Companion Quilts

At our church there are 2 brothers who grew up here, got married, and have come back to their home town.  They both started law school together this fall, and both of their wives are pregnant with their first child.  They are having baby boys within 6 weeks of each other.  I decided to make them quilts that both have their last name on them, but they will have a different theme.  I finished the first one today.  I went with the ocean theme on this one. 

 I think it turned out really cute for just coming up with it in my head, but I have only one irritation about it.  I've worked on this quilt for the last couple of days, and it's been overcast or kind of dark.  I've been using my white scraps to put together this quilt top, because I'm trying to get rid of a big bag of white scraps.  I didn't realize until I took it outside in the natural light that a couple of the scraps are actually off white.  Oops.  Boo.  There's not much I can do about it now.

Baby Girl Finishes

Baby Girl Quilt #1:  This scrappy pinwheel is my first finish of the year.  It's got a fun flannel back, and I used my walking foot to outline the pinwheels. 

Baby Girl Quilt #2:  I have a friend who is a major lover of family history.  She's expecting her third girl, so I decided to make her a quilt that has a bit of personal history to it.  The back is fabric my mom used to make a blouse for me when I was really young, and the fabric from the front of the quilt is from a project of something I made for my own daughter and niece.  It's a three generation quilt. 

 The quilting is loopy lines with stars.

Baby Girl Quilt Top #3

I saw a picture of a quilt top that I really liked and decided to use that to create Baby Girl Quilt Top #3.  It's a really quick sew.  I pieced it together while watching President Monson's funeral services on BYUTV.  What a great man and example to us!

Now I need to layer all 3 quilt tops and get them done.  Hopefully, I'll get them all done next week.

Another Quilt Top

There must have been something in water 8 months ago, because I have 5 baby quilts I need to make by the end of the month.  I only made a total of 2 baby quilts the entire year last year!

I went into my Kona Solid Stash to match this fun fabric I wanted to use.

I'm lucky I got a decent photo, because the Oklahoma wind has been in full force for the last 2 days.  It brought warmer weather, so I won't complain too much.  Sadly, it'll be below freezing by this time tomorrow when the wind decides to go away.

January Stitches

This month's block for do.Good Stitches is about as painless as it gets.  It's strips of low volume fabrics sewn together with a pop or two of bright color strips.  We had to make 2 blocks that we cut down to 10.5" unfinished.  I'm feeling rather accomplished that I managed to get them done so early in the month.  Getting them mailed out at the post office may be an entirely different story...

Reading Challenge 2018

Last year my goal was to read 75 books.  That's a bit lower than what I usually read, but I wanted to try more classics.  I ended up being a bit out of control and I read 200 books (a total of 65,232 pages!)- Yowza!  I need to probably find a bit more balance in my life this year, but one thing I really loved was the classics challenge, because it forced me to read outside of my comfort zone, and also check a couple of books off my list that I should have read a long time ago.  I'm most proud of my accomplishment in reading Tolstoy's War and Peace.  That had been on my to-read list for years and years!  I've decided to try the Classics Challenge again this year.  This is what I have so far, but I'm already thinking of changing a few.  We'll see.  Once again I tried to pick mostly books that I've always wanted to read, but for some reason or another haven't gotten around to reading yet.  I like the extra little push this challenge gives me. 

1.  A 19th century classic - any book published between 1800 and 1899.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

2.  A 20th century classic - any book published between 1900 and 1968. Just like last year, all books MUST have been published at least 50 years ago to qualify. The only exception is books written at least 50 years ago, but published later, such as posthumous publications.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

3.  A classic by a woman author. 

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

4.  A classic in translation.  Any book originally written published in a language other than your native language. Feel free to read the book in your language or the original language. (You can also read books in translation for any of the other categories). Modern translations are acceptable as long as the original work fits the guidelines for publications as explained in the challenge rules.

           La casa de Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca

5. A children's classic. Indulge your inner child and read that classic that you somehow missed years ago. Short stories are fine, but it must be a complete volume. Young adult and picture books don't count!

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I thought about reading this with my daughter since I love it so much)

6.  A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction. This can be a true crime story, mystery, detective novel, spy novel, etc., as long as a crime is an integral part of the story and it was published at least 50 years ago. Examples include The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, In Cold Blood, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, etc.  The Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones list is an excellent source for suggestions. 

something from Agatha Christie

7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction. The journey itself must be the major plot point -- not just the destination. Good examples include The Hobbit, Around the World in 80 Days, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Kon-Tiki, Travels with Charley, etc. 

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

8. A classic with a single-word title. No articles please! Proper names are fine -- Emma, Germinal, Middlemarch, Kidnapped, etc.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

9. A classic with a color in the title. The Woman in White; Anne of Green Gables; The Red and the Black, and so on. (Silver, gold, etc. are acceptable. Basically, if it's a color in a Crayola box of crayons, it's fine!)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

10. A classic by an author that's new to you. Choose an author you've never read before.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

11. A classic that scares you. Is there a classic you've been putting off forever? A really long book which intimidates you because of its sheer length? Now's the time to read it, and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised!

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (the length has always made me shy away)

12. Re-read a favorite classic. Like me, you probably have a lot of favorites -- choose one and read it again, then tell us why you love it so much. 

Chronicles of Avonlea by LM Montgomery

Scrappy Pinwheels

I turned my scrappy blocks into Half-Square Triangles with the intention of doing a fairly innocuous pattern when it occurred to me that I could make large pinwheels.   I'm a huge fan of pinwheels, so that's what I went with for this quilt top.  And yes, this quilt top makes me happy with all its scrappy loveliness. 

I had a little sidekick while taking pictures.  He saw my camera aimed at the quilt and walked right in front of it.  Luckily for me, he wasn't tall enough to block it.  This Little Guy can be quite the attention hog, but he gets away with it, because he's so stinkin' cute!

 Gah!  That smile gets me every time!

Lest he be perceived as a cherubic angel, this is what I encountered not long afterward with him hiding in the pantry with the light on and door closed.  All he said when I opened the door was, "Cereal!"  (in a very demanding toddler voice). 

Life with a toddler is a never ending roller coaster ride. 

Final Classic

I'm squeezing in the final book of my Classics Challenge, and it turned out to be quite a delightful one at that.  When I was in high school I went to go see "Little Women" in the movie theater.  I didn't know much about it, but I was promised that if I loved Jane Austin I would love this.  Well, my teenager heart could never forgive Winona Ryder for actually choosing some old German man over Christian Bale.  How could she do that?!  I was fairly certain no woman on this planet would do that, and it basically ruined the movie for me.  I decided the book was most definitely not for me. 

It's a bit crazy that it's taken me over 25 years to decide that maybe I oughta, sorta give it a try.  You'd think I'd know by now that the movie is almost never as good as the book, and usually gets it all wrong to boot.  I've also always felt that since I've read every Jane Austin book multiple times that maybe it was high time I finally read Little Women.  I'm so very glad I did, because it was absolutely delightful.  I loved all 4 girls instantaneously, and their mother is so wise.  I liked the book even more when I realized Alcott based the book on her family.  It brought more depth to it for me.  

I dearly loved Laurie and confess that the romantic nonsense side of me would have still liked to see him with Jo, but at the same time the more realistic side of me saw how they weren't a good match.  I was happy for him and Amy.  I still didn't love the German tutor as much as "Teddy," but that didn't mean I enjoyed the book any less. 

This book fit under Category #1: A 19th Century Classic.  (It was first published in 1862).