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Yay! May was a month full of winners! I can't even rate the books this month. I enjoyed every one of them. I had said months ago that I wouldn't read any more John Sandford but my husband convinced me to try again. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed Toxic Prey and I've already started Lethal Prey. What great books did you read this month?  Act of Oblivion By Robert Harris, Read By Tim McInnerney TLDR: It's historical fiction but about 85% real history. If you are interested in British History this is a time that's not written about often. The take starts in 1660 in England after the beheading of Charles I. Two if the regicides, General Edward Whalley and Colonel William Goff escape to America and the Puritan Colonies of New England. Ten years later the monarchy is back in power and the Act of Oblivion is passed. The 59 men that signed the king's death warrant are all found guilty. Most are dead, including Cromwell,but there are 2 missing. Richard Nayler is assigned to find the 2 missing men. The story takes place mostly in America and the point of view switches between Whalley/Goff and Nayler. It's a way to humanize both of them and to see both sides of the events of the time. It's a very thoroughly researched book and, if you are into history, you will enjoy it.  We Are The Brennans By Tracey Lange, Read By Barrie Krenick TLDR: Just a good book about family dynamics. After the last book, I needed something lighter and this recommendation from Carole fit the bill perfectly. Sunday Brennan has been involved in a drunk driving incident and has ended up in a hospital in Los Angeles. The hospital called her estranged brother as her emergency contact. He convinces her to come home too New York to heal. She hasn't been home in 5 years. She eventually decided to stay in New York and rebuild her life. It's going to take some careful work to rebuild her relationships with her brothers and to come to peace with her ex-fiance whos is now married with a son. Everyone has to confront conflicts and decisions from the past. It's fast-paced and a good read. It's not fine literature that you are going to put on a top 10 list but it's very enjoyable.  The Language of Flowers By Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Read By Tara Sands TLDR: A really beautiful book with some gut-wrenching parts as we follow the life of someone raised in the foster system. Victoria Jones was raised in "the system". She never knew her mother. At one point in her young life she was almost adopted by Elizabeth. Elizabeth taught her botany and about the Victorian language of flowers. At 18 she is emancipated from the system with nowhere to go. She sleeps in a park in San Francisco while maintaining a secret garden. A local florist sees promise in her and observes Victoria's natural gift in helping people choose flowers. Victoria finally has a possible future. One day, while at the flower market, she meets a vendor who has a connection to her previous life. It's a really beautiful book but it does reflect what I believe is the true difficulty of building a life after that kind of trauma and insecurity. There are decisions that will make the reader uncomfortable but it's a worthwhile read.  Famous Last Words By Gillian McAllister, Read By Emelia Fox TLDR: A very interesting mystery that kicks off fast and keeps going. Is a hostage situation exactly how it seems? This is my second Gillian McAllister book. I read Just Another MIssing Person in 2023 and I was impressed with how unique the storyline was. This book is another winner from this author. It's a special day for Camilla as the book opens with her taking her infant daughter for her first day of daycare and Camilla returns to her book agent job. But she's surprised to wake and see her husband is missing and he's left her a cryptic note. All morning she can't reach him. At work she's trying to get herself reacclimated when there's news of a hostage situation in London and the police show up at her office to see her. It's her husband who is holding the hostages. The story is very fast paced for the third that represents the immediate aftereffects of the hostage situation. Then it transitions to 7 years later to see how it affected Camilla and the hostage negotiator. Also,new information is started to come forward. I really enjoyed this combo mystery and love story. I couldn't put it down. It must be really popular because I recommended it to Mom and she has it on hold at the library and will get it in about 20 weeks.  The Jackal's Mistress By Chris Bohjalian, Read By Marni Penning TLDR: A Civil War story set in Berryville, VA from a new favorite author. It's 1864 in Berryville, VA where there's a lot of war activity going on. Libbie Stedman's husband has been gone long enough that she hardly remembers him. He's serving in the Confederate Army and is known to have been captured by the Union. She has no idea even if he's alive. Before leaving for war, her husband freed the slaves he inherited from his father. One freedman and his wife have stayed behind to work for Libbie running the gristmill that supplies grain to the Army. One day they find a gravely injured Union officer, Jonathan Weybridge, at an abandoned neighbor's house. She knows he's the enemy but he's also human. She makes the decision to bring him home and nurse him back to health with the hope of trading him for her husband. It adds a lot of risk to her situation. This book is based loosely on a true story and the author explains the background at the end of the book. I enjoyed it and will read this author again.  