Prudence and More

A milestone happened Tuesday. While stitching-away during Big Cypress Quilters' business meeting, I finished the Prudence quilt center, my long-term (since June 2019) English paper piecing project. It measures 51" X 51".

Rather than EPP more blocks to fill in scallops around the perimeter (to make the quilt borderless), I've decided to border it. I've been auditioning what I might use. Black seems to best contrast with the quilt center, though I'm not much of a black fabric-lover. I'd prefer to use a different color, but black sure makes it pop!

Another idea I came up with is to piece two fabrics to make a combo border of black and a wider black and white stripe, to contrast with the narrower stripe in the cross blocks. Thoughts? When I've settled on what I want to do, I'll hand-appliqué the EPP edges to borders.

 

Last Saturday's virtual "Map Making" workshop with Timna Tarr @timnatarr was great! I'd been thinking that sometime I wanted to try making a map quilt, and this workshop was the perfect opportunity. 

For privacy sake, I'm intentionally not sharing the map I used, but my locale was inspiration. Wanting to make a quilt larger than the 8" X 8" design suggested by Timna, I learned a new-to-me way to enlarge a design. 

I took a picture of the map, and uploaded the photo to a website called www.blockposter.com where it was resized. Then, almost immediately I downloaded the upsized-photo, and printed it - 9 pages! I taped it together, and selected and outlined the section I wanted to use in my quilt. In fabric, I interpreted it entirely with prints.

After fusing large sections of fabric to a backing, I made quarter-inch bias tape "roads" that I glued into place. The unsewn quilt top is layered on batting and a backing that's a 2005 Lorilee print. This seemed like a good representation of us Florida senior girls.

😀 

Using either 50-weight Aurifil or 100-weight Invisifil by Wonderfil, I free motion quilted. Neighborhoods have angular quilting, to sorta represent houses; ponds are spiral quilted; and green spaces are "topography-quilted." Some roads are indicated with quarter-inch bias tape, made with a Clover bias tape-maker, and then edge-stitched into place.

I faced the 19½" H" X 24½" W" piece, and Wonder-clipped, ready for hand-stitching to the back. 

Book Recommendations

Do Not Disturb by Frieda McFadden is a psychological thriller that begins with a murder. Quinn has done the unthinkable, but only in self-defense. She has marks on her neck to prove it. But she knows that no one will believe that her handsome, charismatic, charming, successful husband could have done that to her. She runs.

However, a winter snowstorm impedes her progress. That, and a broken tail light force her to look for an out-of-the-way place to stop. She finds the Baxter Motel and learns she's one of only two occupants. The other is an elderly woman, once a fortune teller. Quinn discovers the dark past of the motel, and the significance of the "do not disturb" sign on the door of the room next to hers. As much as she wants to leave, the weather, and other sinister forces conspire to prevent it. 

Linda's score: 4.1/5.0

Typically I don't sequentially read books by the same author, however, I was on a waitlist for The CoWorker, also written by Frieda McFadden and didn't want to let it pass me by. 

Natalie is the top-sales agent at Vixed, a nutritional supplement company. Dawn Schiff is a new employee who's filling the accountant position vacated by a retiree. 

Natalie is out-going, confident and beautiful. Dawn is rigid, fastidious, friendless, and awkward (think Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory). 

When Dawn doesn't show up for work, no one except Natalie notices. It's not like Dawn to not be in her cubicle at 8:45 am sharp, but Natalie seems to be the only person who has attempted to befriend Dawn. She takes it upon herself to find Dawn and goes to her house. Natalie sees that it neat. Orderly. And jam-packed with bookshelves full of books and turtle figures - Dawn is obsessed with turtles. And there's lots of blood. 

As detectives investigate Dawn's disappearance, and later find a body, Natalie receives anonymous phone calls that have her more involved than she wants to be. 

Ms. McFadden is the perfect example of an author who's a master at creating a  last-moment, unexpected twist. I liked this one too!

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

29 Seconds by T. M. Logan is a "what if?" sort of book. What if you didn't like someone? What if that someone was making your life miserable? What if you were given 72 hours to decide whether or not to make that person disappear - forever? If there was no going back, could you make that 29 second phone call?

Sarah is a contract professor in a prestigious department of a London university. Her husband has left her for a younger woman, but she's trying to maintain normalcy - working and taking care of her two children. 

While running late to pick up her children from school, Sarah takes a shortcut, and witnesses what appears to be a kidnapping. She intervenes by driving into the abductor. Later, Sarah herself is abducted only to learn that her abductor is the father of the girl Sarah saved. He wants to repay her but she has only 72 hour in which to make her decision.

This is a good one... and didn't see the end coming! Linda's score: 4.3/5.0

Whew! Three psychological thrillers in a row is a bit much for me. Time to switch genres. 

I really wanted to share a video, but the best I can do is link you to it on Instagram, HERE. This is a screen shot of a moment in the video.

Hilarious! Dee @pixelquilt shows off a quilt that she immersed in water and took outdoors into Oklahoma's 5F temperature. The quilt froze into a stiff board that she carried flat over her head, twirled around, and stood upright in the snow.

If the cold could be avoided, wouldn't that be a great way to photograph all our quilts?

Linda