Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Sinister Entity Virtual Book Tour

2013-05-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today I'm participating in the Bewitching Book Tours tour for Sinister Entity by Hunter Shea.

I love haunted house books, so as soon as I saw the description for this one I applied to be part of the tour.

The Leigh family is terrified. They’ve been haunted by the ghostly image of their young daughter, Selena. But how can that be, when Selena is alive and well, and as frightened as her parents? With nowhere else to turn, the Leighs place their hopes in Jessica Backman, who has dedicated her life to investigating paranormal activity. Accompanied by a new partner who claims to able to speak to the dead, Jessica will soon encounter an entity that scares even her. And a terror far worse than she imagined.

The horror builds gradually as members of the Leigh family first see Selena in places where she isn't and their confusion gives way to the realization that something truly dangerous has invaded their home. At the same time as we're learning about the problems in the Leigh household, we're being introduced to ghost hunter Jessica Backman and psychic Eddie Home, who has turned up on her doorstep with a message from her dead father.

One of my pet peeves is parents who don't keep track of their children while they're doing potentially dangerous tasks. So I found the scenes where Selena's image appeared when her parents absolutely knew their daughter was elsewhere especially creepy.

Sinister Entity is a sequel to Forest of Shadows, which I haven't read, but it stands on its own. There's just enough back story for me to understand the characters and decide to add Forest of Shadows to my Amazon wish list.

About the Author

Hunter Shea is the author of the novels Sinister Entity, Forest of Shadows, Swamp Monster Massacre and Evil Eternal. His stories have appeared in numerous magazines, including Dark Moon Digest, Morpheus Tales and the Cemetery Dance anthology, Shocklines : Fresh Voices in Terror. His obsession with all things horrific has led him to real life exploration of the paranormal, interviews with exorcists and other things that would keep most people awake with the lights on. He lives in New York with his family and vindictive cat. He waits with Biblical patience for the Mets to win a World Series.

{Whatcha Reading?} A White Room by Stephanie Carroll

2013-05-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

I'm a sucker for haunted house books, so this book's description of twisting furniture and a house that conspires against the heroine immediately drew me in. The spectres are all in Emeline's own mind, but her story is every bit as haunting as any ghost story I've ever read. I would've devoured it in one sitting if my Kindle hadn't shut itself off at one of the most crucial points. (I really should start to pay attention to those warning beeps and plug it into the charger when I hit a halfway decent stopping point!)

From the publisher's description --

At the close of the Victorian Era, society still expected middle-class women to be “the angels of the house,” even as a select few strived to become something more. In this time of change, Emeline Evans dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when her father dies unexpectedly, Emeline sacrifices her ambitions and rescues her family from destitution by marrying John Dorr, a reserved lawyer who can provide for her family.

John moves Emeline to the remote Missouri town of Labellum and into an unusual house where her sorrow and uneasiness edge toward madness. Furniture twists and turns before her eyes, people stare out at her from empty rooms, and the house itself conspires against her. The doctor diagnoses hysteria, but the treatment merely reinforces the house’s grip on her mind.

Emeline only finds solace after pursuing an opportunity to serve the poor as an unlicensed nurse. Yet in order to bring comfort to the needy she must secretly defy her husband, whose employer viciously hunts down and prosecutes unlicensed practitioners. Although women are no longer burned at the stake in 1900, disobedience is a symptom of psychological defect, and hysterical women must be controlled.

A novel of madness and secrets, A White Room presents a fantastical glimpse into the forgotten cult of domesticity, where one’s own home could become a prison and a woman has to be willing to sacrifice everything to be free.

The book isn't available yet, but you can sign up at Stephanie Carroll's website to be notified when it does come out this summer.

UFO Update -- Sandstone Stack the Deck

2013-05-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of my really old UFOs, started right after I really began quilting. I'd found the book Stack the Deck! by Karla Alexander at the library and thought the technique looked do-able.

And for some reason, decided to make a sandstone colored quilt with appliqued petroglyphs. It's not the last time I've deliberately matched my quilt colors to rocks, but it's the attempt that makes the least sense.

