2019 Reading Statistical Roundup

I know this is a craft blog and not a book blog but I did this roundup for several years on BostonBibliophile.com and I want to do it again here too.

How many books read in 2019?

I read 71 books in 2019. That's down 1 from last year.

How many fiction and non fiction? 48 fiction versus 23 nonfiction. 

Male/Female author ratio? 45 female writers to 26 male.

Diversity?Of 71 authors 25 were people of color. That meets my goal of 20-25 POC authors in 2019 and represents just over 1/3 of the total.

Favorite book of 2019? Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken was my favorite novel; for nonfiction I loved The Queen by Josh Levin, My Own Country by Abraham Verghese and The Dinosaur Artist by Paige Smith.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? A few. Just ran out of steam on them.

Oldest book read? Probably My Own Country, published in 1995. It was a year of recent reads.

Newest? We Ride Upon Sticks and Are There Presently, by Quan Barry, to be published in March 2020.

Longest and shortest book titles? Shortest title: Bunny, by Mona Awad
Longest title: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna, by Juliet Grames

Longest and shortest books?Longest: Killing Commendante, by Haruki Murakami
Shortest:  Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata

How many books from the library?None! I didn't visit a library all year. Sad! For the fourth year in a row, too.

Any translated books?I read books or stories translated from Japanese, Russian, Italian, Danish, Polish, Finnish, Swedish, and Hebrew. I really have not read many translated books this year- only 10. And none from French which is kind of shocking. So that's a thing to do more of next year and a big surprise honestly.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?I went to Japan, Russia, Italy, France, Denmark, Poland, Finland, Albania, Israel, France, China, the Philippines, South Africa, Scotland, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Zambia, Sweden, England, Ireland, the Bahamas, Colombia, Cuba, Palestine, Egypt, and Nigeria. But mostly in English language originals.

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author? I did not repeat a single author all year.

Any re-reads?Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris. I did it on audio whereas I had originally read it in print.

Favorite character of the year? Small Frank from French Exit.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?
Writers & Lovers by Lily King.

Which author was new to you in 2019 that you now want to read the entire works of?
Oyinkan Braithewaite.

Which books are you annoyed you didn't read?Nothing really.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?My Own Country, by Abraham Verghese.

Bookish Events in Marie's LifeI started a new job at a bookstore in Brooklyn. That's honestly about it. I'm pretty disconnected from the literary world despite sitting at one of its spokes. Two of my friends published books- Rebecca Kim Wells published Shatter the Sky and Tracy Strauss published I Just Haven't Met You Yet. I went to events for them so that was pretty cool.

Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2020:In 2020 I'm delving into my crime backlog and my most-anticipated reads are

1. Grotesque, by Natsuo Kirino,
2. Macbeth, by Jo Nesbo,
3. Gang of Lovers, by Massimo Carlotto,
4. Black Star Nairobi, by Mukoma wa Ngugi and
5. Cult X, by Fuminori Nakamura.

Last Finish of 2019

I finished this quilt the day before Christmas. It is the Scandinavian Tomte by Rebecca Mae Designs.

The trees were pretty straightforward but the gnome was very challenging. It's hard to see in the picture but the hat is pieced horizontally and the pieces must line up perfectly; there is at least one place where I just couldn't make it work. Precise cutting and piecing are a must.

I quilted it in straight vertical lines using Aurifil monofilament and Aurifil 50wt in gray in the bobbin. The monofilament was a dream to sew with. This was my first time using it and I was nervous, but it worked so well I want to quilt all my quilts with it now. Not really- I'll still use regular thread too- but it was a revelation to me.

Closeup on the tomte himself

Next up is a simple throw quilt I have to finish for a baby shower in a few weeks. Onwards!

I hope you had a great holiday season and wish you a great 2020.

Sewing Update

So I guess I haven't been much of a poster lately but I am chugging along on my projects.

