My Quilt Projects

I finished another small quilt. My sister-in-law had given me her heirloom lace to make her a quilt. For this quilt I used reproduction fabrics including the John Hewson bird print in the central part of the quilt. The lace given appears on three sides of the diamond, left and top left and right.

The other quilt I made with her lace was quite different!

I am behind on the 1857 Album--the intertwined rings has been a challenge. I am starting on September patterns.

I have three Gatsby blocks nearly completed.

 Tom and Daisy above, Daisy and Jordan below.

 The one below with Gatsby and Nick needs the embroidered background and a plant in the urn.

I can't wait to get started on my next 'Poet' series quilt: T.S. Eliot featuring his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats! I have been collecting fabrics for the quilt.

My quilt group friend Jan made a Halloween costume based on my Edgar Allan Poe quilt: purple curtains on curtian rods and a hat of net with a Raven!

My doggies are getting up in years. Kamikaze has an enlarged heart and is on medication. Last night she had a rare few minutes of play.

The blanket is for Kaze to lay on or she'll scratch up our rug.

 Then she snapped at our Suki, now 15 years old and just tired.

Suki takes it in stride and yawns in response.

Then, all tired out, Kazi lays against my feet. That's a Shiba snuggle.

1857 Album Update & More

This month's blocks of the 1857 Album quilt from Sentimental Stitches are done, except for the embroidery.

I have done a little more on the Edgar Allan Poe quilt. I fused with the purple curtain fabric, pleating and getting it just right.

Our son is moving into his first house! The family room furniture all belonged to him so we ordered two chairs:

My friend Theresa has been working on the MODA Bee-autiful quilt. I just loved it and downloaded the patterns. I have one block done. You can find the patterns at the MODA Bake Shop here.

fresh from the hoop, my block one of  Bee-autiful Quilt-a-long

It seems with getting our son packed up, the July 4 holiday, and just life I am slow at getting anything completed. I suppose that is just summer.

Works in Process--Books to Come

I have the corner appliqué to finish on these new 1857 Album blocks from Sentimental Stitches. I will do the embroidery on all of the blocks when the blocks are all finished. I am so enjoying these blocks.

Since making my William Shakespeare portrait I want to make more poet portrait quilts. Next up is Edgar Allan Poe. He was quite a craftsman as a writer. You can read how he wrote The Raven in his Philosophy of Composition here.

I want to drape a 'purple curtain' over the quilt because of the beautiful lines in the Raven: "And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain/Thrilled me-- filled me, with fantastic terror never felt before."

Little Hazel by Esther Alui is sadly being neglected. I failed at machine piecing this block and started hand sewing it. I dislike hand sewing (although I like hand appliqué--go figure) and this is as far as I have gotten...a quarter of a block.

I finally started hand quilting my Austen Family Album by Barbara Brackman, finished a year ago. I expect it will take me a year of quilting to finish!

Quilt Books news:

I will be reviewing Suzie Parron's Following the Barn Quilt Trail from Ohio U Press! They are sending me the book. Perfect timing since last month Suzi was at my quilt guild and I took her workshop.

I have Bill Volckening's new book Modern Roots--Today's Quilts from Yesterday's Inspiration from C&T Publications to review. Bill has an amazing quilt collection. You can see his quilts shared on his blog Wonkyworld.

And the Schiffer Publication's books Inspired By The National Parks and Hmong Story Cloths are on my NetGally shelf.

Also, my review of Thomas Knauer's The Quilt Design Coloring Book will come out in August.

Fiction & Nonfiction

I was happy when St. Martin's Press reached out to offer me Lisa Scottoline's new book Damaged. Apparently they liked my review of Corrupted shared on Amazon. Having lived in Philly for 15 years my hubby and I appreciate Scottoline's books for the setting and enjoy her characters and stories.

I am currently reading Mad Enchantment about Monet and his water lily series and the novel Lucky Boy through NetGalley, and from Blogging for Books The Apache War.

Scheduled reviews to come include the Antarctic love story My Last Continent by Midge Raymond; David Abram's Iraqi war novel Fobbit; the Taming of the Shrew re-imagined in the Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler; Larry Tye's new biography of Bobby Kennedy; an exploration of race in Absalom's Daughters by Suzanne Feldman;  Angels of Detroit by Christopher Hebert; Rae Meadow's Dust Bowl novel I Will Send Rain; the time spanning Mr. Eternity by Aaron Thier; first published in 1864 The Female Detective; The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore (soon to be a movie); The Illustrated Book of Sayings from around the world; and Tara Clancy's memoir The Clancys of Queens.

