...but once I get started...

Last week I shared what it took to get me started quilting again (a very dire diagnosis) and this week it seems I can't stop!

First I worked on the quilt for Chuck's dad...

Laying out a few blocks just to get my mojo flowing before I started sewing.  (And trimming a bazillion geese...)

Matching things up as I go...

AAAHHHH!!!

(Just kidding.)

Starting to look like something now!

You can't do much around here without help...  I wish they'd learn how to trim blocks instead, but I suppose contributing extra loves counts as something.

Was this the end of day two or day three?  I think three.  Whatever.  Blocks are in thirds and this feels like almost done.  (Please don't remind me about the upcoming long seams, okay?)

And they're done!

Seems the same block ends up on top most of the time, but that just means I kept everything in order.  No seams ripped!

I got the blocks on the floor and Salem wanted to pose.  She does look nice with those colors, doesn't she?  (I may be biased - she looks good on everything.)

I also have a couple of scratches on my wrist from where Lily (looking so sweet above) was "helping" and when I tried to move her so I could rearrange blocks, she ninja kicked me.  She literally came up off the floor from lying on her side and was a foot off the ground before I knew what was happening.  She does NOT like to be told what to do.

And then she knocked this off the bin it's next to (it was up there from when I vacuumed a few days earlier) and thought it was great fun this way.  Right-side-up?  Nope.  She and Salem love it this way.  Of course, she stole one of the balls out of it and I think that's now downstairs behind the litterbox in the bathroom, but...well...I'll dig it out if she figures out how to liberate the other two in there.

With Lily occupied, I was able to cut sashings and borders and get things going together.  The dreaded long seams are coming, but there are no corners to match at this point, and I'm looking for silver linings here.

Woo hoo!  It's a top!

(Not sure if that's Salem or Freddie, but looking kinda round, so probably Freddie.)

I've been to my local quilt shop for a back and that's been washed but not pieced.  If I remember, I'll get a photo and insert it, but it's a pain to get it from my phone to the big computer, so I'm not doing it right now.  You'll see it eventually either way, I promise.

And with that, I was left wondering what to do next.

The hubby is up north fishing.  His annual trip.  Last year I went and this year I asked for the week off, debating whether or not to go.  I ended up deciding not and it's for the best since my mom, our cat-sitter, ended up planning something out of town that overlaps.  (Shhh...don't tell the boss.  She thinks I'm out of town!)

So I'm off work for the week and home alone.  It's so quiet!

I decided to give up on finding an alternate block that I like for the butterfly quilt and just raid the stash and make more butterflies.  I can always hit the local quilt shop (again - twice in a week?!) if I need it, but let's see what the stash gives.

Well..

I had hoped to make two more red-purple, two purple-purple and one turquoise, but the stash did not provide.  So I lost a purple-purple and gained a turquoise.  My stash of blues is biggest, but that encompasses everything from navy to barely light blue to blue-green to green-blue and everything between.

Every one will be a little different, unlike the first four that are two sets of matching fabrics.  Each butterfly will have matching wings - I didn't get THAT crazy - but as I was cutting, I realized I didn't have enough of some fabrics.  This pattern wastes a lot with lost corners, but I'll play with those later.  Other than the smallest ones, they're not going to be wasted.

So above are all the parts.  There are four fabrics in each, so these are sorted by fabric 1, 2, 3, and 4, to make it easier on me when sewing.  (For previous blocks, I didn't do this and it resulted in some ripping.)

After a LONG stretch cutting four bazillion pieces (I swear the star quilt took less time), I got to start sewing!

The top halves of the upper wings are together.  This feels like the hardest part - maybe because of that big background triangle at the top where you lose a fair amount of print - but I'm on the way.

Today will be more butterfly sewing.

I did some chores this morning (not the least of which was washing the quilt that Salem used as a furball presentation surface shortly after I went to bed last night) and now I'm just about ready to really start the day.

