Last month Becky asked if I ever found a book so bad that I couldn't finish it. The answer to that is a resounding YES! I used to mention those books in my monthly review and stopped doing it for some reason. This month I'll bring back that feature but I'll only list them with maybe a one sentence comment without giving them a full review. Bad books just don't deserve that much attention. Bad books of April:
Now, on with the list of better books. What good books have you read this month? Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard, Read By a cast This is the second book that I've read by Howard and I'm sure to read more. Adam Dunne's girlfriend left for a business trip to Barcelona and never returned. The Dublin police are not interested in helping with a missing adult so Adam starts researching on his own. He eventually discovers that she wasn't in Barcelona, she was on a cruise ship and she wasn't alone. After more research he fins out that another woman went missing from the same ship under similar circumstances a year earlier. It's full of twists and turns and will keep you guessing. I never wanted to take a cruise before but I doubly don't want to now. The cast narration worked fine. Tear Me Apart By J.T. Ellison, Read by a cast Mindy Wright is 17 and a competitive skier. She's working her way up to qualify for the Olympic team when she has a ski accident and breaks her leg. During the surgery on her leg doctors discover that she has leukemia. Chemo is not working. She needs a stem cell transplant from a relative. It's a surprise to find out that none of her relatives are a match. She was adopted and the adoption was under strange circumstances. It's clear early in the book that there's a reckoning coming and it's clear (to the reader) who did it, but it's fun to watch it all come together. Not a lot of mystery but a lot of action. I don't know why there's such a trend for cast narration. I find it distracting. Sometimes it works, like in Distress Signals, and sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't work so well in this one. The narration is pretty flat. The White Princess By Philippa Gregory, Read By Bianca Amato This is the 5th book in the Cousin's War Series. Gregory sure knows how to write compelling historical fiction. She clearly does a great deal of research and is meticulous about telling the story of the time. There's no overlay of current mores onto the past and I soooooo appreciate that. The brilliant thing that she does is to tell the story of the time through the women. Since the information on women during this time period is scant, she can create really compelling characters as the heroines of her books. This book picks up after the War of the Roses and the first Tudor king, Henry VII, has come into power. His mother broker's a marriage to Princess Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Edward IV. This was an attempt to bring together the York and Tudor factions. I really enjoy these books. The character development is so well done that you feel like you know them all. The Light Over London By Julia Kelly, Read by a cast In 1941, Louise and her cousin leave their Cornish village to volunteer with the Army. This was precipitated by a blow up with her mother over a pilot that she has started dating. Louise becomes a gunner girl in the anti-aircraft unit. Today, Cara Hargrave is fresh off a divorce and has a new job working with an antique dealer. While clearing out an estate she finds a diary in a tin. It becomes an obsession with her and her new neighbor to find out more about the diarist and to return the book to her family. This is the second book I've read by Kelly and I've enjoyed both of them. I'll read more! Feels Like Falling By Kristy Woodson Harvey, Read by Kelsey Navarro and Amanda Ronconi Summer beach read. This is a great Southern summer beach read. It's set in a fictional coastal North Carolina town. Gray Howard and Diana Harrington couldn't be from more different worlds but their paths cross in a drugstore photo department. Gray accidentally gets Diana fired from her job and she feels some responsibility. With Gray's help Diana started to get back on her feet. With Diana's help, Gray is able to redefine her life after divorce. I loved the characters and the dialogue is brilliant. It's lighthearted and fun and made me want to get to the beach soon. I should add a book like this on my reading list each month. It would be like book dessert. The Truth About Melodie Browne By Lisa Jewell, Read By Anotnia Beamish I've become a huge Lisa Jewell fan over the last few years. This book was a surprise because it's not her typical mystery. Melody Browne can't remember any of her childhood and she's been estranged from her parents since she got pregnant at 15. Her son is about to turn 18 when she has a chance encounter with a hypnotist. Now she's getting flashbacks from her missing past. She not only finds out about her past but also finds out how she impacted the lives of others. I loved it. The Right Side By Spencer