Ellen Anne Eddy's Thread Magic Studio: Telling Stories_The Town of Torper and the Very Vulgar Day Lily

Friday, February 4, 2011

Telling Stories_The Town of Torper and the Very Vulgar Day Lily

9:25 AM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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My mother was 3rd generation Irish. She was truly the best story teller I knew. Sometimes that's a wonderful gift. Sometimes it was crazy-making. She wasn't overly honest when she told stories. Often there was a loose and wild rape of reality.

Eventually I came to understand that she told the stories in ways that made the world work for her. Once I came to understand that, even if I was her go-to villain (and I often was) I learned to use it as a measure of where her hopes and fears were. The child with a monster under the bed isn't necessarily wrong. Often there are terrifying real monsters all through that child's life. We can talk about the one under the bed because it's safely "not real".

Somewhere in our modern world we've lost the ability to tell stories. We even sometimes view story telling as a kind of dishonesty or a case of bad reporting of the facts.

I never was a Dragnet fan. "Just the facts, Mam," doesn't always tell the story. Sometimes there needs to be a fiction in the place between us.

I'm Margaret Eddy's daughter, more than I ever care to acknowledge. I indulge myself in creative story telling because it heals my heart. Like my mother, I know that it helps if the retelling is funny, if the victim is silly and clueless, if the villain has their own reasons, and if the fight is over small mole hills.

I'll tell a story in two ways, sometimes in words, sometimes in images. If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I had an unpleasantness with some neighbors over the garden.I often quilt my garden. It's where I live in my head. I come home to my house, but I live in my studio and garden.

So in the way we create our space, I've written a fanciful tale about garden wars. It's called The Town of Torper and the Very Vulgar Day Lily.

I've put in some of the pages so you can have a peek. It's been loving illustrated with my garden quilts and is as silly a story as I could make it. We're planning it's release at the end of February. If you'd like to put your name on the pre-order list, email me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Very cool! Can't wait to see the book and all your wonderful art.

Susan; February 4, 2011 at 8:31 PM
Anonymous said...: This looks wonderful.. Love your art... I for sure will be ordering this book..; February 5, 2011 at 8:55 AM
Roberta Ranney said...: I couldn't resist poring over the garden quilts but didn't let myself read the text. I want to wait until I have the whole book! As always, your quilts draw me in to your special world for a time. Thanks.; February 5, 2011 at 10:39 AM
Anonymous said...: I am late coming over to have a look at this.. it certainly looks wonderful.. vibrant and intriguing!! Congratulations!!
I will be wanting this book...; February 18, 2011 at 8:31 PM