I've been working on a quilt lately. It's the first I've done since I was a girl. My mother is an amazing quilter, and most of the women in my family seem to sew. Unfortunately I didn't become interested in the craft until I moved across the globe. So here I am, relying on vague memories and phone call questions.


One piece I'm working on, the one in the photo, is going to be a full sized quilt with three different block patterns (four of each), but I'm not planning to actually quilt it- that is, sewing designs over the quilt in order to bind it front and back.

I've finished putting the blocks together but I'm going to try to refrain from putting up more pictures since it's a gift in progress, and though I highly doubt he would read a blog I don't know that I'm ready to take that risk.

You might notice my incredibly cool fabric, not normally found in the average frabric store. I scoured the web for these fabrics, the math ones, and found a wonderful site called Spoonflower. Delivery takes a while but it was well worth it.

The second piece I've been working on is going to be a wall piece and I am indeed going to quilt it (It is also a gift and she is slightly more likely to see this blog so there are no pictures for sharing). Now, keep in mind, during most of my life my mother was quilting something. I have all sorts of memories of her sitting in the livingroom with us, a quilt in her lap as she holds the wooden frame and needleworks the design. But, and this is probably important, I've never done it myself. Not even a little. So for the past few weeks I've had that piece sewn together, back and batting cut out to size, and pretty much just been staring at it trying to decide how to start and what sort of design to quilt.

Where have I been lately, you might be wondering. There have been classes, sewing attempts, strange colds, and new recipes, but most importantly- I've been finishing the fourth book of Gail Carriger's five book series, The Parasol Protectorate.

I won't go into details because I would hate to spoil anything, but if you happen to be reading this and you haven't tried this series I really do suggest it. The books are consistently adventurous, humorous, and all around fabulous. Carriger has created an wonderfully entertaining series. Dirigibles, Stuffy Vampires, Werewolves, Mummies, and Tea. If any of that sounds interesting to you, give this series a try. The final book, Timeless, is supposed to be coming out in March 2011. As you can see above, they already have a cover.

 

Also, I suspect that the woman on the last two covers is the author herself. I only have her half photo in the book to go off of since I haven't actually looked into this theory, but I thought I'd note it anyway. Plus it looks like she's wearing the same outfit and hat in both covers, the colors have just been changed. Not that I'm complaining, just observing. The first cover is still my favorite.