• I finished my black & white cats quilt, which I don't have a real name for. The pattern is called Row of Cats by Gingiber. I'll have a picture soon.
• I made six pillow cases for a charity drive initiated by a member of my guild. The tutorial I used is from The Crafty Gemini. It was a lot of fun to make these and learn a new skill. I made a couple to keep for my home in addition to the six for charity.
• I'm just about to finish piecing the top of my Tomte quilt. It's up next for machine quilting since it's a Christmas gift. You can find the pattern at Rebecca Mae Designs.
• Still working on my 12 Days of Christmas redwork series. I just started Nine Ladies Dancing. I just looked it in the hoop though I'm thinking I might need to start over. It's not looking that great lol.

This past weekend I had a lot of fun visiting the Brownstone Quilt Guild's show in Allendale, New Jersey. Allendale is a beautiful suburb not far from NYC and my husband and I enjoyed viewing the spectacular quilts, shopping the vendors and taking in the fall scenery. We even found a new-to-us rare book shop in nearby Teaneck. 

What's up next? Machine quilt the Tomte and start thinking about any small projects I might want to complete for the holiday season. What are you working on?

Possibly My Oldest UFO Finally Finished!

So this is possibly my oldest UFO; I bought the fabric at Hawaiian Fabric in Oahu on my honeymoon in 2004 (or shortly thereafter online- I honestly forget, but it was from them at hawaiianfabric.com if not in their store). Anyway I didn't use a pattern but I didn't want to cut that gorgeous flamingo print in the center so I just made a big square out of it and bordered it a few times until it seemed big enough.

It finished at around 60x60 inches. I thought it was too big to ram through my old sewing machine, which had about a 6-inch harp. About three months ago I bought a new machine, a Janome 9450, at a steep discount; this machine has a much larger harp, maybe 11 inches.

I used Dream Green Bottle Batting, my favorite batting, and quilting it was a breeze. Honestly, a breeze. I did simple wavy lines, some echoing and some beaded-curtain style, across the quilt. It took about a week.

I can honestly say I love it. I can't believe it's done. So far my cats have been hogging it but I hope to enjoy some good snuggle time under it soon.

It's just so great to have it finished. I feel like getting a 15 year old quilt top off the UFO pile and onto my lap is such a victory.

Kitties to Stitch and Quilt Double Irish Chain

So I finally got this top pieced. I embroidered the 12 blocks from Nancy Martin's book Kitties to Stitch and Quilt over the course of 2018 and then a couple of weeks ago I decided I should set the blocks in a Double Irish Chain pattern.

The redwork blocks themselves finish at 6 inches; the pieced blocks finish at 10 inches. I did not use a pattern but it's pretty easy to figure out and you just use 2 1/2 inch squares and 6 1/2 x 2 1/2 white strips.

I used a combination of jelly roll strips and fat quarters to strip-piece as much as I could. It was fun and pretty easy to do. And it finishes into something like a throw size, around 50x50 when all is said and done.

Most likely I will machine quilt it sometime in the next few months. I plan on spending the rest of the month quilting and finishing various projects. I'll keep you posted!

Monday Making

I've got a bunch of things on the hopper as usual; I've decided to move forward with some Double Irish Chain blocks to complete a 12-piece redwork series I finished last year, Kitties to Stitch and Quilt, from the book by Nancy J. Martin.

They will turn into 10-inch blocks and a good sized throw quilt at around 50 x 50 inches. Today I'm going to cut some white strips and some red squares and hopefully get started framing the redwork. Then later on I'll work on the alternating blocks. That's gonna require a lot of scraps- great!

Over the weekend I finished (minus outer borders) piecing my Tomte top, which will be a gift for a friend this Christmas.

That's just the gnome- the quilt includes three tree blocks of equal size to the gnome. The pattern is by Sherri Noel for Rebecca Mae Designs and the official title is Scandinavian Tomte Quilt. You can buy it at the link. I picked it up at The Quilted Crow quilt shop (link on the sidebar).

