I feel like saying "Im back!". The last few months have been a little short of reading but I caught up this month. Having a vacation in the month was quite helpful at giving me extra reading time. My mystery favorite of the month was probably Locked In and my non-fiction favorite was definitely Love and Hate in Jamestown. The Last One At The Wedding is the only book that I really didn't care for....but not enough to not finish it.

What book recommendations do you have this month!

Homing
By Jon Day

TLDR: All about raising racing pigeons plus a lot of reflections on the concept of home.

I picked up this paperback at a thrift store to bring on vacation to read. I don't have any particular interest in pigeons. Truth be told, I find them annoying and nasty in city centers. But I'm always interested in someone else's quirky hobby and that's why I picked it up.

Jon Day grew up around people who raised and raced pigeons but didn't get into it himself until after he married and settled. There are two distinct parts of the book. One is his story of setting up his lofts and acquiring, racing and breeding his pigeons. The other part is various historical reference that are reflections on the concept of home. The narrative moves back and forth between the two. 

I'd say that the book is a gentle read but that, also, it's not going to be all that interesting to other people. After I finished it I offered it to the 3 other people staying with me and all declined.
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Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
By benjamin Stevenson, Read By Barton Welch

TLDR: A witty mystery with the main character narrating how he's writing the book.

Chris and I listened to this on our drive out West.  Ernest Cunningham is on his way to a ski resort for a family reunion that he doesn't want to attend. The Cunningham family has a sordid past littered with several murders and the killings aren't over. While telling the story Ernest (Ern) is also telling us about the mystery writing process. He even identifies up front which chapters contain murders.

It's full of sarcasm and the story twists all over the place. I did not see the end coming but I did have a little trouble keeping track of all the characters. That could be because I kept getting distracted on the drive. But if you are looking for a really different type of mystery, you might like this one.

The Collected Regrets of Clover
By Mikki Brammer, Read By Jennifer Pickens

TLDR: A sweet novel about grieving and regrets.

​Clover lost her parents when she was young and she grew up with her grandfather. After he dies, she becomes a death doula. She had dedicated her life to helping people pass peacefully through their last days. Meanwhile, she has forgotten to tend to her own life. She keeps a journal collection of the regrets of her patients but needs to examine her own regrets.

Eventually she is hired as a doula for a woman who send Clover on a trip to find a lost love. The process, along with the kindling of new friendships, makes her examine her own life.

I listened to this on vacation. A book about death doesn't seem like such a good vacation book but, strangely, it didn't seem like a book about death. I found myself rooting for Clover to break out of her shell and find her own life. 

All The Devils Are Here
By Mark Dawson, Read By Simon Vance

TLDR: #4 in Atticus Priest series. Best read in order to get to know the character back stories.

Atticus Priest is hired by an obnoxious client to find dirt on his ex-wife. She goes missing during the investigation. Eventually it's discovered that the missing woman is connected to a reported missing man.

The missing man is part of a group of 5 friends who have a secret that goes back many years. Chris and I listened to it on the way home and it was fast paced and kept us entertained. There was a part that involved a UK version of a SWAT team that was seriously ridiculous, but novels get that liberty. I like this series but, I have to say, that this is my least favorite of the 4 books.

The Last One at the Wedding
By Jason Rekulak, Read By John Pirhalla

TLDR: A book full of unlikable characters.

I did not like this book but I did finish it. Frank Szatowski has been estranged from his daughter, Maggie, for 3 years so he's surprised when she calls him to invite him to her wedding. Frank and his sister, Maggie's aunt, are invited to attend her wedding to a very wealthy man at the family "camp" in New Hampshire. Maggie helped raise 

This is the same camp where a local woman disappeared several years earlier and there are many mysterious activities throughout the weekend. The aunt is happy to be oblivious to everything happening around her and happy to ignore some behaviors from Maggie's past. Frank reminds me of the old TV detective Columbo in an annoying way. On the one hand he was trying to rekindle a relationship with his daughter, on the other he was snooping around the camp in place where he shouldn't be. Occasionally he shows some intelligence, like Columbo. 

