NYE brief post

So, in the two weeks since I took up the Olde World Map project again, I've finished the two hemispheres and the lower right corner (the Native American).  Next I'm moving on the the bottom center which has a ship under sail.

Outside, it is pitch black and the occasional firework is being shot off.  I am not planning to stay up until midnight!  I'm too tired and too aware that I need to start shifting the boys (and their father) back to a school schedule.

I have started in on one of the gifts I got for Christmas, though, the Lego Viking Village set.  I've even persuaded Squiddle to work with me on it the last two days.  Five bags down, ten to go!  And after that, if he's amenable, we can build the Viking Ship and Midgard Serpent set to go with it.

New Old Project

So, last week I went with my mother up to Threadneedle Street up in Issaquah, which according to Google is my closest dedicated embroidery shop.  And it's a little hole in the wall type store, but it's packed with good stuff, beautifully organized.  It's one of those shops that just feels like it should be in a larger, more stylish space.  So I will definitely be going again!

I bought a Christmas gift for my sister there, and another needle minder, two of the Lavender and Lace Celtic seasons patterns, and the fabric, beads, and specialty threads for Mirabilia designs' Maidens of the Seasons, which I want to make a 2024 project.

(Wonderful Husband was feeling a bit at sea about what to get me, so I told him my purchases there can be his Christmas gift for me.  I even promised I'd act surprised when I opened it.  He has taken me up on the offer and spirited them away.)

But the thing is, I've had a half-finished project lingering on my scroll frame for... must be over ten years now, since I can't remember stitching on it since Squiddle was born.  And I've decided I don't want to take it off and put it away half-finished just to put a new project on.  So I've started working on it again.  Janlynn's Olde World Map.

I like finding and finishing others' half-done cross stitch works.  Just, this time, the half-done work is my own!  And, looking at it, it looks like the last time I worked on this, my method was to find all the areas of one particular color across the entire project and do them all.  But now, I'm doing it in sections.  Currently I'm working on the right-hand globe.  When I started, I had all the water done, and Africa filled in.  Now I've got all the continents filled in, all of the lettering, and about half the mountains, internal outline, and latitude and longitude markings.  I've also discovered that I dislike working the "two strands of floss and two strands of pearlized blending filament" sections; it's rougher to pull the filament through, the stitches are bulkier, and I keep worrying that the 10+ year old plastic will snap.  That said, there are only three more sections of it, so I shall persevere!

Ugh

I've been working on various things and not posting about any of them!  Some of them I can't post about for another few weeks, because people they're for might read this blog.

But!  Things I can post.

A small Halloween stitchery that I did in fact finish on Halloween between our 40+ trick-or-treaters.  Pattern from The Stitcherhood, which changes their freebie patterns monthly.

A little black cat, from this thread on Tumblr.  The original is from Peru, and dated anywhere from 900-1430!

And, finally, one of the big things I've been working on:

This is already wrapped up and sent off.  One of my uncles, my dad's best friend, had a bad health scare this year and I realized I'd never made him and his wife a quilt.  So I took this stack of Crown of Thorns blocks I'd made and sewed them together.  30 Feathered Wreath quilteries later, I still need more practice with the motif.

Missed a week!

Hey-ho!  I've been working on the boys' Halloween costumes.  Squiddle wanted Link's Champion tunic from the video game Breath of the Wild, so I sewed the tunic and Wonderful Husband has been painting the white decoration lines onto it.  Jazzy opted to be a dragon, and the pattern (McCall's 8225) has been giving me a few headaches.

That said, I finished another Christmas stitch!  This one from Crafting Traditions magazine from Nov/Dec 1996!

I did change it slightly from the original:

I felt that since it had Santa in it, "Merry Christmas" was somewhat redundant.  And having Santa's sack being matchy-matchy with the shutters seemed a bit dated, so I took a poll of Jazzy and my mother and they both voted for a green bag instead.

