I suppose technically I've started two quilts, but I shared a tiny snippet of the first one in my last post:
I've had these Michigan fabrics in my stash for quite a while and after purchasing the Pixelated Michigan pattern this seemed the right direction to go. I cut some pieces, from these and other stash, but set it aside and haven't gotten back to it.
Life.
But a few weeks ago a coworker decided to retire. She's nearing the official age, and works only part time (this is her side gig), but when the company announced that starting next year they will no longer offer health insurance to ANY part time employee (currently you have to work a certain number of hours to qualify), that made her decision. She'd been leaning towards being done, but this made it so much easier.
She's been there about 20 years and we've become work friends.
So what does she need?
A QUILT!!!!!
I searched around for a while, trying to find something that just screamed her, but really didn't find anything. I have a lot of quilts saved in Pinterest, I have a fair number of books and I searched around even more on the interwebs. Finally I settled on the Flower Farm Sampler Quilt.
But it's huge.
So if I make everything 25% smaller it will be a good-sized throw.
Yay math?
Time to shop.
Much of my stash are smaller pieces. And while this quilt looks quite scrappy, I didn't want to continue to add in fabrics to the very end, hoping it would all look cohesive.
Some of the colors don't show up very true here, but they look good together in person. I promise. (I had help at my LQS from the owner and employee - both friends thanks to the now-defunct guild.)
I added a light turquoisey blue from my stash and intended to add some limey greens, but guess what I don't have enough of in my stash? Yep. Limey greens.
I went back just before she closed and picked up two more pieces, but they aren't shown here. If I keep blogging about the blocks, you'll see them.
Oh, wait, sneak peek: the fabric key!
I refigured the first block and set to sewing.
There are a lot of parts. A lot of lost corners. I refigured a few components to be no-waste flying geese instead of waste flying geese. So that saved a few corners!
It took forever. Two blocks, but they're big. (More on that size in a minute.)
And done!
(The lighter blue is more green than it's showing up here, but pretty much everything else looks good for colors. Stupid camera.)
As I was trying to take a few more photos, hoping for color correction...
(Hi Salem! She looks skinnier here than she is, but she's not a chonk like her brothers and one sister. Lily is still skinny...)
And it was at this point that I realized I had made a 16 inch block and I needed an 18 inch block. So I made it 33% smaller, not 25%. I was so mad.
This block...I made so many rookie mistakes. I cut into a part of fabric that was folded under and I thought out of the way. I sewed things on the wrong side. I nearly burned myself with the iron. And then this.
I went downstairs and told my hubby maybe I shouldn't be a quilter any more. I know it's been a while since I've sewn much, but sheesh!
Immediately I thought to make more blocks, but I'm not sure how much leeway I have with fabrics. I bought less than the pattern called for, knowing I'd be making smaller blocks, but I'm not sure how much extra I have.
So for now it will wait. I can add a 1" border around the whole thing, or, if at the end I have enough, I can make a couple more. And these could become throw pillows, tote bags or part of a dolly or baby quilt.
I haven't refigured any of the remaining blocks, but I did find a nice chart from a blog that seems like it will work. (Because apparently I can't do this myself?) Perhaps I will make a small block using this method just to be sure before I cut up and ruin more fabric. (Okay, okay, not ruin, but misuse.)
BUT!!! The lost corners are not lost!
There are eight more HSTs waiting - pressed and trimmed - I promised myself I'd keep up with these and not end up with a pile that I feel guilty about tossing if I'm going to sew them in the first place - but I have three 4" blocks. Who knows where these will end up, but they're fun. (A little fiddly, but fun.)
And one thing I noticed with that floral-ish fabric...
As I was pressing, I saw this detail in the flower. (The flowers are smaller than a dime.) It's the designer initials. This seems quite bold, but perhaps they do this with all their designs and this one just happens to be super obvious? I mean, it is tiny, but it's still hard to hide.
Anyways. That's the quilty news.
The coworker plans to be done at the end of the year, so I have a deadline, but I think 2+ months should be fine. If I can get a block (set - often there are 2 or more) done every time I get a day to sew, I should be fine. It will be fine. Everything is fine.
On to books.
On October 1st, my local library had their annual used book sale. I planned on this one (unlike the extra one back home in late September!) and even took the day off work to make sure I could attend (I swear my boss has a sixth sense about these things and schedules to make them impossible). It's smaller, but I love knowing I'm directly impacting my local community with my purchases, so I make sure to fill my bag.