When this is done I suppose I'm going to have to buckle down and start quilting and binding some things!  I hope to have enough batting on my roll to do both quilts I'm working on here, but at least I'll have enough for the star quilt.  And then I'll have to order more - a pricey task I'm not excited about.

As for reading, it's only been a week, but it's been a fairly busy one - obviously!  But I still manage to sneak some in every day.

With all those apples on the cover, who could be surprised when Johnny Appleseed makes an appearance?

A family moves west from Connecticut to settle in Ohio.  50 fruit-bearing trees are part of the deal to claim the land for their own, so the father brings a few branches from the family orchard back home, intending to graft them in the new place.  He also purchases trees from Johnny Appleseed.

They also clear the land and build a home and begin farming, but it's a hard life and many of the children die from "swamp fever" (I think it's malaria).  The family is fairly dysfunctional as well, making everything harder.

After a tragedy, the youngest son leaves.  He's always been the quiet odd-duck, but his father taught him about the apple trees and nature in a way.  He travels west and west and west, eventually landing in California and finds the sequoias and redwoods and ends up with a job working with them

The story jumps around time-wise, and is told from multiple perspectives (something this author likes to do), but it's not too jarring once you figure out who is who.  I enjoyed seeing the gold rush and the general push west from this perspective.

The end felt rushed (as in the last book),  but maybe it needed to be.  A lot happened all at the end, but it felt like I needed to just finish the story so the people could get on with their newly complicated lives without my prying into them.

I'm nearly through the next book and it's another good one.  I should finish it today!

Happy quilting and reading!
Katie

what it takes to get me quilting...

I'm back in the sewing room, but it seems deadlines and emergencies are what gets me there.

First up, I'm finally sewing down the binding on Tara's wedding quilt.

Lily is NOT helping.  She was growling and hissing and bit me.  She wanted the quilt all for herself and was absolutely offended that I would need to move it or "use" it when she wanted it.  Eventually she settled in and looked sweet, but don't let that fool you.  She is a GOBLIN.

Why the urgency to finish?  The marriage is likely to happen this week.  In a hospital chapel.  Because the father of the groom has been handed some really awful health news and no one is expecting a good outcome.  They want to be married before he's gone.

I don't know the dad really well, but he is a customer at my work and always friendly and happy and kind.  And I know the family is devastated.

So as I was scrolling through Pinterest Saturday, doing that instead of many other productive things, I came across this quilt, in the orange and blue colorway I hope the link shows you first, and it made me think of him.  No idea why, but it did.  I kept telling myself I don't know him that well, this would be weird and all sorts of other excuses, but it stuck with me.  I pondered through the evening and it just wouldn't leave me alone.

I told myself I'd check the stash in the morning and see what I had.  If I still remembered it.

I did.

I never thought I'd have enough.  There are 18 different fabrics (plus the sashing) in the quilt - made from fat quarters.  I had more than enough, though it took some time to add and subtract until I had what I thought was a good mix.  (And I did swap out some for what you see here as I was going too!)

Well.  I guess that settles that.

Time to cut.  And mix and match.

Freddie helped here some, but grew bored before I finished - and thankfully before he made much of a mess.  Each plate contains the makings for one star.

Time to sew!

I tried to remember to take photos periodically.  So here is one with the geese about half done.

Soon after this I realized I needed 144 geese.  This is why I don't do this kind of quilt math before I get started.  It's daunting!

And by dinnertime:

All of the geese are made.  I have to press them and add them back to the plates (I have a system - don't worry!) and then begin assembling stars.  There are only 36 stars, but a fair number of seams to go before they get there.

I had hoped to get these pressed before I was done last night, but after about 8 hours working on this quilt, I figured I could take a break and read.

I'm pretty excited to have this much done.  And only two shifts at work this week (that's a whole other debacle, but we'll just leave it there), so I should have plenty of time to get this top done.  I'll need to visit the LQS for a back, but considering the entire top will come from the stash, I'm not going to complain!

(And this made me realize that my stash isn't that bad.  I just have to stop procrastinating and get busy again.  I don't have a lot of larger pieces, but lately controlled scrappy has been my go-to anyways.)

