Thursday, August 29, 2019

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!

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

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?

Sunday, August 25, 2019

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. 

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

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, August 5, 2019

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.

Saturday, August 3, 2019

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?

Friday, August 2, 2019

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.