so many books, so little time!

Besides quilting, reading and collecting books are big hobbies for me.  In addition to a couple of the half dozen books I got for Christmas and still haven't read (A Discovery of Witches, Building Stories (graphic novel in a box)), there are 4 or 5 books coming out this month that I want to buy and read.  I love Carl Hiassen, and he has a new Florida send-up"Bad Monkey" that I'm sure will be a laugh riot.  An author named Meyer has a new Texas-based multi-generational novel call The Son.  And one of my favorite novels of this century is Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin", and he has a new novel called "Transatlantic", a multi-generational book about Ireland.  And another of my favorites, John Favorite has a new Lucas Davenport Minneapolis police procedural, Silken Prey.
I need two weeks on the beach to devour all these!
My current bedside reading is Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, (multi-generational novel in Italy, Hollywood, elsewhere), and my car audio book is What is the What by Dave Eggers about one of the Sudanese "Lost Boys".  Beautiful reading, and powerful content.
I just finished "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follett (another audio book beautifully read), and I have the book sequel, Winter of the World.
I also listened to a short set of novellas, called "Road Rage." The first was "Duel", which was the story that the TV special with Dennis Weaver from the 70s was based on.  (Old tanker trunk pursues driver relentlessly in an almost wordless drama). The other was a similar story by Stephen King and Joe Hill but with motorcycles. 
I also just picked up some used quilt books at $1 a pop to browse through.
And sort of book related, our summer "Challenge" for our Guild is a quilt using Nancy Drew fabric. 
My idea is to make a checkered counterpane, and make computer copies of book covers that an adolescent girl would read, and applique them on the counterpane, scattered about, and have the head of a girl at the top of the counterpane, reading the Nancy Drew book.  A lot to do by the end of August! (plus my day job!)
the link photo is my son and his fiance!

Millions of cats - work in process

I started this little project back in 2009 and then laid it aside.  It is a tessellation exercise, really very simple blocks, but the trick is in the arranging.  Originally I was going to phase it from purest white in the upper left corner to deepest black in the lower right, but there just wasn't enough VALUES CONTRAST! (thanks for all the lessons in this Sophie). So during our recent quilt retreat, I got to play with these on a design board, so now I'm in the process of sewing the little ears to the rectangle above, and then I'll just have 7 columns and 7 rows to join to gether.  I'm calling this "Millions of Cats" based on the Wanda Ga'g children's book from the 1920's (which Captain Kangaroo read aloud frequently on his old tv show (I'm dating myself  -- now my husband and I may be the little old man and little old woman in the book!) So the book's cover is yellow, so the border will probably be the brighter yellow on the left (but wider). To give a sense of scale, I think the rectangles are 4x5, with 1inch squares "flipped" to become the ears.  I haven't decided whether the whiskers will be added before quilting or as part of the quilting, to give depth.  (I would wecome suggestions). It's been interesting to work just in black, white and greys, as I am normally a color gal.

On other cat fronts, we've been thinking of getting another cat, as we have been just a single cat family since a year ago when our dear Jennifer died of kidney failure, and a quilt friend just texted me that kittens are available from a rescue group, so we may be investigating that this weekend.

On a separate front, I just downloaded about 15 or so quilt apps onto my I phone, so I may start reviewing them on this blog. stay tuned.

Eclipses into the sunshine

all

At a quilt retreat 2 weeks ago I got the assistance of my friendship group to assemble this on the design wall of the retreat center.  These are now sewed together in 4 block squares, and ready to be sewn together. I need to trim them to a uniform size and then it should be a quick task to sew them all together into a finished top.  These were the blocks I won from the Block Lotto in January nst2012, so I'm very grateful to all the other participants who made the blocks. the backing will be cool color chevron stripes against white, so a nice contrast of shape, I think. 

 

Gardening observations - flowers in the sidewalk cracks?

