books and a butterfly

It's been A WEEK!

Then again, so have all of them lately, so I guess we'll just move on...

I DID sew!

Yesterday.

First I had to press and neatly fold all the new fabrics so when I cut pieces they weren't all wonky.

Then I went through my self-drafted pattern and made a list of what to cut for each fabric.  That made it easier - I could cut strips and then subcut those.  And then my fabric wouldn't have all sorts of wonky chunks taken out of it.

And then I had to talk myself into actually sewing.  The pressing and folding and organizing took over an hour, but the background is about 5 yards, so that took some doing.  Freddie "helped."

But I decided to just get going.  The first (half) butterfly took a bit because I was doing it piece-by-piece and I made a few errors that needed correcting.  I wanted to get an idea how long it would take to make one.

Turns out not long.  Even with sewing a few pieces on the wrong place - I was making two halves, mirror-images of each other - and that made for a few oopsies.  Thankfully I caught them before trimming off any corners!

After a little editing of this photo, I got the colors close to right.  What is it with this phone that wants everything to be dull?  I feel like it wants to put an "I took this in 1982 and it's faded" filter on every photo I take.

Anyways, I think this fits the "bright" request.  I wanted that darker blue on the outside, but it was a small piece and wouldn't be enough for two butterflies, so I decided to go inside.  And the two bolder prints kinda get lost in each other from a distance, but they're in there.

The original had a lighter body and dark head there for the body, but I've never seen a butterfly with a multi-colored body/head, so I went with black.  I think it looks just fine, though maybe I need to embroider some antennae?  We'll see how the motivation goes.

Three more of these to complete the arrangement that was most liked, though I'm not sure once I get to that point the verdict will be the same.  I have plenty of background to make a 3x3 butterfly-only layout and can always raid the stash to see what other colors I can make.  Another one to decide as I get there.

Mostly I'm excited that the first one is done, the pattern is working, and it's not as hard as I anticipated.

On to other things:  BOOKS!

The 4th was the annual sale (though they do them quarterly now, this is the biggest one, even if it's not as big as it used to be) and the hubby and I stopped at home to pick up my dad and their wagon before heading in.

It seemed smaller, but it always does.  That doesn't mean there aren't treasures to be found.

I should have take more photos, but, well...

I got everything home and hauled into my bedroom for sorting.  I always think Gabby (the cat that lives up there) will come and help me (because she's a cat and they are curious), but every year she hides like it's the end of the world.

Lily helped, though.  See her in there?  She helped a lot.

Anyways, two paper grocery bags of books - this year a local veterinarian donated reusable fabric shopping bags to reinforce the paper while supplies lasted and I got there early enough - and a hat.

(You can kinda see the hat.  I should go get a better photo.  But I got a hat for free!)

I took everything out, sorted into stacks by size (because that's how I roll and in my mind they fit on the cart better that way), put number labels in each book, wrote the title and number in my notebook, made little papers with their numbers on them to go in the random number jar and then tucked them all onto the cart.  And rolled it back out into the hallway just outside my bedroom door where it lives.

Two books didn't fit.  Oops!  I found the green bucket in my sewing room, nearly empty, and repurposed it for those books, the jar and the book covers.  For now.

But this looks so tidy!

(Salem isn't so happy because the bottom shelf was empty of books - just housing some covers and the jar - and she would get on there and "sneak" into my room when I opened the door.  Now she walks up to it and can't figure out where her spot went.  Not to fear, little one, I read fast!)

Anyways, now I just want to read, read, read and make room for more when the sale at my truly local library happens in October.

How many books did I get?

54

But one I bought twice.  One in each bag.  Ha!  Hopefully it's a good one!  (I'll do my best to remember to mention which one when I read it.)

Otherwise, I don't think there was any overlap from what I already own.

I think.

And since my last post I've finished two books!  (The last one I finished the night of the 3rd, so I started Saturday with a clean slate!  That was finish #42 for 2026.)

Written as letters from the main character to her sister, set during the Civil War, this follows the theme this author seems to use of old-timey women making do without men.  Not a bad thing and I haven't read one of hers in a while, so this is not a complaint.

A young woman's new husband volunteers for the army to fight to save the Union.  She goes to live with his mother on their farm - she's something of a city girl, though in Iowa at the time I'm not sure how big the city really was - and grows into the farming life.  She deals with small-town gossip, vagrants (indirectly) and the town troublemaker, all while making friends and quilts.

