Sister's Choice Quilts

A Chilly Weekend

This is what 96 looks like. My father has been without heat from his furnace for a month and it looks like it will stay that way until the end of March. His furnace died and the part that is needed is not going to be available for a long time. It is probably sitting on a ship off the coast of Long Beach, but be that as it may, his house is without heat until it is delivered and installed. Meanwhile, we try to keep him warm every way we can. 

He is 96 years old, and, as most elderly people do, he feels the cold intensely. I took this picture on Sunday morning. It was 62 degrees in his living room. He is bundled in a heavy sweater, sitting in front of a fire, covered with a down comforter, with a hot water bottle on his lap. Out of the picture is a space heater which I had aimed at him, set to "high". He claimed to be comfortable. Good thing, because I had no more rabbits to pull out of my hat.

What you may not notice right away is the amount of reading material that is surrounding him. I believe keeping up with current events and reading is the secret of keeping your mental faculties sharp deep into old age. He has just finished reading the Sunday paper, which he has scattered on the floor all around him. He is reading a book on his Kindle. The latest issue of Economy magazine is on his lap. A current hardback edition of a history book on Winston Churchill is on his side table. And I am sitting across the room from him reading my own book. Not that my activity will aid him in any way, but the reason I am occupying myself in this manner is due to his influence. Books are important. I learned that at an early age, and hope it will sustain me when I am 96, should I be so lucky to live that long.

Truly I believe that reading is far more than a means of entertainment. It is that, of course, but I think it keeps your mind sharp long into your journey into old age.

We had a good weekend, although we are very concerned about the situation in the Ukraine, which was a hot topic of conversation between us.

I hoped to get some sewing done when I got home from my weekend visit with my father, but it was not to be. It turns out Eva has "Super Hero" day at her charter school tomorrow, and a costume was required. I ended up spending my afternoon making a Wonder Woman cape and wristlets. So, technically, I did sew. I will share some pictures tomorrow.  Hope you all had a good weekend. I devoted mine to  my family, and could not have spent it better.

Just a Regular Day

Not much happening around here.  Eva and I made Lemon Poppyseed Bread, or as Eva calls it "Lemonseed Poppy Cake".  It turned out great, but I should have taken it out at 55 minutes rather than 60. Ozzie is hoping against all reason that we will cut him a slice. That's the great thing about dogs. They are so hopeful.

Yup, it's snowing. 

Our elevation is around 1300 feet, and I'd say it is not unusual for us to get snow at least once during the winter season. It sure has been cold this week. I am supposed to meet a friend for lunch today, but if the roads have snow I am going to have to cancel.  I am such a wimp. Honestly. I want to start wearing sandals and tee shirts. What is up with this? We live in California for gosh sake.

Eva begged me to put out St. Patrick's decorations. I totally blew off Valentine's Day and didn't do a thing. My blue and white January decor has been much loved on my part, but apparently, the family is getting tired of it. So, we went to our storage cupboards in the garage and got out a few seasonally appropriate items. At my age, I am thinking I should turn over this task to the younger generation. And Eva is all too happy to oblige.

The hall table is all Eva. She picked out items she thought fit the theme and arranged them on her own. The sack on the right is a March mug rug I have set aside to give to a friend. That isn't supposed to be part of the scene. Just a handy place to stash it until it can be delivered. That's what hall tables are for, right?

She chose these particular items for the St. Patrick's Day display. She wanted the shamrock to be positioned just so at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and it stubbornly would not cooperate. I had a product called "Quake Hold", which we Californians embrace for holding fragile items on shelves that could give way during an earthquake. She slapped that putty on the back of the Eiffel Tower and made sure the shamrock wasn't going anywhere.  And it worked great.

Who says kids don't learn anything when they are being homeschooled? It may not be on anyone's curriculum list, but I bet she will remember "Quake Hold" when she is decorating her own home.

