more books, less sewing

It's not been a very productive week, quilt or sewing-wise, but after the randomness of the holidays, it feels good to be getting back into a groove and back to normal.

I did sew a few more of the cat toys shut - with help, of course!

Freddie was the most attentive, though most of the other kitties had a visit.  For the most part, though, they sniffed around and then went to take naps elsewhere.  I guess they got stoned on catnip fumes and then went to sleep it off?  Whatever the reason (they were interested, so I know the catnip was good), I wasn't complaining.  Things go a lot faster when you don't have to stop to remove a cat every 15 seconds.

I got a few gift cards to Barnes and Noble for Christmas this year, so a few days after the holiday, I went through my various places where I've saved books I want to read (I save them in apps and screenshots and whatnot, as I come across them) and went shopping (online)!

Six of the eight have arrived.  The remaining two have not been released yet.  One comes out in February and the other in June, I think.  It's not like I have a shortage of books around here, so it's not a big deal.  I just have to decide if I want to work these into the system for what I already own, or wait until at least that February release comes in?

New books are always exciting.  Right up there with new fabric!  But I'm going to be good and not read these immediately.  Or maybe I will...

Speaking of reading books, I did finish one this past week.

Generally when visiting used book sales, I don't go after the quilty books, like this one above.  I'm not sure why, but in recent visits, I've picked up a few.  I didn't realize this is the first in a series of three, also the first book by this author, but I guess I got lucky?!

The first thing I noticed in this book is the grammar.  As though someone stuck a book of grammar up the authors backside it was so correct.  Now don't get me wrong, correct grammar is important, but it wouldn't have killed this woman to use a contraction.

So I thought to myself "I wonder who this author is - she writes like an old lady" and I flipped the book over and found this photo of her.  Honestly, I could not have imagined the person who would write with such precision any better.  I got used to it, but it took a bit to not be distracted by it.

The book itself - categorized as a "cozy mystery" I would like to amend that to be a "cozy romance with a side of mystery that is not solved."

So there is a quilt, made by one woman, that is quilted in the basement of her sister, with the help of a third sister and a couple of nieces.  It brings the women of the family together and they all seem to catch the quilt bug.

The mystery surrounds the quilting itself.  Apparently there is a ghost.  But, as with all good ghost stories, the characters just accept its presence and actions, don't get scared and move on.  No, wait, that's not normal.  Yet that's what happens.

The romance - a far too good to be real guy falls for the main character, who also falls for him.  (I don't think I'm spoiling anything here.)  I kept waiting for something bad to happen, but I guess that's where the "cozy" part comes in.  It never does.  Even the sad part of the book never really felt all that sad.  (And it was sad.)

I guess "cozy" is not my genre.

Anyways, I do have one other book by this author in my stash, but I don't think I'll be seeking out any others.  At least not until I've read that second book to see how she grows as an writer.

I'm more than halfway through the next book, and it's pretty good.  A second in a series that I read the first one last year, it's been hard to remember who all the characters were (some are more formally reintroduced than others), but the story itself is good and my frustration is more that I kind of remember characters, but not enough!  (If I hadn't read the first, I'd probably be better off.)

Time to get back to chores and whatnot.  I'm on the schedule for this weekend, so everything else has to fit between trips to work to feed and let animals out.  (But it's so cold, the doggos are in an out fast, which is nice for me!)

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS  I'm debating joining the 100 day stitch book challenge again this year.  With working so many more hours (and long shifts) than last year, I'm not sure, but I'll be pondering it now that I've seen the announcement.

happy new year!

Happy New Year!

Or happy arbitrary day to start a new year?  (Guess I'm starting the year a bit of a cynic?)

I haven't gotten much sewing done in the last week, but that's because someone had to take care of boarding animals where I work and guess who got that job?  The new girl!  It's okay, though, I got paid for it.  It just meant less time to do fun stuff at home.  Not that I have many projects brewing right now.

I did get the remainder of the cat toy parts sewn together and turned!

I've started stuffing and closing them, but this is going to be a LONG process.  There are a lot in there - it looks like not so much, but it is.  I'm trying to get through a batch every day that I don't work, but I've had less than helpful help...

