Weekly update: a good start to the year

 

I made a few extra units of each step of the mystery just in case.  I didn't count the  HSTs, which became HSTs with wing triangles, which became corner units -- all sets of 4.  

It turned out that I made *16* extra sets.  I went ahead and made them into blocks (setting aside three sets of four -- one per Bonnie's instructions and the others just in case!). 

# # # # # # #

My One Monthly Goal for January is to complete the Modern Quilt Guild mini swap.  I showed photos of the initial fabric pull last week.  

Well, all those batiks have gone back into their bins. A design by Jen Kingwell gave me another idea.   Here's the background.  It's a big crumb/slab block about 26" square.  The swap size is 24" square and this allows for trimming.  I'm still deciding exactly what I'll applique.

# # # # # # #

Way back in 2014 I set out to bust my stash of 1930's repro fabric.  I've made several quilts (there are 12 posts with 30's Bin Bust labels) but This Is The Year to use 'em or ship 'em out.   

I made these shoofly blocks (6") this week. 

I'm  working out the border.  

Here's what's left.  A bin with chunks (less than FQs) and three small boxes with HSTs and squares.  

# # # # # #

This week's reading:

Last week I reviewed A Line to Kill, the third Hawthorne/Horowitz mystery.  The Word Is Murder is the first.  It's a very Christie-like plot:  a woman goes to a funeral home to pre-plan her funeral and hours later she's found dead.  A decade earlier she was the driver of the car that hit twin brothers that killed one and permanently disabled the other.  The judge ruled it an accident and she went free.  Did the boys' parents' resentment lead to her murder? If not, who did it, and why?  The suspects are interconnected and the end is a surprise.   I really liked this one!

(I listened to the audio edition narrated by Joan Allen.)

This political thriller is full of veiled but au courant references. The former POTUS left a pile of diplomatic turmoil that the new POTUS and his Secretary of State (the protagonist) must deal with, not the least of which is a nuclear bomb threat. Who is the High Level Informant and will they get to him in time? Three Pines and Inspector Gamache make only a cameo appearance (though the SOS quotes Ruth Zardo!). The Clinton/Penny collaboration is a nice gimmick but it doesn't add much dimension to a rather predictable Good Americans vs. Bad Iraqis/Iranians story.

Once I figured out that the setting is an alternate Old West I could adjust my mindset and enjoy the story. It's 1894. Ada lives in a small town somewhere west of here and east of there. She married young, as girls in the town do, but when she doesn't get pregnant right away, nor in the next year, she's considered a dangerous threat. Maybe even a witch (since her mother is a midwife/healer and knows about medicine). Ada escapes to a convent, but not for long. She's sent to an outpost high in the hills called the Hole in the Wall where The Kid is the ringleader of a very improbable (and thus completely believable, as far as this story goes) gang of bank robbers. Early reviewers said this is mashup of The Crucible and True Grit. I'd add The Handmaid's Tale. The ending is unexpected but completely right for this great fantasy.

Linking up with One Monthly Goal   Oh Scrap! Monday Making Design Wall Monday