He was fun to make but he is fussy and all those little corners really have to line up. I am not the greatest at technical perfection and he is not perfect but he is fine.

Today I am not going to have much/any time for quilting and in fact this will be a light week for sewing overall. But I'll do what I can.

What are you making this week?

September Projects-in-Progress

I finished my JayBird Quilts August Stars quilt top yesterday before leaving for work, so that means I can clear the decks a little and think about what's next.

I have one project in active mode- a comic book quilt I'm making for a relative, kind of an easier version of the Book Nerd/Angela Pingel pattern I finished earlier this year. I am waiting on some fabric to come from Etsy so I can finish cutting. Then piecing should be a snap.

In UFO mode there is the following (all of these are unpieced top projects; I don't count unquilted tops the same way):

• The Summer Reading quilt,
• The French General Celebration Sampler,
• 12 Days of Christmas Redwork.

This month I'd like to finish the library top. I'm really only actively working on the redwork now. Some projects I'd like to do and have all the fabric for are:

• Unicorn layer cake quilt,
• Jelly Roll Waves,
• Christmas Tomte,
• Halloween Haunted House,
• Cat Christmas Wreath.

Since I did finish a difficult quilt top yesterday I may just take the day off from sewing and do some other things that need doing. But I'll be back tomorrow, probably cutting out Tomtes!

Monday Making

Still working on August Stars; I started out making the Baby size but decided I needed it to be bigger, so now I'm working my way up to Youth size. You can see the size chart and everything else about it here on the Jay Birds Quilts page.

Anyway it turns out that it's a lot of work to do that, and I went from almost-done -with-the-top to feeling a-little-behind.

I just love those big colorful stars and I didn't feel like I had enough with the Baby size. I want to keep making them and making them.

Today I finished what I hope are the last of the diamond four-patches; the genius of the pattern is there are no Y seams thanks to those triangles. Even when I enlarge it, there will be no Y seams, just some weird piecing that is still all straight.

 I really can't wait to get the top finished and start thinking about how to quilt it. What would you do?

Japanese Sewing Books?

Do you ever buy Japanese sewing books?

I love to go to Kinokuniya in Manhattan, the American flagship of the Japanese book chain; I don't read or speak the language but they have a great selection of general fiction, manga/anime stuff and a basement filled with bags, toys, magazines- and books of course in Japanese.

And I love salivating over the beautiful craft books. Like I said I can't read it and I have literally no idea what the title of this book is but it's filled with patterns and inspiration for Hawaiian-style quilts, bags and accessories. And I love Hawaiian quilting.

The pictures are gorgeous- bright colors, bold designs, lots of options for all kinds of fun things to make.

I realized I couldn't live without this book, so I got it.

The book includes all the patterns needed, and since I do have some basic bag-making skills I'm sure I could figure out how to make almost anything in the book. And there are YouTube videos for the skills I haven't acquired yet.

How fun!

Quilting Updates

So I was away on vacation for most of August hence the lack of posts, but I'm back now and revving up my sewing room again.

What's on the agenda:

• I decided to add another row to my August Stars quilt, so what was a Baby size will now be a Youth size. This is tricky for two reasons. Y seams will be involved in expanding the width of the quilt, and I am using some different fabrics. I picked the project as a  "use up" project and I did indeed use up the fabrics I picked out for it. So the additions may look like additions. We'll see.
• After that, I want to finish piecing my Summer Reading quilt. Which will be done after summer and after the person whose birthday I was making it for. But that's the way it goes.
• In between I need to work on some test blocks I told a friend I would do. She designed some horse paper pieced blocks and I need to get to work on testing them.

Of course that's not even a little bit of what I have sitting around to complete. 

But I did finally mail off a package of fabric to the Navajo Quilt Project, which French General started to help support indigenous communities. I've been wanting to do this for a while and I'm sure it will be the first of a series of ongoing donations as I continue to clear things out over time. I already have a second bag that I'm planning to pack of my wool felt stash.