I have two of these boxes and they each hold 28 toys upright, half-stuffed.  Lily decided they would instead hold one cat.

And when finally ousted from the box, she claimed the giant bag of stuffing as a cat cave.  She looks worried in both photos, probably because I was trying to get her attention so you could see her face instead of her behind while she was squirreling around inside of things.

I did manage to finish one last book before the new year - I read 300 pages on the 31st just to get it done!

I enjoyed this book, but maybe not as much as some of her previous novels.  Maybe it was because I had high expectations (she is one of my favorite authors), or maybe because the suspense of what would happen to the main character through the whole middle section?

Demon Copperhead is the nickname of the main character, a red-headed spitfire of a child born to an addict and he ends up in foster care.  In true Kingsolver fashion, she has chosen a topic to expose in her writing, and this time it is the foster care system and how it fails so many children.  You don't really realize what she is doing, as it is woven into the story so nicely, which is nice.  She also tackles the pervasive idea that country folks are dumb and how that came to be.  I had no idea, but as with her other books, it makes you think about how you just accept things.

Demon has a number of ups and downs in his life experiences, but I found myself tense when things were good, waiting for the bad, and tense when things were bad, waiting for it to get worse or him to hit bottom and come back up.  That made the middle part of the book seem to take forever to read.

And the first finish for 2025!

I knew nothing of the Dunkirk story - vaguely aware that it was part of a war, but nothing more.  (Yes, there is a whole movie about it, but I'm no fan of that kind of entertainment!)  So I thought this book, though fiction, since it is based on actual events, would be a good one to learn about that history.

There are two stories running through the whole book - there are family ties that connect the stories, but they never do cross into each other, as I expected.  Sorry if that's a spoiler!

The first story is about a yacht, the Maggie Bright.  A young woman inherits it from a man she didn't know and she wants to learn to sail it and go around the world.  In short order, a man shows up on the boat,  looking for documents hidden on the boat that will change the course of the war, but ends up in prison, the documents unfound.  Soon after, another man shows up, also involved in the document saga.  Scotland Yard gets involved as well and the search continues.

The second story is of a soldier in the war, trying to make his way to Dunkirk, as that is where he was told to take a wounded captain.  He finds other soldiers along the way - cut off from their unit - and a group of seven make their way to the town.  They provide a first-person perspective of the events of the evacuation.

As you probably suspect, if you know anything about the Dunkirk story, the Maggie Bright joins the fleet of civilian boats that aid the evacuation, though not with the crew you'd expect.

I won't spoil any more, but I enjoyed the book.

Oh yes, and one of my apps has it categorized as romance.  There is a TEENSY bit of budding romance, but nowhere near enough to categorize it as that.  I hate when they do that - it makes it look like I read a lot of romance novels, but I do not!  Sometimes there is a romantic interest in the story, but I don't gravitate towards books where that IS the story.

The year-end wrap-ups are available, so it's easy to show this graphically!

(The Storygraph is awesome for these stats - year-round or year-end wrap-ups!)

A bigger picture - the whole year!

(click on it to make it bigger if you're really curious!)

I read 67 books and I love this graphical representation of how it is spread out by month.

There is also a whole-year wrap-up graphic that is intended to share on places like Instagram - I shared it there, but I'll share it here also!

As the year went on, I found another Instagram user that, if you set either your Goodreads or Storygraph app to public, can create a similar graphic and it's a little different, but still fun.

You can get yours here!

Okay, enough being a nerd.

Time to go get some sewing done.  Or something.

Happy quilting!

Katie

carrie's ho quilt

All of the Christmas festivities are over and the last of the quilts has been given, so it is for sure safe to share Carrie's Ho quilt.

I mean, Ho Ho Ho quilt.

For those of you who may not already understand, let me explain.

My hubby has a kinda mean sense of humor.  He gives out nicknames that are not always nice, but somehow they tend to stick.  Many years ago he started calling his sister a ho, as in a hooker, because, well, he's kinda mean and he's a big brother. It's not exactly a nickname, but whenever he sees Christmas stuff that says "ho ho ho" on it, he points it out to her and giggles.  The whole family knows this and we just roll our eyes at him.

