End of April

Being the last day of April, it's time to recap how things went this month. 

No fabric came into my stash, and fabric usage was nominal. Not quite 5 yards went toward piecing a back and sewing facing onto my Paint Chip Challenge quilt, Cipher, (see the back here), and making headbands (see headbands here) to hold back my growing bangs that I can't stand having on my forehead. 

This is Cipher as of today. It's 55" x 67" and looking pretty good. 

I plan to add more big stitch hand quilting, with black perle cotton, to continue to the faux bias tape look in the black-quilted curved areas. I'll be showing the finished quilt at our Tuesday, May 5 Big Cypress Quilters challenge reveal. 

Because I'm going on retreat with members of Central Florida MQG maybe May's fabric use will be slightly higher. Though, because of my burgeoning interest in knitting - new Chiagoo circular needles...

... and several yarns just arrived for a knitted summer top (or two) for myself - fabric use might continue to remain low.

It occurs to me that perhaps my interest in shopping for yarns is due to the fact that I'm not allowing myself to shop for fabric. Hmm... perhaps I'm psyching myself out. I'll be pondering this.

Book Recommendations

What became apparent in April is that I listened to a lot of audiobooks while I was quilting at my Bernina! That's the best way to keep me entertained when stitching repetitive, sometimes boring quilting designs (especially walking foot quilting). 

The 12 audiobook titles, in scored (out of a possible 5.0) and ranked order (according to my designations) are:

Let me just say that The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede is a MUST READ. I sure don't know how I missed this one, but the book was published in 2002, made into a movie in 2009 called Diverted, and made into a musical in 2021 called Come From Away. 

It's a tear-wrenchingly true story about what happened on September 11, 2001 when 38 planes flying internationally to the US were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. The amazing outpouring of support and care given by the small population of Gander and several nearby smaller towns will warm your heart.

The audiobook is well-narrated by Ray Porter whose voice sounds a little like Tom Hanks.

South of Somewhere by T.I. Lowe opened my eyes about the continual challenges of overcoming alcohol addiction. Due to drunk driving, Junie has lost custody of her young daughter and is just coming out of court-ordered rehab. She wants to prove herself so she can get her daughter back from her brother, but it isn't easy to earn an income, attend AA classes, and be strong in the face of temptations. When a fella from rehab tracks her down and wants to return to their good times relationship, she has to develop more resolve. The next door neighbor offers support, but can Junie trust a quiet man who isn't telling her the whole truth?  

While the City Sleeps is book #1 in the Women of Midtown series by Elizabeth Camden. This story focuses on Katherine who's a New York City dentist in 1913. While under the influence of laughing gas, one of Katherine's patients reveals information about a plot to blow up parts of the city. Since Katherine is friends with police Lieutenant Jonathan Birch who walks her home each night, it's natural that she shares information that could help police locate the bombs and culprits before the next explosion. But Jonathan is also hiding something that could get him evicted from the police force.

Edge of Truth by Janice Cantore is about Lainie Jensen, a Long Beach Police Department detective whose sister has gone missing while vacationing in Hawaii with her husband. It's presumed she died by shark attack. When Lainie goes to Hawaii to learn more herself, she finds an FBI agent she knows is also on the case. While trying not to work with the agent, Lainie begins to understand that her brother-in-law's story isn't holding up to scrutiny. Now she's even more determined to find out what happened to her sister. 

Since watching wonderful viewing version of The Count of Monte Cristo on public television, I've wanted to read that book. It's not available to me as an audiobook. But it got me to thinking about classic books like Catcher in the Rye, Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities, Atlas Shrugged and the like. Remembering as a teen how much I liked Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, I thought to listen to that book. Imagine my surprise when I checked out the audiobook version only to discover it was read in French! Well, I knew French in high school, but... ha, ha. That was a quick return. When I couldn't find Rebecca spoken in English, I checked out DuMaurier's The House on the Strand. (By the way, did you know DuMaurier wrote The Birds - the story on which the Alfred Hitchcock movie was based?)

Published in 1969, The House on the Strand is a strange story taking place along the west coast of the UK. Dick Young is staying at a friend's Cornwall home. The friend has supplied Dick with a liquid that he's testing... to time travel. Dick becomes fascinated by the people living in Medieval Cornwall, and it's impacting his present life.

I'm counting The House on the Strand as my "classic" read for April. Let's see what I can find to read listen to in May. 

I'd like to share a YouTube clip recently sent to me by my friend in Ocala (FL), Nancy. She and I are like-minded, so she knew I would appreciate this two-minute video.

The young woman, Julia James Davis, conveys my sentiments - much better than I could - about art made for attention's sake versus art for beauty's sake. I couldn't help but apply this perspective to my thoughts about four, four-letter-word quilts that hung at QuiltCon in February. Those quilts were were, sadly, made for attention value; not beauty. It's disappointing to see such quilts displayed at QuiltCon. 

Linda