Saturday, January 18, 2014

Winners
 
It has been wonderful reading all the comments this week. Thank you everyone for your kind remarks.

I wish you all could have been winners of my book.
But alas I only had 2 copies to give away.
The winners are
Brenda 
Who posted this on January 10, 2014 at 11:59 AM
I love doing Irish Crochet. Your book looks great. Would love to win a copy!
and

I was looking for crocheted flowers for my grandson's wedding cake I crocheted but none I really loved. Now that I have seen a sampling of your work, I think I have found at least one I love. I hope I am one of the lucky ones. Thanks, Anita
Beautiful work.

Congratulations to both of you.
I need both of you to get hold of me at kathyawhite@centurylink.net  so I can arrange to get your books to you.
Please contact me as soon as possible.
 
I hope all of you will have a chance to enjoy Irish Crochet now and in the future.
It's a lovely art form.
 

I want to Thank you all for taking to the time to share my joy of this book.
 
 
 
 

Friday, January 10, 2014

A Blog tour for my book: The Go To Book for Irish Crochet Motifs


The Go To Book For Irish Crochet Motifs.
I don’t promote myself or my work all that often. But I am so proud of this book I decided to do a blog tour. I asked some fellow lovers of crochet if they would look my book over.
You can find the book at
Annie's
Their write up for the book
If you have ever tried to make an Irish crochet motif using vintage pattern books, you most likely ended up confused, frustrated and a bit bewildered. In this book, we have taken these lovely motifs and written them in a manner where they make sense to the modern-day crocheter. Now these stunning motifs will be preserved and used now and in the future.
To make this fun
I will be giving aways 2 signed copies of my book at the end of this tour.
All you have to do to have a chance to win it is leave a comment on my blog.  At the end of the Blog tour on the 18th I will do a random drawing for the winners.
 
I think all the participants of this tour will be giving away books also.
I know that Susan Lowman’s has a signed copy as I delivered hers personally last week.
So to see what they have to say about the book and to enter their drawing be sure to visit them on these dates.
Susan Lowman on Saturday the 11th of January.
Amy Shelton of Crochetville on Tuesday the 14th of January.
Andee Graves on Friday the 17th of January.
 
I respect and value these people and their opinions and look forward to hearing what they have to say about the book.
I will do my drawing on Saturday the 18th of January so you will have a week to make your comment.
Now about how this book came to be:
I have a love affair with Irish Crochet.
Just look at my work and you can see it reflections in my designs

There is something special about combining motifs and crochet to create works of art that appeals to me.
So I was thrilled when I got to realize a dream of mine
To make Irish Crochet motifs patterns
more assessable and doable for the average crocheter.
When I first discovered there was a whole world of Irish crochet most of the Irish crochet motifs patterns were in antique pattern books and the style of pattern writing was iffy at that time. Some of the patterns just made no sense what so ever. So unless you were good at looking at a piece and creating it that way a lot of the Irish crochet motifs where frustrating for a person to make. Some nigh on to impossible.
So When I mentioned that I dreamed of doing a book that would have better written patterns for the motifs so today's crocheter could enjoy making these motifs to an editor, and she told me to go for it,I did with relish and enthusiasm. This book is the results.
The hardest part of the book was to decide what to include. There is so many wonderful and lovely motifs and I had to make choices. I knew I couldn’t include it all. Wish I could have but there are limits to what I could accomplish in a given amount of time. I must admit a few motifs that are my own originals slipped in. I couldn’t help myself, the book got my creative juices flowing.
I tried to give a good cross section of the different motifs one might want to use.
I decided to break it down into types of motifs, Flower, leaves, fill in motifs,overlays and so forth. So that motifs could be easily found.
I did not do any projects in this book as it is intended to be a reference book when someone needs a motif to use in creating an Irish crochet piece. They can be used as embellishments also. Adding a special touch to everyday items. There are a myriad of uses for these motifs. Just let your imagination run wild.
I also tried to set it up with traditional motifs that use padded rings and padding cord. But I also included a more modern version of as many motifs as I could that are a bit less intimidating as I realized that not everyone is comfortable with the traditional techniques. The best of both worlds.
I did do a section on how to do the true Irish crochet with the fill in lace background. This is one of the most rewarding ways to create truly artistic pieces of crochet work.
Work these motifs in yarn, thread, or whatever your hear desires. Use them any way you can think of and I will be a happy designer.    
I was so pleased when I actually saw the book as it turned out as I envisioned. I will tell you we worked very hard to try and make these patterns as error free as possible. I thank the tech editors for the patience with me and the good job they did. They helped make the book what I dreamed of. 
It is my hope and dream that this book will fill a niche that has been sadly unfilled and make these motifs useable now and for the future..
This was a labor of love for me and
I hope you use my book to enjoy the world of Irish crochet.
 
The winners are
Brenda 
Who posted this on January 10, 2014 at 11:59 AM
I love doing Irish Crochet. Your book looks great. Would love to win a copy!
and

I was looking for crocheted flowers for my grandson's wedding cake I crocheted but none I really loved. Now that I have seen a sampling of your work, I think I have found at least one I love. I hope I am one of the lucky ones. Thanks, Anita
Beautiful work.

Congratulations to both of you.
I need both of you to get hold of me at kathyawhite@centurylink.net  so I can arrange to get your books to you.
Please contact me asap.