It's not perfect - for part of the border and most of the pine trees, the stitches ended up going in a different direction than the rest of the work.  But by the time I'd realized it, I really didn't want to rip it all out and redo it.  Plus, in my household, no one but me will ever know or notice.  I did end up getting a slightly stronger pair of readers to work on this, because that full coverage midnight blue behind Santa was a bitch to deal with.

Two Finishes!

 Haha!  I am triumphant, and have finished (a) my first all-me major cross stitch project in some time, as opposed to finishing someone else's start, and (b) worked successfully on evenweave linen!

I changed the color of three of the Santas' skins, because my goodness we live in a multicultural and multiracial world, and since I was stitching on an off-white linen, I also changed the color of the snowflakes from gold to white.  Now I just need to wash, press, lace, and frame this.

I also did a quickie project, Little Quaker Pumpkin, which is a freebie on Stitchy Fish Designs' website.  I only had one of the colors recommended, so I subbed in the others as best I could from the box of threads I have on hand.  And I messed up in five separate spots, but as Wonderful Husband always points out, no one but me will ever notice or know.

Wonderful Husband thinks I should cut it out in an oval and sew it into a little pillow so it can be a "pumpkin bomb" to amuse our boys.  Maybe?

And!  We went to the Gig Harbor Quilt Guild's show this weekend.  I got some lovely compliments on Squiddle's Rainbow Quilt, which I entered, but unfortunately both boys were not really wanting to be there, so I didn't get to stay as long or take as many photos as I would've liked. :(  Que sera sera.  I also virtuously went and got my flu and covid shots, which knocked me down yesterday.  Bleh.  Better today!

Almost there....

Posting a day late, but most of yesterday we were up in Seattle, at first the Children's Museum, then at the Space Needle!  Both of which the boys greatly enjoyed.

I've kept working on the Santas cross stitch, and hope to finish it in the next week.

The top two Santas are completely finished.  Bottom right needs his topstitch detail lines.  Bottom right needs Santa's and the doll's skin done, the topstitch details, and the snow in the background.  I did opt to go for four different skin tones instead of all the Santas being lily pale.

Other than that... I've finally sewn the minky binding onto the red/cow print charity quilt.  And I have sworn never to work with minky again.  It is difficult to sew, felt like an oil slick against my hands by the time it was finished, and it will spend its life shedding microplastics into the environment.  Blech.

I also pulled a blouse and a skirt off the mending pile and got them taken care of.  Five minutes to fix, five months to work up to the actual fixing.  Why am I like this sometimes?

Oh, and I took a bit of black I'd gotten from the treasure table at last week's guild meeting and used it to make 6.5" rail fence blocks.  I have more black that I need to find, and a ton more precut strips to use up.  Project, go!

Chugging Along

Took the quilt top for Uncle G. in to the Quilters By the Bay guild meeting this week, as well as the Nutcrackers cross stitch, since I'd bought that at one of the guild sales.  One of the ladies had done a Thimbles quilt top - basically Tumblers, but at a 1" scale.  I suddenly have a mighty need to do one of my own....

This coming week, I'll be turning in Squiddle's rainbow quilt, as well as the red/pink hearts mini, and the turquoise pinwheels mini, to the Gig Harbor Quilters for the quilt show next weekend.

Meanwhile, I've been steadfastly chugging along on the Santas cross stitch.

The pattern, being from 1990, has all four Santas as very definitely white.  I've only stitched the (palest possible pink) facial tone of the upper right one.  I think I'm going to break with the pattern and search through my thread for three different golden or brown tones for the other Santas.  We live in a world of wondrous diversity and potential; I will honor that.

C is for: Cross Stitch, Crowns, Cats

After posting last week, I took a look at the picture of the Santas cross stitch project, said some short words, and pulled out the seam ripper. After removing and restitching several misplaced motifs, I continued on, and here's where that project is to right now:

But that isn't the only thing I've been working on this week!  My uncle, my dad's best friend, has been going through some serious health issues.  We've just gotten the word that it is not cancer, however, which left all of us much relieved.  But I realized I've never made him a quilt.  So I pulled out this stack of blocks I'd made, and set to work.

