Crafts & Hobbies

Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts: Basic Techniques for Sewing, Applique, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing, plus 150 Inspired Projects from A to Z

Where to buy Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts: Basic Techniques for Sewing, Applique, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing, plus 150 Inspired Projects from A to Z books online?

Product Description
Whether you just bought your first sewing machine or have been sewing for years, Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts will open your eyes to an irresistible range of thoughts. A comprehensive visual reference, the book covers everything a home sewer craves: the basics of sewing by hand or machine, along with five additional time-honored crafts techniques, and step-by-step instructions for more than 150 projects that reflect not only Martha Stewart’s depth of experience and crafting expertise, but also her singular sense of style.
 
Encyclopedic in scope, the book features two main parts to help you brush up on the basics and take your skills to a new level. First, the Techniques section guides readers through Sewing, Appliqué, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing. Following that, the Projects A to Z section features more than 150 clever thoughts (including many no-sew projects), all illustrated and clarified with the clear, detailed instructions that have become a signature of Martha Stewart’s  magazines, books, and television shows.
 
An enclosed CD includes full-size clothing patterns as well as templates that can be easily produced on a home printer. Fabric, thread, and tool glossaries identify the properties, workability, and best uses of common sewing materials. And, perhaps best of all, when you need it most, Martha and her talented team of crafts editors offer you the reassurance that you really can make it yourself.
 
The projects are as delightful as they are imaginative, and include classic Roman shades, hand-drawn stuffed animals, an simple upholstered blanket chest, a quilted crib bumper, French knot-blown up pillowcases and sheets, and Japanese-inflated table linens, among many others.With gorgeous color photographs as well as practiced instruction, this handy guide will surely encourage beginners and keep sewers and crafters of all experience levels wonderfully busy for many years to come.

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Kaffe Fassett’s Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts: 23 Original Quilt Designs

Where to buy Kaffe Fassett’s Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts: 23 Original Quilt Designs books online?

• ISBN13: 9781584798378
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description

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Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy

Where to buy Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy books online?

• ISBN13: 9780618405473
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: For many, taxidermy summons images of wildlife frozen in menacing poses, teeth bared in an eternal rictus; or maybe it’s the lamented family tree cat, forever curled in purr-less slumber. With Still Life, Melissa Milgrom peels the skin back on Norman Bates’s favorite pastime, dutifully tracking taxidermy from its 19th-century heyday (the beneficiary of a natural history boom), to its nadir as a reviled predilection in the age of PETA and conservation. It will tell most readers as much as they need to know about erosion-molded rats and replacement lips, ears, and eyelids, but it’s the culture of iron-stomached men (and occasionally, women) that practice the art of skinned carcasses and stretched hides–persons who wield “the calipers and the brain spoons”–that Milgrom’s after. Beginning as a wide-eyed visitor to a third-generation stuff shop, she moves through an underworld of auctions, artisans, scientists, and the ultra competitive (albeit insular) World Taxidermy Championships, ultimately trying a queasy hand at stasher-stuffing herself. Still Life an entertaining and illuminating adventure. –Jon Foro

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Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Melissa Milgrom, Leader of Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy

Dear Amazon Reader,

People–even my own parents!–question what sparked my interest in taxidermy. I tell them that in 1994 I went on a safari gone awry, which led me to the family tree workshop of the last chief taxidermist of the American Museum of Natural History. I was expecting him to be creepy like Norman Bates in Psycho, but he was a gentle naturalist, and his studio with its skeletons and birds, the beauty and the weird tools, evoked Darwin’s study. The contradiction pulled me in, and still does.

Still Life took more than six years to write and that’s because I had to shift my perception from one of skepticism to one of empathy and respect. I just saw Fantastic Mr. Fox and thought if Wes Anderson had been alive in the 1850s he’d have been a Victorian taxidermist, building small scenes of kittens dressed as brides. It’s ironic–Victorians needed taxidermy to see exotic species from additional continents, and we need taxidermists for the same reason–we long for animals as they disappear. Taxidermy evokes grandeur, which may help us comprehend the present mass extinction.

Another reason I find taxidermy engrossing is because it combines art, science, and hunting. In Still Life I shadowed the most gifted taxidermist I could find in each area: an artist, a meadow naturalist, and a hunter, each of whom is on a quest to know scenery on its own terms. English sculptor Emily Mayer preserves animals for Damien Hirst’s most provocative artworks; her dogs are so boggling you have to poke them to see if they will go. Ken Walker, the hunter from Alberta who recreates extinct species, is self-taught. He won the World Taxidermy Championships three times and was a Roy Orbison impersonator, which really makes perfect sense. Taxidermy is like karaoke. The person who likes the singer the most gets the voice right.

I hope you will delight in the people you meet in Still Life whose obsessions and uncannily lifelike replicas make an art form that once was sublime and may be again.

Melissa Milgrom

(Photo © Ulalume Zavala)

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A Look Inside the World Taxidermy Championships with Leader Melissa Milgrom
(Click to Enlarge)

Ken Walker’s Panda “Thing Thing”–recreated from bear skins– Best of Show Recreations 2003

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Sewing for Dummies

Where to buy Sewing for Dummies books online?

• ISBN13: 9780764568473
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
Do you like to sew—or want to learn how? Then this book will have you in stitches in no time. There’s nothing like the feeling of completing a project using gorgeous fabrics and fantastic timesaving tools and then sharing it with your family tree and friends. Plus, learning to sew will save you money too! Before long, you’ll be stitching your own hems, repairing split seams, sewing on buttons, and much, much more.