He also calls me a chicken.  It may have something to do with a character on the TV show Married with Children, who was also called a chicken.  Because my husband thinks he is Al Bundy.  (Anyone who has watched this show will be rolling their eyes because he is one of the last people anyone would want to be!)  I don't know.  But again, the whole family knows about it and rolls their eyes.

My sister-in-law, Carrie, has two boys, 15 and 12.  The 12-year-old has a moped helmet (no moped, though, so ???) that is covered in fake fur and looks like Santa's head.  We were over there this fall and he was scaring the bejeezus out of my 2-year-old great niece (the one who got the quilt I shared last week) with it.  I know some kids are terrified of Santa - I guess Brynn is one of them.

So Carrie, in an effort to calm her down, kept calling the hat "Ho Ho" and saying "Ho Ho won't hurt you" and such.  I looked right at her and called her Aunt HoHo.  She was stunned at how quick I came up with it, but then giggled.  And called me Aunt Cluck Cluck.  I giggled and everyone had a laugh and we moved on because the children were still screaming for 145 different reasons and that needed more attention.  (There were only about 4 kids, but you know how family gatherings can get crazy, right?)

A few weeks later, the in-laws hosted a cookout/weenie roast on my birthday.  I didn't ask for it, but it was a nice night and they decided to include my birthday as part of the festivities.  I don't really celebrate, but whatever.  Sister-in-law showed up with a cake for me.  With a chicken on it.

She was worried I'd be mad.  This is hilarious.  Funny, though, that not one member of that family knew I didn't like chocolate cake.  Guess what flavor this is?  (The 12-year-old-going-on-40 niece was first in line to snag that pile of icing that looks like flowers from me, though...)

I told her she'd pay for it.

And on the way home, it hit me.  A Ho Ho Ho quilt.

I had to buy fabric for the background (a lighter grey seemed appropriate since she lives with two teenage boys, a dog and of course her hubby!), but everything else came from my stash.

I started cutting...

And this didn't seem like nearly enough parts for a throw-size quilt.  I guess I'm used to more complicated projects?

Anyways, I got busy sewing.  First up were the Hos...

And then the trees...

Since there are a few different fabrics here, I had to figure out a layout that made it look nice and not too matchy...

If I remember right, it took longer to put these together than anticipated, but it went well.  Not a lot of seams to match or make things wonky with just a hair here and hair there difference in seam allowances.

(Salem is snoopervising there on the edge.)

It sat a while, waiting to go on the longarm.  Because I am very good at procrastinating.

I did, however, piece the back.

When I found this at the store, it was so far beyond my wildest expectations, I was giggling out loud.  How could this NOT be the perfect back for this quilt?

Eventually, the marathon longarming day came and this was quilt number two.  I think.  Maybe it was number one?  Whatever.

I did swirls on it.  I did swirls on everything that day.

I trimmed and had the binding made, but waited another few weeks to actually finish it.  Nothing like playing chicken with a deadline!

My usual wrapped up in a quilt to bind a quilt position...  I had hoped to have enough red or green of one of the fabrics to bind it with, but I didn't.  So other than you and me, no one knows the difference.  And it looks fine.

It looks a bit pinker here than actual, but the day I got this photo, the sun was shining so bright, I couldn't see my phone screen to know if I was even aimed the right direction!

Quilt stats:

Name: HoHoHo Quilt

Designer: Wendy Sheppard

Size: 54" 59"

Pieced and quilted by me

(And honestly, until right now, I didn't realize it was CALLED the HoHoHo Quilt!  I just ordered the pattern and started sewing.)

We had Christmas early for the hubby's family, due to lots of kids being old enough to have started families of their own, jobs that don't shut down for the holidays and all that sort of thing.  So last week Sunday she got her quilt.

We hand out presents by family - so my hubby and I handed out all we had brought and then everyone opens gifts.  My sister-in-law was who I had my eyes on and she got it halfway open and hollered "I win Christmas!" and then started giggling when she saw WHAT was on the quilt.  She didn't even realize what was on the back until I told her to go pull it back out and look.