It was a good story.  One that has a happy ending and loose ends all tied up.

And then this one:

Another written in the form of letters, but this time to and from a variety of characters.  Set on a fictional island somewhere off the Atlantic coast of the US, named for the man who invented the phrase "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog," they seem to be more literate, or perhaps just wordy, than others.  On their town hall-type building, the sentence above has been glued up, letter by letter, until one day the "Z" falls.  The town council, in their "wisdom," decide that this is a sign from Nollop (the inventor) to stop using that letter.  Punishable by first offence: a warning, second offence: stocks or whipping, and third offence: death or banishment.

And this is where the book makes you go WHAT???????

Even more so when additional letters begin to fall.

The letters between residents (and one non-resident) do not use these letters either, as using them in speaking or writing is punishable.  At first, the residents get creative, using alternate words or phrases to get their message across.  The days of the week are renamed early when "Y" falls.  But by the end of the book...whew!  Phonetic spellings, or near phonetic, are used and it takes a while to figure some of them out.  (I found myself saying things out loud a few times even!)

And yet the councilmembers hold fast to their rules.

Many are exiled.  Commerce is failing.  And there is a group trying, after it is agreed that they will reverse the decision if it can be done, to find another sentence with as few letters yet using the whole alphabet.

And though we don't have letters falling, I feel that some of the nonsense going on in this book with those who make decisions feels all too real in our world right now.  I wonder how timely it would have felt reading it two years ago.  Or longer.

But.

I enjoyed it.  I enjoyed the story (it was sad, but the community sticking together was nice).  I enjoyed the wordplay.  Definitely one of the best I've read this year.

And with that, the chores must continue.  Today has been a doozy and I still have a few to go, plus a doctor appointment before I get to work tonight.  Yikes!

Happy quilting and reading

Katie

sewing quilty stuff!

I sewed some quilty stuff this week!!!!

It all started on Father's Day when my mother-in-law asked if I'd make a quilt for her long-time friend for Christmas this year.  Of course I said yes!  She wants butterflies on it.  Bright colors.

Let the search begin.  I made a separate board on Pinterest for ideas so I could keep them all together and then shared them with my hubby.  He narrowed it down to two.  One was a bunch of single blocks, in bright colors, arranged in a grid/row layout.  Rather basic and it felt juvenile.  But this one...this one was a favorite of all:

The photo quality isn't great (the larger it gets, the worse it gets), but there's a reason: it's a screenshot from nowhere.  The pattern is from Pam Bono, published in probably about 2012, to her newsletter subscribers only.  And I cannot find it ANYwhere.  Believe me, I've looked.  Ebay, Etsy, the google and beyond.

I'd love to actually pay for it, but since I can't seem to even locate a person who has made it and shared a photo in the last 10 years, I guess I'm gonna have to draft this for myself.

THAT was a whole other disaster.  It took a few tries - Ms. Bono is the queen of stitch-and-flip (lost corners), so though her patterns look simple, you have to assemble them log cabin style and lose corners as you go.  But I FINALLY figured it all out Saturday.

Yesterday I got up early, hurried through my regular chores and worked on a test block (well, half block) before I had to go to work.  I had a few errors in my pattern, so I was glad I used fabrics I'm not really in love with to test.

Lily helped in the most unhelpful way possible during all this:

Everything I tried to do, she tried to sit on.  Every space I emptied to use, she moved into.  My sewing room has limited space to start with.  Add in a determined 8-pound terror and you really can't do much without getting bit or at least growled at.  The only thing she respects is the Spicy Dragon (the iron that steams).

I had already been shopping for fabric - the hubby is having issues with his sciatic nerve and wanted to do some walking.  We went to my local quilt shop and he walked around downtown (old-style downtown with shops below and apartments above) and I wasn't quite satisfied, so we headed about 30 minutes south to another shop where he again walked around town while I shopped.

I may add a little more from my stash (or may need to shop a little more), but I think I've got the color scheme down!  I'm going to do two butterflies in each color and make the version of the quilt seen in the top left corner of the photo above.

