If you’re curious about 3D Printing, try this quick tutorial with Susie to start designing with Tinkercad! More information about 3D printing at the library is available at fondulaclibrary.org/3d-printing/.
Children under the age of 13 will need a parent’s permission and email to activate the account.
Do a few of the tutorials that pop up on the welcome screen (“Learn the Moves”).
Make a Design
You can start a design from scratch by click “+New” from your profile icon.
Drag shapes onto the work plane. Resize, stack, or add text if desired.
When finished, group all components by holding down the “shift” key, selecting all text and objects, and then clicking the group button.
Share for Printing
Make sure the design has been “grouped.”
Change the design’s name to your name in the top left corner of then screen.
Download the design as an .stl file and email it to susie@fondulaclibrary.org. Indicate your color of choice from the list below. Include your name and phone number in the email.
Preferred Filament Color (Choose only one). Filament is PLA or TPU(flexible)
In this presentation, you’ll learn a few basic stitches in order to create an easy needlepoint portrait. Use your creativity and your imagination! The one used as an example here was drawn and made completely from scratch, but it was heavily inspired by different embroidered portraits and dolls on Pinterest. If you’re looking for inspiration, there are lots of different styles and difficulty levels exhibited on crafty sites like Pinterest, or even just by doing a quick Google search for “easy embroidery portrait.” You don’t even have to design a person! Animals make great subjects for these tiny works. The more simplified, almost cartoonish, you can make it, the easier it will be for now.
Use simple stitches to create a unique portrait!
In this presentation, you will learn a few basic stitches in order to create an easy needlepoint portrait. Use your creativity and your imagination! The one used as an example here was drawn and made completely from scratch, but it was heavily inspired by different embroidered portraits and dolls on Pinterest. If you’re looking for inspiration, there are lots of different styles and difficulty levels exhibited on crafty sites like Pinterest, or even just by doing a quick Google search for “easy embroidery portrait.” You don’t even have to design a person! Animals make great subjects for these tiny works. The more simplified, almost cartoonish, you can make it, the easier it will be for now.
STITCHES I USED
A) Backstitch
B) Running Stitch
C) Satin Stitch
D) Outline Stitch
E) Cross Stitch
F) Couching
G) Lazy Daisy
H) French Knot
YOU WILL NEED
Embroidery Hoop
Embroidery Thread
Cloth
Blunt needle
Pencil
Scissors
GETTING STARTED
Lightly sketch a cute portrait onto your fabric. Something very simple is what we’re going for here.
I used a regular pencil, slightly dull so it wouldn’t snag the fabric. If you have pencils with a soft lead, these would be good to use here as well.
For inspiration, Pinterest has a lot of examples!
A NOTE ON EMBROIDERY THREAD
Embroidery thread comes in 6 strands together. Generally speaking, you’ll want to split the threads and only use 2-3 strands for the stitches in this project.
I used 3 strands for each stitch except for the French Knots.
BACKSTITCH
You start by making a knot and coming up through the back of your work and making a regular stitch.
Then come back up a small distance away, but instead of continuing forward with the stitch, you go backwards and stitch into the hole you previously went into. This will create the illusion of a line.
The backstitch is very good for basic outlining.
BACKSTITCH CONT’D
You can make the stitch go in and come back out in the same action (panel 1) or you can simply pull all the way through and then make your next upward stitch separately.
I used backstitch for the shirt outline, the mouth, and the eyes.
RUNNING STITCH
The running stitch is a very simple stitch. You just make a knot and come up through the back, then decide how long you want the stitch to be, how big you want your negative space, and just go up and down, in and out, and that’s it.
You can bunch it up on the needle (panel 1) or go one stitch at a time. Bunching up is a bit more difficult to control, but it goes faster. It makes a very nice dotted appearance if you use shorter stitches like here.
KEEPING THINGS TIDY
Sometimes your fabric will be easy to see through, meaning the back of your work could show through a mess of strings if you aren’t careful.
In order to keep things tidy, I sometimes ran my thread through stitches in the back instead of just letting the string criss-cross willy-nilly wherever my next stitch needed to come out.
I don’t know if this is an “Official Embroidery Technique” or not, but it worked for me.
