Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween!

I am completely and totally not in the mood to go trick or treating in the rain with my boys tonight.  I'd rather be pulling more fabric for this project -- 


The pattern is Stairsteps by Jo of Jo's Country Junction and this is exactly my kind of quilt. I can do everything except for the solid red from my stash (and, considering the amount of solid red I bought and re-bought  because I really want to make Scrap Vomit -- which isn't even online anymore, I could probably have done the red from stash too.)

I think this is going to be a long term project, even if I make my quilt smaller than Jo made hers. That's an awful lot of triangles!

This post is linked to Patchwork Times

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Weekly Stash Report


I haven't decided whether I'm going to use these as fabric for a future project, or as dish towels in the kitchen. It depends on whether or not they soften up a bit once they're washed.

Whatever they wind up being, I love the designs and the price was right.

Once again, October has gotten away from me and I'm making a list of things that I didn't get done in 2016 and still want to do. There's always next year. Or the year after that...

Vintage Folk Art Cat from a $1 Plastic Pumpkin
Fusible Applique Trick or Treat Bags


Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 7 1/4 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 30 1/4 yards (+4 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 23 yards

Yarn used this Week:  0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5950 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3168 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Look what I found at the Local Safeway!

Hatch Diced Green Chiles at the Local Safeway!

Long time blog readers will know that we fell in love with Hatch peppers after a trip to Arizona a few years back. We bought a bunch at Costco and rationed them, assuming that we could get more when we went back the following year. But that didn't happen. They replaced them with a different brand that isn't Hatch.

And it's really, really important that the peppers be from the Hatch Valley of New Mexico. If not,  I might as well buy the Great Value diced chiles at Walmart. Those are okay, but they're not the same.

While we were in Arizona a couple of months ago, we missed Hatch Pepper Days at the local grocery store that brings them in and roasts them. Obviously I'm going to have to plan future vacations around that annual event!

But Teenage Son found these on the shelf at the local Safeway. It's more than I want to spend for a little can of chiles, but they're the real thing and I can get them when I want them. I'm just hoping it's a permanent thing. And that at some point they're go on sale, because if that ever happens I'm stocking up!

Friday, October 28, 2016

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/28/16}



Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.





Thursday, October 27, 2016

Zero the Ghost Dog

halloween knitting ghost zero Nightmare Before Christmas

Just a cute little project that I found on Ravelry and thought I could whip up with some stash yarn. It's an unlabeled nubby cotton that I got for free at a yard sale, double stranded in an effort to give it a bit more substance.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday  

{Thrift Shop Temptations} The Rest of the Embroidery

While I was writing last week's post about that delicately embroidered pillowcase, I realized something -- maybe I should have gone through the rest of the linen section to see if there was anything else by the same stitcher...

That thrift shop isn't far from home, but their parking is tricky. I left early for my pre-op appointment and was lucky enough to find a spot with enough space for the van. (Have I told you how much I hate parallel parking that thing? And how many places around here make me do it?)

These definitely weren't by my gal. I could tell that from ten feet away.


These looked right, and they had crocheted edgings. The colors looked brighter, though, and I didn't think the stitching was quite as delicate.


Then I checked the back and decided that they had to be by my gal. Except for the travelling floss between the flower centers. There is none of that on the bird pillowcase, even when she was only doing a stitch or two at a time of one color.


I still can't decide if these go together or not. Maybe the pillowcase with the bird was used and laundered more. That would explain the difference in fabric color and maybe why the colors are lighter. Maybe they were done by the same hand at different times so that explains the differences, including why the edgings are different colors. Did she start out with the perfect backs and then get a little sloppier...or did she improve with time?


Any theories?

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

{Yarn Along} Pocketbooks and Pistols


It took me two months to knit the first sock. There was a completed pair in the middle with a bit of lace work, but that's still way too much time to spend on one sock. I'm on day five of the second sock and two of those days I only managed a couple of rows. But I'm getting there. Maybe I'll even have these done in time to cast on with the yarn I'd intended to knit with in October!



