Quilts and Books

The president of my guild issued a challenge last fall. Make a quilt that displays the 6 main colors of the color wheel. The quilt has to show the progression of the colors, although it doesn't matter which color you begin with. They were due at our April meeting. Here are a few of them: That one above is made of yo-yos, appliqued to a black background. It is simply stunning in person and was voted favorite quilt by the members of the guild. As you're about to see, it's clear I have a thing for squares. I was inspired by some colorful, whimsical artwork at the local children's hospital. I decided it would be fun to go through my stash and see how much variety I could find. This was my entry.  Below is a close-up of the quilting. I made a fundamental mistake with my straight-line quilting, going back and forth rather than starting each line of quilting from the same end. It caused some tugging on the fabric and distorted my squares. I almost ripped ...

This month's TBR theme is "new to me" author. I was surprised, looking through my stuff, to see how many of my older books were by authors I've already read. Maybe that just says something about my buying habits. Anyhow, I decided to go with something that hasn't been around all that long, but I have been rather anxious to read.  Monsoon Wedding Fever  is Narayanan's first book, so she's pretty much new to everyone. The most notable fact about this book is it's setting, which is India. I confess to a whole lot of ignorance when it comes to Indian culture. So it was really rather fun to  learn some new words and enjoy something a little different. The romantic elements of the story were a little less satisfying, though. Riya and Dhruv were college sweethearts. Dhruv's upbringing in a dysfunctional family had given him a dim view of love and marriage. He got cold feet one day and abruptly disappeared from Riya's life. Six years later he a...

My 6-month UFO Challenge continues and another success. This was an easy month since I only needed to quilt this small table runner. This little quilt is special as it was the project I made for a paint chip challenge that I did with the QBFFs. (You can click on the "paint chip challenge" label in the sidebar to see previous posts about it.) The picture below should probably be re-done, although I sort of like the effect of the light coming from behind it. It was a very windy day when I took it down to the track for the picture, so I had to pick an area of fencing where the wind would blow the quilt against it. Now that it's done I really like having this on my kitchen table. My other finished quilt for the month was Dorothy St. James' book cover quilt, which I wrote about here . Two relatively small quilts, but two more finished. My total for the year is up to five!

Here's something a little different that I read last month. I'm highlighting it because I'm one of those long-time readers of Regency historicals who actually prefers some real history in those books, not the "wallpaper" kind that all too often shows up. For years I've been a member of the Regency Yahoo loop , although I pretty much just lurk there now. Anyhow, one of the members posted a link to  this book review  and I was intrigued enough to check it out from the library. While I thought parts of it dragged toward the end, I found this to be a fascinating look at a year that suffered some of the most dramatic weather patterns in modern history. Over the years I've read a number of Regencies that have referenced the cold summer experienced in England in 1816. Sometimes those books will even refer to the food shortages and the depressed economy. Between the end of the war with France, which saw a decline in manufacturing and an increase in unempl...

And the winner was .... author Dorothy St. James ! Dorothy has previously written in several genres as Dorothy McFalls. Now she has a mystery series out (book 3 is due in April) centered around Casey Calhoun, the White House Gardener. When Dorothy won the Brenda Novak Auction for Diabetes Research last May, she only had covers for two of her books in the trilogy. I was happy to wait until she received the 3rd cover before beginning work on her quilt. In the end we agreed I'd start after the holidays; I finished it last week and shipped it to her. Now that I have word that it safely arrived I can show it off. Essentially I chose to mimic the look of a triple picture frame. The covers themselves are beautiful, but busy. So I decided to go simple and drew inspiration from the White House and the color red to symbolize the fact that the books are murder mysteries. I found a fabulous white batik fabric with very subtle blue, yellow, green, and pink shading. You might be able ...

Desired is  Nicola Cornick 's 5th book in her 6-book series "Scandalous Women of the Ton." I have enjoyed all of the entries in the series, including this one, for their unusual heroines, settings, or situations. Desired  is the story of Tess, Lady Darant, a thrice-widowed woman with a huge fortune and a reputation of licentious and careless behavior. If she is received anywhere respectable it is more likely because of her sisters Joanna (book 1) and Merryn (book 3). Owen Purchase, Viscount Rothbury, is a former American who inherited the title and somewhat run-down estates from a distant cousin. He is a good friend of her sisters' husbands. We learn at the book's opening that Tess is really not the woman painted by her reputation. She was horribly abused by her second husband and she hides her pain behind a carefully constructed facade. She has no desire to marry again and spends her time secretly aiding radical causes and drawing political cartoons. Owen i...

February was a pretty productive quilting month. I attended my guild's annual  Retreat where I managed to get most of a top done. And I made some progress on the book cover quilt I'm making for last year's winner of the Brenda Novak auction . As a matter of fact, that quilt is very  close to being done. As soon as the author receives it, I'll be posting all about it. As for actual finishes, though, I got one done. But this was the one I'd entered in the local shop challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't win the February drawing. But, for the win I can say I at least got one done! I'll take it. I started this quilt top at the 2009 guild retreat. It was a mystery quilt where we were instructed to bring a variety of light, medium, and dark fabrics. It's a fun study in values. I chose all green fabrics. If you look closely you can see that the dark values run across the quilt from the top right to the bottom left. The medium values run from the top left to...