 

 

 

Coming Out of a Long Weekend

We had a nice long four-day weekend here in the US and it's taking me a bit to come out of it. I spent most of it with my father, and worked all day Monday on some writing assignments. I came home to see this amaryllis that my husband gave me for Christmas on our kitchen counter. We'd been keeping it in our laundry room by an east-facing window that has great light exposure. In the past week, it has really come into its own and is blooming its little heart out. Someone must not have told one of the bulbs that this was supposed to be a dwarf amaryllis arrangement. Even with the show off, it really is pretty. 

That was such a great discussion we had on the subject of pins last week!  Thanks so much to all of you who left such terrific comments. For those of you who are new to this blog, half the fun of reading it is the engagement of readers who leave interesting and informative comments. Don't miss out on the fun, be sure to check back and read the comments. It is such a nice community.

I had to share this photo with you all. Last Friday I had to meet my daughter Sara in a funky little Gold Rush town called Jamestown, CA. We met behind the Jamestown Hotel to trade-off Eva. (It is a halfway point between where we both live). While waiting in the parking lot for Sara to arrive, I noticed this little church across the street. You can enlarge the photo to read the sign.

It says "Christian Cowboy Fellowship". The building must be as old as the hills, and I sure didn't see any windows. Hope they have air conditioning, as it can get pretty dang hot in Jamestown. The sign indicates that they meet at 10 on Sundays. It would be interesting to check out a service. I wonder if Christian Cowboys worship any differently than other Christians. 

Hope to get in some sewing today or tomorrow! Stay well.

Let's Talk About Pins

Can we talk about pins? Do you have a favorite quilting pin? Do you find after a period of time your pins become dull, or begin to "catch" on your fabric? Have you ever used a pin cushion that seemed to rust or otherwise deteriorate your pins? And finally, do you ever just dump all your pins in the trash and start over with fresh ones?

I never hear anyone talk about the pins they like to use in quilting. A fine pin seems to be ideal, but do you like the long ones or shorter varieties? I recently bought some fine pins that were so insubstantial that every time I put them through a couple of layers of fabric, they actually bent! Now that's not good. I forget what I bought, but I do think they were labeled "extra fine", which did not work at all.

I used to use Clover Quilting Pins, which came in a box of 100 with green and orange glass heads. These pins are great and I used them for decades. Then I went through a phase where I made my own little pincushions, which I filled with walnut shells or kitty litter or fish tank sand, I can't remember. Whatever I used, after about a year, the pins rusted! (On a side note, if anyone can recommend a pincushion filler that doesn't cause pins to deteriorate, I'd love to hear about it).

By happenstance, a friend I had been doing some "stunt sewing" for, sent me a box of pins from Japan as a thank you gift. They were called "Little House" pins and came packaged in an adorable little metal box that was completely useless but cute as can be.

As soon as I started using these pins I realized that they were a cut above any quilting or sewing pin I had ever used. They were thin, but strong and extremely sharp. They also were a bit shorter in length than the Clover pins, which I liked. Over the past ten years or so I have repurchased these pins a number of times. They are the absolute best pins I have ever used.

Which brings me to my question to you. Lately, I have noticed that my pins are maybe not so sharp, and tend to catch on the fabric. Probably because I sew over them all the time. If we looked at them under a microscope I am sure they are all dinged and gouged up. Keep in mind I probably have been using these pins for over three years or more.

I just purchased two more boxes of them and plan to get rid of all my old pins as soon as these new ones arrive. Do you do that periodically too? I never really thought about pins getting past their prime and becoming less than useful. 

I'd love to know your thoughts on this subject, as I don't really recall it being discussed elsewhere!

This is a low content week for me. I haven't been doing much sewing, but have been reading every chance I get. I think I have blown through three books this week. Honestly, I feel almost like I am on vacation. I haven't had Eva for the usual amount of time, so I spent it reading. 

Hope your week is going well too!

Calling all Flea Market Quilt Along Participants....