The colors look a little better in real life. If I'd used a different technique, I think I'd take the blocks apart and remove the dark brown -- but that's not going to work here. I'm stuck with what I've got, wonky blocks that need trimming and miles of loose thread removed.

When I started this project, I thought I'd have to get my petroglyphs from a book. Then last year we camped at Dinosaur National Monument and saw these guys. See the two big lizards? Directly above the one on the right is a little man. The boys and I think it looks like the lizards are after him.

Now that I've found the perfect subject for my applique, I'm a little more motivated to finish the quilt top. To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

a bit of a winning streak

2013-05-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

Renee at Sparrow Lane gave away a package of fabric and makeup and an adorable little zippered bag to celebrate her 100th post, and I was lucky enough to win it.

The zipper on that bag is just perfect, with little sewn tabs and a pull loop made from the same fabric. Bias edges may not scare me, but I don't do zippers unless I have to, and then I don't do them well. I'm thinking this is a skill I need to improve.

And Barb from Bejeweled Quilts by Barb gave away a copy of her new quilt design, Tulips and Tumblers. As soon as I saw the pattern, I was tempted to order it. The rings and flowers are cut with AccuQuilt dies and it's just so pretty! It was a happy surprise when I won the giveaway. I think this pattern would justify some fabric shopping, don't you?

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 39 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 87 1/4 yards
Net Added for 2013: 48 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 1150 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 7100 yards
Net Added for 2013: 5950 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

{Guest Post} Jo's New Kindle

2013-05-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

When my buddy Jo, from Jo's Country Junction, was telling me about her new Kindle Fire HD, I had all sorts of questions for her. I've got one of the original Fires and absolutely love it, but I was wondering about getting a new one for myself and letting the boys use this one. Jo was kind enough to answer all of my questions in a guest post --

In December of 2011 Hubby bought me a Kindle Fire 7", LCD Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers for Christmas....well actually, he had my son pick it up for him. My son and his fiancé bought me a cover and a three year guarantee to go with it. Well in December of 2012, my Kindle Fire quit charging. I took it to Best Buy and they replaced it. Then two months later that one quit charging. UGH.

It's important to note that when they replace them, they are replaced with a refurbished product. Each time I had trouble, we had to drive an hour away to have it replaced. I was also without a Kindle for about FOUR days while the replacement was delivered. For me, that was not good. I've become really attached to the thing. Checking it is the first thing I do each morning and last thing each night.

In the morning I check my email while I eat breakfast, read a couple "pages" of my book, check blogs or play a game. At night I check facebook, read my blog comments and read some more of my book. I can blog from my Kindle too.

I debated about the wireless version but found out that I am not eligible to purchase that as At&t service isn't available in my area.

Finally I asked Hubby what he thought about him having the Kindle Fire and me getting the new Kindle Fire HD 8.9", Dolby Audio, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 16 GB - Includes Special Offers with the bigger screen. He said yes...and I ran to the computer to order it. This time I was ordering from Amazon directly. That way if something did go wrong with it, I would send it directly to Amazon.

So what do I think of the new Kindle Fire HD with the bigger screen....I LOVE it!! It is a little heavier but I don't mind. Most of my reading is done in bed so I don't really "hold" it anyway. I really like the bigger screen. On the old one, the screen was smaller and didn't seem "book size". I felt like I read two screens to be equivalent to one book page. This seems more realistic to a book.

I have read some quilting related books on the smaller version and it was okay, but having the bigger screen is even nicer. That way I can still see the picture of the quilt and read the caption below. Before I would have to scroll between the two. The larger seems more comparable to reading an actual book.

I watch Netflix movies and Instant Movies from Amazon and love the bigger screen. I typically watch while sew and the bigger screen is so much better. Next on my list to purchase is Downton Abbey Season 3 Preview [HD]. I just love instant movies. I don't have return anything, pay a late fee or find some place to store it. That's a win all the way around. Plus it's typically cheaper too!!