SATIN STITCH
This is a very useful stitch when trying to fill an area with color. You start with a knot and come up through the back, then you’ll enter the fabric across from the exit. You basically make loops with the thread, stitching very close to the entry and exit points to make it a solid fill.
OUTLINE STITCH
The outline stitch is similar to the back stitch, but with a twist. You start with a knot and come up through the back and make a regular stitch.
Then, come up from the back again, but poke through around the middle of the previous stitch, not through the thread (that’s a split stitch), but underneath.
Then stitch back down into the fabric and come back up where the previous stitch had gone in (panel 2).
CROSS STITCH
Cross stitch is a popular stitch and has its own entire craft dedicated to it. Here we are using it as a pattern, not as a filler, so the Xs are big.
In order to make this stitch, make a knot and come up through the back where you want to start your line of Xs. Make a row of diagonal stitches as shown. Be careful to line up the tops and bottoms of the diagonals so there won’t be any gaps when you finish out the Xs on the way back up (unless you want gaps, we’re not picky).
When your row of diagonals is long enough, make another row of diagonals on top of the one you just made, but working back up the row.
COUCHING
Couching is a technique that holds down thread with decorative stitches. It’s basically the running stitch, but with the added purpose of couching other stitches. I used it here to add a decorative element to the middles of the Xs on the cross stitch rows.
LAZY DAISY
This is a very easy way to make flower petals, hence the name of the stitch.
Make a knot and come up through the back of your work where you want the center of the daisy to be.
Go back into the fabric with your needle near where you just came out, still in the center of the flower.
Then, come back up through and out wherever you’d like the tip of your petal to reach.
Before pulling through, wrap your thread under the tip of the needle (panel 1) then pull through gently.
Be careful with your tension on this one. It will determine the size of your petals.
Once pulled through, make a small couching stitch at the tip of the petal to secure it in place, then go back to the center and pull up and through. Then start your next petal. Add as many or as few as you’d like.
FRENCH KNOT
As I mentioned earlier, I used 3 strands for all the stitches except this one. I wanted the knots to be a bit more bulbous than 3 strands would allow, so I used the full 6 strands for the French knots here.
Start with your knotted string and come up through the back like with all the other stitches. Before going back down through the fabric, wrap the thread around the needle two times. Tension is important for this stitch as well.
Holding the string gently but securely, poke back down with the wrapped needle into the fabric very close to where it came up through. Be sure it’s not in the exact same hole, otherwise it will unravel the knot and will not work. Make as many or as few of these as you want as well.
What is the book about? Laura Dean is a terrible girlfriend, but Freddy — who is helplessly in love with her — just can’t say no. She also happens to be the most popular girl at their high school, meaning she’s confident, charming and incredibly cute — but Freddy knows that she can be equally impulsive, forgetful, and heartless. After their most recent break up, Freddy is sent reeling. Her best friend, Doodle, attempts to help by introducing her to a mysterious medium, but Freddy is shocked by her cryptic parting words: “Break up with her.” Laura Dean comes back and when Freddy starts to pull away from her friends, she wonders if Laura Dean is really the problem. Maybe it’s Freddy’s fault, who is letting everything fall apart, including with Doodle — and Doodle needs her now more than ever.
My Review: When you’re a teenager, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of believing that you must settle for the love that you get, rather than the love you deserve. I feel for Freddy. Much like her, I’ve had my fare share of toxic relationships. I’ve lost friends by being a bad friend, and have had to watched my friends make similar unfortunate choices — like putting your significant other first, even though your closest friends see that they’re bad for you and are patiently (and some, not so patiently) waiting for you to realize it. It hurts. It’s hard. Toxic relationships can even destroy your self-worth — and I’m glad that Mariko Tamaki is taking the time to actually talk about this!
This graphic novel is simply gorgeous. It’s illustrated using stark black and white drawings, tinted with pink highlights. Like a memory, it’s very raw and ethereal. As the story unfolds, you are introduced to Freddy’s friends and acquaintances — of which, the vast majority are POC and LGBTQ. Mariko Tamaki artfully emphasizes intersectionality in her writing — and just like real life, no two relationships (or characters!) are the same. This is a fantastic graphic novel for personal introspection, or even book group discussion. It gave me all the feels. So bittersweet!
