<DIV><B>A <I>Library Journal</I> Best Book of the Year</B><BR><BR><I>Hoopla</I>, by the co-author of 2009's bestselling <I>Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti</I>, showcases those who take the craft of embroidery where it's never gone before, in an astonishing, full-color display of embroidered art. <I>Hoopla</I> rebels against the quaint and familiar embroidery motifs of flowers and swashes, and focuses instead on innovative stitch artists who specialize in unusual, guerrilla-style patterns such as a mythical jackalope and needlepoint nipple doilies; it demonstrates that modern embroidery artists are as sharp as the needles with which they work.<BR><BR><I>Hoopla</I> includes twenty-eight innovative embroidery patterns and profiles of contemporary embroidery artists, including Jenny Hart, author of <I>Sublime Stitching</I>; Rosa Martyn of the UK-based Craftivism Collective; Ray Materson, an ex-con who learned to stitch in prison; Sherry Lynn Wood of the Tattooed Baby Doll Project, which collaborated with female tattoo artists across the United States; Penny Nickels and Johnny Murder, the self-proclaimed Bonnie and Clyde of embroidery; and Alexandra Walters, a military wife who replicates military portraits and weapons in her stitching.<BR><BR>Full-color throughout and bursting with history, technique, and sass, <I>Hoopla</I> will teach readers how to stitch a ransom note pillow, mean and dainty knuckle-tattoo church gloves; and create their own innovative embroidery projects. If you like anarchistic DIY craft and the idea of deviating from the rules, <I>Hoopla</I> will inspire you to wield a needle with flair!<BR><BR>With a foreword by Betsy Greer.<BR></DIV>