Friday Finds - Reading and Watching Edition

I mentioned that Hurricane Isaias took out our power for a few days.  Besides cutting circles for Dot Dot Dot, I spent a lot of time reading so have a few recommendations for the readers among you, as well a Netflix show to watch.

Her Last Flight, by Beatriz Williams

This was a five-star read for me.  I've liked everything I've read by Beatriz Williams and think this is her best to date.  It is the moving story of Irene Foster, aviator, who disappeared in 1937, and photographer Janey Everett who is convinced Foster is still alive and is looking for her in 1947.  While the story was inspired by Amelia Earhart and her disappearance, it is not a biographical novel and the characters are fictional.

The Unquiet Dead, by Ausma Zehanat Khan

This is a debut mystery, set in Toronto, but concerned with the genocide in Bosnia in the 1990s.  Detectives looking into the death of Christopher Drayton (accident, suicide, murder?) begin to suspect he is a war criminal, living under an assumed identity.  Very moving, with lots of background woven in on the civil war in the former Yugoslavia.  

The Guest List, by Lucy Foley

A big wedding on an island in Ireland, with all the action taking place in about a 36 hour time period (plus flashbacks).  From early on, you know someone is dead...but who and why?  It's a modern take on classic Agatha Christie tales.  

Once our power was back on, I had to finish a drama I'd been watching, The English Game, available on Netflix.  It takes place in England in the late 1870's.  "Football is in its infancy, an amateur game dominated by the upper class teams who invented its rules."  But the working class has taken up the sport and put together teams of players from factories and mill towns.  There is a quite a culture clash and it impacts the rules of the game.  It is a great drama, with very good actors, and is about football in the same way that Chariots of Fire is about running, so you don't need to know anything about the game.  (The football in question is the game Americans call soccer.)  The scripts are by Julian Fellowes, who wrote the Downton Abbey series.  If you like costume dramas, I think you will like this 6-episode show.

Starting Dot Dot Dot Quilt

Two weeks ago, Hurricane Isaias came near enough to us to take out our electrical power.  With no electricity from late Tuesday morning to early Friday evening, I had to abandon my machine sewing project and turned instead to cutting out circles for my future Dot Dot Dot quilt (from the pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts).

Earlier, I purchased a 2" circle template made out of acrylic from Paper Pieces.  It has a quarter inch seam allowance added and is handy for cutting out the fabric circles.  Thinking the cutting would be tedious and not in any hurry to complete this quilt, I planned to cut circles from fabric as I was using it for its original project.  However, being unable to use my favorite power tool, I began pulling bins of fabric from storage and cutting instead.  

The pattern requires 440 circles appliqued to the background; I have about 100 cut to date, mostly from my stash of purple (minimal), yellow (moderate) and blue (numerous) fabrics.  I want to do the rainbow arrangement like the original quilt shown on the pattern but am realizing my fabric stash is not ideal for this purpose.  First, many fabric prints don't lend themselves to this project.  Each dot needs to read as a single color so those that are multi-color prints, or two colors that aren't side-by-side on the color wheel (like red and blue), neutral colors like gray and brown, pastel or faded colors, and low volume prints won't work.  Second, I have very little purple and next to no orange in my stash.  

I'd like to participate in a fabric swap for making this quilt.  Are any of you interested?  My idea is to trade 75-100 2.5 inch squares of fabric suitable for the dots.  I have an abundant stash of blues and reds and quite a bit of yellow while I'm especially in need of orange and purple.  If three or four of us swapped together, it would increase our options for this quilt nicely, and I think this amount could be mailed conveniently in a regular business envelope.   If you'd like to participate, leave a comment here or email me.  

That brings me to another topic:  comments.  A few months ago, I was receiving so many spam comments that I switched to moderating comments so I could easily delete those that detract from the topic here.  Over the past few weeks, the spam has gotten worse.  For each legit comment from a quilting reader, I receive about 10 comments that are sexually explicit and two or three trying to sell bitcoin  or something else sure to be a scam.  Moderation allows me to delete these comments so blog readers never see them, but I'm wondering, do those of you with your own blogs have the same issue?  If yes, do you know of anything more to do about it? 

How I Label My Quilts

Do you label your quilts?   As the last step in making a quilt and calling it "done" I add a label made with inkjet printable fabric.  I've been using a product from Dritz called Printed Treasures but it appears to be out of stock everywhere I shop (I wonder if they stopped making it) but there are other versions.  Fat Quarter Shop sells a product from EQ, here;  Amazon has several brands, here.

Inkjet printable fabric is fabric bonded to a paper backing that can be fed through your inkjet printer.  I set up a template in my Word software so I can print four labels at one time.  

I do a test run on a piece of paper to be sure the spacing is good, with sufficient margin around each label.  Note, my template makes the four labels in "landscape" format.

When I'm happy with the spacing and have double-checked for typos, I print on the fabric sheet.  You put the fabric sheet in the paper tray of your printer, just like a piece of paper.  (Do be sure you understand how a sheet of paper goes through your printer; mine has to go in the tray fabric side face down.)  Then print.  I've never encountered any problems with the fabric sheets running through the printer.  Below, the fabric version is in back, the paper copy in front.

I give most of the my quilts a name, but that's optional.  I add my name, the name of the quilter (if machine quilted) and the year made.  I'll add other information I think pertinent, like the name and designer if I used a commercial pattern for the quilt.  You can add much more, like more background on the design, the name of the recipient, etc.

I use a rotary cutter and ruler to cut the four labels apart.  Sometimes when I have scraps of fabric from the quilt top, I use them to frame the label before attaching it with a slip stitch to the back of the quilt.  