I've been feeling like I might be the only person sewing in this sew-along! I saw the announcement about it on the Fat Quarter Shop's Jolly Jabber blog back on Dec. 7, 2021. At that time they also released the sewing schedule in their image above. If you look closely you can see the month that you are supposed to work on the various blocks in the quilt. And since then....I haven't heard a thing. 

You had to buy Lori Holt's book "Flea Market" for the pattern, which I did. The instructions are great (as usual for her), and there is no reason a person couldn't just follow the directions and make the quilt at their own pace. Lori used her fabric collection "Flea Market" by Riley Blake for her sample quilt, but you could use any fabrics for the scrappy look. This quilt would look great in American Jane (by Sandy Klop) fabrics for instance.

I don't mind sewing alone, but it would be more fun if I felt as if I were participating in a community of others who are working on the same project. I did discover an Instagram link to #fleamarketquiltalong, which has some posts of people's work. Check it out for some inspiration. Let me know if you are participating in the quilt along and where you are in your sewing!

At any rate, here is my progress. I hope to finish the little Churn Dash blocks this week, which means I will be a bit ahead of the sewing schedule.

Did you watch the Super Bowl this past weekend? My husband and I made nachos and margaritas and had a grand time shouting at the tv together.

Hope your Valentine's Day was lovely!

 

It Took Me Eleven Years, But It's Done

Finally. It's been on the shelf for a long time, but it is finally ready to be quilted. This is the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery Quilt from 2011. The patterns for the blocks and for the finishing kit are still available on their website. You should know that I did not follow the directions for finishing the kit, but instead swapped out the finishing instructions for Designer Mystery 2020 instead.

My quilt finished at 90 inches square. It is as big as a circus tent, I swear. I added a 6-inch floral border in the aqua print, which gives the quilt a great drop on my queen-sized bed.

I really struggled with pressing the whole gigantic thing perfectly, but I know it will look great once it is quilted.

And I did piece the backing!

That turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. I haven't worked with such large pieces of fabric as this quilt top and the backing in a l.o.n.g. time. I won't lie, it was a struggle. And my next large quilt is going to have 108 inch backing for sure. I did not enjoy wrestling with all that yardage. 

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement! Glad to check this UFO off as a "finish"!

Can You See Where I Am Going With This?

Like I said, baby steps. I only snagged an hour or so to sew yesterday, but I got two of the big corner pieces made. They are just pinned on the design wall, but I think you get the idea of where I am headed with this.

I really like how the star points pick up the aqua in the quilt blocks. I am liking this quilt top so much better now that I ditched the flower motif.

Eva and I made applesauce muffins yesterday, which were delicious. It was another Taste of Home recipe. They are so reliable. Here is a link, if you want to try them. That recipe is a keeper!

Just a quickie post today. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a quilt top to show you!

One More Border

This week's sewing is going to be in baby steps I think. I did manage to get another border on the center medallion of my Designer Mystery 2011 quilt. The next step will be to frame the four outside blocks that are not on the diagonal. After that, there is kind of a giant Cat's Cradle unit that will form a star around the center medallion. I won't be using my Creative Grids tool for that, so wish me luck.

I am enjoying the direction away from the pattern that has evolved with this quilt. I will be emphasizing the aqua colors in the remaining construction of the quilt, which I think will play well with the quilt blocks. In the finishing kit, the border fabric is a tan background floral print. The tan fabric coloration features only a couple of times in the blocks and only in the smallest ways. I am perplexed why they chose it for the border fabric. You can spy a touch of the tan in the top-most center flower in the center medallion. Seems kind of random, right?

I happened to have a good amount of the coordinating large aqua floral print in my stash (!), and I am making use of it in the star and in the border.  The large piece of tan floral in the finishing kit will go on the back of the quilt. I am not wasting anything! I have no recollection of where or why I bought a few yards of the aqua print, but yay me. I barely remember why I did something last week, much less back in 2011.

