Sashiko, and Temp Quilt

Last week I finished the Sashiko sampler I began in my April 12 virtual workshop with Claudia Martinez of Snuggly Monkey. Design dimension are 10½" X 11½". I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Sashiko is stitched, most often, through only a single layer. I'm a bit chuffed about how nice the back looks, having learned how to start and stop stitching without using knots. 

Two hanks of Olympus Sashiko threads in a dusty blue, and orange/blue variegated came with my kit.

I didn't master using the palm thimble, but I haven't given up!

The palm thimble is best-used with a long needle when stitching long straight lines. As you can see, this sampler didn't have many long straight lines, so I used the shorter needle (of two needles in the kit), loading only two to three stitches at a time because of the curves.

I definitely want to stitch another one though, perhaps after buying the book Claudia recommends. Apparently in the back of this book are ideas for drafting traditional patterns. 

My friend Maureen @maydecemberquilts who's a member of the South Florida MQG, recently attended the Modern Quilt Exhibit at the Bailey Contemporary Arts Center in Pompano Beach, Florida. Maureen was thoughtful to take and share pictures with me of my 2019 Temperature Quilt that's part of the display through June 16.

It looks like a beautiful display. 

The quilting shows best in this photo.

Book Recommendation

It was a pleasant surprise to come across this book/story that takes place in Iowa. The Overnight Guest is by Heather Gudenkauf who was raises in Iowa. Her books take place at different locations in the state. Though all the cities have fictitious names, she real Iowa cities are also part of the storyline. 

The Overnight Guest takes place in Burden, located near Algona and Spirit Lake in northwest Iowa. Wiley has left her home in the Pacific Northwest to get away from her difficult 14 year-old son, and finish writing another true crimes novel. Staying alone in the rural farmhouse where gruesome murders took place, Wiley has just begun editing her book when a typical winter blizzard arrives, forcing her to stay on the farm. But when she finds a small child laying in the snow, and bloody, outside the house, she realizes the only way the child has come from is the distant road. Searching through the blizzard, she finds a woman who's been thrown from a truck - an accident, and there's no way to reach help. When the woman disappears, it turns out there's more to this mystery than an accident. It's about what happened more than 20 years ago.

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

Linda