The butterfly fabric, found in the sale section at my local quilt shop, will be the back.  It didn't guide my fabric colors, but still looks great.  (But if I could have, I would have chosen a more purpley purple, not this reddish one, but it seems true purples are nearly impossible to find.)

I haven't cut into these yet - lots of work shifts this week - but am hoping to dig in over the weekend, where I have three days off in a row!  (I requested the 4th off for family gathering and the infamous book sale, but got the 3rd and 5th off too.  Not sure what I did, but I'll take it!!!)

Of course, I have a fair amount of time to get this done, but new projects are always exciting!

There were also two false alarms for baby quilts since I last posted.  My nephew (the one who has the quilt that I haven't quilted yet...) and his wife were pregnant, but she lost the baby.  She wasn't far along, but they'd been to the doc and heard the heartbeat, so that's sad.  I know they want four kids (they have three), so they'll try again when they're ready.

The second was apparently a false rumor.  A cousin's son eloped and there was rumor that his new wife was pregnant.  I talked to the cousin on Saturday and she told me that was not true.  The pregnancy.  The marriage did happen.

And though it's sad to lose an opportunity to make a quilt, it may be for the better right now since I'm not doing too well in the arena of actually making and finishing quilts.  (Those two I quilted?  Still not bound.)

In other sewing news, I've made a few more carrier covers.  Those, too, have suffered some due to lots of shifts at work.  And the hubby not only being off work the past two weeks, but the second of those two weeks him being a gimpy old man.

Freddie wants you to see how good he is at putting extra love into the covers I've made and folded neatly:

Yep, he's a chonk.  A goofy, loving chonk.

And then there's the reading.  It's gonna look like less, but that will make sense as I get there.

Set at the end of WWII, a father injures his hand and can't work for a while.  His scheming stage-mother wife arranges for their daughters to perform a vaudeville tumbling act to earn money.  The daughters are all quite different and the story is told, alternately, through the eyes of two of them.  It was good, but a lot of it seemed sugar-coated and predictable.

And this photo, though it's just one, represents seven books.  The Chronicles of Narnia are well known and I've read the first (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) as a kid (though I remember little).  Somewhere along the line, I acquired this box set, published in 1974 or so, and had never read it.  When sorting my shelves last year, I added it to my cart, with a single number tab, deciding that when the number was pulled, I could either read one and put the number back for another draw later, or keep reading.  I enjoyed rereading the first, so I kept going.  I read them all.  In chronological order.  Some people say you need to read them in a different order.  I don't think it made any difference except reading the first one first.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the best and we all know this is about four children finding their way to the world of Narnia through a wardrobe.  They help set the world to rights after an evil queen has turned it to winter.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair were my next favorites, as they also take the children (well, some of them) on epic journeys to meet people and save the world and whatnot.

Prince Caspian and The Horse and his Boy were next as far as my liking them.  Prince Caspian is a long adventure into battle and it gets tedious.  The Horse and his Boy is another adventure of two children, but just wasn't as engaging as other stories.  Maybe I was getting worn out by book 5?

The Magician's Nephew is the story of the creation of Narnia and was interesting, but got long and felt like an alternate Bible story.  (I know, I know.)  And my least favorite was The Last Battle, which is essentially a war story throughout.  It tidies up the world of Narnia at the end, though, and makes it hard for further books to be written.  (I won't spoil it any further than that.)

In all, they were good books and I enjoyed them.  Most of them I read in 24 hours or less.  They're short and they don't use fancy language, but I also didn't feel like things were dumbed down for the sake of kids.  I liked that.

But...there are seven books, so even at one a day, it was a week of reading!

Science nerdy as this one could have been, it was actually interesting.  A few parts got a little tedious, but in general the stories of the two men who invented the Haber-Bosch process of extracting nitrogen from the air to convert into fertilizer or explosives (Haber and Bosch) moved along nicely.  It felt less like non-fiction that I expected.

I'm not entirely sure why I picked this one up, but maybe to change up my usual genre?  Dinah of the Bible is (according to the blurb) mentioned little in that book, but this author has taken what she could find and extrapolated that into a whole life story of this woman, from birth to death.  Set before Christianity, she is the only daughter of her father (who has four wives, none who bear living daughters except her) and a pet of her four "mothers."  She learns to be a midwife from her elders as well as a local woman and that serves her well in the life she leads.  It was interesting and didn't feel like a religious story at all, despite its subject.  Except when they started with the family lineages like the Bible does, then my eyes glazed over and I may have missed something.  (Good thing for the family tree at the beginning!)