Quinn, Read By Susan Bennett LeAnn Hogan is in Walter Reed hospital recovering from an attack in Afghanistan. She has lost her right eye, has damage to the right side of her face and a severe case of PTSD. She forms a friendship with her roommate, Marci. She is devastated when Marci suddenly dies. LeAnn leaves the hospital and eventually finds her way to Marci's hometown in Washington State. After arriving there she discovers that Marci's daughter is missing. The book summary gives the impression that this book is about finding the missing daughter but none of that story line even starts until the book is halfway done and her involvement in the search is minimal (although important). This book is about putting the reader in the mind of someone going through PTSD and as that, it's a good read. LeAnn is quite a sympathetic character. It isn't much of a mystery/suspense novel at all. There's also an awesome stray dog. Sea Stories By William H. McRaven, Read by the author You will remember McRaven. He's the Admiral who gave the commencement address that advised graduates to start each day by making their bed. He's was also the commanding officer over the successful raid to get Bin Laden. On the down side, he's the reason that we have to take our shoes off at the airport. This book is a collection of stories from his career. It's very interesting but much like the contemporary autobiographies by Bob Iger and James Comey, it's probably incomplete. People write their autobiographies to set their own narratives and can leave bad decisions out. That's fine, but it's not complete. It came off a little smoothed out, if that makes sense. That said. This man is TOUGH. We, as a nation, need to be very grateful that people like McRaven exist. He did have an amazing career. The Wild One By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel This is #5 in the Peter Ash series. Peter Ash is a war veteran with a bad case of PTSD. It mostly manifests as intense claustrophobia. A grieving grandmother contacts Peter to try to find her missing Grandson. She has lost her daughter and son and her Grandson is all that's left. She believes that the boy's father killed the mother and left with the boy for Iceland, his homeland. When he reaches Iceland he's met at the airport by a representative from the US Embassy. It seems that his own government doesn't want him to find the boy. That's a sign to him that the boy is in danger and he needs to find him quickly. Fast paced and fun, as always. Not quite as good as the first 4 books. I think it needed June and/or Louis in the mix. But that's just a quibble. I'm already looking forward to book 6. The Four Winds By Kristin hannah, Read By Julia Whelan What to feel better about the times we are living in? Read this book. You will feel nothing but deep gratitude for this piddly pandemic that we are going through. The Four Winds is set in the Great Depression and specifically in the Dust Bowl region of Texas. Hannah always researches her novels thoroughly, and I've read enough about that period, to know that this book could easily be a true account. In 1921, Elsa Wolcott, is deemed too old, infirm and ugly to marry. She's treated like the Cinderella of her family. But one night she meets Rafe Martinelli and has a little too much fun. She ends up disowned by her family and married into his Italian Catholic farming family. It's a tough start but she finally finds "family". Things are good until 1934. The Depressions had ravaged the country and drought has ravaged their farm. The Martinelli farm is dying and Elsa must decide what to do to save her family. Jewell writes a good book but this one is a depressing. The characters never seem to get a break. There's a lot of disaster and hopelessness all set in an unforgiving landscape. The House We Grew Up In By Lisa Jewell, Read By Karina Fernandez I've really enjoyed Lisa Jewell's books. Until now they have all had a mystery element to add to the family dynamics of the book. This one was a little weird for me. I did finish it because I wanted to see how it ended, but, I admit, I didn't much like any of the characters. The central figure is Lorelei Bird, the matriarch of the family. There's also husband Colin, daughters Meg and Beth and twin sons Rhys and Rory. The book opens with family members gathering back at the family home after Lorelei's death. In typical Jewell fashion the story is told back and forth in time and the central theme is figuring out how the family got so torn apart and wondering if the bonds can be repaired. All of the stories revolve around Easter for some reason. It's a fine story, except that the underlying problem is Lorelei's hoarding. I've watched a couple episodes of one of the hoarding shows on TV and they make me terribly uneasy. It's so clear that these people have severe mental illness and, mostly, the families are powerless to do anything about it. That's true in this story too. It affects everyone. There are some really messed up people and storylines in this book. Lisa Jewell also