The block pattern is known as Crown of Thorns, or Single Wedding Ring.  Since 30 blocks was good to make a quilt, I cut muslin and a border fabric and got to stitching.  Currently that project is at this stage:

I plan to baste it tomorrow while the boys are at school.

And!  Since Squiddle is now a double digits age, for his big birthday present we gave him the choice of either a computer or a phone.

He said he wanted a cat.

Okay.  Our cat, Sushi, is very much a me cat and really doesn't let other members of the household interact with him much.  He's 15 and remembers all too well being chased by little boys.  So wanting a pet of his own was a reasonable request for Squiddle to make.  After Wonderful Husband mulled it over for a while and got used to the idea, he agreed.

Last weekend, Squiddle and I went to the Humane Society, but they were having an adoption event that day so it ended being very disappointing for Squiddle.  No kittens left.  I kept an eye on their website, though, and picked up Squiddle after school on Friday.  He had been leaning toward a ginger cat, but this lovely little fellow was meowing his head off and reaching for Squiddle through the bars, so I think they chose each other.

Meet Ramen, our newest family member.

A New Start

Before I put the magazine that the Nutcracker pattern was in away, I decided to make the other pattern I quite fancied in it.  It's smaller!

So I decided to challenge myself and stitch it on even-weave linen. ^_^;;;;

The pattern in question:

How far one week of stitchery has gotten me:

Counting over two threads instead of one has been a bit tricky - especially whenever I'm not doing a long line of the same thing one after another - but surmountable.  It probably helps that I'm working at the same gauge and literally using the same needle as the last project.  Less cognitive dissonance, or something.

Finished! And Birthday #1

I finished the Nutcracker cross stitch!

My sister-in-law, who also does stitchery, shares my first initial.  So I imagine, some centuries down the line, our pieces in museum collections somewhere, getting conflated. :)

I have started on another piece, also Christmas themed, from the same magazine.  After it's done, I can put the magazine away.  And, putting on my Big Girl Panties, I've decided to level up my skills a notch and stitch it on even weave linen.  28-count linen translates to 14-count Aida, though, so it's essentially the same gauge and I'm using the same needle.  I'm 3/4 done with the outermost border, and haven't screwed it up so far.

And we had a birthday in our family this week!  Squiddle is now ten years old, and will be getting a kitten in a week or so, as soon as the rest of the kitten supplies he wanted have arrived.  But he's also very Pokemon obsessed, so I tried my best at decorating a cake for him.

He was so excited and said that a Pikachu cake was even better than the rainbow cake he had requested.  At which point I informed him that his cake was, in fact, both:

His cup, I think, ranneth over.

Catching Up

Whoop, I missed a week!  I'll excuse myself by saying we had visitors from overseas, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  (Hi, Mary!  Hi Kate!)  They flew home yesterday, so today has been stripping and remaking all four beds, and doing a good bit of laundry.

I did a little bit of quilting stuff while they were here - helped Mary get her next quilt basted, and worked on some blocks from the Gig Harbor guild's brown bag abandoned WIP challenge, as well as helping the pair of them go through my (too many) totes of fabric and take what they wanted.  I also submitted three quilts to be shown in the guild's show in October.  One is the rainbow bed quilt I made for Squiddle a couple years ago; the other two are my red hearts and teal windmills mini quilts.

And, I took Kate with to this month's meeting, where Marie Bostwick gave a very good talk about being an artist.  It still feels weird that someone whose books I have been reading for years now lives in the same town and belongs to the same guild I do.  I purchased Marie's newest book, asked her to sign one of the older ones, and also bought her first Cobbled Court book as a gift for Mary to read on the plane. 

And I maaaay have purchased some things off the Treasure Table.

A bag of dinosaur fabrics to become this year's Christmas quilt for a certain 6yo boy.

A selection of fabrics for various projects.

A few magazines, some oversized rick-rack, and two patterns.  The one on the right is in the lead to be this year's Christmas quilt for a certain 9yo boy.