That's it for me. What are you up to as the month comes to a close?

Recommended Reading: The Veins of the Ocean, by Patricia Engel

Patricia Engel's 2017 novel about a young woman coming into her own after a series of tragedies is moving, emotional and a quick read for all that it is emotionally challenging. Reina Castillo came to the US from Colombia as a baby with her mother, father and brother, Carlito. They settle in the Miami area and their father tries to kill Carlito by throwing him off a bridge, and later Carlito kills his girlfriend's daughter the same way.

He is serving a death sentence when the book opens; Reina visits him every weekend in prison. Memories of their childhood wash over Reina as she navigates Carlito's last days. Soon she decides to move to the Florida Keys and meets Nesto, a Cuban immigrant trying to bring his family to him.

The Veins of the Ocean echoes with memory, magic and passion. It deals with difficult issues but there is hope as well among the waves and breezes of the Florida Keys. Reina and Nesto wrestle with freedom and exile, love and loyalty and what it all means. It's a wonderful book and perfect for summer. 

I Did It! August Goal Accomplished.

I got the top pieced.

I don't have a ton of sewing time this month; after tomorrow there are a couple of days when I'll be able to sew. And I have a brand new sewing machine so you know that's frustrating.

I didn't use a pattern; I found a pictures on Pinterest of string quilts that I liked and picked one to use as inspiration.

My blocks measure 6" finished and everything is sewn onto muslin foundations. I used about 2/3 of my blue scraps for this 42" square quilt top.

Monday Making

Today I'm working on my August Stars quilt; August Stars is a no-y-seam diamond pattern by Jaybird Quilts.

I'm making the Baby Quilt size; I have to make 20 of these equilateral triangles and I've made about 12 so far. I just got a new sewing machine, a Janome 9450, and it's really been a breeze with this wonderful machine. Hopefully I'll have the top pieced by sometime next week!

The batiks came from a stash of 2 1/2 inch strips that have been sitting around. I was trying to go for tropical, Lilly-Pulitzer-like colors. White would have been a better background choice for a truly Lilly look but I thought the navy set them off nicely too.

One Monthly Goal- August

Each month at the beginning of the month I take stock and make a list of the quilts I have in progress and what my plans are.

Quilt Tops to Quilt

• Christmas Kit - machine quilt eventually
• Black and White Cats - machine quilt next
• 3-D - machine quilt eventually
• Seaswept- hand quilt next

Projects Being Pieced

• Blue Strings - blocks completed; will lay out and piece top
• August Stars - still piecing blocks. Pattern by Jaybird Quilts.
• Pink Strings - just started on blocks, will continue
• French General Kit - will piece 1 block this month
• 12 Days of Christmas Redwork - I'm on block #7 of 12

My one goal is to piece the Blue Strings quilt top. After that, continue on August Stars.

In July I quilted and finished four quilts- a charity quilt for my guild, two star quilts and a jelly roll bar quilt. Of those, only one is going to stay with me. They were all quick to piece so it felt great to get them finished quickly too.

This month I would most like to finish piecing August Stars. I'm making it with a navy background and a stash of bright batiks. I think it's going to be really pretty.

You can visit the linkup at Elm Street Quilts here.

What are your goals for August?

Recommended Reading: The Queen, by Josh Levin

So I did warn you in the "About Me" section that from time to time I might post about books. I'm not going to do formal reviews like on my old blog, and I'm only going to talk about books that I recommend. And only once in a while- but today's the day to start.

I just finished the audiobook of The Queen, by Josh Levin; in it, Levin tells the story of a woman best known as Linda Taylor, who unbeknownst to her, served as the basis for Ronald Reagan's "welfare queen" stereotype in the late 1970s and 1980s. But this isn't the story you might think it is. Linda Taylor was no innocent victim, even if a version of her story was used to both hurt the poor and benefit Reagan's political career. She was perhaps one of the great con artists of the mid to late 20th century, a woman who spent her life stealing, cheating, kidnapping, and perhaps even murdering, all in the name of an endless need for money and standing.

