a little quilty sewing!

After blogging last Monday, I sat myself down and figured out what I was going to do with the next Bramble Blooms prompt.  I had some ideas saved on my phone, but I needed to think them through, consider fabrics and then do some quilty math.

I had two ideas that were competing - one I liked better that would be more difficult, and one that fit the "improvise based on something in the previous top" instruction better and was also much easier.

Easier won.

So I mathed and started cutting.

I made notes in finished sizes, knowing my brain could handle the math.

I was wrong.

The top and bottom are supposed to be taller - the squares in the corner are not supposed to be squares.

But this will work.

I had to cut a few more to make it fit, but thankfully my error worked out that I needed whole blocks to fill the space.  (Not that a coping border would have been out of the question, but it just adds another math element...)

I started sewing, but there are a lot of pieces and I didn't get as far as I'd hoped before it was time to stop for the day and tend to other household chores and the hubby.

If I get time, I'll work more on these today, as I've decided that on Monday I will take a break from the cat stuff and sew for me.  I don't have a lot of me sewing to do, so it's not like I'm giving up all my time for the kitties, but I decided I needed to make a little time, at least for this.  (But today is lunch with friends day, so we'll see how far I get this morning with chores first!)

It looks like I have until September to get these done, which shouldn't be a problem now that I've got my idea settled and sewing started.  I just hope they look as good as I imagined.  But I suppose if not I have plenty of time for Plan B?

Sewing for the kitties continues - mostly carrier covers, but if I get something that is too small for a cover, but large enough for a hammock, I sew that.  Originally I was holding back the smaller pieces entirely, thinking I could piece fabrics for the covers, but after that huge donation, I'm not holding back any more.  I think I've sewn close to 100 medium size covers (the size they need most) and many in the small, large, and live trap sizes as well.  Holy cow - I should have kept a tally!

Lily likes to help...

The fabric she is lying on, I was trying to do a rough measure using the grid on my cutting mat (I do this before ironing, so I can use the ironing time to figure out how best to use that piece - mental math!) and she snagged it out of my hands and started wrestling it.  Okay, I'll get another.  Nope, she tried to grab that too, so it's dangling down over her while I'm trying to get her to let go.

What a stinker.  But she crashes out soon after her bout of antics and I have an adorable snoozerviser for the rest of my sewing time.  She still has kitten crazies, but she is napping more, which is what cats do as they grow up.

And that fabric she's laying on?  Let's take a look at the selvedge, shall we?

I said these ranged from the 80s and maybe earlier and I wasn't kidding!  I also got this fabric in mauve in this batch, but didn't note the date on that selvedge until later.  Ah, the colors of the 80s...

As for books, I finished two again this week, but before you go getting all wound up, realize that the first one was halfway finished last Monday when I blogged.  So you're not getting real-time finishes, just weekly summaries.  (I'm about a quarter of the way into the next book now.)

First up:

"The Half-Downed King" by Linnea Hartsuyker

I liked this book a lot.  Told mostly from the viewpoint of a young man (20) in Viking times doing Viking boy things - raiding, plundering, killing, drinking - but also he encounters a number of events that could just as easily have killed him (hence the half-drowned), in his desire to make a name for himself, avenge his dead father and take care of his younger (15) sister.  His life takes him places most people of his time would never imagine and he seems to just fall into them, though he is a good fighter and that helps.

There is also a portion of the book told by his younger sister.  She is not one to want to stay home and do Viking girl things and this, as you may have guessed, causes trouble.  As with her brother, her life takes turns that you never would imagine with the little effort put into getting there (though there is some on the part of both of them), but it makes things more interesting.

I gave this 4.75 stars because the middle seemed to drag a little bit (story building, yes, but still a little slow) and I wish a few things had been tied up at the end.  The characters were realistic (even if some of their results were a little far-fetched) and the description of their lifestyles was interesting.

There are two more books in this series - they're on my eventually want to read list now.

Book two:

"The Winter Waif" by Lynette Rees

Oh my.  I don't think this book is considered young adult, but there are a lot of things that I feel are condescending in the language, written in a way that a younger reader might need.  It is a story of a 12-13-14-year old girl who apparently doesn't understand some words, so the author make sure we know that.  And I'm not sure what it is, maybe the sentences are shorter?  Maybe they're more precise instead of storytelling?  Maybe the constant noting of background things (like father returning from work, siblings being fed) that weren't important to the story?  Whatever it is, I was annoyed.

And there was a LOT of tea made.  Like a LOT.

By about a third of the way in, things did start to get better, but maybe I'd just gotten over my frustration and decided to finish the book.  Kinda like background noise that eventually just becomes part of life, these little things faded?

But the blurb on the back?  I don't know who wrote that, but it sure wasn't someone who read or wrote the book.  (Spoiler alert: The back mentions she has to be careful or she'll end up in a workhouse - she later CHOOSES to enter a workhouse, so, um, yeah...)

So anyways, this young girl in 1800s England loses her mother to probably tuberculosis, and things all go south when her father remarries.  She runs away, trying to find her aunt who lives in a bad part of town, and though she doesn't find her aunt, she finds a kindly poor family who takes her in for the night.  The whole book goes like this - she never once is mugged while in the bad part of town, a job she is offered is as promised, the aunt who has a drinking problem straightens up just like that, etc.  Though it is framed like she suffers hardship, compared to many around her, she is not struggling.  And much like the previous book, it seems these opportunities fall into her lap and she succeeds at them.

Not a bad book in the end - 3.5 stars - but the characters do not seem realistic and I am still annoyed at the authors' continued effort to explain "big" words to me.  I will not be seeking out more books by this author.

And that's it for my week.  I promise more will be done on the Bramble Blooms project next week - I'm headed there soon!

Happy quilting,

Katie