I'm working on the next book, about halfway through.  That will make book #41 for this year!  And the book sale is Saturday.  I can't wait!  My book cart is in a sort of shambles for all the books I've removed and I'm forcing myself to let it be messy because the joy of tidying it up and adding more on the 4th is worth it!

Of course, there will also be family stuff on the 4th.  We all gather at my parents every year (assuming they're not off camping somewhere) to celebrate both the nation's birthday and my dad's - his is on the 6th.  It's as good an excuse as any to get together - probably better, actually.

And with that, it's lunchtime, the banana bread is out of the oven and I need to get going.  Working tonight, so I need to make the best use of my time this morning!

Happy quilting and reading,
Katie

nope

In response to my last post (over a month ago) where I questioned if the quilt retreat jump started my quilty mojo:

No.

It did not.

I haven't even fully unpacked my projects from the retreat.

Why?

Quite a few things, actually.

First up, work.  As always.  Lots of shifts.  Lots of hours.  Good paychecks, but little time off means I hoard what I have and don't get as much done as I could.

But there have been some shenanigans afoot there.  Like the purchasing of "Mystery Chick" eggs until a coworker got the one she wanted.

(I got the one I wanted in the process!)

Second, the cat rescue group asked if I'd sew carrier covers for them again.  Remember these?

(photo credit: Saved By Zade)

Well, there's a need again.  And they have a LOT of random sheets running around.  Donations abound, but the fitted ones aren't easy to use, so guess who got them?

Specific sizes were requested, plus two 8 foot by 8 foot box trap covers.

What's a box trap?

Well, I immediately thought of Wile E Coyote and his efforts to get the Road Runner, but can't find any images to share.  But it is what you think it is, I'm sure.

Instead of trying to measure and sew and make sure there are no exposed seams, I headed to my local quilt shop, knowing an extra wide quilt back fabric would be perfect.  Maybe even too big, but that's okay.

This slightly-heavier-than-quilt cotton was in the clearance section.  I snatched up the remainder of the bolt, giving me two covers and some extra.  And the best part?  One of the employees, an animal lover and rescue helper, paid for it.  It was donated.

I'm waiting to hear how it worked.

I asked for this past weekend off, after having worked all weekend, every weekend for the entire month of May (and I think the last weekend of April).  It was GLORIOUS.

I decided to fire up the longarm and test out the repairs and adjustments done in April.

First up was the baby quilt because it was smaller and if I was going to have trouble, I'd rather suffer through something that's about 42"x42" instead of larger.

I should have taken more photos.  I didn't.

I decided to stick with swirls.  They were the most likely to be okay before the repairs, so I figured if it was still off, I'd at least be in a good place.

You know what?

Not one thread break.  Not one problem.

(Except when I ran out of bobbin almost at the end and was kicking myself for not changing it sooner, but sheesh, it's been a while and remembering all the little things was like relearning to ride a bike!)

Yay!

The next day, let's get another one done!

Tara's wedding quilt has been giving me the eyeball for a long time and I was avoiding it because I didn't want to do a poor job.  Time to give the longarm a REAL test and get this loaded.

Again, I should have taken more photos, but I was focused elsewhere.

Only one problem after a bobbin change, and that's where the problems always seem to happen when the machine is otherwise good.  All the other problems were my own - like not being so great at hitting points/corners.  But again, like relearning to ride a bike when you KNOW you were once pretty good.

(I also had an added bonus with this one where the power company texted me as I was loading and told me my power was out.  Now I have a generator, and the longarm would have been on that circuit, but I did, indeed, have power.  I decided to start quilting, figuring it was a fluke.  I got a third done and took a lunch break.  Heated up leftover tacos, sat down with a book and three bites in WHAM! No power.  For 10 minutes.  Thankfully, I had shut down and unplugged the longarm, just in case.)

The baby quilt has the binding sewn on (the machine side), the wedding quilt does not (but it's made and ready).

SO.  I think I'm back in business with the longarm.  Figuratively - I don't quilt for hire.

And this makes me happy and want to quilt more of the languishing quilts.  But, alas, I must go to work later today.