Sewing For Dummies is a book for both absolute beginners and veteran sewers. If you’re a stone-cold beginner, you’ll find everything you need to know to sew beginning-level projects—and the book doesn’t assume that you’ve ever even selected up a needle and thread before. If you’ve had some experience with sewing, you’ll find tips and tricks that it took leader Janice Saunders Maresh, a nationally known sewing and serging instructor, years to pick up! You’ll learn how to:

• Master hand and machine stitches
• Read a sewing pattern
• Hem a variety of fabrics
• Negotiate sleeves and pockets
• Install zippers, buttons, and additional fasteners
• Shape garments with tucks and pleats
• Adjust projects for better fit and function

This updated edition features a fresh 8-page color slot in of all the new home decorating projects, including new patterns and instructions for a traditional living room with slipcovered couches and throws; a French country dining room with drapes and slipcovered chairs; and a bedroom with shams, duvets, dustruffles, and window treatments, as well as:

• a bathroom with a shower curtain and towels
• hip and funky tote bags
• the perfect small black dress

Perfect with lists of quick fix-it tools, sewing fundamentals, and sewing resources, Sewing For Dummies, 2^nd Edition, is the fun and simple way^® to get the basics and stitch up a storm in no time!

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Crocheting For Dummies

Where to buy Crocheting For Dummies books online?

• ISBN13: 9780470536452
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description

An updated classic covering the latest techniques and trends in crocheting

Are you hooked on the art of crochet? Looking for a fun new leisure activity that you can take with you virtually anywhere? Crocheting For Dummies, 2nd Edition gives you simple-to-know instructions on how to choose the right tools, make basic stitches, and end off your work to make gorgeous pieces of art. From learning to make consistency with gauge swatch to decoding crochet patterns, symbols, and diagrams, this simple-to-follow guide is all you need to start making gorgeous designs in no time!

This revised edition contains completely new content, including fresh new patterns, stitches, and techniques shiny crocheting styles from around the world. Plus, it’s packed with new and refreshed photos and line art throughout, along with step-by-step instructions that will easily guide you from your first stitch to your first sweater.

• A new section covering common crocheting mistakes and how to right them
• Crocheting with eco-awareness: using organic yarns, as well as free trade and sustainably sourced fibers
• The best resources for purchasing supplies, as well as choosing and buying patterns

Whether you’re a first-time crocheter or looking to expand your skills, Crocheting For Dummies, 2nd Edition gives you the skills, techniques, and confidence to crochet like a pro.

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Beekeeping for Dummies

Where to buy Beekeeping for Dummies books online?

• ISBN13: 9780764554193
• Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
• Notes:

Product Description
Judge it or not, bees are one of the oldest species of domesticated animals. Archeologists have establish evidence of beekeeping, or apiculture, in the Middle East dating back more than five thousand years. If you’ve ever tasted excellent clover honey, it’s not hard to know why. But it’s not just for the honey that more than 125,000 people (and growing) in the United States, alone, keep hives. Anyone interested in scenery can’t help but be fascinated by persons buzzing yellow bundles of energy and the exotic world they inhabit, with all its weird rituals and incredible efficiency. Also, dedicated gardeners appreciate the extra gift that pollinating bees bring to their fruits, flowers, and vegetable gardens.

In this simple-to-follow guide, Howland Blackiston, one of the nation’s most respected authorities on the theme, takes the mystery (and the sting) out of beekeeping. Taking a step-by-step approach to successful backyard beekeeping, he gets you up and running with all the information you need to:

• Erect a hive
• Set up your first colony
• Inspect your hives with confidence
• Maintain healthy colonies
• Deal with pests and fix common problems
• Harvest and delight in fresh homemade honey
• Bottle and market your honey

Howland Blackiston covers all the bases, from bee anatomy, society, and behavior, to identifying and healing common illnesses afflicting bees. He also offers inventive solutions to most common and many uncommon problems you’re likely to run into. Among additional things, you’ll learn:

• Where to place your hive, basic equipment you’ll need, and how to assemble a hive
• The best and safest way to inspect and delight in your bees
• Year-round tasks a beekeeper must perform to maintain a healthy colony
• How to admit and deal with common problems with offspring production and the precious queen
• How to harvest honey and choose what kind of honey you’d like to make
• Building products from beeswax and propolis

For both fun and profit, beekeeping has become a booming enterprise. A real honey of a book, Beekeeping For Dummies gets you on the road to enjoying this very ancient, highly-rewarding, and oh-so-tasty leisure activity.

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Knitwear Design Workshop: The Comprehensive Guide to Handknits

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Product Description

From the initial spark of inspiration to the sewing of the last seam, this advanced manual to knitwear design provides knitters with the foundation to take their projects to the next level. The five exceptional projects demonstrate the level of uniqueness and beauty that can be achieved with these practiced techniques and how to achieve the elusive “perfect fit” that defines a successful end product. Knitters will gain a clearer understanding of commercial pattern instructions, improve their attention to detail with a meaningful test swatch, and buy a stronger knowledge of proper body and garment measurements.

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The Artist’s Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self

Where to buy The Artist’s Way: A Course in Learning and Recovering Your Creative Self books online?

Product Description
This work provides a 12-week course that guides the reader through the process of recovering their creative self. It aims to dispel the “I’m not talented enough” conditioning that tends to hamper the creativity of many people.Amazon.com Review
With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, dread, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and additional inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity.

This book links creativity to spirituality by showing how to connect with the creative energies of the universe, and has, in the four years since its publication, spawned a remarkable number of support groups for artists dedicated to practicing the exercises it contains.

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