There were two separate stacks of Disney princess squares (same size) so I grabbed those, and this purple that goes with...

...and then I went digging in my own boxes yesterday, unearthing these, which also go with.  (I think there is still one more Frozen-themed remnant out there somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.)  These will make 6yo Niecelet's Christmas quilt.

And, speaking of Christmas, I'm almost done on the Nutcracker cross-stitch!

I just need to finish the backstitching on the rightmost nutcracker, and then I get to worry about washing and pressing it, finding a frame, getting it laced, and purchasing a mat.

One More Done

I'm on a pause for a few other crafty projects that I really should be plugging away on.  But at least I have continued to work on the Nutcracker cross-stitch.  And last night I finished the Santa nutcracker and started in on the next soldier nutcracker....

Two more to go, and then this project will be done!

Misc. Stuffs

A few weeks ago we went waterfall hunting up the Olympic Peninsula and found two.  Ludlow Falls was less than impressive (though the walk through old growth forest was indeed very nice on a hot day), but Rocky Brook Falls is a new favorite!  Just enough scrabbling over boulders to keep Squiddle and Jazzy entertained, and their parents stretched.

Next time we'll bring swimsuits and be prepared to at least do wading in that lovely pool at the bottom. And there was a neat branch fence in the parking area:

Meantime, I have been working away at the cross-stitch project, and Santa nutcracker actually looks like a Santa now.

I have only the white to do (cuffs, beard and whiskers, hat bobble), and then the backstitching.  Maybe I'll have him done by next weekend?

The garden is beginning to produce cucumbers.  My raspberries are all done in for the year, but right on time the blackberry bushes are finally ripening.  We've found a new use for the McDonalds Halloween Happy Meal buckets we got last year, as the boys and I went and picked in the bushes in the far corner of the tract last night.  Well, Squiddle and I used our buckets.  Jazzy just conveyed the berries directly into his mouth. ^_^

Messes, Un-messes, and Progress

Ugh.  Yesterday I started cleaning up my work area in the workroom.  And, of course, in order to tidy, you first have to make a mess:

But!  On the bright side, I got a small ongoing project done.

At some point in the past I'd bought a small sack of 2" squares.  Many of which got sewn into my current project, on the right.  But finally I've finished getting them all neatly stacked, as you can see in the two containers.  Now what to make with the rest of them....

And, of course, I've been stitching along on my cross-stitch project whenever the boys are in their swimming or rock climbing classes.

The soldier nutcracker is done, and I'm now working on the Santa nutcracker.

Charity Quilt Top

I had guild meeting this week - and it's the one of the three guilds I'm in that I'm currently attending.  Kind of have to, since I'm Secretary.  The other two... well, one meets during the day, and the boys are on summer vacation, so that's currently out.  The other one I haven't been to in quite a while, as I can't take Squiddle to his vision therapy and make it to the meeting.  But at some point he'll be done with that, who knows when.

Anyhow!  I had undertaken to make two more blocks of this set, after the guild's last sew-in, and make them into a top.  But none of the blocks went together!  Since the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month was red, I rifled through the bins of fabric I have for my guild's charity blocks, and pulled a few different reds.  And a cow print.  Sometimes, if nothing works together, you just have to go for a fabulous border, right?

The colors, I swear, were a bit richer in reality than they are in the photo.  But, regardless, scraps used up, top turned in, at some point it'll be a gender-neutral gift for some kid in the hospital or foster care.  Win!

That said, I am feeling a bit melancholy about not being at Costume College right now.  Though, as I understand it, there was a hotel workers strike going on last week, which I don't know if it's still continuing or if it's impacting the convention in any way.  I'm also getting hit with a bit of cognitive dissonance when I see pictures - the convention is at a new hotel this year, only the third since I started going.  The new hotel is quite close to LAX, which would make it very convenient for out-of-towners like me....  Maybe next year.  Hopefully Jazzy won't have Summer Boost school for reading improvement, if so.  Though at least that's done!  (Three weeks, getting him to school by 9 and picking up at noon, half an hour drive each way since, because of insufficient enrollment, the program at the local school was cancelled.  Not to mention afternoon swimming and rock climbing lessons for both boys.)