As I was sewing, I realized, too, that I'd made another quilt for a coworker's mom when she was handed a terrible diagnosis.  And that sealed the deal, making the project settle nicely into my head.

I'd say that's it for quilting, but it seems like a fair amount even if it was all done in one day!  (Well, two if you count the binding.)

Lots of reading still.

Set mostly in New York, the story of a woman who flees Paris when it falls to the Nazis and makes her way into the world of fashion.  It spans most of her life, but deals more with personal drama than sewing and the fashion world, which was kind of disappointing.  (Even some of the sewing info seems off - she sewed an entire couture dress in a few hours, including cutting fabric from a sketch?)

Anyways, the drama part of the story was interesting and had you guessing about things till near the end.  There were a lot of characters and time jumps (the current timeline could probably have been eliminated without losing much, in my humble opinion), so it was hard to get sorted out at first, but eventually it settled into my brain.

Set in current times, this follows a woman who is struggling to run a fancy shoe company that her grandparents started many years ago.  She makes shoes by hand in her workshop, but also has some that are made in a factory.  As is the case with business (or life), things go wrong, the business plan must pivot, and she finds her way through.  Family plays a huge part in her life and the business.

She also has recently found the perfect guy and so we learn a lot about him and how he adds into the business as well as her personal life.  Thankfully there is enough about the business that it's not too much of a romance.

And the title comes from a factory building they purchase - it's the previous name and they keep it.  Sorry if that's a spoiler, but it seems a little odd that a book with macaroni in the title is about shoes, so I thought I'd help.

Unbeknownst to me, this is considered a classic.  It just sounded interesting when I read the blurb.  It's also considered literary fiction.

There is an introduction, written by another author 50 years after the first publication, that talks of literary fiction.  Of course she gives a dictionary definition, but summarizes it as "literature is classier than fiction."  Which makes sense.  But she went further and has a "semiserious consensus" from people in the book business to define it as "if an editor has to look up three words while reading the manuscript, it's literature."  That tracks from my reading.  And finally, her stepbrother provides the quote that puts a nice spin on it: "Literature changes you.  When you're done reading, you're a different person."  So yep.  Those all seem to track and sum up what I often feel when reading something listed as "literary."

Anyways, this is a dystopian style story in three parts, each taking place a thousand or two years after the previous one.  The first, we are introduced to a few men in a monastery who are keepers of knowledge.  They are copying books they find in the rubble after a nuclear war that occurred nearly 2000 years before.  There are few people, but they're starting to discover things.  The Catholic church (or some version of it) rules things, but they want the knowledge that is being discovered.

The second part things are looking like our society again - cars and nuclear weapons again.  (The cars drive themselves, which made me giggle since this was published in 1959 and we are just now starting to get those!)  Groups of people are unhappy with each other and getting ready to blow everyone else up.  And then they do.

The third part is back about where the first part was.  Rebuilding, surviving, and noticing that the past keeps repeating itself.

As I went on, it seemed to get harder to read.  I don't think the language changed, so I can't exactly pinpoint what happened, but it did.  It wasn't a bad book, but I don't think it's one I'll read again - despite the introduction telling me reading it multiple times brings about different meanings.

And finally, finished just last night:

My reading tracker app tells me this is a slow read, but I blew through it in three days.

Set at the turn of the last century, when women's suffrage was catching on in England, two girls meet in a cemetery after the queen has passed away.  They become friends and we hear the story through their voices (each chapter is another voice), but also from their parents and a few friends as well.  The girls are different as could be, but get along well and represent both sides of the suffrage movement, though it's not done in an obvious way.

There are many side stories, as the suffrage part of things isn't the main story, but it's an interesting part of it.  And I enjoyed reading it.  It wasn't preachy or too fact-filled, which made it easy to read.

The random book chooser has chosen another book by the same author for my next read, which is pretty crazy considering how many books are in the stash right now, but since I enjoyed this one, I decided to give the same author another go instead of vetoing it.  (I have that power, thankyouverymuch!)

