2021 Reading Roundup

Another year, another book recap. 2021 was a pretty okay year for reading. I always had a book or two in my hands. I didn't finish any audiobooks; I'm still listening to the same book I was listening to in March 2020- Samantha Irby's Wow, No Thank You. I have about an hour left. It'll probably get counted next year and meanwhile audiobooks continue to stack up in my Libro.fm account.

I'm pretty satisfied with my total even if it strikes me as low compared to some years. I was trying to work my way through some short books, as well as alternating between books that have been in my stash for a long time and newer things that continue to trickle in. I still work for a bookstore but I haven't stepped foot in my workplace since the shutdown last year so I don't get the same access to ARCs that I used to, although I still can get some. But don't worry- I'll never run out of things to read.

That's my Christmas book haul. But on to the recap from 2021.

How many books read in 2021?

59 books in 2021, up 5 from 2020. 

How many fiction and non fiction? 

37 fiction versus 22 nonfiction. I was always reading one of each but the nonfiction books tend to be longer.

Male/Female author ratio?

27 male to 31 female plus one that I don’t know.

Diversity?

19 authors were people of color or about a third. At least 6 authors are Jewish and at least 10 of the books covered LGBTQ themes or characters.

Favorite book of 2021? 

Milk Fed, by Melissa Broder

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? Always, but I’ll never tell.

Oldest book read?  Nightmare Alley, by William Lindsay Gresham, published first in 1946.

Newest? My Phantoms, by Gwendoline Riley, to be published in 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Longest and shortest book titles?

Shortest title: Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell

Longest title: Jack the Ripper & the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect, by Robert House

Longest and shortest books?

Longest: The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fantonne Jeffers

Shortest: My Phantoms, by Gwendoline Riley

How many books from the library? 

None! For the sixth year in a row I did not read a library book.

Any translated books?

I read books or stories translated from French, Italian, Japanese, German and Spanish.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?

Apart from various locales in the United States including Los Angeles, Texas, Brooklyn, Georgia, New York City, Boston, Washington state and Oregon, I went to England, South Africa, Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Senegal, Japan, Argentina, Poland, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Tibet, India, Turkey, Kenya, Italy, China, Spain and Russia as well as the Discworld.

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?

I read two books by Melissa Broder.

Any re-reads? 

I re-read Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham and Made for Love by Alyssa Nutting.

Favorite character of the year? 

Marie de France in Matrix by Lauren Groff.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation? 

The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett. My husband recommended it.

Which author was new to you in 2021  that you now want to read the entire works of? 

Deesha Philyaw

Which books are you annoyed you didn't read? 

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read? 

I read all four books I had on last year’s list of books I wanted to make sure to get to- Outlawed, Lampedusa, Grotesque and Luster. I was glad to get to Radio Free Boston by Carter Allan and Savage Nights by Cyril Collard.

Bookish Events in Marie's Life: 

Another pandemic year and not a lot in the way of bookish events. I did enjoy NAIBA’s virtual conference and the CABS seminar I attended virtually in August. I am toying with the idea of becoming a rare book dealer at some point and I learned a lot from that program. 

Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2022:

• All of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman
• Vladimir by Julia May Jones
• Vernon Subutex by Virginie Despentes
• The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces by Susan Tomes

Christmas Scrappy Lattice

This is a quilt I made with more scraps from the same Fig Tree kit whose scraps I used for the Christmas tree I showed in my last post. The pattern is called Scrappy Lattice and it's by Bonjour Quilts.

I was able to go through quite a few of the scraps but there is still probably enough left for another small quilt. The quilt shop I bought the kit from gave waaaaaay more fabric than I needed!

The author gives fabric requirements for fat quarters and scraps but I think I figured out that you can use a layer cake too. I'm going to re-crunch the numbers before I cut into the one I want to use but I think it will work.

It's a fairly simple pattern that I think came out cute. I made the Baby size which comes out at 42x54 inches- for me this is a reasonable throw size. It's going to be gift along with that tree from the other day, for a friend who needs some holiday cheer.

I do want to make another with a Nordic-Christmas-themed layer cake I have; I'll let you know how it goes.

Modern Christmas Tree Wallhanging

This is a wallhanging sized modern Christmas tree made from the scraps of a very large Fig Tree block of the month kit that I completed a few years ago. 

The large quilt is still sitting unquilted; I suppose I will have to hand quilt it one day. It's pretty epic.

I also made a throw sized quilt from the same fabric but I don't have a picture to share with you right now. Both will be gifts this year for a friend who needs some holiday cheer.

I don't have the pattern name for the tree; I can't find it right now in my sewing room and I can't find the pattern online at all. It was pretty fun to make though it's a lot of organization of small pieces and careful work. It's a great scrap-buster project. 

