Looking for Omar
E. Ethelbert Miller
In partnership with Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University, Dr. Maya Angelou, and the Target Corporation, the Poetry Foundation has developed curriculum for teaching essential African American poetry to students of all ages.What a great resource for teaching poetry with children! There is a list there with links to a poem a day for the month of April, National Poetry Month. The above poem by E. Ethelbert Miller is listed there. Check out the others here.
by sule greg c. wilson. Rosen publishing group, inc., 1999. In my recent quest for books on how to machine quilt I found this one at the library. It's an introduction to the history of African American quilting written for middle grade and up readers. Topics include an explanation of what quilting is, the history of quilting from a world-wide perspective ("there is evidence of cotton cloth in southwestern Asia between 3000 and 2500 BC"), textile work in Africa ("there is evidence that cotton cloth was being produced in the upper Nile Valley between 500 BC and AD 300"), quilting in America, and quilting today. The illustrations are photographs of quilts from museum collections, detailed examples of West African fabric samples, clothing decoration styles, and people quilting alone or in groups.
Spark: I know you admire African American quilts. Do you only collect quilts made by African Americans?
SM: I've broadened out a bit. As long as a quilt is improvisational, as long it goes beyond repeating the same old pattern, it's interesting to me. I like asymmetry; I like it when they run out of cloth and have to do something else that doesn't match. Recently I bought a quilt that has all the aspects I admire about African American quilts, but it was made by a Polish woman in the 1920's. Others that are anonymous I buy because they have that aesthetic—changing the pattern, not static—I'm not the quilt fancier who says, "Oh, look at the small stitches." I appreciate everybody's quilts, but the small stitches don't interest me at all. I'm more interested in the ones quilted with string, or large stitches going across as fast as they can.
I got the Esther Mack quilt in Chicago. I eventually sold it to the University, at cost, to the African American Studies department. It's there in their quilt room in an acid free box; you can go and look at it, and it would have a little bit of history on Esther Mack—the little bit that I knew—perhaps if she had come from Mississippi, where she was born, or about how old she was when I got the quilt (in the mid or late 80's). I would sleep under every quilt that I bought, at least once. That was part of the research I did to write about them, feel their weight, their specific warmth; they really don't feel alike, the different ways that they press on you. This was one of the first quilt poems I wrote. I was certainly worried about making them [the poems] work; I didn't know if I could.
Isn't that fascinating? Here is one of the poems she wrote about that particular quilt:
Esther Mack's Utility Quilt with the
Lights in It
When Esther Mack ignited her first star
from exhausted aprons, she slept
with the weight of that star on her right foot,
just where she could kick it into space.
A pair of purer, one-color shinings
floated where her husband breathed.
The rest of the quilt she spangled with squares
to clash and keep the three big suns awake.
Always, at some hour, the tired star would say to her,
boost me up into the darkness--
Magical Four-Patch and Nine-Patch Quilts by Yvonne Porcella. I have had this book on my shelf for a couple years. It is the inspiration for my scrap quilt, although I didn't follow her method exactly. She chooses eleven colors and has a formula for how to place the nine and four patches interspersed with horizontal and lateral strips of solid color fabric. I started collecting strips of fabric scraps and making nine patches a year or more ago, planing to try this method. The quilt I've been finishing in the last couple days was based on her plan but I made up the composition myself as I went along. It's purely scrappy, with no overall pattern. I picked up a few tips on how to balance the colors and composition from Porcella. This is a very helpful book.
Show Me How To Machine Quilt by Kathy Sandbach. I got this one from the library. Sandbach's book is a quick read. It's very clear and concise. She gives excellent advice on what type of tools you need, the different kinds of batting and how it effects your quilt, and the precise techniques that make for success. She has photographs of her hand positions that really helped me. She explains how to adjust the settings on your machine, which is something that always mystified me. She has extensive illustrations of the free-hand quilting designs she uses with explanations of how you can learn to do it without needing to mark your quilt top. Once you learn to use the needle and fabric like a pen and paper you can just start to doodle or sketch repeating designs. With practice it becomes smooth and it's fun. I've never had the courage to try this before. I've also never had a machine that could drop the feed dogs or a darning foot that made the movements possible. Now I am really having fun trying it out. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn to machine quilt.