If you have an older Kindle Fire, stick with that until it dies but if you don't have a Kindle and are thinking about purchasing one, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9", Dolby Audio, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 16 GB - is the one I would go with. I don't regret my purchase a bit....oh and I love having the two Kindles in the house...now I don't have to wait if he is using it. I would have never guessed that we would be a two device family...and none of the devices belonged to our kids!!

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 20}

2013-05-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

I find that it helps to keep some fabric set aside for the baby quilts. The plan is that, when I have the time for one of my piecing and quilting binges, I'll have something right there to work on.... I'll let you know if it works when I finally do find the time to do another little baby quilt binge.

These beachy prints came in a scrap bag from my mom, and I added some blues from my own stash. I'm also planning to mix in some sandy colors and see what I can come up with.

I'm loving this lion print that Jo sent me. There's enough to back a NICU quilt and it's so bright and cheerful that instead of cutting it up into little squares, I think I'm going to make a yellow and blue top to go with it. Either that, or try to blow up and applique one of the lions the way I did the mouse applique on this quilt.

And these are pieced panels of strips from one of the thrift store bags. They're shirts, or fabric left over from sewing shirts. I plan to add sashing and do some kind of a Chinese Coins quilt. There's probably enough for a large lap quilt, so I'll have to decide if I want to use it for a big people quilt or a baby quilt.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

that piano at the thrift shop works just fine

2013-05-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ever since I saw the pink astrological couch, I've tried extra hard to remember my camera when we go thrift store shopping. I know there's neat stuff out there, because all of the other thrift store shopping bloggers are finding it, but I sure haven't been seeing any of it myself lately.

This week I heard something neat...

At one of our regular haunts, they've got a baby grand piano. The first time we saw it, it was priced at $6,500. I seriously hope that they're advertising it somewhere and not just counting on someone to walk in with that kind of budget and the need for a piano...

Over the past year, the piano has been marked down to $3,500 and moved from the entrance of the store to a less prominent spot. (I'm really not obsessed with this thing, I'm just trying to keep my youngest two children from poking at the keys, which is easier now that it's not the first thing they see when we step into the store.)

It's also been joined by two upright pianos and I've had to convince my children that even if they paid for it with their own money, I can't let them buy a piano for their room because there's no way their dad is going to haul it home.

While we were looking for t-shirts and shorts for the boys this week, the store suddenly filled with music. Intricate, amazing classical music that an old guy in sweatpants and a baseball cap was playing on that baby grand. I don't think I've ever shopped for used clothes to live music before.

I was looking for a little backpack to use on short hikes. The plan was to find one that I could transfer the contents of my purse into, because I hate carrying my purse with us, and I never feel safe leaving it in the car. Walmart had a new one that would've done the job, but I've been reading the Non-Consumer Advocate a lot lately and convinced myself that I could find something at Goodwill or St. Vincents.

No such luck.

But I did spot this little girl. She's the twin of one that was on Katie Wolk-Stanley's blog a couple of weeks back. Katie thought she looked like she was about to record a power ballad -- I think she looks like she's afraid of something. (Might be all of those haunted house books I'm reading lately...)

It turns out she is trying to block out some scary sounds...

{Blogger's Quilt Festival} Sadie

2013-05-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

Whenever I see that another Blogger's Quilt Festival is coming up, I start to rack my brain, trying to think of what I've done since the last festival that I really want to show off. This time, it was easy.

I'm sharing Sadie with you because I am absolutely head over heels in love with this little quilt!

My original plan was to make a scrappy pink version of this baby quilt, but then I decided that I wanted a pieced border. To keep it a good size for a baby quilt, I made smaller churn dash blocks. You can find all of the details in the tutorial.

I've started giving my baby quilts people names. It makes them so much easier to keep track of than "Blue Sheet Quilt #1" and "the one with the pink hearts." And it makes me stop and think about them and take pictures and write a blog post. There are baby quilts from past years that I can't find any record of except for the pictures in my album.

Usually, I don't decide on a name until the quilt is nearly done.