The best part?  She can put it on her couch and almost no one will know the joke.  They'll just think it's a nice holiday decoration.

Brynn also got her quilt and I think she liked it.  She's a little shy around me, but that's just her age.  I know her dad appreciated it.

With the holidays, there hasn't been a lot of sewing, but I have done a little!

This is the last of the zillion and four cat toys I cut out that will go to the cat rescue group for fundraising.  I cut a lot quite a while back, but things stalled out for a number of reasons.  Finally I've gotten back to them.

They're all sewn and some have been turned, but I still have a lot to turn and then I'm dreading getting them all stuffed and sewn shut.  That's always a trick, what with my kitties wanting to help!

Lily has been goblining her way through life and the other day she decided to be, um, cute?

She followed me into the kitchen, racing ahead of me, flew herself up onto the counter, flopped down and started taking a bath.  (Look at her cute toe beans!)  I swear I wash off my kitchen counters 14 times every time I try to cook because I keep having to put her down and start over.

Reading has been going well, too.  I finished two books last week.

First up:

Written by an actual undertaker, I was curious about this one.  The blurb on the back made it sound interesting and I figured why not.

The man is also a poet.  I think this would best be described as literary nonfiction.  Kinda high falutin' stuff.  Not that I can't keep up, just a lot more dense than I...well, maybe I shouldn't have expected it.

The stories do revolve around his being an undertaker and the son of an undertaker, but I expected more humor or levity or something mixed in with the somber heaviness.  And other than the chapter where he goes on and on about combining a graveyard and a golf course (which lost its humor quickly), mostly the stories feel like letters to the editor with a hard turn into soapbox ramblings.

And while some of his soapbox ideas are agreeable to me, I felt myself skimming past whole paragraphs just to be past that part and see if it got better.

The worst part?  At the start he discusses the word undertaker and how his job got the name and never, ever, explains it.  Maybe he doesn't know.  (Maybe I skipped that paragraph?  Haha.)

Anyways, I did not enjoy this book.  Again with the awards stickers warning me, right?

Book two:

I really enjoyed this book!  I wasn't sure I would enjoy it this much, since it deals with lives of former slaves just as they are being freed after the Civil War, but it was interesting.

It follows the life of Louella Bobo Williams (the American Queen) and her reverend husband, William, as they lead a group of former slaves out of Mississippi and onto a former plantation on the edge of North and South Carolina, that they work on to earn the money to buy the land and build houses to create a city of their own.  Called Happy Land, based on a true story, this book focuses on the positives a lot and though setbacks and negatives are mentioned, they are not the focus of the book.  I'm not sure if I like that (not dwelling on it and making things heavy) or if I think it should have gotten a little more focus (to raise awareness).  Both I guess?

It was a quick read, too, which surprised me.  I think this author will go on my list to check out her other work!

I've started another book, of course, and am hoping to finish it by the end of the year.  We'll see.  It's got a lot of pages, but it's by an author I love and she writes in a way that reads quickly even as you take it all in.

Time to go read a little and then back to work a little to let the doggies who are staying the weekend out to go potty and give out a few treats!

Happy quilting!

Katie

brynn's quilt

In my post last week I mentioned I was going to bind and label the Christmas gift quilts.  Guess what?  I did that yesterday.

But it's done and now I can share one of them - the one I'm fairly confident won't be seen before it is gifted today...Brynn's quilt.

It all started out MONTHS ago, in February, when Canuck Quilter announced she would be hosting a mystery quilt along.  (The mystery is no longer available, but you can buy the pattern - knowing what it is - in her shop here.)

I went out shopping for girly colors, planning to give this to the great niece I inherited when my nephew got married last December.  I just needed two colors that contrasted, but Brynn is a girly girl (she's just 2, but still), so I wanted to honor that.

I really like the lighter fabric and would have liked to use purple, but wasn't able to find anything I really liked at the store and wasn't going to drive all over to multiple stores for something I wasn't even sure I'd like!  (I have issues with mystery quilts, but was willing to take a risk for a bloggy friend here.)

The clues seemed to dribble out, but since I'd opted for the smallest size option, I didn't have many units to complete each week.

