Good Week!

With my iron level restored, I'm feeling good, and it's been a good week. 

I'm still pressuring myself to keep walking foot quilting my Architecture Challenge quilt, and I'm making progress.

I've also had some excellent moments of distraction.

A small distraction has been to start another hand-stitching piece. Following a "Mary's Clamshells" tutorial by Sunny Day Supply, I enlarged a clamshell template to 3", made a plastic template, selected solids inspired by a piece of African wax print, and cut 50 or so clamshells. 

With 80-weight Aurifil thread, I'm needle-turn hand appliquèing. The top row of clamshells is done, and the next row is glued into place, ready for appliquéing. Eventually I'll finish the piece with big stitch quilting.

My thought is to combine the appliqué piece with curvy improv pieces (à la Sherry Lynn Wood) that I've made with African wax prints. It's all at the "thinking-about-it" stage.

Handwork is definitely in my future. Sunday (March 27) is when the first instructions will be given for the 2022 Alison Glass Stitch Club Kantha Sew Along. Anticipating that, I bought more pearl cotton, the arrival of which was a highlight this week. On the left is Alison Glass #8 Eleganza pearl cotton "Sun" collection by Wonderfil, from Snuggly Monkey; and on the right is Wonderfil #12 Spagetti "Tropics" collection from Red Rock Threads.

Have you noticed how much raw cotton prices are rising? When I first shared my concern about increasing cotton prices (on my blog, in May 2021), cotton was 90¢ a pound. Back then, I let you know the price would probably continue to climb.

This morning cotton was $1.32+ a pound. (I hate being right!) Before you know it, we'll see those higher prices reflected in our quilting cotton fabrics - $14 to $15 a yard for prints, I'm guessing. We're already seeing some fabrics at $13+ a yard.

Quilt batting prices will inevitably climb too. So, two weeks ago, when www.battingsupersale.com offered a 15% batting discount, I bought!

For at least six years now, my friend Karen and I have been buying a roll together. We agree on a batt we want and then split the cost. It's a great way to go because one of us doesn't end up with too much, and we share the shipping cost. This 93" X 30 yard roll of Quilter's Dream Cotton Select (white) was $242.21. We should be set for a while.

Another happy moment this morning was when I received email notice that my "Grandma's Leftovers" Kawandi has been accepted into the Gallery, in the "Utility" edition of Curated Quilts! Whoo-ee!

I'll soon be mailing it to Curated Quilts for photography. 

Book Recommendations

What are the odds that I'd pick up two books in a row, by two different authors, that both have storylines in the same place? Florida! And even more remarkable is that both books are excellent!

The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews (this is my third read by this author; you can't go wrong choosing her books!) is about Letty Carnahan who lives in New York. When she finds her sister Tanya's body, Letty remembers a promise she made to Tanya - that if something ever happened to her, she was to take Tanya's daughter, grab the "go bag," and run. Letty isn't sure where they're headed until she finds a faded magazine advertisement for a motel, The Murmuring Surf, in Treasure Island, Florida.

Arriving there, Letty immediately encounters a police officer who happens to be the son of the motel owner. Yet the owner herself takes sympathy on Letty and Maya, and gives Letty a job in exchange for a room. Still, Letty must be cautious. Maya's father, Evan, may be looking for them. But as Letty discovers, Tanya was keeping secrets. 

I got a kick out of the senior snowbirds that wend through this story. Each one is a good amalgamation of senior personalities I've met since moving to Florida! 

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood begins in 1969, in Massachusetts, where a happy family of three - Ab and Ginny, and their young son Peyton - await the birth of another child. When the baby, Lucy, is whisked away at birth, Ginny is told that she'll be put in a special school for retarded children. Lucy has a heart defect.

Ginny can't stop grieving. She never gets to see Lucy again. Until, in 1971, a newspaper reporter writes a series about Willowridge, and its squalid conditions, and Ginny goes to see for herself. It's as bad, if not worse than the reporter said. So Ginny takes Lucy for the Labor Day weekend. With help from her friend Marcia, they plan a fun weekend, but Ginny soon realizes she cannot/must not return Lucy to Willowridge. With Marcia driving, they head south, encountering adventures along the way that eventually decide their destination - Week Wachee, where the mermaids are. 

I personally enjoyed this book's references to many 1971 specifics - news items, advertising, billboards, motel rates, gas station attendants, and the like.

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

The most wonderful thing that happened today was at the conclusion of Bible study, when I gave away the Seaglass Quilt I recently finished. Today concluded our eight week study of Revelation.

Several weeks ago we talked about "the sea of glass," Rev. 15:2, and I immediately knew who I wanted to have the quilt I'd made - Judy, who leads a weekly Bible study each fall and spring.

I am grateful I know how to make a quilt like this, and even more grateful I could give it to someone special who deserves it. Judy puts a lot of research and study time into every lesson. I'm blessed to have been in every study she's led in the past seven (maybe eight?) years.

The wonderfulness doesn't stop! On Saturday I'm taking a six-hour virtual workshop with Amy Friend

@duringquiettime: Improvisational Paper Piecing. Members of Central Florida MQG are going to learn how to design improv paper pieced blocks. 

Can I just say how much I love taking a workshop from home?! It's so handy to have supplies at hand, and switch-out fabrics or tools as needed. I'm looking forward to this one! Linda