Sadie started with her name. It was on the list when I was brainstorming names for Sara, but sometimes I save names I really like for special quilts. Sadie is a cowgirl -- a girly cowgirl who needed a pink and brown churn dash quilt. And I'm sure that my imaginary little cowgirl has a well-worn stuffed horsey that accompanies her everywhere.

By the time I had the top assembled, I was pretty sure that this quilt was going to live in my sewing room. So I decided to try some custom quilting. I outlined around all of the squares in the churn dashes and then stippled around them -almost- as tightly as I could. Not quite as tightly as I quilted Lobster Sue, but it's close.

I'll hang onto her until I either find the right baby to send her off to, or make a bigger version for myself and don't need this one anymore. That's how it tends to work around here.

{yarn along} Dark Places

2013-05-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on my 3rd pair of socks for the pooling sock yarn challenge and the yarn's still not pooling... I've given up on that part, but I do still like colors. And I love the book I just finished, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Twenty-five years after Libby Day fled into the snow as her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered,  the trust fund that she's been living off of is almost completely drained and Libby is facing the unpleasant truth that the people who were so anxious to help the only survivor of The Satan Sacrifices of Kinnakee, Kansas have lost all interest in her. When a representative of the Kill Club, a group obsessed with famous murders, offers her cash to speak at their next meeting, Libby reluctantly agrees. Her need for money is enough to force her to finally dig through the sealed boxes of her family's possessions looking for things she can sell to the members of the club. For more money, she agrees to visit her brother in prison, then to look up her estranged father. The more people from her past she makes contact with, the more Libby begins to question what actually happened in the farmhouse that night.

Dark Places absolutely blew me away. The chapters alternate between Libby in the present day and her brother and mother in 1985, on the day of the murders. The way that the events and evidence all tie together is so intricate -- what makes perfect sense one way when a character sees it is obviously something else entirely when you're reading from another character's point of view.

Silly disclosure -- the books came from the library.  For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.

A Quilt for Mrs. Bates's Parlor

2013-05-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's my turn to show of my It's for the birds! project, and the waiting has been driving me just a little bit crazy...

As soon as I saw that we were making quilts with birds on them, I knew I wanted to use a black silhouette of a raven. Or a crow. Who can tell the species when it's an outline on a quilt? I've got a whole bunch of irons in the fire right now, so when I was up in the sewing room and came across a bunch of scrappy black and neutral hourglass units from an abandoned project I decided they'd make the perfect jump start for this project.

They were going to be sashing, at least until I started playing with them and decided that they reminded me of an ornate frame. If I was making this quilt again (and I think I do want another one with bats to hang in October) I'd add prairie points or a scalloped black outer border.

Why the name?

Madame Samm started my mind in that direction when she showed off her Tippy Hedrin Barbie. Then I was watching Hitchcock, a movie about the making of Psycho, while I pieced the quilt -- and wouldn't Mrs. Bates have totally had this quilt in her parlor, if she'd had quilts? I think she'd have had this little settee, too. It was passed down from my Great Aunt Molly to my Grandma Marr, and then to me. How I manage to get away with this piece of furniture in a tiny house full of kids, I don't know.

If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome! I'm Michelle and I'm trying to make fifty scrappy baby quilts this year, but sometimes I get in the mood to make a quilt for me. And this one is definitely MINE.

Be sure to visit today's other bloggers -- it's amazing the variety of projects everyone is coming up with! You can find the full schedule here.

http://www.intheboondocks.blogspot.com

www.thimblemouseandspouse.blogspot.com

www.quiltingandsewingarts.com

http://Sewgratefulquilts.wordpress.com

www.aquiltingsheep.com

http://tricia-ramblingsofaquilter.blogspot.com

http://sewmanyyarns.blogspot.com

www.moosestashquilting.blogspot.com

http://bethstrand.wordpress.com

http://quiltoo.blogspot.com

http://teatimecreations.blogspot.ca/

http://secretlystitching.blogspot.gr/

This post is linked to to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, and Freedom Fridays,

Spring House by Stephanie Ryan

2013-05-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

Today I'm playing with Spring House, Stephanie Ryan's new line for Moda. These prints are giving me such an incredible sense of dejavu. I think it's the shape of the flowers that reminds me of things from my childhood -- I've got an image of insulated plastic mugs flitting at the edges of my memory.