I think I've finally figured out what I like so much about the Haley Randolph mystery series by Dorothy Howell. They're like guilty-pleasure reality television. It doesn't matter that Haley is kind of shallow or that she doesn't have a particularly strong work ethic -- she's fun to read about. She's also grown a lot as the series progressed and has always cared about her friends and family.  (And she's a refreshing change from so many other cozy heroines who are perfect and know it.) In the latest book, Pocketbooks and Pistols, Haley is working two jobs. Being an event planner suits her well, and her part time job at the unbearably Holt's Department Store gets her a fabulous discount at a high end chain where she can buy the clothes and designer bags she lives for. In fact, this time it looks like she'll be able to just walk in and buy a Mystique, this season's hottest new accessory. But then she finds a body by the Holt's dumpster and she finds herself involved in a murder investigation. Because if Holt's closes, she loses her employee discount and the bag of her dreams.  And Haley isn't going to let that happen.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copy by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along 

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

How do You Feel About Fussy Cutting?


I love the results that other people get, but I'm always hesitant when it comes to fussy cutting. My usual goal is to use as much of the fabric as humanly possible, especially when it comes to a favorite print, but for the project I have in mind I'm going to need to get the right image and to get it more or less centered.

I think the rectangles I've marked out are the best plan, but I'm going to sleep on it before I do any actual cutting. Just in case I change my mind.

Monday, October 24, 2016

7 Days to Halloween


I actually drove past this car without noticing the skeletons. HOW?!  Once Teenage son pointed them out to me (and asked how I could possibly miss them) we circled back for a parking space so he could get pictures.

Because they're adorable in a realistically skeletal way. This is the absolute best Halloween thing I've seen all month.


I've seen all of these posts about how hard it is to take a break from social media. It's not. Just spend a very long day at the Retro Gaming Expo with your teenage son and follow it immediately with an even longer day at the pumpkin patch with your two younger boys. You'll be too tired to even think of looking at Facebook or Pinterest or writing a blog post. Or maybe it doesn't count because while they were waiting in lines I read two books on the Kindle app of my phone. (I say it counts because it would count if I'd been reading something on paper.)

I didn't intend to do those two things back to back. The pumpkin patch was supposed to wait until next weekend, but the weather looked good and I decided it would be better to be dry and exhausted than getting as absolutely soaked as I did last year. On the plus side, I've never, ever seen my youngest boys wear themselves out like that.   I've got three happy sons and I'm not leaving the house again for days.

Unless I need something for Halloween costumes, because I'm running out of time and have absolutely no plan.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Food52 A New Way to Dinner



The idea behind Food52 A New Way to Dinner: A Playbook of Strategies for the Week Ahead is that you do most of the prep work on the weekend and then use what you've already cooked to make quick meals the rest of  the week. That sounds like exactly the kind of miracle I've been looking for, so I happily accepted a review copy from  the publisher.

There's a lot about this book to like. There are a lot of  recipes here, all with clear instructions. Weekly shopping lists are divided  into categories to make the trip to the store easier. Shortcuts and substitutions are offered in case your weekend doesn't allow for all of the suggested tasks. There are deserts and alcoholic beverages and lunches, not just dinners.

Ultimately, this isn't the book that's going to solve my nightly struggles. Too many of the foods are either completely unfamiliar or things that I know my family won't eat (and that's just taking the adults into consideration.) I'm looking for meals that I can prepare with products from the local grocery store... I'm not expecting to find ramps or garlic scapes when I can only find leeks on a good day. That's not a complaint about the book, though. It's a great looking plan that's not well-suited to our household.

What's your nightly plan? Anyone know of a cookbook or great website that's got healthy food with less exotic ingredients?

Disclosure - The publisher provided me with an electronic ARC. 

Friday, October 21, 2016

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/21/16}


Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.





