Since we didn't go anywhere for Christmas, nor did anyone come to see us, I immersed myself in sewing activities, mostly with an eye to finishing a couple quilts.
Recently, this verse of Scripture from the NVL version of the Bible leaped out at me. I'm trying to let it guide me.
Finishing is better than starting. - Ecclesiastes 7:8
Finishing Glitter was a priority.
Per a January 8, 2021 blog post, I began making Glitter blocks using templates and instructions in Jen Kingwell's book Quilt Lovely. Nearly all the pieces came from scrap bins of prints and solids.
Initially, I tried machine piecing each block, but the four outside corners with Y-seams were difficult. That's when I decided to hand-piece each of those... and it's why this quilt fell into the "long term" category.
While on a September 2024 retreat, I painstakingly joined 152 blocks, each 3½" X 9⅛". I say "painstakingly" because it wasn't easy to match the center top, center sides, and corners of each block. I did a lot of piecing, taking apart, and resewing to get them as accurate as possible. Happily, quite a while back I had purchased a wide back for this quilt, so making the sandwich was pretty easy.
Quilting involved using an oval ruler to quilt that shape in the center of each block, followed by free motion quilting curves around small squares.
Binding is 2¼"-wide Painter's Palette in the color Lipstick. I wish I had an outdoor shot of this quilt. Wouldn't it be pretty in front of bright yellow and gold marigolds... as we're seeing around here right now? Well, it's tough to be the quilt-holder AND quilt photographer, so design wall pictures have to do.
Glitter finished at 66½" X 74". It makes me happy to look at it.
With much time spent in the sewing room quilting and adding binding, I had lots of book-listening time. Four recommendations follow.
Book Recommendations
My friend Donna recommended The Liberty Scarf by Aimie Runyan, J'Nell Ciesielski, and Rachel McMillan, and I'm glad she did.
Each author writes about a different woman who, in 1918 during WWI, seeks beauty and hope in a world full of death and darkness. In London, Iris works for Liberty of London, and dreams of becoming the first female pattern designer. She meets a soldier, forges a friendship, and exchange letters.
Geneviève is French-American and enlists in the signal corp for wages to will help her impoverished family. She leaves behind a fella with a rising future, but senses his dissatisfaction with her family's low social status.
Clara is a nurse who meets and develops a relationship with a violinist in her care. As they share their love of beauty, each of them must overcome their experiences.
These lives have intersections, and theirs come at Christmas in Strasbourg, France.
This is a lovely story, and a perfect Christmastime read.
Linda's score: 4.2/5.0
Alone in the Dark by Joanne Ryan was recommended by another friend, Karen. In this story, a single woman, Abi, has lost everything due to one night of foolish behavior. Though the incident put her out of a job, it also released her from an abusive relationship. Now, as Abi is trying to forge a new path, working the night shift stocking shelves at a grocery store, she's also finding emotional release in running.
One early morning while running, she witnesses a terrible accident. A running man is hit by a car. Though the car stops and people step out to check on him, they drive away. Abi feels obligated to help, but without a cell phone she's forced to run to a phone to call for help. By the time she returns to the site, a policeman has arrived. But there is no body. Where is he? And what's become of Abi's jacket that she put over the man? A policeman takes her statement. As time goes on, no one believes Abi's story. Given her previous foolish behavior, she must be delusional.
Linda's score: 4.2/5.0
The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain is about Travis, a single father who's raising his almost four year-old daughter, Bella. His house has burned down, his mother has died, and he's lost his job in construction work because there's no one to take care of Bella. Their situation goes from bad to worse until Travis unexpectedly finds himself involved in something illegal. Though the job could be a way to change his and Bella's circumstances, he can't become involved.
Meanwhile, in Beaufort, South Carolina, Robin's living her dream life. She's regained her health, established a lovely bed and breakfast, and is engaged to the son of a respected family. His family have groomed her to step into the role of wife to a politician, even as Robin's soon-to-be sister-in-law has delivered an illegitimate baby - a baby that elicits memories Robin has intentionally forgotten. Yet the more she tries to forget, the more she thinks about Travis.
Linda's score: 4.4/5.0
True Believer by Nicholas Sparks follows Jeremy, a journalist living in New York City whose specialty is debunking psychics and supernatural mysteries. He's just become a hit after exposing a fraud on television. Now he's off to Boone Creek, North Carolina to find an explanation for nighttime lights that briefly appear in an old cemetery.
What Jeremy doesn't expect is to be attracted to Lexie, the town librarian who assists him with his investigation into the history of Boone Creek. He finds more than old newspaper articles and diaries, while spending time with her.
When Jeremy uncovers the answer, he comes to believe he's been intentionally duped. This knowledge could be the undoing of his attraction to Lexie.
While I thoroughly enjoyed this story, I didn't like that the audio producer thought adding music to interludes between chapters was a good idea. It was difficult to hear the narrator, David Aaron Baker, while music was playing too loudly in the background.
This title is book #1 in the Jeremy Marsh and Lexie Darnell series. I'll be looking for book #2: At First Sight.
Linda's score: 4.3/5.0
Linda