And now it's time to get a label on that quilt and get it ready for presentation.  I'm not sure exactly when the wedding will happen, but I want to have it done to give to them soon after the event.

Happy quilting!
Katie

PS  I hit a milestone in my reading last week:

I have read at least one page of a book every single day for 1,300 days.  Woo hoo!

four and two and strawberries

I can't say my sewing room saw a lot of sewing this week, but...

The remaining two butterflies have been put together!

Now I need to decide if I want to make five more and do a 3x3 layout (which seems kinda busy and these are 24" square), or figure out something to do for the center and corner blocks.  Remember, this is the original:

And the top left arrangement was chosen (hence the ginormous blocks), but I worry that the those flower blocks will be lost when they get so big.  The center will probably be okay, but again, it's large, so...  I've been perusing the interwebs, but haven't settled on anything yet.

If anyone has suggestions (that do not include applique), I'll take them into consideration!

And then there's the reading, which I often do in the comfy chair in the sewing room.  So I see the room, just don't sew much lately...ugh...

A dystopian young adult (but I didn't realize that part) dealing with the "after the detonation" of what I think is probably nuclear.  There is a protective dome that a select few were allowed into before the bomb(s) were set off and they are now awaiting the fallout and whatever to settle and they will recolonize.  But people were fused to their surroundings - and not all died.  The main character has a doll fused where her arm once was, as she was carrying it with her when the blast hit her.  She teams up with a guy who has his younger brother fused to his back - they were riding a dirtbike together, so I guess it could have been worse.  

Anyways, the people in the dome are referred to as "Pure" and they are undamaged and undergoing genetic enhancement (well, at least the boys, as they're afraid to screw up the reproductive systems of the girls) while they wait for the all-clear.  But of course, these people in the dome are elitist jerks and of course there is a resistance.

The story is really about a Pure who escapes and the doll-head girl and the people they accumulate to go on their quest.  He wants to find his mother.  She is resisting the training to become a part of the kind-of police force among the damaged.  They think the mother has a key to fixing things...or something along those lines, but it's a bit murky...

But the story is good, it moves along quickly, and it gives you hope for humanity.  I mean, it's fiction, but still.  There is still good among those who are left.

It left a lot of loose ends, though, as it's part of a trilogy.  And while I understand you have to leave something for the next book, I'm not a fan of those that leave you with so much hanging that you feel you must go read the next book.  Because with the way I get books?  Finding it will be unlikely.  (I suppose, though, that's not how publishers work...)  

Categorized as a romance in my reading tracker app, this one isn't as romantic as you might expect.  Yes, there's a romance, but it's not obnoxious.

A 13-year-old boy and his mom go to a department store for school clothes and the boy encounters a bleeding man who asks for his help.  He gives it, and his mother, who has not been right for many many years (we find out why near the end, so I won't spoil it), accepts the strange man and brings him home with them.  Turns out he's a prisoner who escaped the hospital where he was taken for an appendectomy.

So what do they do?  Hide him.

The mother rarely goes out, so things don't seem as odd as they might, I guess.  And he's a kind man, despite the authorities saying he's armed and dangerous (what he's armed with after falling out a hospital window is beyond me, but whatever), who cooks delicious foods, repairs small things around the house and patiently teaches the boy how to play baseball.  The mother also falls in love with him, though that's seen through the eyes of the boy, so its not entirely obvious until they start nighttime activities in a bed that shares a wall with his bedroom...

It was a quick read.  Some suspense, but things do work out in the end, as you'd expect.  I thought it would be cool if this one came up for Labor Day, but the random number jar did not agree.

I'm mostly through the next book, which is not listed as a romance, but good Lord it is.  I'll share more in my next post when I'm finished.

And today my house smells of strawberries...

They were on a good sale at the grocery store, but to get the deal you had to buy quite a few.  So about half went into my dehydrator (that I often forget I have because it hasn't been used much) this morning and within seconds of the fan turning on, my kitchen started smelling heavenly.  It's spreading through the house and I can't think of anything better to scent my home!