Unlike some quilters, I wasn't trying to figure out how these went together until the very end.  Perhaps my trimming monster was keeping me occupied elsewhere?

But then the instructions for construction arrived and all was well!

The block construction is done in a manner that allows nesting of seams and that was super nice not to have to go re-iron and flip seams to make things go together better.

Then the top went together quickly, though I had waited to cut my border fabrics until later, so that did set me back a little...

I also remember the borders taking a little more head-scratching than I'm used to, but you'll see they aren't just regular plain borders either.  Once I stepped back, though, I'm pretty sure I got them right here...

Back to the store for a back.  Why I didn't purchase one at the time is beyond me, but whatever.

This doesn't exactly match the pink of the front, but it's okay.  It was honestly the best of my choices and I do like it.

Lots of procrastination and a new job later, I put it on the longarm just a few weeks ago.

Done as the third in a marathon of quilting, it went fairly quickly compared to the other two, larger, quilts done that day.  But it was a relief to finally get this last one off the machine and go sit down for a little while!

I had made the binding when I was working on the top - a trick someone taught me along the way and it is rather nice when I've had a quilt sitting around for a while to not have to go find fabric that may have gotten used up otherwise that I now need - and so I got that sewn on the following day.

It sat a bit...and then I sewed the binding down yesterday.  And made a label and sewed that on too!

And then took advantage of the sunshine to do an outdoor photo shoot - complete with shadows from my naked trees!

(well, that looks fabulously blurry for no apparent reason...it looks fine on my phone...oh well, the one of just the top above looks nearly the same (minus binding) and it's in focus and I just quilted swirls, so nothing to worry over)

Quilt stats:

Pattern: Half and Half

Designer: Canuck Quilter

Size: 36"x48"

Pieced and quilted by me!

Today is Christmas for this side of the family, so she'll get her quilt in just a few short hours.  I'm pretty sure it won't be the highlight of her holiday, but if she snuggles under it tonight, I'll be happy enough.

I'll also be giving away the Ho Ho Ho quilt and I cannot wait.  I expect at least one of the boys (her brothers) to laugh so hard they give themselves hiccups.  It's a family problem.

This week has also been a good one for reading - two finished books to share!

Written by a Turkish author and set in Turkey (originally published in Turkish), this is the story of three people struggling with their lives.  A young girl is raped by  her uncle and, according to their very rural customs, she is sentenced to death for her behavior.  A young man, a soldier just returned home from active duty, who is also her cousin (son of the offending uncle) is tasked with taking her "to Istanbul" to perform an honor killing that will rid her family of their shame.  He does indeed take her to Istanbul and I don't think I'm spoiling much by saying he doesn't kill her, but the story doesn't take that turn in the direction I expected.

The third character is a middle-aged professor who seems to be going through a mid-life crisis, as he abandons his plush life, rents/buys a sailboat and runs away from his life.

As you may have guessed, their paths eventually intersect and, again, things do not go as I might have expected, but it keeps the story interesting.  It's not always (or often) a happy story, but it feels honest and I liked that.

The book ends without that final wrap-up ending some give you, but since that's how life goes, it felt right.

I said last week that it was one I'm not sure how it ended up in my stash, but as with the others, I'm glad it did.  I learned about a culture that I didn't even know existed in Turkey and am maybe a better person for it?

On to book two - a lighter and quicker read:

Don't go getting all bent out of shape - this isn't a naughty book in the least.  I mean, there is the one chapter where he goes to a nudist colony, but by the time you get to that chapter (each chapter is a short story), you realize this guy is out for humor and not so keen on actual facts.

Each story is based on his life, though he takes to embellishing them so much that you aren't sure where the real stops and the imagination begins.  Since some ideas are repeated in future stories, you do get a sense that some of these things (like he has a sister) are real, but you also instinctively know that some are not.

It was entertaining and I even giggled out loud a few times at things.  A quick read and I enjoyed it.

Time to go get mentally prepared for the holiday crazy happening later today!  (Thank goodness I wrapped all the presents yesterday - no sense doing it early as the Goblin will unwrap them all in no time...)

Happy quilting!

Katie