I did really well with reading blogs for a few weeks after the last post, but even that has fallen by the wayside.  I'm just exhausted.  I'll work three or four days in a row, get one day off and then do it over again.  I never realized how nice a two-day weekend was - one day to just chill and catch up and one day to actually do some things.  But I'm gonna start asking for actual weekends off at least once a month since management doesn't seem to care or pay attention.

(And sadly, I know once things slow down at work again, I'll be struggling to get two full shifts a week.  So silly.)

I put a garden in.  A little later than I wanted, but Memorial Day was the first day the hubby and I both had off, so it went in that Monday.  It's doing well and today I added some marigolds.  It's smaller this year, but I don't plan to can tomatoes, so I just put in two plants and some other veggies for eating.

And I've been reading.  As always, it's something easy to pick up and relaxing to do.

So a short recap of those.

Set during WWII (so well after the original fairy tale was invented), two children are hiding from the Nazis in Austria and find a kind-hearted old woman (I think a midwife, but with the medical knowledge of herbs and whatnot as well) and she cares for them until the war is over.  There is an oven.  It saves them.  But it was generally a sad book.

A collection of short stories, all relating in some way to food.  I thought the author was a chef at first, but I don't think so.  Just a writer.  Entertaining, sometimes informative, spanning childhood to adulthood, it was an interesting read.

I think this is the latest from one of our favorite quilty authors, and I actually bought this in a bookstore, new!  But somehow it didn't draw me in like her books used to.  Maybe I expected more than I should have, maybe it was too much reminiscing about previous stories contained in previous books?  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good enough to make me want to seek out any more of her books.

Another from the shelf of thought-I'd-read books.  This one seemed a little more familiar at the start, but definitely not by the time I got into the meat of it!  Something of a ghost story, but told through the perspective of a ghost hunter.  A ghost hunter who seeks to release the ghosts from the places and people they haunt.  Set in New Orleans, I enjoyed reading about the city as well.

I wanted to like this one, I really did.  A Frankenstein-like idea where a scientist/doctor is trying to prove that things a mother experiences while pregnant will change the physical characteristics of her unborn child.  By doing terrible things to unfortunate pregnant women.  Told through the eyes of one of these women, the story unfolds slowly, though the reader knows more than it seems they should.  And after all the horrors, the happy ending is just too much.

Another one I really wanted to like, but the author seemed to want to be some sort of highfalutin' literary novelist or something.  There is a LOT going on and it's hard to keep track of.  Basically, Edgar Allan Poe dies under strange circumstances and a young lawyer becomes obsessed with figuring out what exactly happened.  He nearly loses his practice, his fiancée and his life (a number of times) in the process of seeking out clues.  And in the end, we are presented with about three different stories, none of which are true because nobody knows.  I didn't expect to actually know, but I also didn't expect to come away so muddle-headed.

And lastly, one that I wasn't even sure what to expect.  I know this author has a reputation regarding religion (though I'm not exactly clear on what it is), but I thought I'd give it a go.  I mean, when you're filling a bag for $10, why not?  And it was good.  Letters from an uncle guiding a tempter working for "Our Father Below" on how to guide humans into behaviors that will win souls for "their side."  Every chapter/letter was intriguing and dealt with different ideas regarding religious beliefs and pitfalls.  I think this would be really interesting to read in-depth, in a group, chapter by chapter.  As it was, I read it in two days.

I'm on to another book already, but with those above, this brings my reading to 30 books already this year!  But...the huge book sale on July 4th is just around the corner, so no time to slack.  I've got to make room on my cart for the incoming hoard!

And with that, I'd better go eat some lunch because I have to be to work in a few hours!

I promise to, again, try to be better about the whole blog thing.  I mean, I can't expect you to keep reading if I'm not reciprocating, right?  And if I'm not writing, well...

Happy quilting and reading,

Katie

did retreat jump start my quilty mojo?

I'm back.  I think...

It's been a few weeks, but I haven't had really anything to share (aside from books) and just took a break.  I haven't been reading blogs much either, but maybe this afternoon I'll get somewhat caught up?

But there's a pile of stuff to share, so settle in!

As the title states, I went to a quilt retreat last week.  It's one my mom runs in a little town a few hours north of here.  She's been doing it for over 20 years, but I haven't gone.  Long story short, this is her last year and I decided I needed to go.  It was fun.