Three Words That Describe This Book: Growth, Heartbreak, Friendship
Give this a try if you like…Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Kiss Number 8 by Colleen Venable, and The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
More and more of our private information is on the internet these days. This makes it more vulnerable to misuse and identity theft.
In this presentation, learn a few strategies to start protecting your privacy online.
Topics Included
Creating strong passwords
Enabling private browsing
Installing browser extensions
Using social media
Creating Strong Passwords
What makes a strong password?
A minimum of 8 characters
Use upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters
Do no reuse the same password for other accounts.
Make passwords are hard to guess
Do not use your name, pet names, birth dates, anniversaries, or street names
People can easily look up this information about you on social media
Storing Passwords
Do not save passwords to your browser
Refrain from keeping passwords on a Google Doc or Word
Try a password manager (LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane)
Write passwords down in a notebook or piece of paper and secure it.
This is actually more secure than having them somewhere electronically on a laptop, tablet or phone.
Enable Private Browsing
What is private browsing mode?
When enabled, private browsing mode prevents browsers from keeping a record of searches, websites visited, login details and cookies
This is helpful when using a public device or whenever you would like to keep your web history private.
How to Enable Private Browsing
Google Chrome
Open the Chrome browser.
At the top right corner, click the menu icon.
Click on “New Incognito Window.”
Start browsing privately.
Firefox
Open the Firefox browser.
At the top right corner, click the menu icon.
In the menu, select “New Private Window.”
Start browsing privately.
Safari
In the Safari app on your Mac, choose Safari > Preferences, then click General.
Click the “Safari opens with” pop-up menu, then choose “A new private window.”
Browser Extensions
Extensions add a specific feature to an existing software application. Extensions are browser specific. So if you’re using Firefox, you need to download the extensions for Firefox.
While most extensions are junk, some actually help protect your privacy.
UBlock Origin is a free ad blocker. It will also show who’s tracking you and will prevent websites from collecting user data on browsing habits.
Social Media
Do not share too much information on social media
Do not share your address, email address or phone number on your social profile.
Be wary of sharing your location as well
Check your privacy settings on social media
Change your audience on Facebook to “Friends” instead “Public” so only your friends can see your posts and pictures
Knowledge is power, and the best way to understand what’s happening in our country is to dig in to resources that explain racial inequality in America by examining our history, institutions, experiences, and culture — as well as ways to unite for meaningful change. Most of these titles are available in multiple formats — book, eBook, audiobook, etc. — from our collection.
Coates offers a framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women andmen — bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion.
Rankine recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person’s ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named ‘post-race’ society.
In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation — that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes it clear that it was de jure segregation — the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments — that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.
At once a powerful evocation of his early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic, James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil rights movement with his eloquent manifesto.
National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin’s 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.
Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution — the nation’s original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America’s later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in The Half Has Never Been Told , the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States.
“The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it — and then dismantle it.” Kendi’s concept of antiracism re-energizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America — but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.
The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice. The Warner Brothers film is also available from FDL and streaming for free on most digital platforms.
Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow Laws, the system that once forced African Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts America, the US criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and an entire segment of the population is deprived of their basic rights. Outside of prisons, a web of laws and regulations discriminates against these wrongly convicted ex-offenders in voting, housing, employment and education. Alexander here offers an urgent call for justice.
Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change.
Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don’t dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.
The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history, using the lives of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists.
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life.
A memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement explains the movement’s position of love, humanity, and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement’s activists while calling for essential political changes.
In this groundbreaking and timely book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility. Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
What is this Book About?: This is a prequel to Iles’ trilogy beginning with Mississippi Blood. Penn Cage, the mayor of Natchez, Mississippi is confronted with evidence brought to him by a childhood friend, of crime and corruption on one of the city’s gambling boats, the Magnolia Queen. When this same friend is brutally murdered and Cage’s family is threatened with harm, the mayor begins an intensive investigation into the charges. This investigation implodes into a full-scale expose’ of crime, brutality, and espionage which reveals the frightening level of depravity some are capable of inflicting on other humans and animals.
