Sunday Stash - Joel Dewberry True Colors

The other week was kind of amazing. First, my lovely novelty fabrics were in the mailbox Tuesday night when I arrived home from work. Then, early Wednesday morning, after I'd started my day at work but before Bunny had left for the shop the mailman delivered another squishy package. Early enough that I got text message heads up and spent the day at work agonizing over when can I go home and play with the pretties, and it may have earned me a few odd looks when I skipped down the hall to the bathroom.


When you have these beauties waiting, though, who wouldn't skip a little?

I'd been drooling over the True Colors lines for awhile, and while I like prints from each of the designers I find the Joel Dewberry collection is pretty far and away my favourite. So when the Intrepid Thread announced that their Black Friday sale would be for 30% off I just couldn't resist. I'd heard good things from across the internet about the Intrepid Thread and opening my package I was duly impressed.  Tissue paper packaging, a little bow, handwritten note and some little charm square samples? They have my business for sure.

I'd spent the week agonizing over which my favourites were, as I prefer to buy half yard cuts and wanted to limit myself to buying no more than 9 yards of fabric due to shipping. (That's not nine yards, as you can probably tell ... there will be more fabric to share later.) I really couldn't be more pleased with my choices.

Isn't that wood grain luscious? The purple has already been allocated to a specific project, but the others will be great to have on hand.

I was a little disappointed the yellow herringbone was out of stock, but I'm also happy with these. Pretty much I love that pink more than anything - it's so rich and saturated.

These two were the surprise of the bunch. I mean, I ordered them so I knew they were coming .... but somehow in my head the scale was much smaller. I think I may order more of the damask in other colours for backings. The deep pink scroll I almost didn't buy (thank goodness the yellow herringbone wasn't in stock!) but it's kind of become my favourite of the bunch.

Linking up once again to Finding Fifth for Sunday Stash. :)


Sunday Stash (the lucky me edition)

A few weeks back I won a giveaway from the lovely Sharon who blogs over at Fabric and Flowers for a gorgeous little bundle of novelty fabrics. Of course, I've been anxiously checking my mailbox since then until earlier this week (on Bunny's birthday, no less) I came home to a squishy package in the mail. After squealing a little and jumping up and down (because I'm clearly a twelve year old) and putting my coat away, I got down to opening up the little bundle of goodness.



aren't they the sweetest?

I see lots of fun with these fabrics in the future. Next time I have a baby quilt on my to do list these fabrics are going to come out very quickly - I see the sweetest little boy quilt, with a little bit of red and blue solids and blenders for settings and sashing.



 

 

 

Maybe some fussy cutting with these would be adorable. Rocky mountain puzzle or economy blocks could be sweet. And the faces! I love the little faces on the two prints just above.



I don't mean to play favourites, but ...
 

The only thing that makes me luckier is that another package arrived in the mail the next day, but you'll have to wait and see what's inside.

Linking up with Finding Fifth for Sunday Stash. (though for some reason blogger keeps eating the code for the button. But I'm done arguing with the internets and would rather go to the aquarium.)

review: the night angel trilogy

I promised ages ago that I'd share about this book and I've really been procrastinating. Probably because I started reading another series that I'm enjoying, and coworkers are begging me to take their advise on a third series after this ... but man was this a good one.

From some earlier reading, I already knew that I was a fan of Brent Weeks' writing style. And as I was working my way through The Black Prism I was instructed several times that I absolutely had to read the Night Angel trilogy if I enjoyed his writing. So, I scoured the used book stores in my area, to no avail, and then finally gave in and purchased a very large volume containing all three books for the trilogy. Good call, self, good call.

I devoured this. Stayed up till my eyes couldn't focus at 3 in the morning and I had to work the next day kind of devoured. The start took time to get going, which seems to be Weeks style. He sets the stage carefully, and it certainly plays out well later in the book, but beginnings aren't what I would call his strongest point.

There's a lot I'd like to say, but with a trilogy like this? If I say too much I'll easily spoil things. It's a well constructed medieval world, called Midycru that's comfortable to slip into from the get-go. There are multiple forms of magic. Well developed, distinct forms of magic. Which I actually think is quite masterful - it can be hard enough coming up with one cohesive system of magic, but to come up with multiple forms in one world? Colour me impressed.

The characters are strong and complex, with failings that allow you to truly enjoy them. The plot turns come at just the right time, and there were moments where I wanted to scream at what Weeks was doing to these people - he's not afraid to put his characters through the wringer for the sake of realism and story. Even better, it's not just the main characters that are compelling. The secondary and tertiary characters, spiralling out from the centre of the story are well developed enough that the story feels real. Although, Jenine maybe is a little two dimensional ... but she doesn't have too much of a role, and even when she does take up page space it's mostly to prop up to other, more major characters.

Weeks is equally deft with his plots and big reveals. Book three, in particular, has a few big moments that were just heart wrenching to me.

From his blog, it seems like one day we might get to read more of Midycru, and I'd be quite excited if that were the case.

bits and things

Hello! Yes, I do still exist, I promise. I've been sucked up into a vortex of sewing and being handed book after book by like-minded coworkers to read and somehow November passed me by with barely a post. Maybe I should stop apologising when that happens and just accept that life has overtaken blogging lately, and hey, that's cool. 'Cause, you know, life. It's a good thing.

So other than the obvious (sewing, reading, eating, sleeping) what have I been up to?

- I've been compulsively checking the mail box every few hours as I'm waiting for a couple of very precious parcels to arrive. Then I'll probably dance for joy a little bit.