seems to be kind of obsessed with body weight. She obsessively focuses on fat and skinny people. She probably should back off that a little. Having the hoarder deride the overweight daughter seems a little out of bounds. Official Secrets By Andrew Raymond, Read By Adam Gold Tom Novak (American) and Stella Mitchell (British) are journalists investigating the terrorist attack that murdered the British Primer Minister just as he was making a speech that supposedly contained a surprise confession. There's a "maverick" CIA agent and a British intelligence officer "helping". Their reasons for participating are the deaths of one's sister and the other's interrogation target. It's a good plot but there are so many characters and so many sub plots that I had a lot of trouble keeping up. It needed some serious editing. tThe characters were a bit one-dimensional so it was sometimes hard to tell who's who. It could also be that the book was ruined by weak narration. This is clearly a British book and yet they picked an American narrator. It was a little surprising how that one decision affected the quality of the book in a big way. I spent enough time working in England to recognize a lot of mispronunciations. That has to be incredibly annoying to actual British people. This is supposedly the first in a series but I'm not sure I'd be on board for a second installment. Blackberry ad Wild Rose By Sonia Velton, Read by Esther Wane and Shiromi Arserio It's good to end the month with some historical fiction. This one is set in the 18th century in the Spitalfields area of London. When I worked there I often wandered around in Spitalfields Market and you can really feel the history of the place when you are there. IN the 18th century it was the center for silk weaving and was heavily populated by Hugenot weavers from France. Irish weavers were coming to the area also and merchants were starting to import cheaper calico from India. Wages were bottoming out in the weaving trade so tensions were high. Esther Thorel is the wife of one of the master weavers. She is an artist and is interested in designing patterns for silk weaving but her husband will hear none of it. Sara Kemp was new to London several years before and was tricked into working in a brothel. Esther tries to save Sara by bringing her into her house as a maid. The story weaves together the stories of Esther and Sara into the very real unrest among journeyman silk weavers as everything heads toward riots. It was an enjoyable read. The serger is out and I'm starting to work through all the projects that I cut out for it. I don't leave my serger out all the time so to use it I have to clear off a table and set it up. I don't like getting it out for just one thing so I'm calling this week "serger week" and I plan to get a lot of things done. I started with these mastectomy drain bags that I'll donate locally. This was a fabric that Mom gave me and it really lent itself well to this project. I enjoyed making these so I might cut out more before I put the serger back. These went together so fast. They get tagged and bagged individually before I drop them off at the donation center. Next I was on to doll outfits. This top is called California Baja and it's really easy. I had cut out a bunch of walker caddies with some leftover denim and there were enough scraps for 3 jeans for the doll. I found this ikat weave in my stash for the top. Do you see how perfectly that pocket matches up to the orange and purple stripes? That was complete accident! I've got to get some black velcro for the back opening to finish this one off. I'll probably save it to give to her until the fall since it's more of a fall look. I also think I will make a headband to go with it. After that I put white thread on the serger and will work on all of the rest of the projects needing white thread. First up is another pant but I decided to add patch pockets to the back of these because they are going to be "garden pants" and it made them so much cuter. A few weeks ago they were giving the Little Gardener pattern for free so I downloaded it and found this perfect fabric in my vintage fabric collection. It's a pretty darned involved pattern but it's really cute and the instructions are really thorough and clear. Here's the back of the apron. The straps are snapped on behind those blue buttons. If we need to adjust it to fit the doll I'll only have to move 2 snaps. The pattern also had a sun hat. It looks kind of weird here but it should fit. You can see it on the pattern cover. And gardening gloves! Once I change the serger thread to something darker I will be making a tshirt out of the same blue knit that I used for the cuffs of the gloves. After I sent this photo to my brother he suggested therapy. Here are all the garments together. isn't that cute? But that's not all! The pattern also comes with a page to print on card stock to make seed packets. They thought of everything! I cut them out, glued them together and put beads in them so they will shake like real seed packets.
