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...