Since I Can't Be at the Retreat...

This weekend is my guild's winter retreat and I am super bummed I'm not there. All weekend long I'm looking at pictures of my friends hanging out and making things and I'm envious of the camaraderie and the opportunity to sew sew sew all day long.

I tried to make up for it a little bit though.

I spent yesterday at my machine learning Victoria Findlay Wolfe's technique for Y-seam-free herringbone quilts. The design's not the best and I picked those scraps to practice with because I didn't think I would miss them lol.

However it was fun and not even very difficult. Findlay Wolfe teaches the technique in her book Modern Quilt Magic.

I have a pattern from Etsy that uses this technique and I've already started picking fabrics for that- and of course I have a million other ideas for things I'd like to make with herringbones.

Then this morning before work I spent about a half hour working on a different project that's further along. I'll have pics and more about that soon.

What are you sewing this weekend?

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!