A Second Nutcracker Enters The Stage

 

Weekly update photo!  I've been working on this during my boys' swimming, rock climbing, and vision therapy sessions, as well as at other assorted times.  Most of which they don't have this coming week, so progress will be slower.  But all the backstitching on Herr Drosselmeyer is done.  Dark brown backstitching on top of black, by the way?  Is painful, tedious, and hard to see.  Bleh!

Nutcrackers!

Since neither of my potential quilt-holders are up yet (Jazzy is, but he's not tall enough to hold the donation quilt top up for display), I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the embroidery project I've picked up.

This is from a magazine from 1990 - Better Homes and Gardens Creative Ideas Cross Stitch Christmas.  The project was all done up to the point of the leftmost nutcracker's head.  He still doesn't have a face, technically, because I don't have the right shade in my stash.  I need to go buy sixteen skeins of embroidery floss later today in order to finish this work.  I only have six of the colors... and I definitely don't have enough black!

And here's what I was complaining about on the back:

Thread city, baby!  You can very easily tell where I took over on the hat and the second nutcracker's boots.  Having all those loose threads just hanging about is untidy and runs the risk of them showing through the white Aida cloth.  Not sure yet what I'll do about them.

Unpleasant Surprises

So.  I actually sewed some!  I'd taken home ten leftover 9" quilt blocks from our last guild charity sew-in.  I figured, if I made two more and sashed them and put on a border, it would make a decent size donation quilt top.  Except the one border turned into four borders, but I am actually reasonably proud of it because I think it works well and I pulled everything from the charity scrap boxes.  But!  I don't have a picture of it yet.

This would be because we're supposed to have gotten out heat pump installed today.  Which meant hauling all the boxes of my fabric and costume stuffs out to the barn.  But that got done!  And then we just needed to move the five big pots (four roses, one horseradish) along the back wall over to the side of the house, so the heat pump could go where they were.

We got two moved before I discovered the in-ground wasps' nest.

The hard way.

I got three or four stings out of it (three locations but one hurt a lot more than the others, so maybe I got stung twice there?) and we retreated indoors, calling (a) the installers, and (b) the pest control people.

So our furnace got replaced today, but the heat pump itself will have to wait until the end of the month.  The pest control people will be out on Tuesday.

And as I was watering various things this evening, I found two more in-ground wasps' nests, also near the house!

Fortunately, I am not allergic and the pain is mostly gone.  And in the process of moving stuff from the garage, I found a half-finished cross stitch kit I'd bought at my guild's Sewing Room Sale, and have started work on it.  I try hard not to be catty about other crafters' work, but let's just say the back is nowhere near as neat as the front.

Human Again

Not an excuse for my extended absence from here, but an excuse for my more recent absence, at least... Jazzy had his class field trip to the zoo on the 2nd.  I chaperoned.  There were enough chaperones that I only ended up in charge of him and one of his classmates, so it all worked out well.  After the field trip was over, literally as I was walking back to my car, I got a call from their school letting me know that Squiddle had thrown up in class.  Apparently his complaints of a sore throat that morning hadn't been nothing after all.  So I drove there, picked him up.  The next day was Saturday, and Jazzy came down with it as well then.  Fever, vomiting, sore throat.  They both took a few days off school and went back on Thursday.

Guess what I came down with that Friday?  The 9th.  And have been suffering from ever since?  I grant that after the first 48 hours it transitioned from the flu to severe head cold symptoms, thank goodness, but today, the 20th, is the first day I've finally felt somewhere around 90% human.  I have gone, in the interim, through more than a bottle each of DayQuil and NyQuil.  And at least Wonderful Husband seems to be immune (*knock on wood*) to whatever this bug is.

Just in time for tomorrow to be the boys' last day of school!