Wednesday, October 19, 2016

{Thrift Shop Temptations} Vintage Embroidery

On the way back from picking up some antibiotics on Tuesday, I stopped at a thrift shop I rarely visit. Parallel parking isn't my favorite thing and there's rarely a spot unless I want to park on a side street and walk a couple of blocks. I didn't find the book I was looking for, but I did find this adorable pillow case. 


I don't buy a lot of vintage embroidery, usually because I'm too cheap and would rather spend the money on supplies to do my own stitching. But it was only fifty cents and it's got that cute embroidered edging and just look at how delicate that stitching is! I had to look twice to be sure that it really was stitching and not somehow drawn on. Most of the embroidery I see is kind of clunky.


I don't know how anyone does anything this exquisite. Look at the back!  I'm in complete and total awe of this gal's sewing skills.


The fabric is discolored, but the stains are more obvious in the pictures than they are in real life.  I'm not sure if I want to use it on my pillow or cut out the birds and incorporate them into a quilt.  For the moment, it's a nice dilemma to have.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

{Yarn Along} Slow Progress


I cast on the purple sock on August 15 and finally bound off the cuff a couple of nights ago. It shouldn't take me two months to knit a single stockinette sock...not even if I manage to finish another fancier pair and a pumpkin dishcloth at the same time. The other sock is going even slower. I sit down to work on it, but after a few rows something happens to pull me away from my knitting. I'll get my knitting mojo back sooner or later, but I'm tired of waiting for it to show up.



Tree of Treasures: A Life in Ornaments by Bonnie Mackay has me thinking about my Christmas tree in an entirely different way. I'm not good with ornaments. They get lost, or broken, or I pack them carefully away and forget where I put the box. This author treasures her ornaments, whether they're old or new, store bought or handmade. When accidents happen, she turns the broken bits to face the tree. Reading the stories of each ornament made me feel more attached to my own rag tag collection of decorations.

Disclosure -- I was provided with advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along

Monday, October 17, 2016

Finding the Space to Pin Baste Big Quilts

I love quilting on my Janome, but I have a heck of a time finding space to pin baste large quilts. Our house is small and has furniture in it The nail polish quilt will take every inch of my floor space and then some. 


When we moved our travel trailer home I started to wonder if that hard surface under the mattress would be big enough to lay out the nail polish quilt on.

This could work! I wound up with the mattress tipped up against the door, but basting in the trailer would mean that I didn't have to chase all of the kids out of the room before starting and that I could leave a big project partially finished until the next day.

This quilt still needs two sides of the border put on, so it'll be a while before I can test my theory and be sure this really works. I'll let you know what happens.

Where do you pin baste?

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Weekly Stash Report



While I was curled up on the couch last week recovering from surgery and sulking, Mom was on a Halloween shop hop up the Oregon coast and picked me up kits  for thirteen cute Halloween blocks. And a yard of gorgeous book spine fabric. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but it'll be something special.

While I was waiting for the power to go out yesterday, I followed some fun rabbit trails and found drool worthy projects:

Becky's Henny Penny and Cocky Lockey potholders make me want to learn to crochet Right Now. The last pair on the page reminds me of our two lovebirds.

This paper pieced haunted house is soooo intricate! (How many pieces are in that basement window?!) I don't paper piece, but after seeing this project I sure want to give it another try.

All Hallow's Eve, with its appliqued tree and moon, might be more my speed.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 7 1/4 yards
Fabric added this week:  1 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 30 1/4 yards (+4 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 23 yards

Yarn used this Week: 50  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5950 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3168 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

The Old House

I'm fascinated by old houses.  There are a few abandoned places I drive by regularly -- and a few that I thought were abandoned until I saw smoke coming out of the chimney on a snowy day.

This place definitely doesn't have residents, even though I saw a light in the windows on the way home one night. It has to have been the setting sun reflecting against the glass. People don't live in places with caved in roofs....do they? 

We've been driving past this place since we bought our old farm house ten years ago.  When we first saw it, the roof had collapsed a bit.  