Toxic Prey By John Sandford TLDR: Lucas and Letty join forces to save the world from the pandemic to end all pandemics. A real page turner. A couple of years ago I read a Sandford novel that really disappointed me but Chris read this one and talked me into giving Sandford another try. He was right. This was my beach read and it was perfect for the beach. For the last 100 pages I had to go to my room to finish the book without distraction. Dr. Lionel Scott believes that Gaia is dying. He believes that the only way to heal the earth is to kill off about 80% of the population. Fortunately, he's an expert in tropical diseases and studied one of the most fatal diseases in the world, Marlburg. It's worse than Ebola. But, like Ebola, to burns out quickly so doesn't spread widely. Measles, however, is the most contagious disease and he's worked to combine both and is planning to deploy the virus around the world. Letty, Lucas, along with a cadre of other specialists have very little time to find and stop Dr. Scott.  Tartufo
By Kira Jane Buxton, Read By Caroline Hewett TLDR: A cute story about how a giant truffle might change the course of a dying Italian town. Mayor Delizia Miccuci has just barely won election over an old donkey. As she follows in her father's footsteps she learns how horribly her father ran the town of Lazzarini Boscarino. The town is bankrupt, the tourists no longer stop by and Nona Amara's famous restaurant is closed. Amid her despair over the fortunes of the town, Giovanni Scarpazza shows up with the world's largest truffle. This is just the opportunity that the town needs but it sets off a series of hidden animosities, secrets and jealousies. It's a good story with colorful characters and lots of humor thrown in. The donkey that lost the mayoral race is the most beloved creatures in the town and there's a bossy pregnant cat named Al pacino.
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 Yesterday was one of my 2 days to work the early voting center. This was my view most of the day. We had a grand total of 20 voters! I was not surprised. Primaries are always low attendance and the positions being selected are Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General so most people just don't care. This is just for the Democratic candidates. We did beat Wednesday which clocked 18 voters.  I didn't waste time though. I read my new Gluten-Free Sourdough cookbook and read some in a new novel.  I also listened to my audiobook while adding about 6" to the length of my scarf. It was a productive day, all in all.
Today I'm dyeing the fabric for my Eclipse quilt and making some sourdough. I haven't had any bread in over a week.  Believe it or not, this took HOURS. But I have forgiven them for the annoyance. When I made all these placemat tops, this was my least favorite design. Now, I think they might become my favorites. It sure was difficult to get here though. It all started because I chose a shiny thread.  I started with the straight line stitching on this machine. I know this machine hates free motion with "fancy" threads but it's usually really good with all other stitching. Not this time. I had so much thread breakage and I even tried switching to an embroidery needle. No luck.  Then I switched to the machine that I use the most. I usually never have any problems with this machine but the tension has been acting up and it's going in for service next week to have the tensioner rebuilt. It hadn't acted up in weeks so I thought I might be able to get the placemats done. I did get it through the straight line stitching but the tension started acting up near the end.  Then I tried the free motion stitching and it was a disaster. In this space the thread must have broken 6 times. I even tried a different lime green thread because I had 3 to choose from. So it was time to get out another machine. That didn't work either.  Then I remembered this machine. I never use it but it's a great little machine and I had to use it once on some postcards when neither of the other 2 machines would tolerate the thread I wanted to use. I did use the heavier of the lime green threads on this one and that meant that I had to pick out all the free-motion stitching I had already done. But it worked! The heavier thread also looked a lot better too.  This machine doesn't even have a free-motion food and I stitched it all without any foot at all. I just had to keep the fabric taught and my hands close in. It worked just fine but I'm going to buy a free motion foot for it.  Of course, if I had cut one big back and loaded these on the longarm, it would have taken no more than 30 minutes and my stitch pattern would look 100 times better. I'm really rusty at free motion on the sit-down machines. I have 2 more placemats to quilt and I think I will try to do them on the longarm because they will benefit from free-motion. It will be so much easier and faster.
