How to Make a Needle Felted Starfish by Loretta Alvarado
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Of all the Kindle versions of felting books I’ve read, this is the most inspiring. Since I am working on a seahorse, a starfish seems the most logical next project. The pictures were beautiful and well presented so one might not need the words to do the job. The instructions were short and to the point.
If you are thinking of needle felting, this may be a good first project for you. Great job, Loretta Alvarado!
Though this book had a lot of fun things to make, they were all wet-felted. Worst of all the pictures were not visible in any way. I read it on the PC because it makes the font and pictures bigger than on my Kindle Fires. But this one it didn’t help at all.
Still, the instructions didn’t seem impossible to understand so if you wanted to make the product reading could get you there. This is another one I will revisit next summer when I can handle getting wet. It is almost too cold to do the dishes in our house right now. Sure your hands are warm while in the water but the minute you put the last dish in the drainer your hands are cold. I’ll stick to the less painful, yet occasional prickly needle felting. Weird that I prefer blood to cold.
Though this book is about felting, it is more about wet-felting. And though there is a bit of needle felting and some ideas for what to do with defective or broken needles, it wasn’t enough for me and my need to learn about needle felting.
Another cool thing about this book is that it is for parents or teachers/counselors of children with disabilities. I can see how the wet felting could be fun and how it could be a great bonding experience for everyone. And the squishing wonderful feeling of wet felting has to be a lot of fun. Maybe as good as making slime, but you get to keep the item you make, not just clean it up.
But for me, it is getting cold and I just don’t have the room that is warm enough to do wet felting. Maybe next summer I will revisit this book and this part of the craft of felting.
Needle Felting for Beginners: Sculpting with wool – cute, easy projects with step-by-step tutorials by Lori Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I want to give this book 5 stars. I really do. But with no Text-to-Speech for some of us, it is hard to read. Maybe I could give it 4.5? Because…
It is the perfect book for a felting newbie. It really does start with cookie cutter easy felts. And there are a few websites to go to from the book. Too bad they aren’t links. And you can’t copy the URLs to paste into an address bar, so … just not as well formatted as it could be.
STILL, for those just getting started on this craft, this may be the best book to get. I have ‘leafed’ through it several times on several of my readers. The best one is the PC Kindle as the pictures and fonts are much larger.
Maybe a warning I just picked up on, one shouldn’t use upholstery foam because it has fire-retardant. I cut up an old neck pillow that I gave up on a while ago. Since I’ve already spent my fun cash for this new hobby, I can’t afford another. But I’ll try to get a new felting cushion soon. I hope I don’t get to the point of it being dust that would be bad for my lungs.
So get this book if you can. There’s a lot to learn in it despite the formatting.
Return to Woodbury by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
You know those books that you can’t put down? Yep. This is one of them. I never read book 1 so I have no clue if it is about The Walking Dead characters we know and love from the television show. This is a whole new bunch of people. Not even of the Fear of the Walking Dead bunch. I loved the characters right away. The slip of Rick Grimes’s name near the end lets you know it is a part of the same series.
And who wouldn’t want to live in an IKEA? What a great place to ride out the apocalypse? But our fearless leader has other plans, against this reader shouting to stay put.
I don’t like reading books out of order but it was available on NetGalley and I couldn’t resist. I’m glad I got to read it. Especially since the new season doesn’t start until, what, the 18th or something. And I had just finished another binge of all the seasons on, I think, Netflix. Yeah, including Negan’s bad behavior. So I was jonesing for more TWD. This book filled the sudden void.
If you are going to read it, block out a space in the daytime so you don’t have to stay awake until the sun comes up in the morning. It is THAT good!
My new NetGalley badges:
Felting: The Complete Guide by Jane Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a beautifully illustrated, how-to book. I loved that it was ring-bound rather than a glue and stitching binding. It makes it easy to hold the book open on the page as you try the methods. If I were working on the projects presented I would be ever so grateful. But I’m trying to make other things.
I think if one were working on a wet felting this would be even better as your hands would be too wet to turn pages that accidentally flip.
If I had read this before the era of YouTube I might have given it five stars. But, hey, there are so many tutorials out there to walk you through everything. So, if you don’t have a computer go check this out at the library, or if you have the cash, buy it. You’ll love it. I’d love to see what you make!
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For some reason, I thought I had already written this review. Boo Me! This was my favorite Dana story yet! And even that may be a bit of a spoiler! Only for those following this part of the series.
Timeout. I just need to say how much I love the cover pictures of Dana! She is so cool! She isn’t some starved skinny-mini. This gal means business! The story reflects the cover or vice versa. Geez, with all the vampires, Las Vegas will never be the same. But that is why Dana is there, to rid that fine city of those bloodsuckers.
As I’m writing this review, I am having the hardest time making sure not to put out spoilers. Just take it from me, this was a marvelous series and Dana is my favorite of all of Ms. Reine’s characters. So sorry to see this series end. How I hope Sara will bring Dana back again soon!
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I would gladly give this book 5 stars. But making poor people (the Kindle version is $12.99!) and/or those with vision problems to buy the audio-book ($19.99) is just plain greedy! Sure the Audible version helps the reader know how certain words are pronounced. And the narrators are very good. And (although I had to wait until I had a credit over there) it was ‘free’ on Audible. I could have had that Kindle version back to the library earlier had I been able to listen to a Text-to-Speech as I read. All that inconvenience and not being able to save my credit for something else I was planning on, should actually lower my rating. But, doggone it! This was a fantastic book! Please, dear author (Lisa See), since the book is about poor people and their struggles, consider the struggles of those who can’t afford to buy your book and or have vision problems!
Gripe ended. The book was so good that I didn’t want to stop reading it for anything! I loved the amount of research the author put into the whole story. And yet I didn’t feel inundated with information. It all felt quite naturally a part of the tale.
It is told mostly from Li-yan’s point of view in a minority village of China. Later her daughter, Haley’s, point of view as an orphan in Orange County, California. What is genetic, instinct, or just natural curiosity? In a culture discouraging more than one child and girls the least desirable, what are the results on those poor girls sent away? What happens to the country that makes that happen? What are the results for the family or parents that are forced into this kind of situation?
These questions are answered. AND you will learn more about tea than you may ever want to know but find yourself longing to know more!
It has been over a week since I finished reading/listening to this gem. I still miss the characters and wish I knew what happened next. I doubt there is a second book in the making. The book leaves you just wishing for more. If you can get the book or audio recording, I think you will like it! Thank you, Leslie, for recommending it!
Heart Felt Knits: 25 Fresh and Modern Felting Projects by Tamara Mello
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
How can I fairly review this book? The wool that was donated to us is good for cores of toys but I don’t think it will do well for wet-felting. It certainly can’t be spun into a decent yarn. This book centers on felting that is done from knitted items.
Yet, if this appeals to you, and the pictures are certainly appealing, you might want to go out and buy good wool yarns and get busy. In fact, the scarf featured on the actress on the front of this book is beautiful. If you recognize her, from the show Popular, it may be even more fun to read this book. Ms. Tamara Mello spent much of her downtime on set, knitting. Reading about her path of learning knitting was fun. I loved the looks of all the items pictured in the book. The instructions, even for learning to knit, were thorough and well illustrated.
So I guess I should mark this 5 stars, even though it isn’t helpful now. Who knows how far I will get into the felting hobby? I may find myself buying this book later instead of borrowing it from the eBook library.
Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 100 books for the 2013 Reading Challenge! 115 of 100 (115%)
Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 225 books for the 2012 Reading Challenge! 225 of 225 (100%)
Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 200 books for the 2011 Reading Challenge! 204 of 200 (102%)
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