(I didn't take a suitcase full of books, but I did take four - I only read about half of one!)

What did I end up taking?

After flipping through magazines and quilt books, looking for something new, I realized I had a few patterns I had purchased with the desire to make them.  So why was I looking for something else?

Silly girl.

First up is Chic Kisses.  My pattern is actually the cover of a magazine, but the actual pattern from the designer has more pages and better instructions.  How do I know?  There's a really nice video on putting the blocks together and I watched it twice for extra help.

But this block is something else and I decided to make a test block before I went.  You know, magazines can have errors and, well, I wanted to be sure I could tackle this before planning on it being a major part of my week.

I don't have a photo of my block - maybe I'll go snap one, but for now I'm typing - but it was a little bit of a nightmare.

You know, what I need photos...hang on...

Okay, the block - using fabrics I don't much care for:

There's a template (free!) for making the fan blades, so that went faster.  But those curves.  Sew Kind of Wonderful, the designer, has curved rulers for these blocks, which also seem like they make things go faster.

But...

The inner curve and the outer curves are NOT the same.  And the ruler and pattern assume as much.

In the video you can see that it's not quite right, but I went ahead with the test, as written, to see how bad it was.  I mean, the gal said it was great.  It was bad.

How bad?

The seam closer to the center (the yellow) is the "correct" seam - matching edges, using a quarter inch seam allowance.  The outer seam is where I re-sewed after pressing it and figuring out where the seam should actually be so I don't have a toe-catcher overlapping the fans.

Off to the interwebs...

The magazine has stopped publishing, so no errata are available any more.

The google only tells me where to buy the pattern.  I found maybe one person who had made the quilt with no comment about troubles or anything.  Just "woohoo I made it!!!".

Useless.

Plan B - how to figure out curves.

I found this nice video (and I hope it links - it's a series of short videos that I can't seem to figure out how to link to just ONE of them, but here's to hoping) where she talks about making curved blocks and how her pattern wasn't quite what she wanted so she made a better one.  I kinda had an idea how to draft it, but this helped.

And I refigured the curve the arcs needed to be cut.  Traced that onto the arcs and cut with a scissors.  It didn't take THAT much longer, but I was hopping mad about the whole "it looks great" garbage.

Anyways.  Off to retreat with my revised pattern and a pile of fabrics.

I got two blocks done and guess what?  My edit worked!

Pardon the wrinkles - they were packed in a box and hauled home and just found their way out for photos this morning.

I didn't edit the outer curve, as that wasn't as much of a problem.  It probably could have used a little tweaking, but there is no toe-catcher in evidence, so I let it go.

(I did find one other pattern error in the magazine, but it was template-related and I wasn't using templates - but if you are making this quilt and have questions, I'll be happy to answer them!)

They each took the better part of a day, but my mom's retreat is BUSY.  I swear every time I'd just get sewing, the bell would ring to call our attention and it was time to play a game or go eat or do an activity or see a project someone had finished.  (I liked the finished projects and the food was great, but I could probably have done with fewer activities!)

The original pattern calls for 16 of these blocks, but they finish at like 23", so I'm thinking nine blocks will be sufficient for a throw-size quilt.  And, well, seven fewer blocks isn't a bad thing.

We'll see where things go.  I haven't touched my sewing stuff since I got home (not even to really unpack much of it), but I'm hoping the motivation will remain.  I just had a lot to deal with when I got home, in a short time before work shifts started up again!

This was actually the second project I worked on.  The first was a baby quilt.  I had it saved from a magazine, but today found that the designer has it in her etsy shop as a single pattern.   But if we're being honest, the magazine has a single block free on their website and I...well...I used that and did some math...  (Probably would have been a LOT faster and easier without the math, though!)

A week or so before retreat the hubby asked me to make a quilt for a coworker who is expecting his first baby (a boy) in a few months.  He doesn't often ask, so I know when he does it's someone special.  So he helped me select the quilt (he kept picking out stuff that was entirely applique or had 5 billion pieces and I love quilting, but not that much - not for something I'm giving away) and we settled on this one.

This took only about two days and I hadn't cut a single piece beforehand.  It went together fast, but, as I said above, would probably have gone even faster if I'd bought the whole pattern.

