Month End Miscellany

Quilting

I have not yet posted pictures of the results of my December and January leaders and enders.  Mostly I have been working on emptying a couple of boxes of HST and triangle parts accumulated over years. Some have been given to me, some are clipped flippy corners and some occur when I use the Easy Angle Companion ruler to cut something like Flying Geese and use the Easy Angle ruler to cut the beginning and ending of a strip with the Easy Angle ruler. 

Well, anyway, first I make the HSTs. If there are four identical 2.5, 3.5 or 4.5 HSTs I turn them into Monkey Wrench blocks.  This time I ran across a baggie of 4.5 inch HST parts and turned them into 10 inch finished Monkey Wrench blocks. 

A few HSTs finished at 4 inches so I made those into Broken Dishes Blocks and they are an odd size so will go into the Orphanage. 

If I have two identical HSTs they get paired up with other HSTs for Broken Dishes blocks. That will be done with that pile of HSTs on the right.   The pile on the left of four identical 3.5 inch HSTs will be made into Monkey Wrench blocks. Both will be used as leader/enders in Feb. 

Again,  cleaning out boxes of HST parts - my leaders/enders...

Strips of 5 HSTs - some wonky, some weird sizes and all less than 2.5 inch HSTs. 

I've been collecting them in a box for my version of a vintage quilt. 

I think there's about 72 - 2.5 inch brown and white HSTs in this baggie. They are cut offs from Sunny Lane blocks. I swapped blocks back in 2015 and in 2021 I made more blocks for nice sized quilt and those are still in my SAR (Some Assembly Required) box.    I will probably add these to my Orphanage. 

For a long time I've made Wonky QSTs. 

I have a large flat rate box full of them I'm going to use as "made fabric" since they are wonky. I also have a center medallion to use in my version...

...of a vintage inspired quilt. 

Competition Quilt. about 1895. hand pieced cotton, silk, linen; hand quilted; machine stitched backing. Neusteter Textile Collection: Gift of Guido Goldman. 2008.406.

(Picture from Denver Art Museum)

I'm going to use my Wonky QST "made fabric" in place of HSTs. 

 In January the theme in my sewing space was KIDS! KIDS! KIDS! and I finished 20 comfort quilts for kids. These and some others will probably go to Bright Start - a program for women and babies on the Pine Ridge Reservation and to Maternal and Child Health on the Rosebud Reservation -- a program for at risk mothers and their babies through age 2.   

I also finished a hand quilted quilt for me and a quilt my husband claimed. 

By my calculations that used 95.6 yards of fabric. 

I have a tab at the top of my blog with my 2023 finishes. 

My theme for February is Hearts and Flowers (mostly Hearts) and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color pink.  So I'll be working with UFOs that fit the theme. 

January Reading List

The books I've read this month. 

Most of my reading takes place in the middle of the night on my Kindle when I cannot sleep. 

1.  Cold Is The Dawn by Charles Egan- the third book in the Irish Famine Series. I finished the other two books (The Killing Snows and The Exile Breed) of this trilogy in December.   I thought of my Irish ancestors while reading these books and the role religion and politics played in that historical period. My Irish ancestors were Roman Catholic.

2. Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. We all know the story. Again the role religion and politics played in this historical period. 

3. The Huguenot Chronicles Books 1-3 (Merchants of Virtue, Voyage of Malice, Land of Hope) by Paul C.R. Monk.  It has always been said that one of my paternal lines, Roman Catholics who emigrated to America from Ireland, were originally French Huguenots. If that is true I'm not sure where along the lines my line converted to Catholicism.  I'm glad I read this historical fiction.  I learned a lot about Huguenots and the role of religion and politics in the 16th and 17th century. 

4. Irish Boarding House by Sandy Taylor. Kind of a fairy tale but a nice story about a very kind person set in Ireland, 1952. I've queued up another book by this author. 

5. Judgement Day (Mike Daley/ Rose Fernandez Mystery #6) by Sheldon Siegel. I've queued up #7 in this series. So far I've enjoyed books 1-6. Daley and Fernandez are defense lawyers. Of course it always looks like there is no defense for their client; however, they always win the case. 

6. The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni. Good story. Ok. I admit that I cried a little. 

Gardening

I've sorted through my seeds. 

It's almost time to start winter sowing my seeds that require 60 day of cold stratification. Most of the seeds are for my native wildflower area. I'll start these in milk jugs and other containers and put them out on the deck where they can be exposed to the elements and sprout when conditions are right. Winter sowing simulates what happens in nature with flowers that self sow.   So through the next couple of months I'll be doing a lot of winter sowing not just of the native wildflower seeds but lots of other besides. I also start seeds under lights in a corner of my sewing room that don't work well for winter sowing in my area. 

I've done winter sowing for years. There never used to be much info on it when I started doing it but now if you Google "winter sown" there's lots of info on it.  Back when I started winter sowing I had come across a blog by Trudi Davidoff about it. I think she no longer has her blog but does have a public Facebook group with a lot of info.  I'm not a Facebook member (nor do I want to be) but I can see the Winter Sowers Facebook Group. There's a lot of info there! 

R.I.P.

My sister's husband passed away on January 7. My husband's brother passed away on January 29. It was one year ago on the 15th that my granddaughter passed away.   

And sew on...