Leap-Frogging

My friend, Melissa (@mtweedel on Instagram) posted this week about leap-frogging, a tendency some of us have to jump from project to project. I completely identified with that term! It seems I function best when switching from one project to another, like following a whim.

Leap-frogging has been the norm this week. 🐸

Mostly in the evenings, I've continued to hand-appliqué circles onto half-square triangles, for my Chips and Charms Challenge quilt. These are blocks 73 to 80 - so I finally reached the 80 appliquéd blocks needed for my quilt design. Whew.

Kelly Young at MyQuiltInfatuation has a new book Scrappy Improv Quilting, and it's now available. I received a copy to make a quilt for Kelly's book introduction blog hop; my turn is Monday, October 18. All patterns in the book are to make mini quilts from scraps, so I've begun "making fabric" from which I'll cut pieces. 

The Finger Paints Quilt Along, hosted by Laura Loewen of QuiltFortCo began Monday. This week's assignment was to choose the 31 fabrics needed for the project - nearly all of mine are Painter's Palette solids - and cut them out. My rotary cutting was entirely ruler-free, so it remains to be seen how my blocks will turn out!

All that cutting produces lots of fabric snippets that I toss into a fabric bag clamped to my sewing machine table. It doesn't seem to take long to fill a bag with fluff to make a nice pet bed to locally donate. This bed is made from leftover home dec fabric, and measures about 23" X 26".

Fully aware that on September 1 the MQG opened-up QuiltCon 2022 entries (due by October 31), I'm slowly progressing on my Artisan Fabric challenge quilt. My plan is to domestic machine quilt, and then add big stitch quilting.  

Melissa, the same person who explained leap-frogging, shared this progress picture of putting together redwork hand-embroidered blocks. Do they look familiar? These are the some of the 91 blocks found in my grandparent's Ohio farmhouse that I sent to Melissa. Read my June 4 blog post about it. She's gonna have a beautiful quilt when she's done! (Yes, one of the blocks is embroidered "1899".)

Book Recommendation 

It's times like this that I wished I'd labeled my "Book Recommendations" - "Book Reviews" because I can't favorably recommend Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Call me a prude, but my low score is because I don't care for stories about privileged stars who mistreat others, have sex with whoever crosses their path, turn marital infidelity into a practice, indiscriminately sire children, drink too much, ingest drugs like candy, and unabashedly swear. 

The book is about soon-to-be-famous singer Mick Riva who marries the beautiful daughter of a couple running the local seafood restaurant. They have four children fathered by Mick, but not his wife. The eldest, Nina, unexpectedly finds herself taking care of the family when their father abandons them and their mother turns to drink. The story is about Mick and his reckless lifestyle, and  those children - how they struggle financially, and what they accomplish, becoming a: champion surfboarder; famous model; famous photographer; and college student. The entire book takes place in one day (with frequent returns to the character backgrounds) - a day that ends with a huge, wild party in a gorgeous Malibu cliffside home, and Santa Anna winds that fuel a fire. From the ashes come endings and new beginnings.

Linda's score: 2.8/5.0

Instagrammer, Jamie Lynn @purejoycreative is the wife of a pastor, mom to six, and an extremely talented artist. She teaches art, partime, in a parochial school. Most months, Jamie Lynn offers free cell phone wallpaper. This month's is a good reminder of how God wants all of us to live. 

Though I fail most of the time, God never does. Linda