Maggie is unlikable, her fiance and the family are all unlikable, Frank and his sister are unlikable and the little girl they are fostering isn't really adorable either. The ending was quite unsatisfactory. Many things were left unexplained.

​I don't recommend it.

Love and Hate in Jamestown
By David A Price

TLDR: This book is a real gem for American history lovers.

I picked up this book at a thrift store for $2 and it's the best $2 I've spent in a long time. As a Virginian, I was presented with a lot of Virginia history in my school years. Honestly, I don't remember much of it and I certainly don't really remember my lessons on Jamestown. 

This book is a comprehensive and unvarnished story of the founding of Jamestown and establishment of the early Virginia colony. It's an amazing story of survival in the most rugged of times by people wholly unprepared for the challenges. It's not terribly long and very readable for people who aren't obsessive non-fiction readers. I only live about an hour and half from Jamestown and will be making a trip there very soon.

As I was looking back at my reading log, I saw that I read another of Price's books over 10 year ago, The Pixar Touch is about the founding and evolution of the Pixar company and it was very interesting also.

Locked In
By Jussi Adler-Olsen, read By Steven Pacey

TLDR: This is #10 in a great detective series set in Denmark.

Carl Morck is the head of Department Q, a special investigative unit focusing on cold cases. A 15 year old case has come back to haunt him and he's been arrested and kept in Vestra prison without bail. He's being framed and soon learns that there's a price on his head.

The Copenhagen Police Department is not helping him, only his loyal co-workers from Department Q believe/know that he's innocent and are trying to help. Even they are being thwarted by the senior management in the police department. Rose, Assad and Gordon ignore orders and dedicate themselves to solving this case. The downside of this one is that it's set during the pandemic and the pandemic elements don't age well. In this book it doesn't take away from the story much, instead it's used as a tool for some of the activities.

I love this whole series. This one is #10 and, based on the ending, I believe it's the last in the series. It was a fitting ending. I absolutely love the characters, especially Rose and Assad. If you decided to give this a try, they really need to be read in order.

There Are Rivers In The Sky
By Elif Shafak, Read By Olivia Vinall

TLDR: Part historical fiction about the Epic of Gilgamesh and part an exploration of the theory of water memory.

This book is told through three main characters in different time periods: 1840, 2014 and 2018. The foundation of the story is the ancient city of Nineveh, the library of King Ashurbanipal where the earliest version of the Epic of Gilgamesh was excavated from the ruins. This text has the earliest mention of a great flood. 

In 1840, Arthur is a poor boy with a genius mind. He is able to build a career as a printer and he becomes obsessed with cuneiform tablets at the British Museum. He is able to eventually translate them and some of them contain elements of the Epic. His character seems to be based on a real person at the British Museum.

In 2014, a Yazidi girl named Narin is losing her sight. Her grandmother is determined to take her to be baptized at a sacred Iraqi temple near the Tigris. This is the time of the ISIS uprising and the slaughter of thousands of Yazidi people. 

In 2018, Zaleekah is just separated from her husband and has moved to a houseboat in the Thames. She's a hydrologist in London. She had been orphaned and raised by her very wealthy uncle. One day she happens on a book about her heritage homeland, Nineveh.

Their stories are told interlaced with the movement of a single drop of water. The water memory theory is ridiculous, of course, but it is something that has been studied and it adds a poetic element to the story. It's well written and the characters are richly developed. 

I had thought about starting a new quilt project yesterday but I stopped by the sewing group and picked up about a dozen more veterans tops for me and Brenda to quilt! We've had two snow storms in the past month so I think everyone had a lot of sewing time. Brenda and I are happy to have more quilts to quilt but I needed to get busy preparing some batting and backing.
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I hauled a big roll of batting from the guest house, through the construction zone that is my driveway and down to the basement. One roll of 30 yards makes 15 batting cuts and each batt makes 2 quilts.
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Then I cut up two bolts of backing. I have a few blue backs and I need to dye some more soon. I dye the blue ones because there are so many different shades of blue. I don't have to buy multiple bolts of different blues. I can dye some denim blues, cerulean blues and bright blues. I had three blue backs ready and used 2 of them yesterday so it's definitely time for more.