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

It's going to be a busy few weeks!

2013-05-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

I have got so much going on right now my head is spinning. Tuesday is my day in the It's for the Birds! blog hop over at Sew We Quilt! Next week, I'm participating in a virtual book tour for Sinister Entity, a new horror novel by Hunter Shea. I've got two new baby quilt tutorials in the works, more socks on the needles... and a couple of other things I'm not ready to share yet.

Life is good!

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 39 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 87 1/4 yards
Net Added for 2013: 48 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 1150 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 7100 yards
Net Added for 2013: 5950 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

Quilter's Favorites - Share and Learn

2013-05-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Geta at Geta's Quilting Studio has invited bloggers to share what makes their quilting more enjoyable.

I love my AccuQuilt Go! and Sizzix Big Shot. I do a lot of scrap quilting using fabrics from thrift stores and estate sales. And I make a lot of baby quilts to donate, so it seemed like a die cutter would help me finish more quilts than I could if I was cutting them all with a rotary cutter and ruler.

I can't tell you how much fun I've had with these machines over the past couple of years.

I've used my Go! to quickly cut enough units to piece a two-color Drunkard's Path quilt while I was recovering from knee surgery, to trim someone else's unevenly cut squares so that they were all the same size. It's great for cutting things that would be time consuming or impossible with a rotary cutter and ruler.

When I've just been in the mood to play, I've experimented to see if I could use the Apple Core die to make Halloween bats, or the Dresden Plate and Drunkard's Path dies to reproduce a traditional pieced turtle block. The more ways I can find to use a die I've purchased, the happier I am.

I've used my Big Shot to cut intricate shapes that I just don't have the talent (or time or desire) to cut by hand with an Exacto knife. There is no way I would have cut all of those typewriter keys by hand -- not when I could buy a die for ten bucks that would do it for me over and over!

Depending on what shapes I'm cutting and what fabric I'm starting with, I also love the Easy Angle Ruler and Companion Angle.

I also use template plastic, or even cereal boxes, if I want to make something that I don't have a die for, but I sure do appreciate what I've been able to do when I've got the right size die or ruler!

It's swarming season!

2013-05-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

I've seen two stories on the nightly news lately about bees swarming neighborhoods and how terrifying it was for local residents. One woman had a mass of bees on her decorative flag.

Something like this...

The only terrifying thing about the mass in this picture was that they're our bees and had decided, for whatever reason bees decide to do what they do, to leave their hive. If hubby hadn't been out tinkering with one of the cars and heard the louder than usual buzzing, we would have lost them for good.

Instead, we suited up, cut down the branch they were hanging from, and shook their annoying little bee butts back into an empty hive box. They're at the far end of the yard now, and hopefully they're happy with their new residence.

See where Hubby is standing? The swarm is that darkish shape directly to the right of his arm... and I was standing in that same spot a few seconds later, sawing through the last of the branch so that he could lower it into the box. Did I mention that I don't have gloves for my suit? (Teenage Son has been boasting that he's taller than me now, but he stopped that as soon as I told him that being taller meant that he got to help cut the next swarm out of the trees.)

I wish I'd taken time to learn how to shoot video with my new camera, because this was definitely an experience worth filming. All went well and neither of us got stung. Swarming bees don't have a hive to defend and have gorged themselves with honey before leaving their old hive, so they're at their gentlest. If you have allergies or if you live in an area with Africanized bees, I'm not going to argue with you. But for the rest of us, swarms aren't anything to be afraid of.