(And, unrelatedly, on our drive back from Squiddle's vision therapy today, he and I saw a couple of juvenile orcas off the Purdy Spit!  Four years living in the Puget Sound area, and this is the first time we've seen any.  'Twas glorious.)

Quilts, Done!

Friday evening, I finally took the last stitch on the binding for Squiddle's annual quilt, and tossed it through the wash with three color catchers.  They all came out a lovely crimson color!  So now both the boys have their quilts on their beds.  First, Squiddle's:

He wanted to rearrange the furniture in his room a week or so ago, so now his bed can be accessed from either side.  Which at least makes making the bed easier in the mornings!  Each square finishes at 2.5", so the quilt was 87.5" square before washing and drying, which probably tightened it up a bit.

And since Squiddle finally got his quilt, so did Jazzy:

A bit more cosmopolitan and grownup, perhaps?  But he asked for black and white and red and triangles, so that's what he got.  I don't have the measurements to hand, but I think it's a touch wider and a touch shorter than the other one.

Top, done!

So, I posted about seeing coyotes on Sunday morning.  On Monday morning, driving my boys to their bus stops, we saw another on the short street that leads into our tract.  It was clearly a different one because it had brown fur.  I tried to get a picture, but it disappeared into the brush before I could get my phone camera trained on it.  Still, the boys were very excited!  Haven't seen any since.

Also, the reason I drive my boys to their bus stops is that despite going to the same school, they ride different buses!  Squiddle tested into the district's advanced program, so he doesn't go to our local school but one about 10-15 minutes' drive in the other direction.  Jazzy wanted to go to the same school as his brother, so we applied for a transfer for him, and got it.  (I'm actually quite pleased; theirs is the only school in the district with a dedicated art teacher.)  But only students in the advance program can ride that bus.  So we were going to have to drive Jazzy to school each day.  BUT!  Since he has a speech delay, he has an IEP so he gets to ride on the IEP bus.  The problem is that the two buses arrive, morning and afternoon, about 30 minutes apart.  So it's easiest for me to take both of them at the same time, and keep them contained and entertained within the car.  Lately I've been reading Elephant in the Kitchen aloud while we wait for Jazzy's bus, and he seems to be enjoying it.  And in the afternoon, I do my own reading while waiting for the buses.

So, sewing-wise, I finished the Ugly 9-Patch top!

I had enough of the two greens left to cut and start sewing a pair of matching pillowcases.  I still need to piece a backing.  I found six yards of a lime green print in my stash that I have no idea when/how/why I acquired it, as well as a yard of a green-peas-on-white print that I will never use and want to get rid of.  So tomorrow I will piece those into a backing, and then worry about basting and quilting things.

Today, I've been focusing on writing.  I am posting about 4000 words a week on my story, and as of last night I only had about 1200 done.  Currently at 4490 words, and am calling the chapter done.  Victory!

Sunday Report

A bit of excitement this time-change morning!  (I would have gone back to bed after feeding the cat, but 15 minutes later Jazzy decided it was time for him to get up, sooo....)

But as I was sitting here at my desk, trying to work up the enthusiasm to do things, I saw a couple of neighborhood dogs frisking across the front lawn.  Except then I realized: those don't look like any of the neighborhood dogs I know.

I've lived here for three years, and while I've heard the local coyotes a time or two, I've never before seen any of them!  They're beautiful, and I'm excited, but they're also very much the reason we build our chicken coop to be Fort Knox, and the reason Sushi is an indoors-only cat.

So!  Things I have been working on.  I completed the top and backing for Squiddle's quilt:

They're currently draped across the guest bed with the door closed, to keep them smooth, flat, and free of cat fur until I can get them basted and ready to quilt.