We'll see how they turn out.  I'm still quite new at this, but these required no prep other than rinsing and slicing, which was nice.  And if they go well, we'll see what other fruits come up on a good sale as they come into season!

Off to do a few more chores.

Happy quilting and reading!
Katie

PS  Thanks to Cathy who mentioned in a comment that the show based on the book from last week was called "Manifest."  I do remember seeing that one advertised and thinking it looked interesting.  I never got around to watching it, but apparently it's still my jam because I bought the book!  It's not exactly the same story, but a similar event.

and then there were two!

Two butterflies and two new books read!

They're identical.  I debated moving the fabrics around a little, but decided it was best to just let it be.  To me, the variety would be fun, but to others, it can be jarring (like the one time I put a single yellow leaf in an otherwise all-green leaf quilt!)

I have cut pieces for the two purpley butterflies, but time flew (hahaha) yesterday and I wasn't able to start sewing before work.  Soon I hope!  (Not today - lots to do before work, though the list IS getting smaller.)

And then I read a bunch.

Two from the new batch, but that's now the random book selection goes sometimes.

This book was very good.  A plane full of people goes through some turbulence in a rare-for-its-intensity storm on a Paris to New York flight, but land with a little damage to the plane and some upset stomachs.  In March.

At the start of the book we meet a number of these passengers and learn of their lives.

Three months later, in June, the exact same plane, like a carbon copy, comes through the storm into beautiful sunlight and requests to land.  Same people, same crew, same luggage, everything.  They are rerouted to New Jersey, accompanied to land by military jets and the whole shebang are quarantined at an Air Force base while the powers that be figure out what to do with them.

Scientists, doctors, religious leaders and, of course, government officials are gathered hastily to put together a "what do we do now?" team.  The scientists put together three theories of how this could happen, and the book seems to continue, without directly saying so, supposing one of them is true.  The doctors work with the people.  The religious leaders have a debate that is interesting, but doesn't seem to help.  And the government people?  Well...I guess they make final decisions.

(Funny, though, that the author portrays the American president (author is French) as a buffoon who says little, but what he does say makes an impact.  On me, at least.  Published in 2020, the events take place in 2021, and the president is never named (other world leaders are, as this is an international flight and they need to be alerted to the holding of their citizens), anyone who has been paying attention to things will probably guess who the author assumes will have been reelected by then...)

My only complaint is that there is a LOT of character development for a LOT of characters.  It seems unnecessary, but midway through the book, one of the passengers, an author himself, wonders how many characters an author can get away with introducing before readers are unhappy.  So it seems the author has a good sense of humor.

Eventually things are resolved and we think all is well and life will go on.  And then the last chapter happens...

And then there was this one, I read in a single day, as it's only about 120 pages.

This is the story of Japanese immigrants coming to the US.  The blurb says it's the women, but it includes the whole families, as those develop.

But it is not told as the story of a family (or single character) or two.  Every sentence is a statement of what one person did/saw/had happen.  Each one is different.  Each one is a different experience, but collectively, they form a story of a group of people.

Each chapter deals with a different part of life - the journey over as "picture brides," marriage, parenthood and eventually the evacuation to camps during World War II.

Often it seems sad, but maybe I focused on the sad sentences too much.  Or maybe it was just because coming to a country with such different ways of doing everything made it hard for them and that's what seemed sad.

It was good and made me see some things I hadn't thought about for immigrants and their families.  It didn't go into detail about the camps - it left off with them leaving on trains - but I expect more books have been written about that and this was everything else.

And now I must go finish the cupcakes for a coworkers birthday.  I've done this for a few years now and recently he's taken a keyholder position, but is being worked half to death (we're short-handed in the keyholder division...well, also the non-keyholder division too) and I want even more this year to do something nice for the kid.  I baked them last night, so they just need some icing and fancy-making for toppings.

Happy quilting and reading,

Katie