Now I will switch to pillowcases for the boys because I have to have gifts for the boys when I take Ella her new outfit. I'll get back to the serger today after I empty another truckload of mulch this morning. I have 3 brothers and no sisters. Growing up that was a great set up. I'm the oldest and set all the rules. I was pretty sure the whole house would have fallen apart without my leadership. Yes, I was THAT kid. But after becoming an adult I realized that a sister might have been a good thing. Instead I have 3 sisters-in-law that I love. Last year I set out to make each of them a quilt. I made Penguins on Ice for Carol and Corona Cats for JJ. She was also supposed to get Where In The World Is My Cat, but we know what happened to that. Turns out it's the most appropriately named quilt EVER! With those 2 quilts done I still had one more to make for Karen. Karen is a decorator. Everything in her house looks perfect (completely unlike my house where everything is cluttered with one project or another). I wanted to make a quilt that she would want so I asked for her input. She loves animal prints so that sent me on a mission to fine animal prints there weren't juvenile or just plain tacky. Fortunately those geniuses from Lunn Studios had just designed the Serengeti Artisan batiks for Kaufman and they were absolutely perfect for Karen's quilt. I bought too much of all of them so there are some charity quilts coming soon. I wanted to focus on the fabrics and eventually settled on the same pattern that I used a few years ago to feature some vintage Indonesian Batik fabrics. This was made easy by using Jamie Wallen's nested triangle design rulers. It's a really simple quilt design wise, but I think it's really effective. I could have moved a couple of the triangles around but it looked good when it was laid out on a design bed and that's what I sewed together. I suggested Minky for the back and she agreed. I had to get the extra wide "Cuddle" version and I found it at Big Sky Quilts. I got very fast shipping from this veteran owned business. The pantograph is called Ebb and Flow. I've never used it before because to get the water effect that it's meant to be you have to load the quilt on the short side. But for this quilt it's a perfect motif to run the length of the quilt. I never want Minky to be quilted too close together. I know some people are afraid to quilt with this fabric but it really is so easy. I've never had a problem with it. The Cuddle version is even more stable than the "regular" Minky so start with that if you are unsure. I used Superior Magnifico on the front and So Fine on the back. I dithered over the label for a while. First, I didn't want to hand stitch a label on that thick backing fabric and second, I know this will be a display quilt so I didn't want the label to stand out. I settled on hiding the relevant details in one of the zebra print blocks. I'm sure I'll never be able to find this again and that's A-OK with me. This quilt reminds me of a very valuable lesson that all of us makers need to always remember. We must keep out recipients in mind. I've heard so may sad stories of quilters gifting quilts that they feel that the recipients didn't appreciate properly. It's not the recipients responsibility to love a quilt that you made in a design and color that you love. It's our responsibility to make quilts that we know will feed the soul of the recipient. I would have never purchased these fabrics for myself, they do not speak to me. But when I see them in this simple, yet elegant, design, I see Karen and I think she will love the quilt.
I'm now out of sisters-in-law so I think it's on to a lot of charity sewing for the rest of the year. New Stash Pack!This week I have another new Stash Pack for you. You all went crazy for the Underground Stash Pack. I've never had one sell out in two weeks and I thank you! I have to get busy dyeing more browns but this week the them is blues. These are the True Blues, like your best friend, always reliable. I call these blues the "real" blues. Stash Packs are sets of 10 fat eights in a loose color theme. Each set has 10 fat eights of fabric with lots of color texture. Stash Packs are very highly textured fabrics. Half are mottled and half have stripy effects. Here are 6 of the fabrics in this new set. So many possibilities! Did you see the post Saturday showing what Jeannette Ringuette did with a previous blue Stash Pack. She pieced several of them together for a great background for her table runner. Black is back!Also this week, Black is back! If you are new here you might not know the story behind my black fabrics. When I started dyeing, there was an awesome black dye available to us. About 6 (or so) years ago, that dye was discontinued and none of the replacements met my needs of having a wonderful deep dark black plus reliable shades of gray. I spent over 6 months and 67 recipes before I finally created my own black dye. Stephanie Wilds used a Black Shades Pack for her dog portraits. Fabric of the WeekContinuing the blue theme, my favorite blue gradient is the fabric of the week this week. Midnight is 20% off through Sunday. This gradient would be a wonderful border for a scrappy blue quilt or the background for a stormy sky or undersea scene.