My Review: This book is NOT for young readers or those adults easily shocked by descriptions of humans’ ability to inflict pain, suffering and abuse on others. I found some of the graphic descriptions of blood sport, abuse of women and cruelty toward other human beings hard to read at times. Iles is an outstanding storyteller and I loved his trilogy also set in Natchez. Penn Cage is a courageous, dedicated civil servant who follows his conscience to pursue crime even when those he loves are endangered by his actions — and there is much danger as sophisticated, evil killers attempt to stop Cage and his band of helpers and law enforcement officials. This book is definitely a thriller! And Greg Iles is a brilliant, masterful storyteller.
3 Words That Describe This Book: Graphic, Spell-binding, Horrific
Give This a Try if You Like… Iles’ other books about the South — The Quiet Game, Mississippi Blood, Natchez Burning, The Bone Tree or Cemetery Road
Wondering what to read next? Try our new reader advisory service FDL Match! Just fill out the form online and we’ll find up to 5 titles for you to pick up from the drive-up window! You can even leave a review and let us know if our suggestion was a good match. Find the form and more info at fondulaclibrary.org/fdl-match.
Have you been wanting to learn how to add twisting cables to your knitting? Follow the video instructions and the cabled swatch pattern provided below and you’ll be cabling in no time! You can add simple cables to any knitting project using knitting needles, yarn, and a cable needle. Prior knowledge of how to cast on, knit, purl, and bind is needed before you begin.
In order to knit a cable, stitches are slipped onto a cable needle. These stitches are held in back or in front of the work while you knit past them. The stitches on the cable needle are then knitted to complete the cable. When slipped stitches on the cable needle are held in BACK of the work, a Right Cross is formed. This is also called a Back Cross. When slipped stitches on the cable needle are held in FRONT of the work, a Left Cross is formed. This is also called a Front Cross.
Introduction to Cable Knitting
(a cabled swatch pattern)
Using Long Tail Cast On, cast on 29sts.
Knit 4 rows (garter stitch edge)
Begin Cable pattern:
Row 1: K5, P2, K6, P3, K6, P2, K5
Row 2: K7, P6, K3, P6, K7
Repeat Rows 1 & 2 one time (8 rows total)
Cable Row: K5, P2, Right Cross, P3, Left Cross, P2, K5
*Repeat Row 2. Knit Rows 1 & 2 two more times. Knit Cable Row. Repeat from *
Right Cross = Slip 3 stitches purlwise onto cable needle. Move the cable needle to the back of the work. K3 stitches from left needle. K3 stitches from cable needle.
Left Cross = Slip 3 stitches purlwise onto cable needle. Move the cable needle to the front of work. K3 stitches from left needle. K3 stitches from cable needle.
Continue knitting until the swatch has reached the desired size or you are comfortable with your cabling.
If you’ve never played Splendor, join Jimi for the latest edition of FDL Game Review and find out why this Renaissance-themed family card game is one of the top-rated games around! Place it on hold from our online catalog for your next family game night!
Many people enjoy reading books set in historical time periods that feature the author’s characterization and fictionalization of people from those eras. I am one of those people and have read several in the past year. Here are a few that I recommend.
Kelly uses the lives of 3 young women in Germany during World War II to vividly portray the lives of resistance women, a Nazi physician, and an American relief worker and how their lives overlap. Available from Overdrive and Axis 360.
Resistance Women covers the time period before World War II through the end of the war and details the lives of those who resisted against and worked to sabotage the Nazi government in Germany from inside the country. An eye-opening look at the lives of daring and dedicated opponents to Hitler’s regime. Also available from hoopla.
The actress Heddy Lamarr began her acting career in pre-World War II Austria and was actually married to a man who worked with Hitler. This disastrous marriage helped precipitate her immigration to the United States where in addition to her film career in Hollywood, she contributed as an inventor of technology which helped to end the war. This title is also available on Overdrive, Axis 360, and hoopla.
Shattuck relates the story of women married to resistance fighters in World War II who lost their lives after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944. Several of the widows unite in an abandoned castle to care for each other and continue the work begun by their husbands. Available on Overdrive, Axis 360, and hoopla.