back to quilty sewing!

It's been a bit since I've blogged and longer since I've done much quilty sewing.  Yes, there was the wedding quilt (that life intervened and we didn't get to go, so the quilt is still waiting - for them to return from the honeymoon because the event that kept us from going happened too late to allow mailing the gift ahead), but otherwise, it's been kinda quiet in my sewing room.  And when I was there, it was sewing for the kitties.

Well...

Sewing for the kitties is in a slow stretch and there are lots of quilty things starting in the new year, so why not start something new?

But first, let's review the things I already started that are carrying into the new year.

There's the Bramble Blooms quilt along that got stalled out a few weeks back due to illness.  The hubby looks to be on the mend, so she posted the next step over the weekend.  I have some ideas, but haven't settled on anything for sure yet.  In case you don't remember what I was doing:

Next up is a round of borders.  I think some kitty footprints will be needed, but I'm not sure what else.  I need to pull out the bin and see what speaks to me.

There is also the Tall Poppies quilt along starting soon.  I went shopping for a background and came home inspired by this:

I may be crazy.  This may be terrible.  But I'm planning to use bright fabrics that are more-or-less solid-looking and figure it will have a nice 80's vibe.  Or it will be terrible.  I suppose just one block will tell me if I'm going to get what I'm looking for.  Soon.

This year, as has happened for many years in the past, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is happening.  I've joined a few times, but not too often.  And while I love a good rainbow, a quilt of many colors isn't always my thing.  I decided to join again this year, using the bin of 1.5" squares as my starting point.  I've been saving them for a while (ever since The Unicorn), and they do come in handy every so often.  So it hasn't been ALL saving, but there's been a fair amount of buildup and I thought if I could just make some simple 9-patch-ish blocks and use them up, that would be good.

And then I remembered The Bin of green lost corners (top box in the photo below - top right corner) and decided I could make some sort of star-type block and use the lost corners and the squares.

It blew up on my cutting mat, but I was matching up squares with half square triangles and added in my bin of random strips to find some backgrounds without raiding the stash.  I'm trying to reduce the amount of these bits that I just can't bring myself to throw out.  (I'm also trying to convince myself that throwing these bits out is okay from now on so it doesn't keep happening.)

I sewed for quite a few hours yesterday (the hubby was napping, so even less chance of being pulled away) and got 14 little blocks made!

What you see on the cutting mat are all left from this green quilt I made a few years ago that was an attempt to decrease my stash.  It did, but I couldn't help myself with the lost corners!  But there are also a bunch more half square triangles in the bin left from this quilt.  They're more matchy-matchy, so I'm holding back on them to maybe do a different pattern.  And there are some with darker backgrounds that also may get a different treatment.  For now, I have quite a few light background pieces left to work with (the photo was taken AFTER I sewed the 14 in the second photo!), so it will be a while.  Nonetheless, this is exciting progress.

I have no idea what will become of these.  That is December Katie's problem.

Finally, a completely new project, is the 100 day stitch book from Ann Wood.  I think I first found her on Instagram and was intrigued with her work and then she did this cool fabric book of random stitching and I was even more intrigued.  This year, I'm going to try it out.

First up was to cut 20 backgrounds.

I went through my stash of black/grey and "neutral" and came up with these.  Some have multiples (the grey chambray at the top), and some have singles.  It looks busy, but I'm playing here and maybe it will be another disaster (see Tall Poppies above) or maybe it will be super cool.  In my mind this is kind of a junk journal approach - at least mine is!

I had a plan for the applique pieces.  This bin...

...is another pile of cast-offs from odds and ends of projects.  I thought there was more pink in there, as this bin sort of started when I was working on the 100 days quilt (scroll down a bit in this post - it's not quilted, so no finished post/photo), but it's been used a few times and other stuff has been added, and it has just gotten worse.  So I'm going to use it as a starting point, or maybe work from it entirely.  We'll see.