Next I started stapling backs to zippers to get them ready to load. The funny thing about the work that we are having done is that we don't have shades or curtains on most of our windows. My sewing room has 3 windows and no shades. We live on 10 acres so there's no one to look in. Except now. Today the siding guys were working on the side shere the sewing room is so I felt like I was a little in a fishbowl. But they were very busy so if they looked in at all it was only a moment and it was likely really boring.
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I got 4 sets of veterans quilts ready to load and one big backing for my friend, Becky. She makes beautiful applique quilts that she had quilts. We will bast her next one on the longarm this weekend so I might be able to get a couple of photos for you. It's spectacular.

Today Mom and I are going to Hampton for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show and Friday we are doing some family things. I'll see if I can remember to take some photos of my favorite quilts today.

One of the things that From The Heart asks for is wheelchair blankets. The optimal size is 27" x 36" and that makes them really convenient to make in either crochet or quilting. IO made these 3 tops over a year ago and just got around to quilting them this weekend. Yesterday I got the binding done while the workers were banging on the outside of the house. I think I might wash them before donating them so that they will be even softer and more drapey.
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The backing is a black-on-white fabric that I overdyed years ago. I even had enough to use for binding. For 2 of the quilts I used the back side of the fabric for the binding. I think these will appeal to some gentlemen and they probably don't have as many manly things donated.

​I don't know what I'm going to do today but it might be time to start something new.

Yesterday I spent some time out in the sun picking up sticks, visiting a friend and then doing some laundry. Just before dinner I was able to sit at the machine and get the binding on this quilt.

This quilt started with the leftover from The Big Blue Quilt. I really like how this turned out and hopefully someone at the VA hospital will love it.
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It's quilted with my go-to wavy crosshatch pattern.
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There's nothing like a dumpster with an integrated porta potty to get a party started. That's a darned clever design. Work starts on the house today. 

It took me a little bit of thinking but I eventually figured out what to do with those start blocks from my Great Grandmother. A lot of people suggested appliqueing one of the stars on the back of the quilt when it was finished. That's where my mind was heading too but there were 2 problems with that. The center of the start would still be very puffy and bulky. I also think that an appliqued start would have made the quilt less appealing to use. I want this quilt to be one that they want to use every day.

The only solution was to cut the stars apart because there was no way to make them flat and the centers were way too thick. I cut 2 stars apart and used a 60 degree diamond ruler to cut new diamond shapes from the star points. I'm really happy with this solution and I think it really shows off the vintage fabrics better. I printed the label in a diamond shape so I could just sew it into the back. I felt that sewing on a separate label would mess up the look of the back. I really like having it sewn into the diamond chains.  I'm show more photos when the quilt is done.
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It's very close to done! I got it quilted yesterday. Next it will go to Mom for binding. We are way ahead of schedule for the March 8 "sprinkle".
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I also quilted these 3 little quilts. I made these tops over a year ago and they are made to the size of wheelchair blankets. I don't have any veterans quilts to quilt right now so it was a good time to get these finished. This week I will get these bound along with the blue veterans quilt. 

The other big project this week is that we are getting new siding, porch railings, gutters, shutters and a couple of new doors installed this week and next.  A dumpster and porta-john are arriving today and the installers start tomorrow. It's going to be an eventful week.
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I didn't post yesterday because I didn't want to show yet another photo of this quilt in process. I decided to wait a day until the whole top was done. I got the borders and sashing done yesterday. I think the family will love it. Now I need to work on the back.
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Because the baby receiving this is a family member, I want to incorporate one of the blocks made by my Great Grandmother on the back. My original was simply to have one star floating on the back. The problem is that these blocks are incredibly wonky and the centers are very, very thick. Each diamond is foundation pieced so there are, at minimum, 16 layers in the center. With that on the back of the longarm I'm guaranteed to break a needle and get the machine out of timing. So I'm giving myself a day to ponder other ideas of how to use one or more of these blocks but I feel like it's got to mean that I'm taking them apart. We'll see.
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I also got all of my dyed fabrics processed and ironed. These are the veterans quilt backs.
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These are the parfait dyed fat quarters. Three fabrics are dyed in one container so I did 4 groups. The basic process is to put a fabric in the bottom of the container, add dye, then soda ash solution, then layer in the second fabric, dye, soda ash, and then the third fabric, dye and soda ash. I usually wait 10 - 15 minutes between adding dye and soda ash. 