Finally, A Halloween Quilt

Well I finally made a Halloween quilt. I had this fat quarter pack from Keepsake Quilting sitting around for like 15 years? Maybe longer? And finally this past fall I got it together and found a pattern I liked, from Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith's book Positively Pineapple. I used some orange and yellow print and batiks that I had in my stash with scraps of Widescreen by Caroline Friedlander and of course solid black. I love the way it turn out.

Here's a closeup on one of the blocks:

The Widescreen fabric is in the corners. I had a lot of fun picking out oranges and yellows for the blocks and then arranging them into the finished layout.

It's been a slow season for me. I'm still working on my scrap stars and I also decided to take on the City Quilt, which was a kit I purchased in 2014. Or rather, my husband gave it to me for Christmas after I strongly hinted that I would like it. The store, The City Quilter, closed several years ago so the kits are gone, baby, gone. I'm glad I got one! I finished the top today and will post something soon.

 

A Dino Quilt for Damien

I finished this quilt over a year ago; it was a baby quilt for a family friend. She wanted dinosaurs for her infant son and so I found a dino pattern and here it is. The pattern is by Made by Marney, here on Etsy.

It is foundation paper-pieced. Fabrics were mostly drawn from my Victoria Findlay Wolfe collection as well as some other things from my stash but Victoria's blues and especially the black and white stripe I used for the teeth seemed really fitting. I did not do the embroidery seen in the original pattern. The border fabric is an Eric Carle print that drew together the palette used for the dinos.

It was pretty fun to do though it did take a while. I quilted it with either Aurifil white or invisible/monofilament thread (I can't remember which), by machine. I used Quilters Dream wool batting for the little one to enjoy. Of course Eugenie had to photobomb. She's such a drama queen.

Finally Finished Something (Tiny)

So in my last post I told you about my herringbone; here is my miniature herringbone. 

The strips were 1.5 x 3.5 inches (I think); no pattern, just kind of winged it.

Here it is next to the larger, human-sized quilt, for scale. After I made the larger one, one of my friends teased me about my Baby Yoda obsession and said I should make a mini version for Eugenie. So that's what I did.

I used scrap of batting and Aurifil monofilament for the quilting which I did by machine. I learned that running a line of quilting along the non-jagged edge (the edge that gets trimmed off at the end and comes out straight) helped to stabilize that side of it for the binding.

I really love how it came out. The jagged binding is a bit of a hot mess if you look up close but that's OK. It would be fun to make a pillow version too. The colors are just right up my alley.

Partial-Seam Herringbone Quilt

 I finished my herringbone quilt, finally! I finished it a few weeks ago but just got around to posting on my socials recently.

I used scraps from the library quilt and some other fabrics that I thought would work- girly pinks and blues, fabrics that make me happy, and lots of scraps. 

I had always wanted to make a braid quilt but didn't like the type that has you cutting off the edges of each row to make straight sides. Boring! So when I discovered Victoria Findlay Wolfe's partial-seam herringbone technique I was determined to learn it. It comes from her book Modern Quilt Magic.

There is no specific pattern but the strips I used were 2 1/2 inches by 7 or 7 1/2 inches, I forget to be honest. But you can make the strips any size you want as long as you are consistent. You can even piece your strips as long as they are all the same size when you sew the strips together.

It took about 2-3 weeks to piece the top (maybe longer? I can't remember now.) And then it took me about 7 months of pandemic time to hand-quilt it. I used my favorite Quilters Dream Green batting and a fun red fabric for the backing.

I also took the opportunity of this quilt to learn to do the jagged binding because I didn't want to cut the points off at the top and bottom. That was actually not too hard but a little challenging. It was fun to have a learning curve at the beginning- the partial seam herringbone- and the end- the binding- of the process.

I think the herringbone would work well with a jelly roll, and it would work well with a collection of scraps. There is also a designer named Tina Curran who makes some great pictorial patterns with Victoria's technique. You can find her Etsy shop here. I've bought a couple of her patterns and they are sitting in my digital "maybe someday" pile.

Crumb Stars- Second Draft

This is the fabric I really want to use for my crumb quilt- it's the Japanese import cotton from SF that I mentioned in my last post about this project. I only have a yard of it so I have to make the smallest size, 40x48 inches.  That's still a decent throw size for me so that's ok.

I like this one a lot better than the solid navy; the geometric pattern is subtle enough to provide some texture and interest without competing with the crumb blocks. So I went ahead and cut up the yard into the strips I need. Feeling confident!

I may also be done making crumb blocks for this project; I have about 31 made and need 76 diamonds for the project but I can often re-stitch the scraps from a block into new blocks. That's the beauty and the curse of crumb quilting; it's a constantly renewable resource, but you can never use it up. Lol.

