you're itching to see the rest of the book, or if you know someone who loves working with their hands and being creative, you can now purchase the book here on Amazon! If you do pick it up, let me know what you think of it!!