In these sets, the fabric on the left was the first fabric, the middle is the second and the right one is the third. In the case of the blue I used a navy for the top fabric and that just over took all 3 fabrics. I still got some nice textures and I really needed some golds, oranges and browns for the stash. I like to do this technique when I have leftover or old dyes. It's always a nice surprise.

This baby quilt is coming along nicely. I got the pig and sheep done yesterday. 
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The last 2 blocks are cut out and ready for me to sew today. I might even get the whole top together. 

We're expecting snow today so, if the power holds, I might get the back made tomorrow and get this thing ready to quilt for the weekend. That would be awesome.

It wasn't much I needed some blue quilt backs for veterans quilts so I decided to spend part of yesterday dyeing some fabric. I hadn't done any dyeing since December so it took a few minutes to get myself organized. After I dyed 4 quilt backs I decided to use some of my leftover dyes to parfait dye some fat quarters. Each container has 3 fat quarters in layers with each layer dyed a different color. I always look forward to the surprise results. I've been using so many of my fat quarters in quilts that I need to restock some of my color fat quarter stashes.
 

Back in the sewing room I added a bee to my farm baby quilt. There are 4 blocks left to make: pig, sheep and 2 sunflowers.
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I got the pink cut out and it's pinker than it looks in this photo. For most of the blocks I have been able to use leftover fabrics from the original quilt. But for the pig I had to find new fabrics in my stash. As I finish each block I'm finally putting away the leftover fabrics from the original quilt. Today I will get the pig and sheep made and maybe get the sunflowers cut out.

Working on this quilt and dyed fabric today is getting me thinking about what my next project night be. I'd like to do something that will require me to dye a bunch of fabrics. I'll start looking through my patterns and web inspiration.

It was rainy all weekend so it was a good time to be sewing. I now have 4 farm blocks made and should have the top together by the weekend. The horse and cow are the most complex blocks so I tackled them first.
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I also got the two veterans quilts quilted. This one was made by Peg and I know that she had 4 more tops ready for us to quilt.  It's rare for Brenda and I to run out of quilts to quilt!
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Both quilts (Peg's and mine) are quilted with a wavy crosshatch. I default to that almost every time I receive a square based quilt. It's fast and always looks nice. I'll show my whole quilt once I get it bound.

This week we are on watch for a blizzard Wednesday or Thursday. We were supposed to get new siding and gutter on our house this week but that's been appropriately postponed. I think I'm going to take some time this week to plan an extra beach trip this Spring and to plan our 2026 winter vacation. That will keep my spirits up! 

I did get out and walk around yesterday and saw that all those daffodils that I planted in the fall are starting too come up.Maybe the general weather will start warming once this week's storm is over.
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OK, so I mostly wasted yesterday. I found out that the Philadelphia parade was shown on my local CBS channel so I had to watch it. No quilting happened but I did pull out this blanket to finish while I watched TV. 

It's a 24 x 40" wheelchair blanket for donation. I made it with Hobby Lobby Yarn Bee Soft & Chunky.  It will look familiar because this is the second one that I've made. 
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The stitch is the linen stitch with alternating single crochet and chain stitches. It's easy and mindless, perfect for watching TV. I used a K hook for this bulky yarn.
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Before I start another blanket project I will add the leftovers to a scrappy corner to corner blanket. These can be good pet blankets.
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My mail yesterday brought my Super Bowl t-shirt!