In March of 2013, there was still a porch.


And this is what was left of the house's front side a couple of years later, with the entire roof and most of the front wall gone. That's the same tree in the center of both pictures. 


Same angle and tree a few days ago... The blackberries make it hard to see what's left, but the poor house is steadily crumbling.


One of these days I'm afraid I'll come around the curve and it will be gone. The land around it is still used for farming and the barn in back is in great condition. But the house is slowly rotting. I'd love to know what its story is. Hubby asked once if I thought there was still furniture in there...

I'd love to get a look through that downstairs window, which wasn't visible until they cleared away the berries last week. But I'm trying to be respectful of the "no trespassing" signs.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/14/16}


Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.





Thursday, October 13, 2016

I Refuse to Block This

knit dishcloth washrag pumpkin fall knitting
Pattern: Pumpking

Do you block your knitting? Except for lace shawls, I don't. Some of my socks might benefit from some gentle blocking, but they're going to stretch on my feet and I don't have that kind of patience. 

I'm definitely not blocking a dishcloth just so I can take a picture of it looking pretty and flat. It'll be wadded up in the sink soon enough. 

This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday  

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

{Yarn Along} A Bit of Halloween Knitting


My goal, which I made before I knew how soon I was going to have surgery, was to finish the September Scare socks before the first Scary Sock pattern was released. I got the socks done with hours to spare and when the first pattern, for a pair of socks based on Stranger Things, was released I pulled out some appropriate yarn. And then I procrastinated because I was too stressed to learn a new technique (the jogless jog) and I wasn't sure which size I should make and I was just feeling spectacularly unmotivated.

Then there were only a couple of days left until the next pattern so I decided to hold off and see which of the two I was more inspired by. Those white blobs are a bit of Halloween knitting from my Ravelry queue that may or may not come together as planned.

Monday night, the second pattern was released. It's based on The Birds and has spiralling feathers and is looking a lot more tempting. But it's cuff down and I'm still not feeling all that motivated to cast on sixty-some stitches and join without twisting.

I spent the first couple of days after my surgery curled up with a stack of library books.

The Obsession by Nora Roberts had been renewed and renewed again and returned and checked out and renewed....I wanted to read it but there was always something else I needed/wanted to start first. I'm glad I kept this copy at home until the time was right. There are two stories here -- the one that starts the night Naomi follows her father into the woods and opens a locked root cellar where she discovers the woman he's been holding captive, and the one where Naomi has grown up, become a successful photographer, and is renovating a neglected old house.  I was immediately pulled into the first half of the book, but it took me some time to warm up to grown up Naomi. The book is a romantic suspense and not nearly as dark as the other stuff I've been reading these days.

The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer starts with five footprints that a four-year-old left in wet cement moments before he disappeared without a trace. Hoping for answers that the police can't provide, his mother turns to a psychic who refuses to help. There's a lot going on here and I'm not sure it all tied together well.

Halfway through End of Watch I'm not enjoying it as much as I did Finders Keepers.

Disclosure -- The books are from the library. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along,  

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

{Thrift Shop Temptations} Now I Want a Toy Iron

The sun is shining and I needed stuff to make dinner and wasn't in too much of a rush to finally stop at the thrift shop I've been driving past for months. Here in our small town it looks like the line between "thrift store" and "antique mall" and "video rental store that also sells random crap"
is very blurred. 

There was some pretty eye  candy to be found in the antique mall and now I've got a sudden urge to buy myself a toy iron. It might have been this toy iron, except for that chipped horse head. 


I remember having a toy iron and ironing board when I was little, and I remember Grandpa clipping off the electrical prongs. Which makes me both wonder if it was at one point a functional iron and wish that we'd hung onto it. The ironing board was around forever and might possibly be in my attic, but the iron is long gone.


This antique quilt was in absolutely awful condition, but that pink sashing and border pulled me across the room to take a look at it. I didn't want to unfold it to get a look a the whole thing, not when I was in no way interested in becoming its next owner, but I had to get a picture of that wide scalloped border.

