End of September

The end of September snuck up on me! Guess that's how time flies when you're away for a week and return home to a bunch of to-dos. But I'm happy to tally my September fabric use because again, I used-up more than I took in. 

7.74 yard used; 0 fabric brought in. 

Outgoing fabric included making Like Totally BOM blocks; finishing 100-days of making Quilt Your Life blocks; finishing Pot Luck, the modern potholder quilt; and retreat accomplishments.

Thirty more Sunny blocks, a foundation paper-pieced design by Tara Faughnan, brings my total to 50 blocks made; I needed 90 blocks.

One more Dayna Pack (a cross-body bag pattern I'm mentioning with a warning about poorly written instructions) is finished. Due to having forgotten to cut tabs for D-rings, I was unable to complete making two more Dayna Packs.

Curvelets. I made 170 curvelets (1½" X 1½") in August, and I'm well on my way to making as many more. The two containers on the right are full of cut, seam allowance-marked, and glued curvelets, ready to be hand-pieced.

Keeping curvelet supplies in this case makes them very transportable.

Weaving another selvedge rug (my third) has been high on my list of something fun. For many months I've been saving the UNprinted selvedge side of yardage, cutting them off ¾" wide. Using a very short machine stitch length, I joined them by overlapping ends, and then rolling them into this 8" diameter ball. 

After recently watching a YouTube video about how to create a warp that's thicker than just a single cord (see the single hole in the peg), accordingly I strung and knotted a narrow ribbon through each small peg hole. Then I measured multiple lengths of cotton cord for a thick warp. Using a half-hitch I lashed the cords through the ribbon. All was going well until I ran out of cotton cord after preparing only 13 pegs. Since I want a rug as wide as my 24-peg loom,  I need to order cotton cord so I can proceed. 

One big retreat accomplishment was to join 152 Glitter blocks I'd finished in March. Over a couple years, I pieced each block with a combination of machine-piecing (center section), and hand-piecing (four outside corners). This quilt is in the book Quilt Lovely, by Jen Kingwell.

Assembling blocks was tedious! It took lots of pinning to match all the points, and even after joining and checking every seam, I ended up unstitching and restitching about 30 of them. It took a whole day to piece the top, unstitch and restitch, and finally press.

The top measures 67" X 75". I'm happy to say I anticipated this finish and already have a wideback for sandwiching. 

September turned out to be a slow, six-book reading month. Here are reviews for two of them. 

Book Recommendations

Recently, earthing and reading the book Earthing, has captured my interest, prompting me for several weeks now to spend 80 to 90 minutes daily with my bare feet on the ground. Knowing of my interest in how our bodies interact with earth, two friends suggested I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

It's a non-fiction book about our relationship to the land as told from the author's perspective as a Potawatamie Indian. Ms. Kimmerer, who also narrates the book, relates how Native Americans have historically respected the land, even as they've repeatedly been relocated. She combines her heritage with a doctorate in biology to give a unique and sensitive perspective about ecology and our relationship to nature. Specifically she talks about wild strawberries, cedars, sweet grass, leeks, algae, and marshland, among other topics. In particular it was disturbing to learn about the 1930s desecration of the Onandaga River (New York) by Allied Chemical Company's dumping of chemical waste into the once-beautiful and revered river. After reading the book, I Googled the river and found photos that confirm what happened there.

This book is interesting, informative, well-written, and sweetly narrated.  

Linda's score: 3.9/5.0

After being delighted by Charles Martin's "Keeper" book series - The Water Keeper; The Letter Keeper; The Record Keeper - I was happy to learn he had written another book!

The Last Exchange was published in 2023 and is the story of Jo, a Hollywood waitress waiting to be discovered. When her big acting break comes, it turns out she's a natural. Not only does she excel in every role she plays, but she's genuine. Honest. Fans love her. But Jo needs protection. That's when Pockets comes into her life. He's a Scot who's former military (he can't talk about it) and tough. He's the professional bodyguard who will keep Jo safe. But Jo's enemies and demons are near. There's her famous movie-star husband; her feelings of hopelessness about having a baby; the hair and make-up artist she befriends: and her addiction to drugs. Pockets is the person who can keep her together... until she's kidnapped. 

Linda's score: 4.3/5.0

Here are all six September books read, in score order out of a possible 5.0:

Earthing, Clint Ober, Steven Sinatra, Martin Zucker - 4.5

The Existential Worries of Mags Munroe (Book 1), Jean Grainger - 4.3

Growing Wild in the Shade (Book 2), Jean Grainger - 4.3

Each to Their Own, (Book 3), Jean Grainger - 4.3

The Last Exchange, Charles Martin - 4.3

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer - 3.9

Linda