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What a great book month! I read 7 books and there isn't a bad one in the bunch. My biggest surprise for the month was James by Percivil Everett. It was so outrageously hyped last year that it kind of turned me off and I returned it to the library twice before I finally broke down and read it. I'm glad I did. What is your favorite book that you read in March?  Devil's Kitchen by Candice Fox, Read by Kirsten Potter TLDR: Fast paced mystery about a corrupt firefighting unit in NYC. Andy Nearland has joined a fire fighting unit in NYC. This unit is a close-knit group of men and she's the first woman to join the unit. They are also corrupt and they aren't aware that she's an undercover operative. I have read Fox's Crimson Lake series and liked it a lot. I'm honestly a little tired of the unrealistic tough, but sexy, female heroine trope, but, even with from that, it was a fun read.  We All Live Here By Jojo Moyes, Read By Jenna Coleman TLDR: Really good women's fiction about life challenges and creating family. Lila Kennedy is a little busy. She's a writer in the middle of writer's block that probably has something to do with her recent divorce, the loss of her mother and her step-father moving in. She's trying to raise her two daughters who have their own issues with school and dealing with their father and his new wife. Things get even weirder when her biological father suddenly arrives in her life after years away. Everything is complicated. This is a story about finding home and family. The characters are very well developed and each one is dealing with his/her own challenges. I enjoyed my ride with this family. If you like this genre, you will like all of her books.  The Thread Collectors By Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman TLDR: Historical fiction focused on a slave couple from the South and a Jewish couple from the North. The war brings them together. It's 1863. Stella, a slave in New Orleans, tolerates her master. While he's away she stitches maps to help other slaves escape. She's in love with a black soldier named William but they must keep their illegal relationship secret. In New York City, Lily, a Jewish wife makes quilts and rolls bandages to support the war effort while her husband is away fighting. After not hearing from him for 2 months, she sets off for Louisiana to find him. Music eventually brings Lily and Stella together. I love the characters in this book and I got totally invested in their stories. If you like historical fiction, I recommend this one for you.  James By Percival Everett, Read By Dominic Hoffman TLDR: An excellent retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's POV I have not read Huckleberry Finn but may get to it before the end of the month. (Edit: I did read it as you will see later.) This is a very loose re-telling of Twain's novel from Jim's point of view. This book was all the rage last year and I avoided reading it because of the hype. I eventually gave in and I'm glad I did. Not knowing Huckleberry Finn, I had no preconceived ideas about this book. It was a completely new story for me. Jim escapes from his enslavement when he hears that he's being sold away from his wife and daughter. At the same time Huck has run away from his brutal father. Huck, a white boy, has always felt close to Jim and, after them meet up in the woods, they are comfortable traveling together. But they are both being hunted and just are trying to get down the Ohio river to freedom. The writing and character development is wonderful. I am sure that it will appeal to people with modern sensibilities who can't stomach Twain's original narrative. There is quite a twist on the slave story.  Queen Hereafter By Isabelle Schuler, Read By Sara Vickers TLDR: Even non-Shakespeare fans will enjoy this reimagining of the origin story of Lady MacBeth. I didn't realize until I was about halfway through that this book is the imaginative origin story of Lady MacBethad (MacBeth to the English). Grouch descends from ancient Druids and is the daughter of a a king who lost his lands. We are introduced to her at a very young age shortly before she is told by her Druid Grandmother that she will someday be Queen. What follows is the warring and intrigue of Scotland in the 11th Century. The writing is so good and the characters so well developed that I was 100% invested in Grouch and her life. People who like historical fiction and epic-like novels will love this one.  The Frozen River By Ariel Lawhon, Read By Jane Oppenheimer TLDR: If you love historical fiction, don't miss this one. Martha Ballard was a midwife and healer. She is known because she kept a detailed diary of her life from the age of 50 until her death. She delivered over 800 babies and never lost a mother. Her diary also chronicles crimes that happened in her community. The book is not true history but is fiction based closely on her diary entries, specifically a rape allegation in the community. The story opens in 1789 and is set on the Kennebec River in Maine. The river was frozen when a man was discovered under the ice. Martha is asked to come examine the body to determine cause of death. She deems it a murder but a new physician, freshly graduated from Harvard, declares it an accident. Many months before she had recorded the details of an alleged rape of one of her patients. The story covers the months when the trial is set to take place but also jumps back in time periodically to tell Martha's life story and other background for the current events. At the end of the book the author has an entry to explain the deviations from the diary entries and how she built the story. It was a great read.