I took my own bag, but...
...they also had mystery bags.
I wasn't counting as I piled books into my bag, but as I was heading for the checkout I saw these. I figured if I could get all I had chosen and this mystery for the $20 I brought with me, it was happening.
I got out for $19!
What was in the bag?
I've read Sarah's Key (it was VERY GOOD), but not the other four. In all, a good deal and it was fun to let someone else do the choosing. There were many other bags, but with hints like "women authors" or "mystery" I was a little more wary. Those could go a lot of ways! I was also worried with this selection I would end up with titles I'd donated, since that is my go-to genre, but not one of these had previously been mine. (I kept my copy of Sarah's Key, so even that one was a no!)
I made sure to go onto their facebook page (I only go there now if I'm heading for a specific page because sometimes that's just the only place you can go) and thanked them for my amazing selection since this was the first year they've done this. I wanted them to know I appreciated the effort and liked what I got besides! And I want them to do it again next year!
So what all did I get?
I got brave with a couple. I usually read the blurb and decide from there, but I think there are two that had no blurb, but I liked their covers, so I took a chance. I'll have to let you know how they turned out when their number comes up.
And then the tedious task (but fun!) of getting them all ready for the random number jar.
My cart is a little overwhelmed...
I think I counted 19 books overflowing as of the start of October. I've read a few books and plan, on the first of the month (or so), to consolidate and tidy and take a photo to show progress. I hope to get these all of the floor sooner rather than later because I have cats and...anything can happen!
So what have I read since my last blog post?
Pretty good. A variety of characters living in London on one street. A variety of lifestyles, incomes and ages. And a mystery that wasn't all that exciting, nor was it as much of a focus as one might expect from the cover hype.
(I'm constantly reminded that the cover hype is drivel that seems to be written by someone who didn't actually read the book. I don't think it's the authors writing these. If they are, good lord I'm not getting out of these books what they planned.)
Apparently this is a vampire novel. There were clues (someone else must shave him because he can't see himself...), but not a real introduction.
It's like the 1600's or something.
He takes a mistress, but I think she is to become a vampire at her natural death because he has done a deed that we are not privy to. She writes music, he publishes it.
He travels because of his publishing. People in his employ are crooked. The blurb says he nearly came to ruin, but you'd not guess that from the text in the book. Also, he can apparently make his own gold, so whatever.
This is one in a string of books about this vampire, apparently written in no chronological order, but I suppose if I had read one before like #18, maybe I would have met the vampire more fully?
I suppose Ann Rice spoiled me in the 90's. (Yes, they were published earlier, but I read (and watched - Christian Slater in a '65 red Mustang...SWOON!!!! - favorite actor, favorite car!) the books in the 90's.)
The first one of the mystery bag to come up, this one was really good.
A Jewish family in Poland escapes into the sewers to hide/live. The main character believes her father had further plans, but he is swept away in the water and dies during the initial escape. Another family is with them and they do the best they can. A sewer worker guides them and brings them food until he is arrested.
But another girl (both girls are late teens) sees the girl in the sewer and tries to help. She ends up getting far more involved in the resistance because of her interaction.
The end has a twist, too!
And for a book about such evil, it felt uplifting.
Not bad.
A VerMeer painting is stolen - how it happened, where it ended up (a couple of different ways), the people involved, a vague understanding of their motivations.
I read it in a day. Because it's skinny, not because it's so suspenseful.
Quite good.
A man is stationed on a "lighthouse" in space, tasked with keeping it running, basically. It's lonely, but he's a war hero (though not in his mind) and this solace is what he wants as his reward.
Told in five stories (perhaps they were originally published separately?), we meet him, the satellite, a few people who visit, the new neighbor and more.
It was entertaining and a bit, um, funky? I'm not quite sure how to explain it. The language wasn't as formal as many books, but it was by no means informal. If that makes any sense.
There are a few other books by this author in my want to read list, thanks to my This Week in Virology posdcast folks science-ish picks of the week, but I didn't realize this was the author until I read the fine print on the cover!
The current read is going slowly. I had hoped to finish it last night - with only 60 pages to go and about an hour till bedtime, it seemed doable - but I only got about 30 pages read and called it a night. I should finish today.
And that's it.
Of course there was baking and kitty snuggles and a shingles vaccine and a little crafty binge buying, but this has gotten long enough.
GO VOTE!
Happy quilting,
Katie
Katie
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