Today I'm working the early voting center. I expect to get in a lot of reading and crochet. This is a democratic primary for lieutenant governor only so the turnout will be very low.  I got another pair of placemats quilted today. I have 2 more sets to go before I can bind all of them.
When i make placemats I have learned to quilt then pretty densely. It makes them much easier to wash and iron. The ones that I have made with minimal quilting just don't look as good after they've been washed a few times. This pair is made from some pre-cut HST blocks that I had in my stash. I had enough of the gray and back ones for just 2 placemats and I only had 2 dyed black napkins. Today's set is mostly purple. They are pinned together ready for stitching.  It's impossible to have a bad vacation with this view every day. We moved to a different part of the Outer Banks this year so it was a new part of the beach and a new house. The house was a bit smaller but much more of a traditional beach house and really well maintained. Everyone loved the change. We were in South Nags Head so it's about a 2 hour shorter drive and there are lots more things to do nearby. I expected for the beach to be more crowded but it wasn't. Even the weather was perfect. The highlight of the trip was having a 17-month-old child with us this time. Last year Cora was less than 6-month old and didn't handle the change of venue well. They went home after 2 nights. This year she was ready to party with everyone and was delightful. Pretty much all the photos I took were of her and I won't share any of those. I won't share other people's kids photos. But the highlight for everyone was Cora learning everyone's names and she called me "Ick Ick". My brother is beyond happy.  A friend of mine came down for a day to play golf with Chris. She brought the best kite I've ever seen. This octopus is GIGANTIC but really easy to fly. If you are into kites, you can get it here.  I didn't crochet one stitch while I was at the beach but I added a few rows to this shawl on the ride down.  On the way home I added some rows to the scarf. I started where you see the strings where I started the new ball of yarn.  Since I've been home I've been catching up on sleep and doing laundry. I finally got into the sewing room today and started quilting the next set of placemats. I'm at the point where I need to decide if I'm going to add some applique or some other element.
I'll probably work through the placemats this week. I will work early voting Thursday and will be dyeing fabric for my Eclipse quilt Friday.  I actually made these cards in March. These are the birthday cards for the dudes in my life so I had to wait to post them until my brother received his. He actually reads this blog occasionally.  This design started on the Cricut where I found this wolf silhouette. I first cut 3 of the big wolf and thought they were too big. I went back and cut 4 of the smaller wolf.  In the end I decided to use both. The moon is cut from a stash of fabrics that I had painted with metallic fabric paints. This one had a little bit of pink in it. The elements are fused on and are stitched with a zig zag. The moon is stitched with a silver metallic thread.  All I had to do to finish was to fuse on the wolf, fuse the back and edge stitch the card. I made 4 in the horizontal format and 3 in the vertical format.
 I did a little bit of beach packing yesterday but I also got these 2 placemats done. Honestly, I was pretty tired all day. I always exercise as soon as I get up in the morning and I exercise to YouTube videos. The one I picked for yesterday was HARD and it kind of wore me out for the rest of the day. But I still got packing and laundry done along with these 2 placemats.