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain, Read By Tom Porter TLDR: There's a reason that Mark Twain is considered the premier American novelist. If you can get by the language and stereotypes of the time, it's a delightful adventure story. This was published in 1884 and is set in 1840 so you have to go in accepting that slavery was a reality at that time. If your modern sensibilities can handle that, it's a wonderful read. There were several times that I laughed out loud. I know that it was read often in school when I was growing up but I don't remember having to read it in my school in Bassett, VA. I expect that no schools require it for reading now and I wouldn't be surprised if the book isn't even available in school libraries now. That would be a shame because it's a great piece of literature. I admit that if not for James, I would have never read Huck Finn. I'm glad I read both.
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 I want to quilt some veterans quilts this weekend so yesterday I spent a couple of hours ironing a pile of quilt back laundry. I dyed all of these week before last and it was time to finally get them prepped. I'll get one loaded today with 2 veterans quilts. After my ironing session I was outside in the beautiful weather raking up pine straw and pine cones for a while.  Then I got the first of 8 leaf blocks done for the Oak Moth quilt. This block wasn't nearly as tedious as I thought it would be. All the HST parts that I've sewn already was, by far, the worst part. If I focus, I can get all of the leaf blocks done this weekend.
I ended the day watching the last episode of Reacher and doing some crochet.  I got all of my extra pieces cut and other pieces re-cut and all the white HST's sewn. I can start assembling leaves and stems today.  The only problem that I had was this fabric. I didn't have enough of this fabric to re-cut these pieces. I only had just enough to add a half inch insert. I think it will be fine in the finished quilt....from a distance.
 I was so pleased with myself yesterday. After some time outside I settled in for a few good hours of sewing before dinner. I'm working on the leaf blocks and I got the corners sewn on all of the top leaves.  Then I pulled out the rest of the 2" squares and started drawing the diagonals. A truly mind-numbingly boring job. Thank goodness for a good audiobook.  Finally, I could start sewing the corners of the rest of the leaves (HSTs). This is where the profanities started. First, I discovered that I only cut half as many HSTs as I needed which led to tie discovery that I didn't have enough of some of the fabrics to cut more so I had to pick some additional green fabrics. Not a problem.
With the new fabrics I had to cut the top leaf pieces again and that's where I discovered that the ones that I had already cut and sewn were cut 1/2" too short! Next thing you know Chris is coming in and saying "What's up with the foul language? Also dinner is ready." After dinner I finished all of the recutting so, hopefully, this afternoon I'll be back doing some actual productive sewing. Otherwise, all is well here. The weather is beautiful and things are blooming and greening up very nicely. We are still waiting on the last stage of our outside reno project, replacement of the porch railings. We thought it was happening this week but this week is running out quickly. It's not stopping us from anything except putting the porch furniture back. Chris is away this afternoon so I think I'll rewatch the Super Bowl while I sew. That will make me happy.  If I had bothered to post yesterday this is all I would have had to show for Monday. Mom and I went to see a friend's new house and I was late getting to sewing. I was so excited to get the first 2 moth blocks together when I saw that I swapped the antennas on the moths. I just turned off the lights and let it alone until yesterday. It was an easy and quick fix but I just wasn't in the mood.  After the block is made it gets triangles added to each side. The design is kind of genius because you don't have to worry about the seams being perfect. Once you sew the corner triangles on the block is then trimmed down to 10" square so it's a very forgiving pattern.  I settled in for lots of sewing yesterday afternoon and I got all of the moth blocks done and trimmed before I headed out for a neighborhood zoning meeting. these blocks are so cute! I'm so glad I decided to make this quilt. My neighborhood meeting was about a neighbor wanting to subdivide their 10 acre lot into 2 lots (8 and and 2 acres) so their daughter could build a house. Normally in this part of the county you could not subdivide a 10 acre lot but their lot used to be divided into 2 properties anyway so they are just setting it back to the way it once was. No one had a problem with it. I just love living in this neighborhood. We used to have one really cranky neighbor but he died several years ago. Now everyone else is lovely.  I am still making progress on the poncho and I still love it. I try to do two rounds every morning after breakfast when the natural light is good. It takes a lot longer now, there are over 230 stitches on a round now and about every 10 rows it goes up another 21 stitches. I'm getting near the end of the second ball and will probably use one more. I have enough for another project, I way overbought!
