A Quilt for Tracy

 This one won't go on Facebook until late in 2021.  Why?  Because my sister-in-law won't receive it until Christmas of 2021.  Don't ask me.  I just make 'em.

My beloved bride wanted me to make a quilt for my sister-in-law, Tracy.  She found some Michigan State fabric.  Apparently, Tracy is a fan.  Who knew!

I wasn't sure what I wanted to make and as time was short at the end of the year, I opted for a pretty standard approach.  I used a solid block of material alternated with a 9-patch of fabrics.  

We had four different fabrics.  I created a mix of three-square strips and then semi-randomly assembled sets of those strips into a 9-patch.

The result was pretty easy as well as visually interesting.

Now my beloved bride always thinks that the back of a quilt should be "soft".  "Soft" fabrics like flannel or fleece are a bear to work with as they aren't dimensionally stable.  They will stretch if pulled.  A stretch back means that the front will pucker when the back is allowed to relax.  Alternatively, if you don't have enough tension on the back, then it will pucker.

I'm not terribly happy with the back on this quilt.

In any case, don't anyone tell Tracy. We wouldn't want to ruin next year's Christmas for her!

A modest update.  Christmas 2021 came and went with the quilt not being presented.  Why, you may well ask.  Because I found out late in the season that a quilt was also needed for my other sister-in-law, Holly.  I just didn't have the time to get that second quilt completed.

But this is a new year and quilts have been gifted.  Here is Tracy with hers.

Tracy with her quilt.  Click to embiggen.

A Quilt for Baby Rose

 Another nephew and his beloved bride decided to have a baby this year.  They are doing it the old-fashioned way and are waiting for the doctor to tell them if the baby has a port or a dongle after the little squab has been delivered.  Those crazy kids.

I had my eye on the fabrics in this quilt right about the time that I had time to work on a new quilt.  I have also been aching to produce a quilt using Joe Cunningham's "Rock the Block - Album Style" approach.  Joe doesn't really teach a pattern as much as he teaches a concept of artistic discovery.  He has a class on Craftsy.  It's actually a class that presents four different variations on a general approach.  It's a very good value if you are into quilting and want to expand beyond just following someone else's pattern.

I used a bit of this general technique on the quilt that I made for young Lincoln earlier this year.  But now I've had a chance to use Joe's approach on a complete quilt.

The fabrics come from a series by Wilmington Essentials called Gems Bubble Up.  If you look close, you can see the bubbles.  They're everywhere!

I did try to do a little free-hand quilting.  It didn't turn out very nice.  So I went back to the old standby...straight lines!

I learned a couple things this time around.  One is to be careful about using too many narrow strips.  If you buy the class, you'll know what I'm talking about.  There is such a thing as too many narrow strips just as there is such a thing as too many wide strips.

I also learned to mix it up a bit.  I made a bunch of sections with narrower strips and a bunch of sections with somewhat wider strips.  Then when it came time to put things together, I tried to put the two sections together to generate some unusual patterns.

Lastly, make lots of extra pieces. I thought I had way too much fabric.  It turns out I barely had enough.  I was hoping to have some extras so that I could play around with the pieces when it came time to put them together.  Not having a stack of spares restricted my results.

My next quilt will probably use some of the techniques that I used in this quilt.  I found an image.  I have a plan.  Y'all will have to wait and see!

A Quilt For Kingston

 Our nephew and his girlfriend decided to bifurcate this year.  As one does, one makes a quilt!

As luck would have it, we made a run to Indiana earlier this year.  This was in late May and the lockdown had gotten us down.  Indiana was open for business.  We hopped over the border to do a little shopping and to have some dinner in a restaurant.

While out and about, we found a little hole-in-the-wall Joann's.  It was easily the smallest Joann's that I've ever seen.  And I've seen a few, too!

While wandering around the fabric, we came across the two fabrics that were used for this quilt.  We had no idea how it would get used or who would be getting it.  We didn't even know about our nephew's pending baby.

Lo and behold we got the news a couple months later.  For a change, I didn't have to run off to find fabric as we already had it in inventory.

As things worked out, the quilt was delivered a bit before Kingston.  Our nephew and his girlfriend do good work.

Welcome to the family, King!

Review: Hammer and Tongs and a Rusty Nail

Hammer and Tongs and a Rusty Nail by Ian Tregillis
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is a 1-star review. That accurately reflects my experience.

As this is really just a short story, the review will be equally short.

Tor published this short story that is part of George R.R. Martin's "Wild Cards" universe. I made it 20% of the way through before stopping. At that point, I really didn't care about the characters and really didn't have a great idea of their abilities or limitations. I've enjoyed all of the other Wild Cards stories I've ever read.

I might have continued on and given this a 2 or a 3-star rating. But the publisher and their copyeditor didn't show up for this project. It seemed like there was a spelling issue on every other page. Mostly just missing spaces that were needed to split up two words that had mistakenly conjoined.

The author didn't care enough to run spell-check. The editor didn't care enough to do the same thing. Avoid this story and move onto the next.

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