When a hive swarms, the queen leaves the hive along with half of the bees, leaving behind the rest of the bees and a new queen. Bee populations are dropping dramatically due to pesticides and Colony Collapse. There are beekeepers out there who would be thrilled to come capture a swarm and set them up in a new home. Google "swarm list" along with your city and state and you should be able to find a whole list of them.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 19}

2013-05-10T04:00:00.000-07:00

I often get asked what the name of whatever baby quilt I'm working on at the time is going to be, and I usually don't have an answer. Most of the names come later. Sometimes I think of the perfect name while I'm still in the middle of making the quilt. Steve got a last minute name change when I decided to use Blue's Clues fabric for the backing. Emily was going to be Amelia until I decided to save that name in case I ever make a girly airplane quilt.

And sometimes I start with the name. This quilt was always going to be Sadie and it was always going to have pink churn dash blocks on a brown background.

Coming up with names for these quilts is so much fun! No one but me and my blog readers will ever know these names, but they make the quilts feel more distinct.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

this week's finishes

2013-05-09T16:25:00.000-07:00

This week, I finished a quilt that I can't show you...

It's driving me absolutely nuts that I have to wait until Monday night to show you this one. It looks so much prettier in reality than it did in my imagination.

I also finished these, which I don't have to keep secret...

Toe up, plain stockinette feet, short row heels, k2 p2 ribbing for the legs... 60 stitches on size 2 (maybe) Harmony dpns. The yarn is Knitpicks Sock Garden, in the Zinnia colorway.

They were originally going to be an entry in the pooling sock yarn challenge, but the yarn didn't pool. That doesn't matter, though -- I've got a new pair of hand knit socks and just a tiny bit less yarn in my stash.

This post is linked to to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, and Freedom Fridays,

What are we scared of?

2013-05-09T04:00:00.001-07:00

What Was I Scared Of? from The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss is my absolute favorite picture book. It's got a pair of empty green pants that ride a bike and row a boat...and prickly black Brickel bushes and the most amazing color combination. I think I might need an applique quilt based on this book...

Lots of quilters seem to be scared of half square triangles and willing to make all sorts of contortions to avoid those scary bias edges.

I'm working on a tutorial with about a hundred half-square triangles and I just know that someone is going to scold me for the way I do them -- the same way I've been scolded in the past for cutting individual squares instead of using quick strip piecing methods.

I cut the squares because I don't want the prints falling in the same combination every time. And I do my triangles the way I do them because I think it's easier to make the half square triangle units that way.

I cut squares in half to make two triangles and sew the triangles together. For me, that's a lot faster than drawing a line from corner to corner of each square, then sewing a quarter inch on each side of the line, then cutting. (I've done it that way, too.)

Back in high school Home Ec, I made a matching blouse and skirt out of red and black plaid cotton. The teacher suggested that the square patch pockets would look nicer if I cut them on the bias. So I did. She did warn me to watch out for the stretchy edges, but they were no big deal.

After a gathered skirt with a button and zipper, and the yoke and collar and more buttons on the blouse -- not to mention matching plaids! -- those bias edges weren't that scary. Maybe that's because I'd never a bunch of warnings about bias edges.

How do you make your half square triangles? Have you tried just cutting them and sewing them together?

{yarn along} I killed my sock!

2013-05-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

Remember that sock I showed you last week -- the one that was done up to the heel?

I made a mistake. The stitches got redistributed a bit, so my heel stitches were off. And I was starting to get a bad feeling that the sock was way too big. I tried it on and that bad feeling got worse. After I'd pulled the needles free, I tried it on again to see how badly I'd miscalculated.

And the darn thing fit! But getting those live stitches back onto the dpns sounded like more of a hassle than reknitting the foot of the sock, so I gave up. I love these colors, so I'll cast on again later with an actual stitch pattern. That heel would've bugged me.

And next time, I'll try to remember to count my stitches before starting the heel!

In a Yarn Along post a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Liver Let Die, the first book in the Clueless Cook mystery series. I wasn't very far into the book and hadn't decided if I liked it or not. Now that I've finished Beef Stolen-Off, the second book in the series, I can definitely say that I'm hooked and will be watching for the next one.