My NetGalley shelf also holds Victoria:The Queen by Julia Baird; Candace Millard's Hero of the Empire about Churchill during the Boer War; Alice Hoffman's Faithful; The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City by Margaret Creighton about Buffalo, NY during the 1901 Pan American Exhibition; and The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinbourough called "A beautiful book, honestly told" by Neil Gaiman.

Whew! 

New Quilt Idea & 1857 Blocks & Nancy Meets Author of Station Eleven

I loved making William Shakespeare so much I want to do another portrait. I am thinking about fabrics for Edgar Allen Poe.

Last night I attended a talk and Q&A with Emily St. John Mandel whose novel Station Eleven is the 2016 Michigan Reads book. I read her novel last year and again last month for my local book club. Read my review here.

Mandel's presentation was thoughtful and revealing. She walked through how her decision to write Literary Fiction with a strong plot and crime element leading to her being considered a Noir genre writer. To avoid being typecast she wanted to write a novel that was completely different. Her first thought was to write about actors. She also wanted to write about the awesome wonder of our world--the technology that we take for granted. She decided to set up the loss of modern marvels due to a pandemic and traced her research back to ancient Rome when soldiers brought smallpox back to Italy, devastating the population. As it did to the Native American of North America during the earliest days of exploration.

Mandel had first visited Northern Michigan on a book tour to Traverse City and thereafter made excuses to return. The novel is set in the upper section of Michigan's lower peninsula, where the traveling Symphony stays close to the fresh water of the Great Lakes.

I loved the second reading of Station Eleven. I think I helped my book club appreciate some of the themes and messages of the book.

I have completed two more 1857 Album blocks, mostly finished another, and have the fourth ready to appliqué. I also need to add some embroidered details on the bird in the cherry tree.

What is it?

nearly done

ready to go

1857 Album Quilt

Here are the 1857 Album quilt blocks so far. I was feeling I was pretty boring compared to the great original takes I see on the Facebook 1857 group. But I see that using colors similar to the original quilt will work out just fine! Thanks to Gay Boomers of Sentimental Stitches for offering the patter of her historic quilt!

What I've Been Up To...

...other than reading and writing book reviews!

I have about three hours work left on Love Entwined, first border. I worked on it while with my Tuesday quilt group this week.

I had to scrap two blocks of the 1857 Album quilt. I wanted to do reverse appliqué but the background fabric frayed too much! I hated how it looked. So no progress this week. Last week I finished the block with the toile insert. The quill pen and ink stand are my swap for carpentry tools.

I have a few seams left on my Fox Kit quilt.

I bought a Jeanne Miller handkerchief for $2.75--I suppose not many are interested in a handkerchief with  medieval halberds and shields depicted on it! It's mint with a label!

My husband found a quilting needle sticking out of a vintage quilt we had been gifted. I suppose it has been there since the 1970s!

 The vintage 1930s top had been sewn to a pre-quilted fabric in the 1970s.

We had a week of sleet, ice, and snow. It froze the bird bath. Luckily the daffodils survived and will bloom soon.

I finished sewing Little Hazel's center to the background fabric.

I keep plodding along without finishing anything!

1857 & Little Hazel

Over the last month I have been glad to have many book reviews already reviewed and scheduled. A cold virus was wrecking havoc on my system, moving from head to chest to throat. I did not accomplish very much on my quilt projects but here is what I did get done.

I made the sawtooth outer border on the center of Little Hazel by Ester Alui. Twice. It didn't fit because I was impatient and querulous while ill and did a lousy job. I had to tear it apart, resize the pieces, and sew it together again. I am about halfway through appliquéing the circle to the background square.

Little Hazel center

The 1857 Sampler blocks of the month from Sentimental Stitches had motifs that did not speak to me: woodworking and carpentry tools. I switched them for a quill pen and inkwell and sewing tools on another block. I inserted a toile print in the center of one block instead of a cross. Nothing against the religious symbolism, but I thought it was a perfect frame. I need to size the blocks and add the corner motifs.

I also sewed together blocks I had made before our move nearly two years ago, and intend on having the quilt machine quilted--a first for me as I have always hand quilted. The blocks incorporate shirts from my father-in-law, culled from his closet after his passing to make a memory quilt. I don't have a photo yet!

While looking through old photos I chanced upon these from 1973. We were living on campus while my husband was in grad school and participated in the community garden. While cleaning up we found a rabbit nest. My husband and I raised them until they could eat grass. Every two hours we hand feed them with an dropper. All but one survived.

Seeing this photo my brother asked, "who is that hippie chick?" Lol, I was far from being a hippie but today all my generation are called 'hippies.' 

 

Hope your spring is warmer than ours in Southeastern Michigan! The bird feeder froze solid for two days. Brrr.