It's just four blocks, but takes on a whole new look once you get those together.  I really like it and it makes me think of city streets.  I'm not sure what color to bind with, but I'm leaning towards orange.  If I have enough!

Other retreat things:

some swag and door prize winnings - that pink thing is a seam ripper and it's AWESOME!

And a quilt fairy gift.

I also went to two quilt shops in the area and bought a few things:

The book is more reference/inspiration, but I've seen it before and finally caved and bought it.  The template I've been looking for and was excited to find.  And the yellows will go in the Chic Kisses quilt - my yellow stash was diminished and more golden than I wanted.

It was a fun week.  My sister-in-law went too and we were roomies.  Every single participant was wonderful and friendly.  And my mom...well...she's a little extra sometimes and so I expected it from her, so it was manageable.  A small part of me wishes I could plan for next year, but I know even if it wasn't the last year, each year is a little different and it would never be the same.  

It WAS good to get home to my own bed, my kitties, and my routine.  Washing ALL the spoons upon return was NOT fun...the hubby hates dishes with a passion and we use spoons to scoop wet food out of cans for the cats.  Instead of washing spoons every day or so (he was also eating bologna sandwiches off of paper plates - I cannot stress enough that this was HIS decision, not mine), he just used all the spoons and then sent me a text to complain.  We have plastic spoons, but NOOOOOOO...

Now I'm back to the regular routine with lots of hours at work - it's spring and that means new lawnmowers, fences that need mending, and all that outside fun.  So we're busy and there are plenty of hours to go around.  I guess it's good, though I do get kinda used to the late winter slump and having more days off than on!

Shortly before I left for retreat, I FINALLY got someone out to work on my longarm.  After my debacle a few years ago (where the company that sells and services them told me my money was no good because I didn't buy it new, from them), the hubby got fed up with my cursing the thing and threatening to put it on the side of the road with a "good luck" sign (not "free" because that might imply it was worth something) and called.  He's a manager and forces techs to fit his machines into their schedule all the time at his job, so he figured he could try that here.

And you know what?  The asshats scheduled him right away.  Like, no questions.  Just "does Tuesday work?"  Flabbergasted does not quite cover my reaction.

So the repair guy is like "it's the encoders."  I'd prepped the hubby.  For those of you who don't know, the encoders keep track of where the machine is and how fast it's going.  So the stitch regulator knows how fast to move the needle up and down.  

My stitch regulator is off.  So the encoders being wonky does not make one bit of difference.

It's like telling someone their cruise control in their car is the problem when it won't shift out of first gear and the cruise control isn't on.

I was pretty sure it was the timing.  I'd tried everything else.  I'd even coughed up almost $300 for a timing tool that, because of my machine being older than almost all others of its brand, does not quite work.  (The hubby and I tried to time it - apparently we got close.)

Anyways, this is also what the folks told me when I tried to get a tech out the first time.  I argued, but they argued back.

So.

It took three men to confirm that it WAS NOT THE ENCODERS.

It was the timing.

There were a few other things he adjusted (why not do the whole spa treatment once I'm paying for a service call, right?), but the timing was the problem.

And he showed us how to modify the tool to use it.  But my hubby took the day off to host the event and participated enough that he feels like he could time it without the tool.

Due to life and work and all whatever, I haven't actually loaded a quilt and used it yet, but I did fool around with a test piece and it is no longer skipping stitches and tying unplanned knots.  Here's to hoping the first quilt isn't a disaster.

But I'm kinda keeping the repair under my hat as far as my mom is concerned because I don't like quilting her stuff.  I don't do it often and I don't offer.  I don't quilt for others very often and usually it's a charity quilt or something.  It's just a lot of extra stress I don't want.  My quilting is good enough for me, but might not be for others and I'm not going there.

Last but not least are the books...10 of them since I last posted.  I'll try to keep their info short...

Quite good.  Historical fiction set during the development of penicillin as a drug.  The doctors developing it, a newspaper reporter covering it and a mysterious death that may or may not be associated with it.  Enjoyable and sciencey without being too technical.

Also pretty good.  A man who lost his musical gift in his late teens, striving to practice his talent back while teaching at university takes on a promising young boy as a student.  It helps him find his way back, but also gives him perspective about how his talent may not be all he needs.  The cat on the cover arrives very late in the book.