Patchwork Skills & Techniques by Dorothy Wood is one of the first books I bought about quilting ten years ago. It is a very helpful guide to learning all the basics. From how to select fabrics, how to piece blocks together, how to layer and bind and how to do basic quilting stitches it is fabulous. I learned so much from studying this book. Clear, concise explanations, step-by-step directions and illustrative photographs show everything you need to know to make hundreds of block designs. I've made a lot of quilts from the instructions in this book.
by Katie Davis
Mary Hunt is having a Debt Proof Living Summer Olympics over at her blog. She is challenging us to take on some new spending/saving habit or activity to complete during the Summer Olympics. The metal catagories include but are not limited to:Eligibility requirements are as follows: You must be a fan of Debt-Proof Living, Everyday Cheapskate, MRDS (this blog)—embracing the credo (which of course you know by heart … “Bringing dignity to the art of living below your means”) and be willing to challenge yourself in the Olympic spirit. It won’t hurt if you are also somewhat obsessive and willing to play along.
The rules:
1. DPL Olympians are required to begin a personal financial project during the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, and finish before the flame is extinguished.
2. Participants come up with their own events, which must require some level of sacrifice and difficulty while still being possible to attain. Suggestions: No spending for 17 days (the mother of all challenges, for sure); depositing $10 a day into a real savings account, holding a garage sale, or eating only the food you have on hand. You get the idea. (For ideas, go HERE for a current list of participants and the events they’ve selected.)
3. The DPL Gold Medal Certificate will be awarded to all who report to the group that they finished their event and reached their goal. The honor system will prevail.
by Walter Dean Myers. Scholastic, 1994. Library paperback. This is a family saga telling the story of the Lewis family in South Carolina, Chicago and Harlem from 1753 to the 1970s. The first section starts out with the story of eleven year old Muhammad Bilal off the coast of Sierra Leone, West Africa, when he is captured by slavers and brought across the sea to the Caribbean. The story skips ahead to his granddaughter's life on Curry Island, South Carolina, during the Civil War in the second section. The format continues from here, skipping generations in this African American family, but always moving forward. There is a family tree highlighting the players of each section on the opening pages."What should I do?" Lizzy looked around as the soldiers and wagons started moving out. "What am I going to do?"
"Girl, you can go on with some folks who gonna try to make it North," a woman said. "Or you can stay with the soldiers and help them do what they want. They always need somebody to cook and mend."
Lizzy looked to where the black soldiers had gone down a road, seeing them turn and disappear around a bend. She couldn't see around the bend, or know what she was going to find when she got around it, but she knew she had to find out.
She ran as fast as she could, her feet slapping against the hard road. When she got around the bend, the men were still in sight, tall and proud. She followed them, never looking back."
Pilates for Every Body by Denise Austin is a great introduction. She gives background history of how the program was developed, encouraging descriptions of what the program can do for you no matter what body type you have, detailed discussions of the principles and why they work, and several levels of work out plans you can mix and match. There are numerous clear photos showing exactly how the exercises should be done and summery chart pages one could copy and post in a useful place near your mat. She has a "3 week total body makeover" that I am planning to start with. It's cool that I have the book out of the library for exactly three weeks, giving me a greater incentive to finish the program on time.
POWER PILATES by Dianne Daniels is another useful, easy to follow guide. She starts out explaining how Pilates is good for everyone, no matter where you are starting. She gives an in depth explanation of how Pilates changes your body if you really work the whole program."Pilates changes the body from the inside out. The key to success is using your mind as well as your body. In Pilates you won't tune out. Instead, every movement, every repetition, is performed with concentration and mental control. You will learn to tune in to exactly what your body is doing and not doing, what is moving and what is not moving.
Your body will gain new wisdom. What begins as a thought or visualization in your mind is relayed via new neuromuscular connections that trigger your muscles to respond. Sometimes the muscles are called upon to make movements that, though almost imperceptible to the eye, are the very essence of the work."
