Enough Pieces of Crazy to Go Around takes the reader on a journey through the life experiences of Melanie Mills as she struggles to identify and heal her trauma by navigating a system that dehumanizes and dismisses her at every turn. Unwinding the seemingly endless spiral down to memories long buried and bringing them to the light of day. Laying bare these horrors to a system more concerned with qualifying its own existence than providing real support, the reader sees how our culture bends to invent realities more suitable for appearance than effectiveness. Those who have experienced the dehumanizing effects of medical institutions – or who know someone who has – will appreciate Mills’ candor and honesty – with a bit of humour – as she documents the various barriers she faced to find treatment and community supports. With a narrative that brings the reader into the mind of someone experiencing Dissociative Identity Disorder, Mills’ self-awareness and knowledge of social systems offers incredible insight that is a must for anyone working or studying in social work, community development or medical fields. One part autobiographical and one part social analysis, Enough Pieces of Crazy provides a necessary and timely critique of a broken system and offers insight to possibilities for improving social supports for people facing mental health disorders. It is an opportunity for each of us to look inside our lives and our minds to see how we balance what is real and what is fantasy. Who we are and who we want to be. “Trauma is trauma, it’s nasty, and it fucks up our lives. But I have learned a great deal and understand more about my life. It is that package I want to share. The trauma I dealt with in therapy.”

The popular indie rock performer describes her battle against the hereditary mental illness that decimated her mother's health and prompted the author to engage in a self-destructive downward spiral before discovering her musical talent.

Turn family photos and mementos into quilted scrapbooks with this crazy quilting guide featuring 10 projects and 24 embroidery stitches. In Crazy-Quilted Memories, quilt artist Brian Haggard shows readers how to turn treasured family keepsakes—including photo prints, buttons, beads, and other keepsakes—into meaningful quilt embellishments. He offers a fresh take on traditional crazy quilt techniques, as well as 24 basic and combination embroidery stitches to create never-before-seen motifs. Each of the 10 projects featured in this volume will tell a story about your life and family history in unique and creative ways. Lovingly stitched by hand, these small, portable projects are destined to become prized family heirlooms for generations to come.

Crazy patchwork is a fascinating craft. Take your patchwork designs to a whole new level by embellishing every patch with your favorite embroidery stitches, and adding ribbons, braids, buttons and beads for more detail. The beautiful squares of fabric you create can be used to make quilts, cushion covers, wall hangings, scarves and evening-bags. Have fun with crazy patchwork and keep in mind that you are supposed to be having fun this is not a competition to see if you can do it better than anyone else.

Part memoir and part urban social history, Pieces from Life?s Crazy Quilt is an African American woman?s personal account of her life during a racially turbulent period in a northern American city. Raised in a black neighborhood in urban Detroit, Marvin V. Arnett begins her book with her birth during the Great Depression, and ends with the infamous Detroit race riot of 1943. Arnett?s close observations and attention to the details of her neighborhood and the complex adult relationships around her make this an understated yet powerful story of witness. ø Like the idiosyncratic pieces of a crazy quilt, each chapter functions alone but takes on particular resonance when considered with the whole. Choreographed as one-act plays, each chapter invites the reader into the life of the Sprague family and their neighbors during the years after the Ford Motor Company closed their Detroit plants. Arnett tells the story of her childhood with subversive allusions to the Victorian-era coming-of-age stories she consumed while growing up and the moral lessons she absorbed in such readings but could not reconcile with her own experience.

J. Marsha Michler, the leading designer and author in the area of crazy quilting, now joins the popular quilting technique with home decor. Quilters will follow her innovative techniques and step-by-step instructions for creating 30 crazy quilt home decor projects in popular themes such as Oriental, Victorian, Folk art, Country, Western and Whimsical. Featuring an excellent selection of projects for the home, including small quilts, window treatments, chair and table covers, pillows, baskets, picture frames, and lampshades, this book is well worth the investment. Quilters will learn several methods of crazy quilting, including topstitch applique, confetti piecing, the antique method, one-layer topstitch applique, the heirloom method, and collage method and the stained glass method.