- There's been a fair bit of tea and coffee drinking. Bunny and I picked up a generic decaf coffee for the occasional evening drink, and a few weeks back I got my paws on some amazing black tea pearls that I've been adoring for daytime drinking. (Seriously, if you're a tea drinking you need to find these. Maybe not for those who douse their tea in milk, but the perfect tea if you like a little honey or sugar. If you like green tea you might prefer this one - it's the only tea I drink without even a touch of sugar).

- I've discovered a new favourite pizza. It's wood fired, with pesto, mozzarella, bacon, potato, spinach and egg. Appropriately named the "Green Eggs and Ham". I don't even like eggs and I beg for this baby. (Also! We have a new, cheapish date place because of this.)

- Bunny and I have started Mission: Pad Thai. It's sad that we're having such trouble finding a decent pad thai where we live (to the point that I almost want to pick up take out to bring home every time we go to Toronto) and so we're planning to work our way through every Asian-inspired restaurant in town until we find something passable.

- I'm trying to decide whether to get my vacation paid out this year. I'll have used a whooping 3 days between my friend's wedding and a last minute decision to book off for Christmas Eve. Not that we're doing anything particular but it's our five year anniversary and I'd kind of like to spend it with Bunny.

- I have Christmas apathy. My mom wants to do big gifty things, as she usually does, but it seems so silly. So unnecessary, really - we're all grown adults in the family and the gift portion of Christmas is really probably a least favourite. I'm more of a surprise gifter - like hey! I found this amazing tea you'd like so I bought it for you. I'm looking forward to seeing my brother, though.

plodding along

Since Blogathon Canada is hopping through my part of the country today (uh, not quite today but better early than late) I thought that just maybe I should come up with a sewing post. Sound like a plan? Good. Next week I'll tell you about the book(s) that have sucked up most of the past two weeks of my life and taken all my sewing time. But now, sewing.

 

so many things to iron

I've been busy as a bee sewing away at these blocks. Thirty five blocks. If I'd been thinking I would have added in a lot more fabrics - sewing primarily the same five prints and patterns has gotten more than a little bit repetitive. But finally, finally I'm getting to the point of being able to see and end in sight.

they look a bit better after some pressing

The pile of blocks up there? I spent the better part of my Tuesday afternoon pressing seams on those babies. Then I moved on to the dining room and marked some seam lines on them (that is one extra step that hand-piecing requires that I could do without).



all ready for trimming and marking seams

At the moment these here are my favourites. Probably because they're my contrast blocks and thus they don't look exactly like the other thirty two things I've sewn. I'm looking forward to placing them in the actual layout and seeing that bit of pop. I'm also looking forward to figuring out what else I can make in the future with the black damask.

The most exciting part is that I've finished block #1. About thirty of them I just have one more seam to go, but there's about five with more significant work. Then sashing. Then backing. Basting. Quilting. This is kind of the forever project, or at least it feels that way.

finished block!!

hey look

Over on the right, do you see that?? I've never had a button on my blog before (though I've linked some posts with buttons). But this one is worth it. Because the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is hosting Blogathon Canada showcasing tons of awesome Canadian quilt bloggers.

why I need a baby lock melody

Today's day three of the chicken soup diet (aka, I'm sick) and so in between long naps, bowls of soup and catching some of the craziness on the news today I've been clicking over the Bloggers Quilt Festival and looking at all the pretties.

This is the first year I've really been following enough (too many?) quilt bloggers that I've really had a chance to get into the whole Blogger's Quilt Festival that's been running around that corner of the intrawebs the past week and it's been so much fun to see everyone's post and to look through the link roundups.

While I'm not quite ready this time to actually enter the a quilt in the festival (maybe in spring? maybe next year?) there is a giveaway going on that's just too tempting not to enter. They're giving away a sewing machine. A Baby Lock Melody to be specific ... and this girl right here? Very much in need of a sewing machine. And to enter all I have to do is write about why I need this baby.

Cause I'm still doing everything by hand and it's driving me nutso at times. I mean, there's a certain portion of my sewing time that I would just never spend on a machine in general - hand piecing quilts for the house, or for very special gifts, stitching the binding in the back. But man are there parts that I would love-love-love to source to some time spent at a machine.

A machine would let me whip out some quicker projects - like for my coworker who is having a baby - without having to put in a four-to-six month time commitment. And there are people who will cause bodily harm to me if my coworker's baby gets a quilt before they will. (Maybe I exaggerate. But they'd be pretty disappointed.) I'd probably experiment more with patterns and blocks - sometimes knowing you'll be sewing the same thing for four to six months makes the choice of the next quilt to make very difficult.

My list of quilts that I want to make is getting crazy long, and even though I have my next two projects ready to go (once I finish this top, I start a log cabin and after that it's some crazy flying geese) I'd like to be able to think I'll realistically get around to making them while the ideas are still exciting.

I could also try paper piecing. The paper pieced blocks I've been seeing lately have me swooning, but it's not a realistic thing to do without a machine.

I'm thinking I'd love to join an online bee, as well, but that's just not realistic without a machine. I mean, it's doable, but I'd probably drive myself bonkers.

I could try out fancier quilting. I'm amazed at a lot of the quilting that so many people do on their home machine and I'd love to learn how to do that part of the process with a machine rather than by hand.

Stitching binding down by hand? On the front at least I would really love to do that on a machine. I've started to loath that part of the process by hand, but at the point where all I'm dealing with is binding I'm not willing to give up on a project. I'd just like it not to have to be a three-week affair, sometimes.

Of course, if I don't win I'll be just fine. The vast majority of my sewing I prefer by hand. And if I won, I'd have to do some very creative reorganizing. I think maybe there's a cupboard by the kitty litter box that could just sit a little table and a machine right now? I'm also not-so-secretly saving large chunks of my personal spending money with the intent that when we move, I get to buy a machine. And Bunny keeps saying he wants to get me one for Christmas - he hasn't realized yet that that's just not in the budget.