Surprisingly good, but LOOONG.  Recommended by another quilty blogger quite some time ago, this is the story of four people who moved north during the migration of blacks from the south into the north.  It's nonfiction, but the stories are interesting enough that it isn't dry or boring (which is why it was surprising to be as good as it was).  The four people head for different cities, end up in different places and have quite different experiences, but it made me think about how easy my life is and appreciate it more.

Also good.  Quick and enjoyable.  Maisie Dobbs is a young woman striking out on her own as a private investigator, though she relies on her instinct and intuition to guide her, more so than a man might do, or perhaps might be expected.  She is hired to find out if a wife is cheating on her husband, but what she finds leads her to encourage the husband to be more present in the relationship.  That ties into a secondary story that helps us learn about her past.  There are other books in this series (this is the first) and I expect they are all of similar nature and wouldn't turn them down if they came across my path.

Quite good.  A Russian teenage girl, living with her mother (the concubine of the title), in a European city within China, meets a Chinese boy and they have an immediate bond.  He is fighting the current Chinese leadership, which puts him in danger, and her love for him puts her in danger as well.  There are a variety of European nationalities living within this city and many of them come into the story in surprising ways to help the two teens.  The mother figures into the story less than you'd expect, considering the title and we never see her quite as a concubine...

Good.  Nonfiction (though I didn't realize that until I read the blurb closer).  A woman from Michigan travels with a relief aid group to Kabul to help people in war-destroyed Afghanistan.  The rest of her group all have medical skills, she is a hairdresser who took an emergency response class a year before and wanted to do something.  She is the black sheep of the group, finds herself bored and goes out to meet locals.  She gets herself into some scrapes, but really does see the people and city better than anyone else in her group.  And ends up, over the course of a number of years and visits, develops and beauty school for women to attend.  Her goal is to give them skills to help support their families when everything is very uncertain in the country.  Reading a little more about the book after I finished put some of her actions in a less positive light, but I truly believe this woman meant well and worked hard to do what she believed in.

Good but dragged a little in places.  Set mostly during the Korean war, in Korea, we see a family trying to survive.  They were wealthy and governed a large piece of land - one that was split when the country was divided into North and South Korea.  The wealth is lost and the family struggles, but they survive bombings and raids.  The book starts and ends with a young woman, an American-born daughter of this family, who travels to find her family and find more meaning in her painting career.  Her story was much less interesting than that of her mother and grandparents and uncles.  A war that doesn't have nearly as many books about it, too...

Pretty good.  Fiction, but based on the real-life Daisy of F. Scott Fitzgerald.  She is a rich girl with no sense of the real world, meets a poor-ish boy who she finds annoying (he doesn't know all the proper rules of the wealthy) but then pines over him.  Drags him along for a while, then dumps him when she finds something shinier.  And when the poor boy becomes a famous writer, he's all new and shiny again, but he knows better now and keeps her at a distance.  I think the Daisy character made me mad enough that the whole book felt less good than it was.

Terrible.  Recommended for no one.  I didn't even finish it.  Three parts:  Part one is childhood.  He's a shit, but maybe it's that kid he's hanging out with.  Part two is teenage years:  He's still making questionable choices, but maybe it's because he's a teenager and boys will be boys.  Part three is post-college:  He's clearly mentally disturbed.  I think he has three personalities.  I think he spent some time in a mental hospital.  I give up.  I kept hoping it would have a plot.  I kept hoping he'd get "better."  I kept hoping for something.  I read 400 pages and I'm sorry I didn't quit 300 pages earlier.

Very good.  Sad.  A woman, while mourning the loss of her best friend's daughter, is accused of abusing a boy at school (she's an elementary school nurse) and is wrongly jailed based on something she said that was misinterpreted while having what was probably a mental breakdown.  The first and third part of the book are her story.  The first is the loss of the daughter, the third is post-jail.  The middle is her husband's story of life without her, visiting her and raising their two daughters.  Her writing reminds me a lot of favorite author Barbara Kingsolver and I enjoyed the book a lot, even with the heavy story.

I finished this last one last night, so nothing to report about the next one...

The Soloist and A Map of the World came from my actual bookshelves and, again, were books I thought I'd read, but once I got into them, realized I hadn't.  I'm glad I kept both.  They were both worth reading.

And so I think that's all I have to share.

Time for lunch!

Happy quilting and reading,

Katie