Some  days, you just need some pretty vintage eye candy to make the world seem happier.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Life Gave Me Another Spider...

I've been wrestling with this post, trying to decide what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. Then I went outside for a minute and life gave me another spider, one that's even better than the last spider it sent to cheer me up.


This guy was lurking outside my sewing room door. He's huge! I'm not a big fan of spiders, especially not big scary looking spiders, but he's outside doing his spider thing and that's fine with me. Then I moved the door and he scuttled across his web to hide under a big leaf that was stuck there.

Because, apparently I'm the scary one. When I went back outside with the camera, he tried to hide behind the siding. Do spiders have issues with anxiety?


I had the procedure on Thursday. It wasn't a hysterectomy, it was a uterine ablation, which is drastic enough for me  at this point.

When I started taking Warfarin my usually light periods got heavy. When they switched me to Xarelto back in February, those heavy periods got downright scary. I mentioned it to the GP, and to the gynecologist, and the hematologist....and no one paid much attention except to give me the standard guidelines for when to head to the emergency room.

And this is the part where I'm going to jump up and down in praise of doing online research. It turns out I've been losing a lot of blood over the past eight months -- I knew that and told my doctors that, but I wasn't using the right details to describe it. I'll spare you those, except to tell you if you think your doctor is ignoring you there are some sites that explain how to go from "a lot" to an actual measurement. Once I had actual measurements, the doctor's reaction changed  from "that's just the blood thinners" to "we need to deal with this."

It's too soon to know if the ablation will be effective, or how effective it will be, but at least I survived the procedure itself!




Sunday, October 09, 2016

Scary Sock Yarn

My sock yarn stash lives here and there and everywhere. Not really...but it's not all in one convenient place.


The sock yarn I want to knit next lives in a cute little suitcase that I inherited from Grandma. The Fabel takes up its own hat box, and there's are another two or three hat boxes out in the sewing room....and a Rubbermaid tub of the sock yarn that won't fit in the pretty boxes.

It's not a bad situation. Over the past couple of years, I've learned that, even when I'm not intending to, I knit a lot of socks. Fifty-four pairs just in the three years since the accident. (And no, I don't need that many pairs or wear them all and I don't care.) Almost all of my yarn stash was purchased on sale and having it lets me participate in fun things like Sock Madness and the Super Scary Sock knitalong.  Or to just knit and knit and knit when I'm feeling stressed.

Before my surgery last week, I rummaged through my sock yarn stash to remind myself what was in there and pull out a few skeins that might or might not be suitable for the upcoming Scary Socks. Surgery went well, but I'm taking it easy for a couple of days.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 7 1/4 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 29 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 22 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5900 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3218 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Saturday, October 08, 2016

Skeleton Clothes Pin Fingers


This project, inspired by a tutorial over on I Gotta Create! was on my to-do list for last Halloween, but I ran out of October too quickly.  This year I'm determined to tackle my Pinterest board and do some of the things that are actually possible (as opposed to the ones that are just drool-worthy)

If you've seen my kitchen pictures, you'll know that I'm not a fan of crackle paint effects, especially when it's red and inside of my cabinets and drawers, but I can appreciate it on this project.

Friday, October 07, 2016

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/7/16}


Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.





Thursday, October 06, 2016

{Throwback Thursday} Halloween Stitching

I'm too cheap to have things professionally framed, so most of the pieces that I've stitched are tucked away in my sewing room waiting for me to come up with a more practical solution. Last year, I tried to find these so I could add fabric borders, but they managed to avoid me until Summer and by then it was too late. 

This year, I'm thinking of just tacking them up on the wall as-is so I can enjoy them. 


Spooky Row by Bent Creek 

 Three Gables by Cross Eyed Cricket 

I almost never stitched with the specialty threads a pattern called for, but I loved  these two projects enough to splurge on supplies and to actually stitch them.