Because!  I realized that I have a UFO (UnFinished Object) quilt due at my next two guild meetings.  For the one on the 22nd, I only need to have it done to a top, but for the one on April 5th, it's supposed to be finished!  So I pulled out the bag of (apparently) 157 blocks from the Ugly Fabrics 9-Patch Exchange I ran for the Orange County Quilt Guild several years ago:

I have one extra turquoise-and-black patch, which may go on the back.  For now, all the rows are sewn and pressed, waiting to be joined.  My plan is to get this to a finished top, bang together a backing, then get it and Squiddle's quilt basted one after another.

Progress, However Incremental

Went to the Gig Harbor quilt guild yesterday.  There was no Treasure Table this month, but I was able to drop off a book I'd culled, to go in next month's.  The program was Four Corners, so I learned about two techniques and two rulers that were new to me... none of which I think I'll ever use.  But!  It was good to learn things.  I also got to shill for new members for the shrunken Quilters By The Bay guild, so maybe that will do some good?  And, miracle of miracles, the meeting got out on time such that I didn't need to sneak out early to meet the boys' buses!

And!  I've now finished all forty-nine blocks for Squiddle's quilt.

Today I get to start stitching them together.  Then, after that's done, I get to make the backing, then start in on turning all those Ugly Nine-Patches into a quilt top, since that's now due at two separate guilds for a UFO challenge....

The Cake Is Not A Lie

So, yesterday was my mom's birthday.  I made the cake!

Triple layer strawberry cake, from The Cake Doctor book.  Very yummy!  Though, unfortunately, I went with store-bought icing, and all those strawberries went sliiiiiding off the cake during the car drive over to my parents'. :(  So they got stuck back on with toothpicks.  Stab!

I haven't been getting much reading done, since I've been concentrating on writing and quilting, but I did (finally!) finish The Silent Tower (369pp) by Barbara Hambly.  I'm not sure what to think of what's happening in it, but it is very much set up as the first part of a series.  Additionally, it takes about a third of the way into the book for the two disparate universes in it to start to mesh.  So, maybe not recommended at this juncture?

And I also bit the bullet, used up my January allowance, and purchased a physical copy of Penric's Demon (135pp) by Lois McMaster Bujold.  I finally have the whole series in book form!  And I've determined that I reallyreally like reading a physical book over a digital one.  (Wonderful Husband is the opposite.)  Rereading this in a physical format was a completely different experience than reading it on a screen.  Much love for Penric and Desdemona!  And now I want to reread the whole series.  Preferably in internal chronology order.  Maybe by the time I finish, Subterranean Press will actually have gotten Knot of Shadows printed and in the mail to me. :)

All You Need Is Love

So last weekend, I participated in the virtual Treadle On Gathering.  Which was quite fun and interesting and I learned more than a few things!  Not all of them having to do with treadle machines, either. ^_^

I also cut up rather a lot of my current scrap pile into usable parts, and finished my other Sneaky Secret Project:

This is 13.5" square, and all the reds are scraps from the quilt I'm making for Squiddle.  It's my fourth mini quilt (and I've just finished the top for my fifth), so I'm thinking of grouping them on a wall somewhere for a display?  Who knows.  Anyhow, it's cute, and was finished in time for Valentine's Day.

Red Things

So, I have finished reading The Red Pyramid (516pp), the first of the Kane Chronicles trilogy.  It was slightly less easy to follow than the Percy Jackson books, but then I have a more thorough grounding in Greek mythology than I do in Egyptian.  I blame the American public education system.

Also, I have finished three parts of the Sneaky Secret Project!  (Part four still in progress.)  You see, I had found a pattern for Valentine's Day card quilts.  And since I had all those red scraps from the quilt I am making for Squiddle, I made three cards, for my boys and my husband:

Caveat on the pattern: it gives you the size for the side triangles, but not the corner triangles.  I used Bonnie Hunter's tutorial to help me figure out the math for those.

And!  Since I used a plain cream fabric for the backing, I'll actually be able to write on these Valentine's cards.

Monday Progress

The star blocks are complete!

Now I just need to pull 12 or 24 reds, and 9 or 18 off-whites (depending on how much variety I'm going for) and start cutting strips to make the X blocks!

But first, Sneaky Secret Project lies in the scraps: