still zigging

Tags

audiobooks, roy g. zig, string fever, washi dress

I’m back from Phoenix and East TN…

and I spent Thursday and Friday working like mad to finish the last 22 blocks I needed for my “Roy G Zig” quilt. The top has to be done by Friday to enter in Rachel’s String-A-Long contest/giveaway! I was worried but now I think I might make it. (Though really, I think my Sunday Morning quilt also qualifies.)

A revelatory sidenote: though these blocks are super-fun and -relaxing to make, there are a lot of them to crank through (I made 56 for a throw size). When I held my 100th post giveaway a few weeks ago, I asked people to recommend a book. Several folks recommended listening to audiobooks while quilting. Beth @ Plum and June recommended, in particular, Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic, which, frankly, did not sound like my kind of book at all, but I gave it a try and it. was. so. awesome. It’s about the assassination of James Garfield, but is so fascinating. I probably made 20 blocks before it ended!

Then, on my own, I found Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, available as an audiobook from my library through Overdrive, which I’d meant to read after enjoying Gone Girl last summer. I’m 3/4 of the way through and told my husband last night that I wished I had more laundry to fold so that I could finish listening to it instead of watching TV. Yep.

I love quilting, but have been a little sad that it’s cut into my reading time. Audiobooks, though–you can cut, sew, iron, whatever. Awesome. Do you listen to audiobooks while you sew? Do you have any specific recommendations? (I’d be especially interested in hearing about books you think are good AUDIObooks–some are much better than others.)

/pointless interlude. Here are my Zig blocks laid out:

I’m supposed to give this away, BUT. We’ll see!

Also on the strong-a-long front: Marla @ Sew Hungry wrote an awesome String-A-Hex block tutorial that I’m hoping will help me eliminate this pile:

 

This is way more string scraps than I thought I’d be left with after finishing 56 Ziggy Strings blocks! They’re mostly uglies, so I am super-ready to part ways with them. String-A-Hex next?

Well, after I do some more Washis.

 

Top print is a Kokka strawberry print from Trefle, which I bought from Pink Castle’s Skinny Sale (holy moly, an insane deal I got on this stuff, and it already came!). It’s going to be a Washi for my mom if I have any self-control at all. Bottom print is from Sew Fresh Fabrics, and it’s a Lizzy House Constellations print. For another me-Washi. 🙂

Enjoy your long weekend! I hope you are doing better than picking paper off zig blocks while it is 45 degrees and raining cats and dogs. Not that I know anything about that.

monday thoughts, mid-march ed.

Tags

and then it's spring, magnolia society, quilty

Instead of thinking about the snow (!!) we’re due to get tonight into tomorrow (March, you’re on my list too), I’m determined to think happy spring project thoughts. Ready to think spring with me?!

In my mailbox on Friday was the MA issue of Quilty. Love this new magazine by Fons and Porter! It’s filled with do-able projects–some of which are, yes, less “modern” than others, but that’s a minor flaw I’m willing to overlook because it’s a new magazine aimed right at young quilters like me! Already I’m thinking of overlooking piles and piles of wips (ahem FEATHER BED) in favor of this:

How funny it is that the ranunculus I bought on Friday outlasted the tea roses I also bought on Friday! Mums, of course, are cut-flower champs, but I’m so happy the pink ranunculus are hanging around.

This yarn wants to become this sweater. It asked. Politely. Madelinetosh yarn, of course, from the March shipment of the Magnolia Society, which I joined in a moment of real snow-related weakness. It’s a new base, Tosh Mo Light (merino-mohair, I think), and the color is called Moth. Perfect for a spring cardi. I may be overly ambitious, but my Holden shawlette is coming along so beautifully, and really, I could’ve made my February Lady Sweater work if I had been feeling more into it. I think I can cardi, ya’ll. 

Lucy and I have been reading this book obsessively for about three weeks. Here is a super-cute book trailer that is well worth one single minute of your still-brown March. I get choked up at the end when the whole world goes green. Every time. I also get a little teary reading “there are seeds and they are trying.” Oh my.I’m also thinking about how nervous improv piecing makes me, as I’ve got to do three big improv panels for the backing of Glam Garlands. Terry cloth is also making me a little faint, and I’m really ready to take on a FMQ challenge for a little pillow cover. All coming this week!

If we all think thoughts of spring, maybe it will come?! Good Monday to you all.

also

Tags

books, Eleanor Catton, knitting

I read, a little. (Or lots.) Did you know? I find I haven’t checked the “books” box on this blog often enough lately. Probably because I haven’t felt particularly inspired by anything I’ve read lately. Oh sure, sure, there was Gone Girl and Marjorie Morningstar, both of which I sort of put off posting about while I chewed on what I felt about them, both separately and together.

But last night I bit my husband’s head off because he disturbed me while I was trying to finish a book. The nerve! Could only mean one thing: I was deep into a really, really good one.

‘Oh, but why can’t the two girls just perform a duologue about themselves?’ the saxophone teacher says, enjoying herself. ‘A play written for two girls.’

‘There aren’t any,’ Julia says. ‘There aren’t any plays about two girls. There aren’t any roles like that. That’s why you have to pretend.’

The Rehearsal, by Eleanor Catton, is the kind of book I wish I had the talent to write. It’s intimate, about women without being domestic (so rare and difficult to pull off!), and is just slightly odd and off-kilter. At the heart of the plot is an affair between a male teacher and a 17-year-old female student. The book is fallout: people close to the affair, people far away from the affair, talking, writing, performing, reacting to what happened between Victoria and Mr. Saladin.

The narrative shuttles between a saxophone teacher, whose students have been more or less touched by the affair, and an 18-year-old boy, a drama student across town. Both figures are guideposts for the other characters, while being pretty confused themselves about how they fit into their own lives. As the characters from the two spheres start to interact, the story both comes together and starts to unravel.

I loved most the descriptions of female adolescence, of girls relating to other girls, to adults, to boys, and to men. Catton’s two years younger than I am (!!) and she seems to remember well what it’s like to grow up smart and observant in a sea of hormone-addled peers. Instead of skewing sentimental, as so much writing about girls does, Catton stays sharp, clean, and poised, and the book is unusual and refreshing for it. Also, it is brilliant.

(See the snarled pea-green yarn knots? I’m also trying to practice my knitting so that one day I can make one of these gorgeous cowls that everyone else seems to just oh la make for themselves. It’s going to take a LOT of TV time for me to get that good. 🙂 )

recommended reading (lucy edition)

Tags

baby, books, childrens' books, kids' books, reading

Whoo boy. I just might have messed up my kid. Just a little.

(No, not her face. She messed that up herself. Yesterday. At the park. On the asphalt, throwing a tantrum so intense that she BARFED. And then scraped up her face. Yeah. We’re still reeling. Given that the kid has a 50+ word spoken vocabulary, tries to sing along to the ABC song, understands 120% of what we say to her, and has the two most stubborn willful people on the planet as parents, we suspect the Terrible Twos have just begun a little early. My mom claims I started them at 18 months, and we’re close to that.)

This kid is a READER. In an intense way. This kid would rather be read to than watch TV. She’d rather be read to than eat. If she had to choose between oxygen and one more go at The Cat In The Hat…well. Let’s be glad she doesn’t get to make that call.

Here are some weirdo non-classic kids’ books that she totally digs right now:

Here Comes the Cat, Frank Asch and Vladimir Vagin (please be more mature than me and don’t giggle at the authors’ names. They didn’t ask for my immaturity. Or yours). When we got this from the mail from McSweeney’s, I basically grunted and put it way up on the top shelf. The only text in the whole book is “Here comes the cat!”, which a bunch of little mice run around shrilling at each other until, well, the cat comes. Then the cat leaves. Riveting. But to a 17-month-old? This stuff is fascinating. Lucy finds the book especially fascinating if you read “Here comes the cat!” in your shrillest mousiest voice. The pictures are also lovely with lots of detail and movement.

Bink and Gollie: Two for One, Kate DiCamillo, Alison McGhee, Tony Fucile. I’ve discussed this book before so I will just say that this book has been promoted from “one Dad reads at bedtime because he likes it but Lucy would way rather read The Monster At The End of This Book again” to a book that Lucy slings at us, over and over again, hooting and whimpering until we read it again. Why? I think she likes the part where the woman and the cat “sing” at the talent show. I think she loves understanding the pictures where the Whack-a-Duck man gets honked in the face with a baseball. She loves finding Bink and Gollie in any of the pictures. I’m glad I bought the hardcover, because her ARC is going to bite it any day.

I Must Have Bobo!, Eileen Rosenthal, Marc Rosenthal. Holy cow. We got this book from Amazon on a Thursday. By Friday morning, Lucy was spending half an hour at a time on the floor with this book, shouting “Gibberish burble blub BOBO!!!” She’d hold up her hands, look at me pleadingly, and say, “Bobo?!?” And then she’d shout “EARL!” Seriously. The plot of this one is also simple, but the drawings are line-based, comic-book-ish drawings (think Tin Tin). A little boy, Willy, wakes up missing his sock monkey, Bobo. The prime suspect is the family cat, Earl. Hilarity ensues.

Don’t get me wrong, we do our share of The Bear Snores On, Where’s Spot, and Elmo’s entire literary oeuvre. Lucy’s taught me, though, not to automatically decide she’s too little or too young to understand some more big-kid type books, and she has gotten so much more enjoyment out of these “real” books lately than she has her old board books. I’d encourage any parent of an 18-month-old to branch out. I’m thinking we might even try some poetry with her next?

Any weirdo kids’ books your baby loves that you’d love to recommend? I love buying books other people have enjoyed and raved about.

reading notes

Tags

book reviews, books, reading notes

I find vacation reading very tricky. In general, I don’t enjoy stereotypical “beach reading.” I’ll never read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, nor James Patterson, nor, probably, any of those Something Borrowed books. I’m embarrassed for Jennifer Weiner every time she postures and poses and tries to take on Jonathan Franzen. This is not to say that I want to take Jonathan Franzen on vacation! (I generally don’t enjoy Jonathan Franzen much more than Jennifer Weiner, truth to tell.) I get stuck between wanting to read something with substance, while also wanting to read something that will truly entertain me. One of my favorite feelings in the world is the feeling of being aggravated every time I have to put my book down and, you know, enjoy my vacation.

Sometimes I succeed when I choose my vacation reading. More often, I fail miserably. I think this particular vacation’s reading was a whopping success, even I didn’t love every book I read. Find out which book I will be shoving in every aquaintance’s face for the rest of the year, after the jump:

reading notes

Tags

book reviews, books, reading notes

I’m a library addict. It’s official. The woman who works the circ desk at our local library sees me coming (every four days or so. What? I run out of material) and heads for the hold shelf. It doesn’t really help my anonymity that I carry around the world’s baldest, toothiest, grinniest blond toddler. Oh, us book types. We’d rather be left alone to read, but are forced into interactions with humanity because we keep running out of dadgum books to read. (Sometime ask me about my relationship with the UPS guy who brings all my Amazon Prime loot.)

As I mentioned yesterday, we just went South for a week’s vacation. So, of course, about four days before we left, all of my book holds came in allatonce. I had a huge pile of library books to finish before we got on the plane, because taking library books on vacation makes me feel squicky.

I say all this like I’m trying to justify the number of books I have to talk about this week. As if I ever need to justify myself about the number of books I read. Part I follows the jump:

Review: Modern Patchwork, Elizabeth Hartman

Tags

book review, modern patchwork, quilts

I’ve been enjoying my prize, signed-by-the-author copy of Modern Patchwork for a week now. It lives on my pile of quilt inspiration books on the table in my bedroom, and it’s actually displaced Denyse Schmidt’s Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration in the top stack spot. That, my friends, is the highest kind of praise.

Hartman’s blog, Oh, Fransson! is one of my favorite quilt blogs. Hartman’s style is so different from my own. She’s a strict quilting modernist, with an occasionally whimsical representational side. (Her newest pattern, Refrigerator Magnets, is exactly what I mean.) I enjoy her style because it’s so refreshing to look at different things. I’d never dream of the quilt designs she comes up with, and her approach is very unique. Lots of quilters say they’re modern quilters, but rely on classic blocks made in modern fabrics to get where they’re going. Not Elizabeth Hartman. She’s absolutely unafraid to come up with new blocks, new designs, new ways to think about the quilt.

This book, her second, is full of new quilts. My husband enjoyed paging through and picking out quilts he liked. He says they remind him of IQ tests, where you have to figure out the emerging pattern and guess which block comes next. He chose the most challenging quilt in the book–Escape Artist–as the one he’d like most to have. I promised I’d at least consider making a queen-sized version for our putative new bed in our putative new home this winter fingerscrossed. Even though this quilt looks terribly challenging, Hartman’s written some beautifully detailed instructions and diagrams, and I feel like I can just about get my mind around the project with her help.

I also think Hartman is great at helping quilters with the basics without seeming condescending. This book is meant as a next step for intermediate quilters, quilters who feel they’ve conquered the basics of patchwork and are ready for some challenge quilts. And then there’s me: I live for a quilt challenge, but don’t really have all my basics down, because I am so self-taught. Hartman’s helpfully included sections on basic techniques (pinning! I’ve already changed the way I pin my blocks at her suggestion, and oh my gosh what a difference) and fabric choices, illuminating some of the aspects of quilting I find most difficult.

In short I’d recommend this book, even to a beginning quilter, because it’s a fresh, new look at quilting. Hartman’s pushed the boundaries of modern quilting past their simple beginnings (please, please, no more wonky log cabins), and I feel much more ready to take on my first real “modern” quilting project with her guidance.

reading notes

Tags

a gay and melancholy sound, anthony powell, book reviews, books, mary wesley, nancy pearl, reading notes, the healing, treasure island!!!

It’s summer, and still, to me, that means time to laze on the sofa with a tall stack of (library? they’re free! and they take them back and put them on their own shelves!) books and unlimited Diet Cokes, for days at a time.

Alas, I can’t quite convince Lucy that’s how summer should go. I’ve still managed to work in some reading in the evening time I usually spend watching TV. Funny how many books I’ve managed to read since summer TV started; perhaps I should reprioritize when real TV comes back? Ho hum. At any rate, some notes on recent reads:

without question

Tags

bink and gollie, book review, books

Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo (yes, of Despereaux fame), Alison McGhee, and Tony Fucile was our FAVORITE picture book of 2010. Nathan loves the comic-like structure of the books, and the way that the pictures are often allowed to narrate the action. I love that Bink and Gollie are ordinary girls. They aren’t princesses. Or superheroes. Or even pigs with long ears, big mouths, and impressive wardrobes. They’re just girls, and they’re just best friends.

So when a friend who works at Candlewick Press scammed Lucy an ARC of the sequel, Bink and Gollie: Two for One, I squealed a little, fawned a lot, and thanked profusely. (And then, like a nut, I pre-ordered the hardback because, seriously, the ARC is not going to stand up to the kind of wear it’ll get around here.) Two for One pubbed yesterday, and it’s well worth $15.99 of your children’s-book budget. Bink, a short, round, blonde ball of energy, and her best friend, brunette, well-spoken, slim Gollie, go to the state fair. There, they lose at Whack-a-Duck (though, boy, that carny running the game gets the worst of it), work through a mild case of stage fright, and have their fortunes told.

As in the first book, it’s not the situations themselves that make this book charming, though there’s plenty of cheap physical humor for easy laughs. Not only are Bink and Gollie ordinary girl characters, but they have an ordinary little-girl best-friendship. Their friendship isn’t without its hiccups (“It’s a compromise bonanza!” Bink declares in the first book), but it’s a stronger friendship for those hiccups. When Bink beans the carny, Gollie’s there to support her. When Gollie opens and closes her mouth like a fish instead of bursting forth with talent at the amateur talent show, Bink drags her out of there to an impromptu, audience-of-one talent show in a neighboring barn. Naturally, when the girls have their fortunes told, their futures are, “without question,” intertwined.

It’s hard work to raise a little girl. It’s even harder work to raise one who’s not some kind of princess-pink-vomiting Gossip Girl-Mean Girl drone. Lucy’s a little young yet for Bink and Gollie, but it’s the kind of book I’ll keep reading to her and putting in her hands as she grows. Ordinary girls deserve good friendships, good role models, and good books. Bink and Gollie: Two for One is one of the good ones.

goodies

Tags

fabric, modern patchwork, quilts, tabslot

Look at those goodies! Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! held a series of giveaways a couple of weeks ago to celebrate the release of her new book Modern Patchwork. I’d had her new book on my Amazon wishlist for months, but was lucky to win a giveaway copy, plus three little fat eighth Kona solid bundles AND (total awesome bonus win) thick high-quality plastic templates for making Hartman’s Fire Drill quilt. The thick templates come from Tabslot, and though I haven’t worked with them yet, they are so thick and durable that I can tell template cutting won’t be the nightmare chore it usually is.

The only questions now are: 1) how soon can I buy a whole bunch of lovely red-and-orange prints to make my own Fire Drill quilt using these templates, and 2) what should I do with these cute solids bundles? There’s not quite enough yardage to make full-scale versions of the quilts from Hartman’s book. And I know they are supposed to be three distinct little bundles, BUT get this:

BWA HA the colors all “go” with my purple-lime-yellow-orange Crate and Barrel kitchen towels that I love love. Maybe it’s time for some ric rack napkins? Or a new sofa quilt (so that we can stop putting so much wear on our current sofa throw, which is the one and only quilt of my Granny’s that I own)? Or, perhaps most tempting, some new throw pillows in big bold solid triangles?

At any rate, between the templates, the book, and the Kona fabric treats, this little bundle from Oh, Fransson! should keep me inspired for some time. Thanks, Elizabeth! (Stay tuned: book review of Modern Patchwork tk 🙂 )