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

{I've Been Reading} A Memory of Muskets



Last September, I told you abut Death on the Prairie, a cozy mystery that I loved because so much of the plot involved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to get my hands on an advance review copy of the latest book in the Chloe Ellefson mystery series.  Go order yourself a copy of A Memory of Muskets by Kathleen Ernst. It is absolutely amazing! Seriously -- I finished the book at 1am and had to convince myself that immediately buying a copy of the first book and downloading it onto my Kindle might not be the best idea, but only because I had to be up in a few hours.

An unidentified man in a civil war uniform is found on the grounds of Old World Wisconsin. He doesn't belong to either of the groups involved in the reenactment that Chloe is helping to organize, but his clothes and belongings suggest that he's devoted to "the hobby." The mystery kept me guessing until the very end (my best guess was time traveler and I knew that couldn't possibly be it!) and the solution, when it came, made absolute sense.  To complicate matters further, Chloe is unable to enter the cabin on her boyfriend Roelke's family farm. The building that is supposed to be her private sanctuary fills her with a dark and heavy sense of dread. She can't explain the problem to Roelke, but she also can't bring herself to enter the building.



When I saw that Emma Donoghue had a new book out, I couldn't wait to read it. The Wonder is nothing at all like Room, but I loved it just as much. Lib Wright, a widowed nurse trained by Miss Nightingale herself, is sent to Ireland to keep watch over an eleven-year-old girl who has survived for the past four months on nothing but manna from heaven.  I had to warm up to Lib, who is very sure of her professional training and has no patience at all for the girl's family or what she sees as their backwards ways. Surrounded by those who are sure that Anna is a living miracle, Lib refuses to believe in even the possibility that such a thing could be true and sets out to discover who is sneaking the girl nourishment. The pacing is a bit slow and it took me a a while to get through the book, but it was definitely worth reading.



Author Julie Prentice and her family are glad for a new home and a new start, far away from the stalker who plagued her. She wasn't counting on the overzealous head of the homeowners association and the endless rules and regulations. When the harassment begins again, can't be sure if her stalker has found her or if it's a member of her own neighborhood.  The story is told from two different points of view and alternates between the past and present. More than once I lost track of who and when and had to flip back a few pages to get myself re-oriented. There's been a tragedy and, in the present, witnessed are testifying before the Grand Jury but it isn't until almost the last page that we find out who the victim of the tragedy was. By the very end, I feel like the author was almost doing backflips to keep the identity secret for just a bit longer. Although I wasn't satisfied with the resolution, I did enjoy the read to get there. The characters feel like real people and it's easy to care what happens to them.

Disclosure -- I was provided with advance review copies by the publishers. 

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

Vinyl Zipper Bag


I've wanted to try sewing with clear vinyl for a long time now, but never took the plunge and bought any of it.  The more I look at zipper ideas on Pinterest, the more intriguing possibilities I stumble across.

I had enough advance notice before I lost my car last week to pick up a yard of the vinyl and decided to see if I could pull this project off without a teflon presser foot. It turns out that I could, since all of my sewing was through the fabric on the outside of the vinyl. The most fiddly part of the whole thing was making my own bias tape.

This is a mish-mash of a few different tutorials.  I'm not happy with all of  the little details, but I'll be giving it another try soon.

This post is linked to  Bag It over at Elm Street Quilts. 

Monday, October 03, 2016

Storing My Triangles



I think TheEclecticAbuela was probably kidding when she said I could store my triangles in my Triangle Bag, but it's really the best idea ever!

I want to make Stairsteps by Jo of Jo's Country Junction. It calls for about a zillion 1 1/2" hsts. I've been doing them as leaders and enders when I work on things like the Be My Neighbor blocks and, knowing me, I will lose track of a bunch of them.

So I'm putting them in baggies in my triangle bag. One for unsewn triangles and one for the sewn ones. And, when I get around to doing some pressing and trimming, I'll probably need a third bag.


This post is linked to Patchwork Times

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