Hope you all enjoyed yesterday's book reviews. I was asked if "A Place to Hang the Moon" was a juvenile book, and I would categorize it as "middle grade". Suitable for young teens, but would be very much enjoyed by adults.

Hope your week got off to a great start! Our weather here is warming up and I am thinking of getting a pedicure....

January 2022 Reading

What a great reading month this January was for me! I read 11 books. 6 digital (on my Kindle), 2 audio, and 3 physical. Astonishingly, a total of 7 books ranked 4 or 5 stars. This month I concentrated on mainly reading books that I already owned, something I need to do more of. All of these books except one (The Maid) are older books you can easily get from your library. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in. This post is a long one!

Let's get the one's I didn't love out of the way first:

The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey was a complete "meh" for me. It is the first book in the Gemma Woodstock series. The protagonist is extremely unlikable. Australian homicide detective Gemma Woodstock was so selfish I wanted to reach inside the pages and pinch her. I have absolutely no interest in pursuing the remaining books in the series because the time I spent with her in this first book was so thoroughly unpleasant. The book also really dragged until the last 20%. I came very close to DNFing this book at several points. I just didn't want my first book of 2022 to be a failure so I kept on reading. I also figured out "who done it" way early on, which isn't fun. 2 stars

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny. I am a long-time fan of the Three Pines mysteries featuring Armand Gamache, but this eleventh effort in the series fell very flat for me. A tall-tale telling boy in the village is found dead after discovering a dark secret someone didn't want told. I found the story to be very far-fetched and honestly found the formerly amusing Three Pines residents to be tiresome and annoying in this book. 2.5 stars

Ok, things will really pick up from here on:

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon, is a WWII novel, based on a real-life woman named Nancy Wake. Nancy was an Australian, living in Paris, who got involved deep in the French Resistance Movement. She took on various names and identities while smuggling people and documents across the border. She ultimately became one of the leaders in the Resistance, acting as a liaison between France and the Allied Forces. It was quite a thrilling tale, and by the end, I was enthralled with Nancy's bravery, indomitable wit, and signature red lipstick. There are multiple timelines in the story, which was somewhat confusing at times. 4 stars

The Rose Garden by Tracy Rees. Oh my gosh, I loved this book. If you love historical fiction and spunky female characters, you will really enjoy this book as I did. Set in Victorian England, young Mabs finds an escape from working on the docks when she is employed as the companion (more like "keeper") to Mrs. Finch, who is supposedly mentally fragile and must be kept to her room. Lots of secrets as to why Mr. and Mrs. Finch behave the way they do, and which Mabs begins to figure out. Great cast of characters, and a very interesting look at some of the social conventions of the time. 5 stars

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus. This was one of those books I wanted to hug when I finished it. Set during WWII (1940), the story is about three siblings who are evacuated to the countryside to avoid the bombings in London. William, Edmund, and Anna are orphans, who had been raised by their cold uncaring grandmother, who has also recently passed away, leaving them a considerable fortune. Their family solicitor arranges their journey to stay with foster families until the war is over and a proper guardian can be found for them. What follows is the hair-raising tale of the different ghastly foster homes they find themselves in and the refuge they find in the town library. If you love heartwarming books about found family, you will love this one. Lots of great book references too. I could not put it down. 5 stars

Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase. The reviews say if you enjoy Kate Morton and Daphne du Maurier you will enjoy this book. There are similar comparisons I think, but I found this book to be rather overwrought. It was definitely gothic in feel, set in a falling down estate in Cornwall. This is a dual timeline book, where things come together in the end. The modern-day protagonist was kind of a wimpy mess, and her constant hand wringing and overthinking got old. I preferred the older timeline, which was set in the 60s, focusing on four children in a wealthy family who use the estate in the summer. Their naivety regarding their family's privilege was a bit unbelievable to me. Factor in an evil stepmother who was too wicked to be believed, and overall I was asked to accept too much as a reader. I listened to the audio version, which was well narrated, although the evil stepmother rendition was kind of hard to listen to. I only rated this one 3 stars, but I know there are lots of you who would love it more than I did. Give it a chance, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. I read most (if not all) of Agatha Christie's novels when I was a young teenager. I remember loving them and binging on reading them as fast as I could get my hands on them. The last time my husband, son, and I were in London, we attended a performance of Mousetrap in the West End. It was amazing and made me want to revisit some Agatha Christie books. It has been so long since I read her books I don't recall any details, so a re-read is like reading her book for the first time. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of her most famous books, with a real surprise ending. Which I had completely forgotten. So I recommend re-reading it, as you may have forgotten as well!  Still really good after all these years.