Of course there will also need to be some embroidery thread and maybe beads and whatnot added, but as for fabric, this is my bin.  (There are also some odds and ends of failed blocks in the bottom.  Maybe they'll find their way into the trash?  Or I'll cannibalize them for parts?)

Finally, the non-quilty news.

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last blogged, and all the winter holidays have gone by.  That means the $300 in Barnes and Noble gift cards I got for Christmas need to be accounted for and the year-end wrap-up of my reading is also out there!

Let's start with a fun collage of ALL the books I read in 2023!

Since I mostly get my books at used book sales that are library fundraisers, I sometimes come home with some oddballs, though historical fiction is what I tend to enjoy and look for. The Storygraph keeps track of the genres, which is a fun graphic at the end of the year.

The link above is to their website, but they also have a super handy app that is how I keep track of things.  Many folks know about Goodreads, but this is so much nerdier!

Anyways, you can see historical books were what I read most of, but I also got in some true crime and travel as well.  At the last book sale, I tried to branch out a little more, so we'll see how this year goes.

And finally, the one that is fun to watch change each month:

You can see I read fewer books at the end of the year last year, but also that the number of pages didn't go down a lot.  So fewer books, but thicker books.  (The last book of the year was 927 pages!)

My reading goal for the year had been one book per week - 52 books.  I beat that in about September, but kept going.  I didn't adjust my goal to a new one because it felt better to just blow it out of the water.  This year I've also set my goal at one per week.  Some weeks are better than others and I'm only setting the goal to keep myself a little accountable.  If I read more this year than last, great.  If not, also great.

And probably my best statistic (though I don't have a photo to share) is that I read EVERY SINGLE DAY of 2023.  Even when I had covid and a massive headache.  Even when I was crazy tired from work.  I read at least a few pages every day.  It all started with a challenge in January to read every day in January.  I just kept going.  I'm doing the January challenge again this year, but it's cool that my streak is not 7 days, but 371 days right now.

Now to follow up with some of what I'll be reading in 2024!

The hubby surprised me with a $200 gift card to Barnes and Noble at Christmas.  I had told him getting our two new kitties vaccinated and spayed was present enough.  (It was pricey, but absolutely worth it, particularly after a week of poor Salem being in heat.)  But he had purchased a few video game accessories for his sister to give to her boys (she doesn't know what she's looking for and he does), so to repay him, instead of giving him the money, he told her to get me the gift card.

And THEN!

The hubby's parents, not knowing what to get him, apparently heard about the gift card situation, and got him a $100 gift card to Barnes and Noble.  I'm not entirely sure why because he rarely reads, but it worked in my favor because he turned it over to me!

(I bought him a new office chair to use when he plays video games in exchange, but since I used credit card points to pay for it, it was free to me!  He also requested the latest in the Hunger Games series, which I was happy to order.)

I had so much fun!

I have a list of books I'd like to read and while I asked for a few for Christmas from family (the ones I was sure I wanted - my list spans a lot I need to research further to decide about), I had a long list to work from.

I ordered 17 books.

13 came last week.

Lily, who is afraid of missing out and seems to have some abandonment issues, jumped right in to help.  (Finn was happy with the box more when it was empty.)

And here they are:

I can't remember if that was Freddie or Salem inspecting.

I giggle every time I see "An Elderly Lady is up to No Good" because it is a hilarious title.  I'll try to remember to let you know how it goes.

One more is due to arrive today.  The remaining three are in waiting-for-warehouse-restock limbo.  No worries.  So long as they get here eventually, I've got plenty to keep me busy.  (Because there may or may not be 50+ more books upstairs on the cart!)

Off to finish the morning chores before lunch with quilty friends.  Aside from the nearly flat tire on my car this morning, today seems to be looking good.  (And I toted my little for-the-longarm-but-really-a-tool air compressor outside, plugged it in in the garage and pumped up my own tire for the first time ever.  I've seen it done, just always weaseled a boy to fix it for me in the past.)

Happy quilting!

Katie