Days Before Christmas

Still in pre-Christmas prep mode, beside cleaning house, I'm also making handwork ready, in case I have quiet sit-down time. With four young grandsons in our house, who am I kidding? Right? 

This past week's free time was spent cutting fabrics - enough to prepare 40 more glitter blocks to add to the 152 blocks I'll need to put together a Glitter Quilt. The pattern is by Jen Kingwell. 

Here's a picture of my New Zealand friend, Wendy's, award-winning Glitter Quilt.

Several options are available for putting together blocks - EPP, hand-piecing, and machine-piecing. I'm going with a combination of techniques.

You can see, left to right, that I'm machine-piecing the center section, and hand-piecing to add four outside corners. For accuracy, hand-stitched Y-seams are best for me.

I just can't seem to keep from making Kawandi! I've begun my ninth small one, though larger than others at 18" X 24". My plan is to graduate fabric colors as I place scraps and stitch toward the center. 

Instagram giveaway wins arrived promptly! This pattern and bundle of FPP papers came from Erica Arndt. I can see myself using the papers and scrap fabrics to make a scrappy quilt. 

Bethanne Nemesh sent the quilting rulers I selected from her website. Her quilting designs are rather elaborate. 

I'm looking forward to trying these rulers, particularly the ultra-curvy one called "Lotus Lines" (bottom center). It's meant to be used to "steer" a quilt around particular shapes (appliqué for Bethanne), and do something with the concave part of the ruler that she calls "needle entrapment." It's new to me. 

After watching her video, I could appreciate the ruler's application to quilting around modern shapes too.

Last Saturday afternoon was my final 2021 virtual meeting as a member of South Florida MQG (SFMQG). I'm not renewing my membership because of time commitments with two other guilds, not because I didn't enjoy being part of the group. I did! I made many new friends in SFMQG, and thoroughly enjoyed chatting and making friends during monthly Sip-and-Sews. It wasn't an easy decision to not renew.

The meeting was also the culmination of SFMQG's year-long "Curve Around Challenge" of which I was chair. In November, members got to see 19 finished entries in the challenge, and cast their votes. These are the award-winners.

First place received a $50 gift certificate to The Quilted Peacock. In the spirt of paying it forward, I've donated it to the SFMQG charity committee.

The "Cassandra Beaver Award" (chosen by Cassandra herself!) is a $50 gift certificate to Feel Good Fibers. Two awards! I'm completely humbled, and honored. Thank you SFMQGers! 

Go here to look at all the Curve Around Challenge entries. 

Book Recommendation

Sadie by Courtney Summers is an audiobook that's presented as though it's a podcast. The male narrator is the person who's a podcaster, looking to uncover information about the death, in a small town in Colorado, of 13 year-old Maggie, and help in the search for Maggie's missing 19 year-old sister, Sadie. 

Story narration passes between the male podcaster and Sadie. But mostly, the story is told in recorded, live interviews, with dozens of characters telling their stories. It's an unusual way to present an audiobook, but very engaging.

It's only sad that the main thrust of the book is about real and unsettling situations for vulnerable young girls. There's no happy ending, but it's well-written.  

Linda's score: 3.8/5.0

I'm glad I could share this book review because after I posted on December 15 that I was third on the waitlist for book nine of the Outlander series: Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, and that my turn would be coming soon, the next day I received my "it's your turn" notice from the library! I immediately stopped listening to a Vera book by Ann Cleeves, and started 49½ hours/156 chapters of Go Tell... I have 20 days to listen.

So far, even after a long interval since book eight, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, I was able to get right back into the story. Hearing narrator Davina Porter, who has acted all the Outlander books, is like visiting a dear friend. And author Diana Gabaldon has sprinkled-in enough conversational refreshers about past experiences that it's been easy to recall significant events in previous books. 

I know I'm being premature in giving this my "Linda score," but... 

Linda's Score: 5.0/5.0 

This is my 70th book-listen for 2021. 

Christmas blessings my friends! Linda

Holy Family made in 2011 from a design by Dilys Fronks
in the 2006 issue of Quilt It: For Christmas magazine