Book Reports – Becka Rahn, artist

Book Review: The NEW Spoonflower Quick Sew Project Book

Just last week, Spoonflower released their second book, The Spoonflower Quick Sew Project Book. You might know that I worked on the first book, The Spoonflower Handbook and we get a little shout out in the intro for this new book.

The author for the Quick Sew book is my friend Anda Corrie. I have known Anda for a long time, although we only met in person in 2016. Anda worked at Etsy for many years and I asked her to be a juror for a grant program that I administrated when I still worked in the arts admin world. She also was a contributor to the first Spoonflower book. She has a project (pg 85) and she did the illustrations for the book. I love the aesthetic of her fabric designs: colorful, whimsical, and simple, but in a way that has so much character.

I wanted to tell you about this new book and a little about what I think is great about it. (This isn’t a sponsored post or anything like that. Everything I say here is my own thoughts and impressions.)

The book in a nutshell

It’s a sewing book. Where the Spoonflower Handbook focused on teaching you ways to create your own design, the main focus of this book is sewing. It has a great variety of projects that use different amounts of fabric from swatch to several yards. Although there are several projects that show you how to design something that is personalized, that isn’t the main goal. In some ways, I feel like this one is the prequel to the other. The Quick Sew book teaches you […]

beckarahn2018-10-16T13:40:56+00:00Book Reports, Sewing & Design, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|Comments Off

When art won’t let you go, you write a book.

Sometimes when I finish a piece of art, I’m not finished. The ideas or inspiration or designs are still in my head and they still have something to say. I think this is why many artists do things in a series, like Monet’s variations on haystacks. The piece itself might be done, but the art is still trying to say something.

This doesn’t happen to me often. Usually, I am done and ready to move on. But the art for the recent public art/utility box project that I did is one of those that stuck around and wouldn’t let me go. Before I had even finished up the final technical details of getting those pieces ready to be installed, I decided that I wanted to write a book.

The beautiful thing about making a book from this project was that most of the hard work was done. Because I was already making print ready files for sticky vinyl coverings, I already had high res files that were perfect for printing. And I had a lot of “leftover” photos. When I started the project for Prospect Park, I took about 500 photos so that I had options to work from. I wasn’t sure what I would need and I knew I didn’t want snowy winter pictures, so I shot a lot last fall.

The story for the book I wrote at about 2 am one morning and it started with pictures of feet. The book has a very simple story; basically it’s about taking a walk with an artist and looking around you for art. Exactly what I did when I took the photos to […]

beckarahn2016-07-28T10:43:45+00:00An Artist's Life, Book Reports, ProspectPark|Comments Off

Online Party: A Spoonflower Handbook Giveaway

I know that not all of you live in the Twin Cities area and you can’t all make it to our book event here, so I am going to have an online party as well and I am going to give away a copy of the book as a door prize. (That’s my way of saying thank you to all of you out there in my online community too.)

To enter yourself for my doorprize drawing, you just have to give me a shout out and I will put your name in the hat. It’s that simple. Between now and October 16…

make a comment on this post
hop over to my Facebook page and say hi
tweet me something @beckarahn
send me a hello message through my Spoonflower shop
sign yourself up for my e-newsletter (there’s a form right over in the sidebar)

Any of those things will put your name in for the drawing. If you already have a copy of the book or have seen it, I would love to hear what you like best. (I love the Pen tutorial on page 203.)

The fine print.

If you already have a copy of the book (YAY!) and you win, I will send your prize as a gift to a friend. You tell me where it should go.
Make sure I can get in touch with you. ie. If you leave a comment without your email address entered in the comment form, I won’t be able to track you down.
Any comments, tweets, posts etc I receive before 11 pm (CDT) on October 16 will count.

beckarahn2015-12-01T21:06:44+00:00Book Reports, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|4 Comments

The honor of your presence is requested…

Don’t forget: The party is this Thursday.

I would love to see you there.

beckarahn2015-09-29T12:14:57+00:00Book Reports, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|Comments Off

You are invited: Spoonflower Handbook Book Party

We are throwing a party and we want you to come. I would like to personally invite all of you to join us at a book party for the release of the Spoonflower Handbook. I wanted to do a little event here in Minneapolis because this community has been so fantastic. So many of you have taken a class or asked me about a project or taught me something about design, that I thought it was only right to do something fun to say thank you for all of your help and encouragement and inspiration. So, Stephen is coming and we will talk about the book. He’s bringing all of the projects from the book (and some more really fun bonus projects). We will have door prizes to give away. Textile Center will have books to sell. We will even sign your books if you want us too. (I can’t believe I actually have a book to sign! How cool is that??)

The party will be held at Textile Center on Thursday October 1 at 6pm. (Go to www.textilecentermn.org for parking & directions.)

beckarahn2015-09-22T09:51:19+00:00An Artist's Life, Book Reports, Spoonflower & Fabric Design|2 Comments

Elizabeth Peters

Elizabeth Peters, mystery writer and creator of the indomitable Amelia Peabody, has passed away. I have read every one of the books in that series several times, as well as a number of titles under her other pseudonyms. A description from the Washington Post of her 85th birthday party last year makes me certain that she was as much of a character as the ones she wrote about. I am sad that I won’t have any more of her books to look forward to.

beckarahn2013-08-08T17:12:09+00:00Book Reports|1 Comment