Jordan McAllister aspires to be a sports reporter, but she's been making her living writing personal ads. When the newspaper's culinary reporter is injured in a jet ski accident, Jordan is thrust into the job. There's just one problem -- she doesn't know much about food beyond take out pizza and Hostess Ho Hos. But with the help of her neighbors, she's come up with recipes and slapped fancy sounding names onto them, making the Kitchen Kupboard column more popular than ever.

In Beef Stolen-Off, Jordan is sent to the Cattleman's Ball. The plan is that she'll write about it in her column and get her readers to eat more beef. But her blind date for the evening winds up dead. There's cattle rustling, and a haunted house (have I mention that I love haunted houses?), and a fake seance... It's a fun read!

Silly disclosure -- the books came from the library. For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.

When did this one become a UFO?

2013-05-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

Teenage Daughter wants a big-girl version of this quilt --

That just means making it bigger and leaving out the fabric with baby bottles and diaper pins. Easy, right? I pulled out the fabric leftover from the little quilt and cut some more squares, pulled more fabric from my stash, got it all ironed....

And then I got sidetracked. That freshly ironed fabric got moved... and that's how UFOs tend to happen around here.

I'm linking up to Judy at Patchwork Times and her Wednesday UFO Report.

not what I thought I was making...

2013-05-06T04:00:00.000-07:00

I'd planned to use these little hourglass units as sashing for something else entirely...but then I couldn't find enough 1 1/2" strips to make the background blocks and I didn't want to go dig around in the dark sewing room....

And I'm pretty sure I like this better anyway.

Would you believe this started out as Orca Bay? To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

{Whatcha Reading?} my growing book collection

2013-05-05T11:45:00.004-07:00

Every day or two, I scan through Amazon's list of free Kindle titles to see if there's anything interesting. That's one of the things I love about my Kindle -- it's let me amass a huge collection of books that I think I'm going to read someday. It's the same thing I used to accomplish by shopping used book sales, except it's far cheaper and takes a lot less space...and the books are all right there in my hand, whenever I do decide to read them.

This week, I downloaded 3500: An Autistic Boy's Ten-Year Romance with Snow White. I always enjoy the chance to glimpse parenting through someone else's eyes, and I've got an ongoing fascination with Disneyland, so I thought it might be interesting...

I carried my Kindle around with me for the next day and a half, hoping to find spare moments of time to read just a little bit more. It's the story of Ben, an autistic boy who had such an amazing reaction to the Snow White ride at Disneyworld that his parents moved from Seattle to Orlando to give him continued access to it. Over the next ten years, Ben and his parents went on the ride 3500 times, stopping only when the ride was permanently closed.

The book is being offered as a free download through May 6.

By the way, I checked -- Snow White's Scary Adventure is still part of Disneyland in California. So there's hope that I'll get my own kiddos there one of these days. And in the meantime, I think I'm going to watch a few ride through videos on You Tube when I'm done posting this. :-)

When's the last time you cleaned your machine?

2013-05-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

When I'm doing a lot of sewing, I clean my machine several times a week, sometimes more than once a day if she's being persnickety. It's when I'm not doing a lot of sewing that the lint creeps up on me. I'll tell myself that I haven't done much sewing at all...and I'll keep telling myself that until the machine is absolutely full of lint.

Some of the quilters I know claim to clean their machines rarely, if ever. I want to know how they get away with that. There's a point, not far from the point my machine was at when I took this picture, where she just throws a fit and won't sew properly until I fix the situation.

That explains the twice a day cleanings -- and that brand of thread I won't use again.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 2 3/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 38 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 87 1/4 yards
Net Added for 2012: 49 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 750 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 7100 yards
Net Added for 2013: 6350 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

another reason to love old books

2013-05-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

I've told you before about how the smell of old books makes me giddy. My oldest son and I had a long discussion last week about what old books are supposed to smell like, as opposed to what mildewy books smell like. Sadly, the mildewed example was an original text Nancy Drew that I would have really wanted if it was in halfway decent condition.

Except for my growing stash of vintage children's mysteries, I'm not buying a lot of books for myself lately. My Kindle has won, assuming that the price of the Kindle edition is actually less than the price of the paperback. It's a happy combination of having the book I want right now and not having to keep track of it once I do have it.

