Books and Threads

Purl Soho--Emma, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Penguin Threads edition

Emma, jacket flap

Jane Austen, Emma

A display of books in the store windows of Purl SoHo, one of my favorite fabric and yarn shops, caught my eye as I walked by this weekend.  Apparently, Penguin books has just released three classic titles repackaged in new "Penguin Threads" editions, which, according to the website, "will appeal to the Etsy-loving world of handmade crafts." The cover designs were stitched by artist Jillian Tamaki, using needle and embroidery floss, and then reproduced in a final, embossed design. The underside of wraparound French flaps boldly and honestly reveal the underside (i.e., normally hidden side) of the stitching.


These designs connect to a genre of children's book art:  illustrations where needlework panels make up an entire picture.  A Pocketful of Posies, is an example that we recently acquired for our library.  Illustrated by Salley Mavor, this book is made up of page after delightful page of appliqued and embroidered scenes from nursery rhymes.  While researching Salley Mavor, I discovered that there currently is a traveling exhibit of the work that she made for the book.  You can learn more about Salley Mavor, her work, and her process on her Wee Folk Studio blog.

Pocketful of Posies by Salley Mavor,  Houghton Mifflin, 2011

Clare Beaton's Mother Goose Remembers is another collection of nursery rhymes, illustrated with felt, embroidery, vintage buttons, and beads.  The homespun, pastel images evoke a a cozy feeling of snuggling up to a lap reading of familiar rhymes.  

Clare Beaton, Mother Goose Remembers, Barefoot Books, 2000

Tô Ngoc Trang (illustrations), Pham Viêt Ðinh (embroidery)
Inspired by the embroideries made in the village of Quat Dong in Vietnam

Anna Grossnickle Hines, Pieces: A Year in Quilts,  Greenwillow Books, 2001

There's a huge body of children's literature around the subject of quilting.  But in Anna Grossnickle Hines' Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts, quilting is the medium for illustrating her poems on the theme of the seasons.  In the appendix, Hines describes her process of making quilts.