Yes, it was a very productive weekend here. On top of the sewing projects I got done I also got the first 2 truckloads of mulch spread. usually I start in late February and go through March. I was delayed first by a ton of rain and then I hurt my foot. Now it's going to be really warm for the next 6 - 8 truckloads. I guess I'm going to have to try to get up early and get my work done before the day heats up too much. It's a ton of work but it's great exercise and it really does look so much better when it's all done. But, let's get back to sewing. First, I got the gradient border on Summer Sunset. Now the quilt will finish about 96" square, exactly the way I wanted. You can see how huge the star is and that you lose some of the effect on the bed. Oh well, It will still look great in my dark orange bedroom. But for now, it's going to relax on the guest bed until I'm ready to quilt it. I'm expecting an order of cotton sateen wide backing in a month or so and I think I'll ice dye some of that for the back and see if I can make this a reversible quilt. While I was finishing up, I pieced the back, cut the binding AND made the hanging sleeve for the small version. I want to get this one on the quilt frame soon and have it finished by the end of May. I kept going and cut the binding for the big quilt and put all the leftover fabrics away and I have an empty bin! Remember the animal print quilt I started earlier this month? The wide cuddle minky backing fabric arrived Friday so I decided to get it loaded and quilted. It only took a couple of hours and I think this Ebb and Flow panto is perfect. I'll have this one bound and finished to share by Wednesday! Now I can officially start something new! That something new is going to be adding a border to my vulture quilt that my best friend made for my birthday last year. I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE this quilt and want it on my bed this summer but I also want it a little bigger so I'm going to add a piano key border in the colors of the vulture block frames. We found more of the same fabric that she used for the backing so this should be a really straight forward project to do. I've even got the fabrics dyed and ready to go. These are all from the Color Wheel collection of fabrics. But first I'm going to take a little diversion and do some serger projects. There will be some donation things, some pillowcases for gifts and some doll clothes for Ella. It's going to be very nice to do some quick projects this week. I'm starting with the mastectomy drain bags that I cut out a couple of weeks ago.
I'm trying to stay away from crochet for the week. My hands are bothering me a bit because I've been overdoing it. I've got a little road trip to Connecticut (with a pit stop in Lancaster, PA) coming up this weekend and I want to be able to take my crochet to do in the car and hotel. To do that I've got to get the tendonitis calmed down some. Maybe playing on the serger instead will help. I could also take the vulture quilt with me and work on removing the binding. This week's inspiration comes from Jeannette Ringuette. She made this from a pattern by Carole Massard in Simple Moderne #17 magazine. It is for a quilt shop challenge entitled Name that Tune Quilt Show. Each entry had to be reminiscent of a song title or phrase from a song. She chose the song from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. She loved the blues for the background from a Moody Blues Stash Pack. It gave a watery movement and made the fish pop.
Moody Blues is sold out but there are new blues coming next week! For sharing, Jeannette received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery. The only rule is that project has to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. The feather quilting class that I'm taking with Bethanne Nemesch ends today. We will have access to watch the videos again throughout May but today is the last class. I have really enjoyed this format so much more than an in-person class. I like being able to watch the lessons and practice on my own schedule and to be able to do it on my machine. I started practicing on just plain fabric loaded on the machine but I've always hated practicing that way. I have a strong need to make everything I do "useful". So I switched to practicing on the veterans quilts. Three of them have now been done very fancy with feathers! Here's the latest one. The block format of this quilt made it a natural for square feathered wreaths. Bethanne says that she uses this ribbon feather motif on many of her Quilts of Valor and, now that I've used it, I'd say it's perfect! I believe that I've now quilted about 20 feathered wreaths WITH CENTERS! I'm pretty darned pleased with my wreath centers now. Here's the back. I alternated the direction of the feathers and I think that created a cool pattern where the edges of the wreaths meet. I was in a little more of a hurry to get the second one done so it got a continuous curves treatment. I got them quilted, trimmed and photographed before we left for dinner with friends. Here's how the CC quilting looks on the back. The secondary patterns created with CC quilt are always cool to see. I also won an bobbin chicken. It was a good day all around!