Otherwise, just turn under a quarter inch on all sides of the label and stitch it down.

But the label doesn't have to be square or rectangular.  I used an oval template for the label below.   And a few times, with a pieced back, I've pieced the label into the backing itself, prior to quilting.

The only issue I've run into with the printable fabric is that it tends to yellow slightly over time; you can see it on some of my older quilts.  But I'm generally happy with it and find this is the best way for me to make labels.  Some quilters are able to free hand write their labels and I tried that a few times but find I like this method better because I don't have artistic printing or hand writing.

Covid-19 has given me a period of productive quilt making so there will be more labels in my future.

Staycation - A Finished Log Cabin Quilt

My second fully finished quilt of 2020 is Staycation.  It is 80 inches square so my quilt holder is struggling to hold it up.

If I had to choose a favorite quilt block, I'd have a hard time deciding between sawtooth star and log cabin.  This must be the 5th or 6th log cabin quilt I've made.  It was a good stash buster as most of the fabric came from stash, leftovers from a few other quilts I made in the same colors.

My blocks are based on the Sweet Escape pattern by Thimbleblossoms but I chose a different setting from that in the pattern directions.

Karen Thompson, my longtime longarm quilting collaborator, did the quilting and I love the open, lacy feather design.  It looks especially good in the lighter areas.  

I designated 2020 as my year for stash busting and this quilt helped because even the backing came from my stash.  This is a wideback fabric I bought some time ago with no particular use in mind.  But when I see widebacks I like, I usually buy some, particularly if the price is right, because they are easier than trying to piece the back for the a large quilt.  The design on the fabric is a greatly enlarged post mark, like you see on the stamps on postcards.

I did "splurge" on new fabric for the binding.  I had an idea in mind but didn't have the perfect fabric in my stash.  This lime green and white stripe fabric went perfectly with the blocks.  It is cut selvage to selvage, on the straight of grain, because I wanted that look with the stripes straight.  This is a big departure for me as I almost always cut my binding fabric on the bias.   

Mr. Main Street and I had a major vacation planned for this spring, two weeks in Europe including a 9-night cruise from Athens to Venice by way of some of the Greek islands.  The trip had to be cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  While we are re-booked for next year, 2020 will likely be the year of the staycation, and that's how I came up with the name for this quilt.

Like Sunshine on a Cloudy Day - A Finished Flimsy

The top is finished!

All 256 blocks are now assembled into the quilt top.  And it's a big one, 96 inches square, ample for a queen size bed.  

I love the blend of colors.  I made this quilt entirely from stash, including the back.  The binding will probably come from my stash too, though I haven't decided what to use yet.

Making this quilt emptied one plastic bin; of course, it will get refilled soon enough.  I store larger pieces of fabric (1/2 yard and longer) by wrapping them around cardboard into mini bolts; they go on shelves in the closet in my sewing room.  I store unopened precuts on the shelves too, along with fabric "pulls" for specific projects.  All my smaller pieces of fabric are in plastic bins.  I have four large bins (the size sold for under-bed storage) upstairs in our 3rd floor attic storage and seven (now six) smaller bins stacked in the closet.  They are organized by color.  I also have the Fig Tree Harvest basket, the one that never seems empty, no matter how many quilts I make.  And a 3-drawer rolling cart holding a combination of precuts and large cuts of fabric I bought to use as backing.

Well, time to get this one off to my quilter, then to work on the next project!

Great Granny Squared Finished Flimsy

While I was working on the blocks below, and had the fabric out, I went ahead and cut out a second quilt.

The second quilt is Great Granny Squared, by Lori Holt.  The book came out in 2014 and there was a sew along at the time for blogging quilters.  I liked the design and put it on my to-make list, and here I am, six years later, with the quilt top made.

The fabrics I used are mostly even older than the quilt design.  I think most are from some 3 Sisters lines for Moda called Paris Flea Market and Seaside Rose, with some other similar and complementary prints added. I remember making a big Paris Flea Market purchase at my LQS, I think it was in 2004, and I made several quilts from the line before now but still have plenty of fabric left.

The blocks are pretty easy, I think even a beginner could handle them.  The background pieces at the edges (white in the block below) are cut oversize.  You sew the pieces together in rows, then join the rows and then trim down with a 12.5" square ruler.  All the blocks end up perfectly sized, just add the sashing, and voila!  

The original design incorporates cornerstones and a pieced border but I left those elements out.  With 20 blocks, my quilt is roughly 58" by 72" which is big enough for a throw.  

This was a totally from stash quilt for me, even the background (Kona Snow) and the backing fabric came from my stash, so this quilt and the original one I'm still piecing are making a nice dent in my stash.  But it is amazing how much of this fabric I still have on hand!

I mailed the top and backing to my long arm quilter; while she works on it, I need to come up with a name.  Any suggestions?

Friday Finds - Book Edition

I'm a bookworm, with a preference for historical fiction and mysteries.  But not just any mysteries, I'm not keen on the first-person, psycho narrator type that have been popular for the past few years.   I like to have a detective (preferably connected to the police), interesting characters, and nothing too gory.

I recently found the works of Peter Grainger and love them.  The first in the series is called An Accidental Death.  We are introduced to Detective Sergeant David Smith (aka "DC"), a veteran detective nearing retirement age, based in Norfolk, England.  He is often given a case that the boss thinks could be wound up in a day or two, but DC finds evidence of a more complicated situation.

The characters are well-written, there is a little humor and wit, and interesting plots that aren't predictable.  As of now, they appear to be available only in Kindle and audio formats and the Kindle price is very reasonable.  I strongly recommend the series to my fellow mystery readers!