Weekly update: signs of spring, quilting accomplishments + reading

 

I set all the clocks ahead just after dinner Saturday. I've finally figured out how to do the clocks in both cars correctly the first try.  

Two beautiful days this weekend got us out for a walk at the state park and a nearby forest preserve.  

The dogwood is really red.   

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 This is my version of Transport, the Running Doe top-along pattern for March.  

A closeup of the gray-with-dots background.

I made eight 9-patch blocks in yellow, the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge color.   I have a pattern that will use eight 9ps in each color.

I made four yellow Ohio Star blocks and have pieces cut for more. 

  

Our library is having an art contest this spring for K-12 students and adults.  Any medium is acceptable.  Entries are due March 19.  Here's mine!   24" square. 

It's the necktie project I alluded to on Friday.  I made a similar version with blue ties for the MQG mini swap last year.  Because of that I already a fair number of the strips already pieced.  

I used the serpentine stitch to quilt through each round. The backing is regular quilting cotton.   

The winners will be announced April 23.  

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In early 2022 I read and reviewed Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans.   I learned that Evans had written a prequel, Old Baggage,  and a sequel, V for Victory.   I checked them both out and liked them just as much as Crooked Heart.  I recommend reading them in publication order (Crooked, Old, Vee) to fully appreciate the character development. 

 

Old Baggage tells the backstory of the indomitable Mattie, a passionate suffragist who is determined to make the world (1920's London) a better place for girls.  She creates a club called the Amazons to help girls become confident and self-reliant.  She is so convinced that she is right that her heartfelt efforts cloud her judgment.  She makes an ethical error that destroys the Amazons' reputation but, being Mattie, she comes out of that episode triumphant.

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In the fall of 1944 everyone in London is heartily tired of the war, confident that the Allies will win but not knowing exactly when.   Noel and Vee, the heroes of Crooked Heart, live in his great-aunt Mattie's house.  They've taken in boarders to help pay the bills.   Noel is now a teenager. His eclectic education, begun by Mattie, continues under the tutelage of the boarders (a doctor and a journalist among them).    Meanwhile Vee continues her well-intended schemes.  Characters from the past come into the picture. 

Family secrets alluded to in Crooked Heart and developed in Old Baggage are revealed in V for Victory.  And, in the end, there is victory for Noel (oh, and for the world as well).  Wonderful!!

 Linking up with Scrap Happy Saturday Oh Scrap! Sew and Tell Design Wall Monday