I still have real ink and paper books, and I adore the special ones. Even though I've found a much nicer copy of the same edition, I'm still keeping that Bobbsey Twins book that came from the small girls room.

And I'll be keeping this Nancy Drew that I picked up at the thrift store on the same day as I had to pass up the mildewed one. I've got a nicer copy with a dust jacket, but look at what's written inside the front cover --

Beverly Jean Iverson
Devils Lake, North Dakota U. S. A.

Christmas "1945" a Christmas "no one" will ever forget, for it is the year of "Victory and Peace" of the second world war Thank You

I assume that it was Beverly's book, but I wonder who wrote the inscription. Was it Beverly, or one of the adults in her life? (And yes, I did Google her name -- I found one woman who would have been about the right age, but Iverson was her married name and she lived at the wrong end of the country, and one who was born a few years too late.)

There's something about this book that just makes me want to hug it tight and protect it. Do you save books with strangers' inscriptions in them?

This post is linked to Time Travel Thursday, Ivy & Elephants & Vintage Thingie Thursday.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 18}

2013-05-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

This week, I've been playing with block sizes. I wanted to make a pink version of this baby quilt, which I made a couple of years ago.

This time around, I wanted to add a pieced border. The scrappy churn dash blocks in the blue quilt measure twelve inches. Adding the borders bring my new quilt up to 48", bigger than I want my baby quilts to be.

The answer? Make my churn dash blocks with 2" cut squares instead of the 2 1/2" squares I use in most of my baby quilts. With the blocks reduced to 9" square, I could add my border and still have the final quilt measure just under 40" square.

Here's Sadie. Even with that pieced border, she went together quickly. (I made up for that by spending three hours on the free motion quilting. That may be the longest I've ever spent quilting a baby quilt. But I love the results!)

Sadie {a baby quilt tutorial}

2013-05-02T21:00:00.001-07:00

Meet Sadie! I've been planning this baby quilt in my head for months, watching my scraps for just the right pinks. Now that she's together, I'm seriously in love with this little quilt. I think she just might live here with me.

I've used the scrappy half square triangles before, first in Extra Scrappy Pinwheels, then in blue sheet quilt #1 (see why I started giving the baby quilts people names?), and later in Dashes in the Woods.

Want to make your own? You'll need about a yard of pink scraps and about two yards of background fabric.

Cutting --

Cut pink scraps into 2" strips. From those, use your Easy Angle ruler to cut 72 triangles. Cut 200 2" squares (108 for blocks, 92 for pieced border) (Not using the Easy Angle for your triangles? Cut 2 3/8" squares and cut those in half diagonally.)

From background fabric, cut nine 3 1/2" squares for block centers. Cut thirty-six 2 x 3 1/2" rectangles. Cut background fabric into 3 1/2" strips and use the Easy Angle ruler to cut 36 triangles. (Not using the Easy Angle? Cut 3 7/8" squares and cut those in half diagonally.) You will also need 2" strips for the sashing and borders. I used eleven WOF strips.

Piecing --

To make the scrappy half square triangle units, sew two print triangles to one print square as shown and press. Sew to a large background triangle and press.

To make the bars of the churn dash block, sew two print squares together and press. Sew to a 2" x 3 1/2" rectangle to form a square and press.

Lay out four half square triangle units, four bar units, and a 3 1/2" center square and assemble the churn dash block as shown. Make nine blocks.

To make pieced border, sew 2" squares into two strips of 22 blocks each and two strips of 24 blocks each.

Using 2" cut strips as sashing, assemble the nine blocks into three rows or three. Add a border of 2" cut background strips, then sew the shorter pieced border strips to opposite edges of the quilt and the longer pieced border strips to the remaining opposite edges. Add another border of 2" cut background strips.

Quilt and bind. As always, if you make this quilt I'd love for you to send me a picture or link up to my weekly Let's Make Baby Quilts! linky party.

This post is linked to to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Link a Finish Friday, and Freedom Fridays, and How Sweet the Sound