These placemats started with the fabric in the middle. It was the very last bit of a shibori fabric that I dyed several years ago. I love making placemats and I have a big stash of dyed napkins. A friend gets a lot of donated fabric and sometimes people include linen napkins. Her charities can't use them so she passes them on to me. I dye them in leftover dyes and eventually match them up with some fabric for placemats. I have at least 100 placemats in my own collection that we use so I don't need more. These will go to Mom. She plays bingo at the local YMCA and they take donated prizes. She can donate these for one of the prizes the next time she goes. This might be my last finish of the month. Today we will go visit my brother and then I'll run errands for the beach. Tomorrow is packing and baking day. I'll make make bread and cookies for the beach.  I didn't post anything yesterday because it would have just been another photo of this quilt on the longarm and even I was bored with that. But now it's finished! This quilt is about 95" square. It was pieced by members if out quilt club and I think this will be the 2026 quilt that we donate to the Montpelier Center....unless someone has some other plan for it. All I really know is that my part is done! If it becomes a raffle quilt I'll have to buy tickets because it looks great in my new guest bedroom.  When I was given the quilt top, I was determined to custom quilt it. I hadn't done any significant custom quilting, like cross-hatching and feathers, in a long time. But once I really looked at it I wasn't sure that was a good idea. I consulted with my friend, Denise, who is a master quilter. She does the most beautiful custom quilting. She agreed that, on this batik, that the quilting would not show and recommended a pretty pantograph that would look good on the back. She was right. You can only see the quilting on the front in just the right light. Once this quilt is washed, you won't be able to see it at all.  But it shows beautifully on the back! The color of the back is darker than this photo and a much prettier blue. The camera insisted that it become gray. I like this leafy pantograph a lot. I don't use it much because it's a lot of work but it was worth it for this quilt. I'm happy to have this one done and I can return it to the group next month.  We are getting ready to leave for the family beach week Sunday. I didn't want to start anything new or big so I've pulled out the placemat tops that I made at the beach in April and I'll get started quilting on them today. After today I'll mostly be working on beach prep errands and tasks.
 Yesterday I was able to finish up all of the dyed t-shirts and tea towels. These 4 toddler shirts are for my Grand-niece and were done with the Cricut and heat transfer vinyl. The puppy is glow in the dark! The elephant and owl were pretty complex and I'm thrilled with how they turned out. The happy camper one was a great idea but the shirt needed to be darker for better contrast. I do like the tie-dye look vinyls that I found for the elephant and happy camper. It just works best with the black outline on the elephant.  This is the last one of the 10 that I made for her and it was the most complex because it involved 3 screen printing layers. It did not turn out great but I learned a lot. They can use this one to wash the car or something.  Then I did these shirts for my brother. I like dyeing shirts for him because I can use up my leftover dark dyes. This screen has been holding up great for a couple of years so far and this is the best printing result that I've ever gotten on them.  To do the screen printing, I cut the design on permanent vinyl on the Cricut and adhere it to the back of my screen. The designs come straight out of the Cricut library.  Here's one batch of tea towels that were screen printed with Color Magnet before I dyed them so these were finished in one dyeing step. There are two of each design.  These are the ones that I screen printed yesterday. The colors aren't quite accurate because of the lighting in my basement, but you get the idea. I have one more pair dyed that haven't been printed yet but they will get done another time. I have plenty for gift needs at the moment. That was all a pretty full day's work!  In other news, on Sunday I made my third loaf of sourdough bread. My second loaf went to my Mom. For this one I substituted sorghum and oat flours for the rice flour. It tastes closer to a whole wheat bread as I remember it.
Today I will get back to quilting the big quilt and start heat setting all the screen printed items.  Seashore Postcard This is my Mother's Day postcard plus the card for summer birthdays. Mother's Day this year is one week before our beach trip so I wanted to make a card for her in anticipation. I usually do something with a flower theme but I decided do dig into my Shibori stash for inspiration this time.  The only stitching was to couch down the yarn. The bird tracks came courtesy of the Cricut. I had a purple metallic that was perfect.  I was able to get 7 cards from the 2 fat eighths of Shibori and I had just enough of the purple vinyl to cut 7 sets of bird tracks so these cards were meant to be! There's plenty of the cream yarn leftover for another project.  Here are all 7 together. Mom got hers and my niece will get one later this week.
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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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