Today I just have some yard work and a run to Costco and then I can get on with the leaf blocks for the quilt.  About every 2 years we (Chris) clean the carpets in the house, whether they need it or not. They always need it and carpet cleaning day came this past Saturday. That shot almost a whole day of fun stuff but I was glad to get it over. The next time it rolls around we'll be replacing instead of cleaning. Then I had a Cricut project (below) that needed to be done for a birthday dinner. But, but Sunday afternoon I had some time to work on the moth blocks and I got all of the back wings done.  I'm ready to start assembling the moth blocks and should get on with that today.  Late last week we got invited to a birthday dinner for one of Chris' best friends. They went to college together so it's a really long friendship! We decided that some t-shirts were in order. I hadn't gotten the Cricut out in a while so I was happy to play again. I got all of these designs out of the Cricut library. Buzzy is what his grandkids call him. It was a fun evening.
Today Mom and I are going to see a friend's new house but I should have some time for the moth blocks.  I got some quality sewing time in yesterday and got started on the moth blocks. I got the antennae and wings done.  My approach is to do the same step in all 14 blocks. Next I'll work on the bodies. But first, today I have to get out the Cricut and do a few t-shirt designs for a birthday party tomorrow. But I should get more time on these blocks and get some veterans quilts loaded.  I also got the 2 veterans quilts and the quilt back blocks organized, stacked and ready to sew.
 Today at quilt club sewing I decided to work on this string quilt kit. I started it Wednesday after I finished the RWB blocks. Since this was still spread out on the work table I decided to just go with it instead of cleaning it up to work on the RWB quilt again. I got all of the blocks made and I barely had a half dozen strips of blue fabric left when I was done.
Perfect. I really like how this is looking and it will have the orange as the binding too. I'll put both of these away until I finish the Oak Moth quilt since it's currently spread out by the sewing machine. I expect that I can have all of them done in a few weeks. I have also been making a set of birthday postcards but I won't show them until May. These are for the men in my life and one of them reads the blog. I'll share these cards after his birthday. I'll be on vacation that week anyway so it will be a good to have at least one post that week. Today I plan to start sewing the Oak Moth blocks and get back to crocheting the poncho. My hands are feeling better. This weekend I'll be back on the longarm quilting some veterans quilts.  I mostly only work on veterans quilts on our club sewing days. I started these blocks in December but missed January and February gatherings. Yesterday I finished assembling the blocks and I brought them home to cut the sashing. Today I'll try to get it all sewn together and, if I have extra time, I have another veterans quilt kit there to work on.
 I had lunch yesterday with Mom and my cousin and then a friend stopped by for a visit in the afternoon so I never made it to the sewing machine. But I did get the pieces cut for the patchwork backing and I got all of the feedsack and repro fabrics put away. I need to change focus to make a birthday postcard but I'll start sewing moth blocks soon.  But today and tomorrow are sewing days with my quilt club. I've missed 2 month so I'm looking forward to getting back to it. I'll work on the RWB quilt on the left but I'm taking the string quilt in case I need to take a break from the first one.
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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