Special Saturday: A Guild Meeting & A Workshop

A very rare Saturday treat- I got to actually attend a quilt guild meeting *and* a special workshop.

My guild meets on Saturday mornings via Zoom and since I work Saturdays it's been basically impossible for me to attend meetings. But I asked for a day off this weekend to attend the meeting and a special paper-collage workshop with artist David Owen Hastings. 

Hastings is a Seattle-based fiber artist, gallery artist and graphic designer. The paper collage is one of his signature workshops.

We spent 3 hours stitching paper scraps to paper frames. It was pretty fun. It gave me a lot of ideas involving Christmas cards, maps, various bits of decorative paper I have hanging around. I used to have a stash of decorative paper but I got rid of it when I moved. But you can use anything- envelopes, magazine pictures, whatever you want. 

For my pieces I used a combo of origami paper, pictures from a quilting magazine and even a couple of bookmarks. When you cut the pictures down to small pieces (1/2 inch by 3 to 6 inches) you lose the picture and end up working just with color. It's no different from cutting fabric up into small pieces and getting different effects. 

After the workshop I went through a shoebox of paper stuff and honestly didn't find much I'd want to use. I want to do some kind of project featuring old book covers. I've made jewelry with old bookcovers and that was pretty fun. I can see doing an "art piece" or somesuch.

It was a fun day! Thanks to David and to our guild for organizing it.

Crumb Stars

I've been obsessed with crumb quilting lately, and after some back-and-forthing about what to do with the crumb blocks I've been sewing, I've settled (for now) on doing a version of Jaybird Quilts' August Stars pattern with my crumbs.

This is a picture of my test block, which I'm pretty happy with. I have a different navy fabric I'm going to use "for reals" but this gives me a rough idea of what to expect. I didn't want to cut into the other fabric until I was more sure, because I only have one yard and it's not something I can get more of. (It's a Japanese import I got at Britex Fabrics in San Francisco several years ago.)

Here are some more crumb blocks/ "made fabric" for the project. It's blocky because I don't love using triangles in these, at least not yet. Maybe that's something to work up to. 

This all started because my scrap bin was literally overflowing and I needed to get it under control. So I sorted out all of the smaller pieces and put them in a separate bag, where I can dip in and use them more efficiently. So far so good!

2020 Reading Roundup

How many books read in 2020?

I read a sad 54 books in 2020. Waaaay down from last year's 71. I attribute this to Covid; no commuting after March meant no subway books, and no audiobooks. 

How many fiction and non fiction? 35 fiction versus 19 nonfiction. No audiobooks after March meant a steep decline in that category and the nonfiction I read at home tended to be longer books than the fiction.

Male/Female author ratio? 29 female authors versus 23 male and 1 nonbinary (that I am aware of).

Diversity? Of 54 authors 19 were people of color and 8 books covered LGBTQ themes.

Favorite book of 2019? 

I loved Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker and Funeral Diva by Pamela Sneed.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? Always.

Oldest book read? 

August Folly, by Angela Thirkell, originally published in 1936.

Newest? 

Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend, by Ben Philippe, due out later this year.

Longest and shortest book titles?

Shortest title: Meaty, by Samantha Irby
Longest title: My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, by Jenn Shapland

Longest and shortest books?

Longest: The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante
Shortest:  The Famous Magician, by Cesar Aira

How many books from the library? 

None! For the fifth year in a row I did not read a library book.

Any translated books?

I read books or stories translated from Spanish, French, Italian, Korean and Swedish. This year I read the fewest translated books in probably the last 15 years. Weird.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?

I went to Colombia, France, Italy, North Korea, England. Nigeria, Ireland, Sweden, Scotland, South Africa, Russia, Kenya, China, New Zealand, all over Polynesia, Argentina, Thailand and several fantasy worlds as well.

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? 

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers. I last read it in high school; it definitely held up. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

Favorite character of the year? 

Giorgio Pellegrini from Gang of Lovers.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation? 

The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula LeGuin. My husband recommended it.

Which author was new to you in 2020 that you now want to read the entire works of? 

Kristen Arnett

Which books are you annoyed you didn't read? 

Lampedusa by Steven Price.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read? 

No. I was sort of picking from the shelves at random.

Bookish Events in Marie's Life: 

There were no bookish events in my life except for my job. I continued my job which changed and changed again over the course of the year. I pivoted from a part time paperwork job to a fulltime ecommerce position, rode the waves we experienced as a business and washed up on the post-holiday shores exhausted but happy and grateful.

Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2021:

• Outlawed by Anna North
• Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
• Lampedusa by Richard Price
• Luster by Raven Leilani