Yesterday was dyeing day and that usually means that not much else happens. Wednesdays evenings I can usually be found sitting with my crochet and listening to a book. It's all the energy that I have left. Last night I finished the last few rows on this hat that I've been working on. I'm just trying to use up some leftover yarns and hats seem like fine projects especially now that I've found a local place to donate all of them: men's, women's, children's, babies. You name it, they collect and distribute. This pattern is from Crystal at BagODay on YouTube. The written pattern is in her Etsy site and this particular one is called the Chocolate Bon Bon Beanie. I like it because the increase rounds at the crown include front post stitches and it makes it a lot easier to keep up with the increase counts. I'm still not very good at keeping toe right stitch counts on each round. I tend to add extra stitches. This pattern also has a nice decrease at the base so that the hat will stay snug on the head. The local charity also takes yarn donations and I think they will get the whole skein that's left of this yarn. I really don't like it and don't see a need to make myself work with it. Earlier in the week this group put out a call for premie hats. I've never made a tiny hat so I decided to give it a try. They like them a little long so that they will stay on the baby's head so I added an extra row. This little thing took only about an hour so I can see making more of these. I've got some leftover yarn in peach, white and turquoise and those should work fine for the little hats.
Today I'm planning on some longarming of veterans quilts and to work on the border of the giant Summer Sunset quilt. Once that's done I can get the serger out and work on my stack of serger projects. The plan for yesterday was to do a lot of cutting because the piles on the cutting table are out of control. I started by cutting 2 more veterans kits from my patriotic batiks. I have 6 kits cut now and am waiting on some more beige batik to cut one or 2 more. After that I'll just have a small bin of scraps to use up when these quilts are done. Then I decided to tackle the corners of the Summer Sunset quilts. I was able to tape 3 rulers together to get the length I needed for the diagonal cut. I don't know why I've never thought of taping rulers together before. It works great! So here's the big star! Next I will add a 5" gradient border to get it to the size I need. We decided that we prefer it with the yellow end on the corners and the purple in the middle. I will get this done by the weekend for sure because I really want to move on to something (anything) else! Here's the little one done. I want to get this one quilted soon although I know it's going to be a huge challenge where so many points meet. There's SO MUCH BULK in this quilt. The quilting is going to be much simpler than I originally planned. But before I do any quilting I will remove all the paper from both quilts. This paper was supposed to save a ton of time because it's "leave in" paper. If yo are familiar with the applique papers that you leave in, this is basically the same thing. It works great for applique because the paper isn't caught in layers and layers of seams. I may not have to remove ever single piece but I will remove it where there are seams.
I will never use this paper for foundation piecing again. It seemed like such a great idea but I think this needs to in the applique toolbox. Thank goodness I still used the tiny stitch length that I usually use with foundation piecing! I had so much fun in the dye studio last week. Sometimes I meticulously plan what I'm going to dye, sometimes I wing it and sometimes I have a little plan. These 2 new gradients are the result of a little plan. It carries a lot of risk with gradients because they generally require a meticulous plan. Last week I lucked out. At least, I think I did because I love both of these new gradients. Can you tell that I was thinking about the beach with this one? This one reminds me of the lighting at the very end of the day when everything looks a little faded. You are out for your last beach walk of the day and you are enjoying the vista of seafoam, seashells and driftwood on the sand. Reds and oranges are my favorite colors and it's been a while since I designed a gradient for myself. Coral Atoll is for me and hopefully someone else will like it too! I can't wait to design a project to use with this one. The color is definitely coral. Not red and not orange but something beautifully in between. There's even a new Shades Pack, Coral, to coordinate with the gradient or to use separately in your project. In the swatch photo you can see how Coral falls between the oranges and the reds. What would you do with these new gradients? Fabric of the WeekThe fabric of the week this week is the Frolic Gradient. It's a really popular one for landscape backgrounds. It's 20% off through Sunday.
|
FeedsTo subscribe click the RSS Feed button and copy the URL of that page into your blog reader.
In Bloglovin you need to search "Colorways By Vicki Welsh" to find the blog. About Vicki
I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
All
Archives
May 2024
|