This weekend I put in about 3 hours planting caladiums and annuals in our front flowerbed.  I had my IPhone tuned to Pandora in my shirt pocket, and my mix is a lot of piano jazz, so it was a lovely breezy morning, not too hot yet.  I had to do a lot of bed cleanout, pruning, and leaf raking too (filling almost a whole trash bag).  One thing I noticed was how easily weeds grow in those little grooves between the sidewalk and the curb.  Just little bits of soil and moisture get in there, but those weeds just really root down and get well-established (and hard to pull out).  Which leads me to a hypothesis that if I wanted to start some flowers or vegetables from seed in the spring, I should skip all those special seed-starter pots and systems, and just dribble those little seeds in those cracks by the road side, and just see what happens!

Where do my quilts go?

Well, since I've started quilting around 2009 or so, I've completed 15 quilts (using a long-armer most of the time for the quilting).  Of those 15, I've given 9 of them to family or friends or to a charity our Guild sponsors.  Of the six I still have, I'm currently using one on our bed, and the other 5 are safely stored away.  I do have a quilt stand, but I have quilts made by others (some commercial) hanging on it, so I definitely need to change those out and display my handiwork.  I also have a quilt made by my grandmother, a Grandmother's flower garden, stored away, and I would like to find a sunlight-free area to enjoy it more.  Definitely a good question, Sophie! 
We are in the middle of remodeling, but about to move back into our bedroom, so my daughter's former twin bed will soon display one of my quilts instead of a raggedy store-bought one that is currently underneath all the pile of clothes! ;)

recent work

This is a large disappearing 9-patch I-spy that I made as a donation quilt for our Guild's Covers for Kids project.  Since this photo I have added a greyish-black tot border.  I still need to find the backing fabric.  My friend Donna in our friendship group will quilt it.  Beneficiaries are Ronald McDonald House, a homeless daycare and a group that works with abused kids.  The large 8-inch squares feature boy-friendly novelties.  (The quilt is sideways, sorry).

This is another disappearing 9-patch but in a mini-style.  Each square is 1.5 inches.  I have a large stash of 4-inch I-spy squares that I have obtained though on line swaps, and I selected the ones with very small prints and cut them in quarters to get the starting 2-inch squares.  I donated this mini (about 22x22) to our Guild's mini-quilt auction, which this year benefitted Search One Rescue.  It is a non-profit that trains individuals and dogs to search for missing people.  (Some of the people and dogs attended the show!)  I quilted this one myself.  I called it "Dolly's Bedtime I-Spy."
For those of you new to I-Spies, the concept is that the quilt is a conversation starter with young children.  I spy a whale, can you find it.  I spy something orange, can you find it?  Or the objects can be selected to create a story...

And here's another quilt with a lot of detail.  This is my Beatles quilt, called "A Beatles Rebus," which I entered in the show.  In addition to some of the overall Beatles fabric used in the outer blocks, in the inner blocks, I have references to 57 songs or albums written or recorded by the Beatles.  It's a rebus, because some of the references are visual puzzles.

 

 

I think this quilt is more interesting up close where you can see this visual detail, and I could have done a better job in spreading out the colors as I created the blocks and then assembled the quilt.  But I worked on this about 2-3 years to gather the different fabrics to represent the songs, so when I finally got on a roll to put it all together, color impact wasn't so much on my mind. It is also so big that my very temporary design board was my den floor. 

Patriotic Star quilt

This patriotic start quilt was designed by Shelly at Quilter's Connection, our local quilt shop in Northeast Dallas.  She had a civil war and contemporary red white and blue color way, and I chose the latter.  I made most of the blocks in 2011, and it took me several months in 2012 to get the 51 sashing blocks made (those devilish red diamonds!).  Maria Davis Hall quilted it for me this spring.  Shelly's kit suggested a deep blue background fabric, but I didn't like the color with the other blues in the blocks, but needed some color to contrast with the white triangles surrounding the square blocks, so I selected this red, blue and white star print.  I think this quilt looks better from far away than it does up close (my piecing errors aside), because the white triangles really pop the blocks.  Up close, I fear the background print is a bit busy.  But my husband likes it, so it will be his gift.  The backing is red and white polka dot print, and the binding is the same red fabric as the accursed diamonds!