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave. I don't know why I put off reading this book for so long. It's been on my Kindle since 2016! Guess I thought it was going to be just another WWII book. But it turns out this one is in a class of its own. The book is set in London from 1939-1942, and the story centers around three characters whose lives intersect. It was a compelling wartime story based on love letters the author found that his grandparents had written one another. I was completely immersed in this book the entire time I was reading it. A really well-written book. 5 stars

The Maid by Nita Prose. Oh my goodness, was this book ever different. It had a cozy mystery feel to it, while at the same time having a very contemporary writing style. The story is about Molly Gray, a maid in an upscale hotel.  Molly is what they call "neurologically diverse", who I guessed was somewhere on the autism spectrum. She is different all right, and struggles to navigate the confusing world of interacting appropriately with others, but my gosh, she is the best darn maid you ever could imagine. Then one day, she discovers the body of one of the hotel guests in his bed when she came in to clean. One thing leads to another and it seems that someone is trying to set Molly up as the murderer. She decides to try to figure out what is going on and vindicate herself. It's a great story, told through the eyes of our Molly. 4 stars

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. What on earth took me so long to read this book? It is a collection of short stories that won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Penn/Hemingway Prize in 2000. My words about this stunning masterpiece in no way will do it justice. The stories are about the Indian immigrant experience, marriage, and longing. The characters for the most part are very upper-class Indian people who have immigrated to the US to be doctors, college professors, and engineers in the Harvard/MIT/Boston area. Having worked at a prestigious world-class university for most of my career, I recognized people I knew very well in the stories. The author is a master at writing and this book will forever be in my memory. 5 stars

Say Goodbye For Now by Catherine Ryan Hyde. This author was a wonderful discovery. She wrote "Pay It Forward" and 32 other books! If you enjoy coming-of-age stories, as well as books that deal with found family, you will love this book as I did. Set in Texas in 1959, the plot revolves around Pete, a neglected 12-year-old who lives with his abusive father. The other main character is Dr. Lucy, a physician who treats both sketchy people and abandoned animals. When Pete befriends Justin Bell, an African American boy new to town, Pete's bigoted father and other townspeople take exception. The boys find refuge with Dr. Lucy, who also treats Prince, a wolf-dog cross who Pete rescues. All these characters come together in a powerful story I will not forget. This is an important book, which I highly recommend. I am eager to read my next book by this author. 5 stars.

Well, there you have it, if you stuck with me to the end. There are some terrific books discussed here and I hope you might enjoy them as much as I did. Let me know!

 

 

Going In a New Direction

I am taking my Designer Mystery Quilt 2011 in a different direction. I decided I didn't really care for the flower stems. Too "cutesy" for my taste. I spent a lot of time looking over the past Designer Mystery settings and liked the look of the one from 2020. 

As you can see it has nine blocks set on the diagonal as a center medallion. There are a couple of narrow borders that will frame it, as you can see in the diagram below. 

It finishes with a star design and the four remaining blocks on each corner. I have enough fabric for a floral outer border, so that will increase the size of the top for me.

This quilt has the look of a girl's quilt I think. And I know a special girl who is turning 11 in July that might like it. And look what I can use on the back:

Thanks so much to those of you who made setting suggestions yesterday. It really made me rethink the pattern directions that came with the quilt blocks!