Officially, Taylor was born Martha Louise White to a pair of white parents; but in fact she was biracial, and at a time when admitting she had slept with a black man would have sent her mother to jail. Taylor used her ambiguous appearance to her advantage and pushed back against the limitations imposed on her by race by passing herself off as or being taken for white, black, Mexican, Hawaiian and Filipina and that was only one aspect of herself that she changed, manipulated or obfuscated. She used dozens of aliases, impersonated an heiress, moved all over the country changing her story every time, and posited herself and her friends as blood family. She posed as members of different professions, even working as a nurse and posing as a doctor, a psychic and more.

She fabricated robberies and committed them too. She neglected and abandoned her own children as she kidnapped and trafficked other children- the list goes on. She probably killed three people just to collect on them. And as the horrors- and the bodies- piled up, her story becomes more and more grotesque.  When it came to the kidnappings and even the murders, either the victims weren't important enough to the police or they just weren't able to make anything stick. The only thing she was ever convicted of was welfare fraud.

Interlaced with Taylor's story is the story of how Ronald Reagan  used her and other stories to push his own political agendas. Levin also covers how Bill Clinton later exploited the same and other stereotypes also for political gain. One thing that I admire about the book is how Levin balances the two parts. Reagan and later Clinton made up stories to make the points they wanted to make, regardless of the truth and Levin paints a world complicated enough to allow for corruption on their side and on Taylor's.

The Queen is a wild ride for sure. Linda Taylor was a "karma Houdini" who is remembered, when she is at all, for only the most trivial of her misdeeds. She was a liar, a thief, a kidnapper and a slow motion serial killer- and she got away with virtually all of it.  I highly recommend it and audio is a great way to go. January LaVoy is an engaging narrator who held my attention the whole way through all 12-plus listening hours. What a story.

New Fabric!

I love new fabric.

This is a 17 piece fat quarter bundle from the new Wild Acres collection by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

You can find it and the rest of the collection for sale here at her website.

I'm thinking a birthday cake quilt might look nice in this fabric. The Sweet Cakes pattern by Patty Sloniger, available for free from Michael Miller, might be just the thing.

Monday Making

I finished my 49 string blocks today; now I only have to piece them together into a quilt top.

They measure 6.5 inches each and are scraps sewn to a muslin base. I'm excited about the design possibilities!
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Recently-Finished Quilts

I've been busy finishing quilts this summer.

I did two quilts using the Lone Star Baby Quilt Tutorial from Diary of a Quilter and I will probably do more. It's such an easy pattern that whips up in no time flat, and it uses ten-inch squares and is therefore great for layer cakes and fat quarter collections. Which I have plenty of. I made this first quilt with a pack of five fat quarters of imported French fabric I got at the 2018 AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the second below from an assortment of French Provencal fabrics I've had for years. They were just waiting for the right project.

Both quilts finished at about 40" square, making them a good size for baby or crib quilts. Alternatively, you could add some borders for a larger and more conventional throw size.

For this quilt, I took a bunch of ugly jelly roll strips (ugly to me) and cut them at 8.5 inches, and then cut white fabric 4.5 x 2.5 and sewed them to make a 12" finished strip. Then I just alternated them, kind of. It's a longer story than that but that was the idea. This quilt finished at 48" square and is a great throw size, at least for me.

This arrangement was based on a commercial pattern called Stick Shift. I revised the measurements for what I had on hand. This quilt will be a charity quilt or a last-minute gift. I like it more than I thought I would, but I don't want to keep it.

The other two quilts I finished recently were (1) a charity quilt for my guild I didn't take a picture of, because I just quilted and finished it only, and (2) a gift I can't post for about six months.