Book Review: Persian Pickle Club

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas is a story about a quilt group in the 1930s, a farming community in Kansas, a new member of the quilt club who riles things up a bit. It's entertaining but nothing great. I really didn't connect with any of the characters.

Another Retreat!

This is my year of retreats. It's almost too many; next year I am going to be more selective on how many retreats I attend.

Well, this recent one was a good time, and the setting was beautiful! My cousin and I went together; it was a new site for both of us. We both put our noses to the grindstone and got a lot done. I don't have many pictures of projects, because most of what I did is still about 99% done, with a border needed here, a seam repair needed there.

Weather was beautiful! This place is in Wisconsin.

The quilt pictured above is a Villa Rosa Design pattern that I made. I focused on using up a pile of my pre-cut five-inch squares and made about five tops. I'll post pictures here as I get them completed.

Next retreat: about six weeks from now.

Paula Poundstone!

Saturday morning Hubby and I drove to Fargo, ND. From our home it is about a 5-hour drive. The reason we went was for a road trip/date that I had secretly planned. I ended up telling Hubby what it was a few days before we went.

Hubby is a big fan of Paula Poundstone. I found out she will be in our area at a time that we can't attend her show, so I looked at different venues, and Fargo was the closest. Why not, I thought. It's time for a little road trip/get-away.

Turned out it was a lot of fun. We enjoyed the drive -- well, we enjoyed the time to just chat, knit, snooze (if not driving), and slow down our busy lives just a little. The drive itself is pretty flat. Driving straight up a freeway into the Red River Valley...there's not much there other than flat farmland. We enjoyed ourselves despite the lack of awesome scenery.

Here's a restroom in the hotel.. mirrors on every wall. I posted this on Facebook saying my jail cell is full of mirrors.

Here's where we ate dinner. The food was excellent. We did not eat frog; it was an option!

Here's us at the theater.

And here's Paula! We had a lot of fun. She is very funny.

Guess what. Paula Poundstone owns 14 cats!

Mom Stuff

Our daughter recently moved away, a two and a half hour drive from home, to start a new job (a promotion). Recently she sent some photos and happy messages about how pleased she is with her new job and her new city of residence. It's the first time in her life that she has not lived in the City, other than her brief stint being away at college. It has all been a very new experience for her; I am so happy to hear how well it is going and what a good fit her new job seems to be. Hooray!

This is how she made the move. She purposely wanted to do it by herself (symbolic of being independent) and wouldn't let us help her move, other than a little lifting of boxes which was done here, before she left town.

in her new city

Our son is also doing well being back in Korea. His new job is keeping him busier than he expected, I think. He had planned to spend a certain amount of time writing (he wants to write a book). I don't think he has had enough time to do the "other" stuff he had hoped to do, but the good news is that his job is going well, and he is happy. He is playing on a baseball team and loving that.

This is an old picture, taken in Korea when he went the first time.. I don't have one of him on this go-around (yet).

I love it when my kids are happy!

The Mother of Modern Quilting

Our local guild recently welcomed Denyse Schmidt for an evening lecture, and she also taught a class. I attended only the lecture. Denyse is a talented artist who was dubbed the "mother of modern quilting." When she began working with fiber art, she went through the art world rather than the quilt world. It was the world she already knew, and so her quilting journey took her on a unique route. She began by making quilts, hand quilting them, and offering them for sale through various art venues. It worked, and she developed an audience for her beautiful and "simple" quilts. There was not a term for her style of quilting, so someone in her field dubbed her work as "modern," and it stuck. She became known as the "mother" of modern quilting, a style which took off at a gallop and is now practiced widely.

I was interested in her unusual route into the quilting world. She does not make quilts to keep or give to friends. She sells most of what she makes. She had only two quilts to show us in person, but had many more in her slides.

Retreat and Items We Made

I went to my first official quilting retreat of 2017, with my local guild. It was fun and productive, as always. I made a few things that I don't have photographed yet - I want to complete them first.

Below are some random blocks, some for Sunshine (online guild) and some for an in-retreat challenge we were doing which was quite fun. My block of the face waving and saying "Hi" won for "most original use of fabric." I won a piece of chocolate and a FQ.

This is the quilt the Sunshine group made for me after my mom died. Wonderful K. even quilted it for me! It arrived just before the retreat, so I bound it right away and slept under it during retreat. I love it!

My cousin, B., finished her Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt top... except, she decided the borders were too wavy, and she needed to do them again. So she ripped them off and re-did them, and the extra work was worth every moment... it looked wonderful when it was all done and not wavy. I didn't get a picture of that, however, so just imagine that this is the perfect version.

There were many beautiful quilts being made. I can't believe I only took one photograph of quilts made by others! This line of fabric by Moda was beautiful and was perfect for this pattern.

Stuff by me -- a snap-closure bag and a quilt top WIP. I intend to make the quilt top a little bigger before I can call it done.