Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Clusters are FUN and EASY!

Cathy's Garden uses hot glue, small pieces of lace, flat-back and seed pearls, skinny ribbon bows, and safety pins to create the coolest vintage fancy-looking clusters!  A little over-the-top for me, but I think a few in my stash would look fabulous!  Video here.

The middle part of this video by Kelly from Root Pursuit are these square-on-square very flat clusters.  They make up fast, quick, easy....and there are numerous ideas you can use!  See the short video here.

Sunday, December 8, 2024

What is a Junk Journal and How Do You Make One?


One of my favorite - and super easy - videos is Shanouki Art's tutorial on using a granola bar box as the cover and lots of leftover scrapbook paper as the guts. No nonsense!   It's only 10:22 long, easy to follow.....let's do it!

joie de fi
 (Manchester, UK) has a video where she discusses different kins of journals - all the types that speak to me - including great food for though.  She, herself, prefers single signature junk journals that have 12 - 13 sheets of paper.  See that video here.

She also has a video showing exactly how she chooses, then puts together the pages to make a double signature junk journal.  It's really interesting to see her collection of books and to hear her thinking about all aspects of the creation of the journal.  That video's here.

Margarete Miller makes a very cool (and easy) journal from a package of alphabetical 4 x 6 index card dividers.  She puts it together *with masking tape!), creates an easy cover, and then decorates her first two double-page spreads.  This could be made from any consistently sized heavy duty cardstock or even a lightweight cardboard.  Will definitely give this a try.  She's making hers for Christmas.   Video here.   She's one of my favorites ... fast forwards through lots so you don't have to keep going faster yourself.

This isn't exactly a "Junk" journal....all the pages are the same size and it's binding is glued together, not sewn. It's called "Christmas Hard Cover Journal."  The pages are 8.5 x 11 kraft paper folded in half with a piece of patterned paper dividing the pages into thirds.   It's glued heavily on top, covered with muslin, then covered with a paper binding.  LeNae shows every step and how easy it seems to be. Easy-to-follow instructions are found here.

82. The Waiting by Michael Connelly

Ballard & Bosch #6
listened on Audible (purchased)
407 pgs.
2024
Adult Mystery
Finished 12/8/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.47
My rating: 5
Setting: LA and vicinity, contemporary

My comments: The Cold Case Unit in LA, headed by Renee Ballard - Connelly spent the 6th in the series about this LA police detective working on three major cases.  They're all intricate and edge-of-your-seat fascinating.  Renee and Harry have become very close friends, having similar thoughts, feeling, and reactions to many things.  What was wonderfully great for me sas that Maddie Bosch is part of this book! (Why is her relationship with her father so strained? and almost secretive?)  This was a really good one!

Goodreads synopsis:  LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold, with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.

Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch’s daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls.

Saturday, November 30, 2024

Page Ideas: Snazzing Up/Decorating Pages and Pockets

Kathleen Mower shows how she collages on plain pockets and snazzes up tucks and makes flips for just that little extra (and simple) "oomph".  Video is here.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

CARD HOLDER Junk Journals

 
Thrifty Day does a live tutorial every Tuesday, and there are lots of "hi's" to lots of people and sometimes she does go on and on.....BUT she's funny and always makes me happy, she's so upbeat.  You can also fast forward a bit.  This particular tutorial is about using a Christmas Golden book, two rings, and I think 8 pieces of double sided cardstock to create a Journal that'll hold an abundance of Christmas cards.  It's also a great way to hold birthday cards and other special greetings received from friends and family.  She's going to make a YouTube tutorial about it soon, which should be a lot shorter, but this works until that one comes out. Watch the live tutorial here.

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Dangles for Your Junk Journal


 Hectangnooga1
makes simple paper clip beads by wrapping construction paper around paper clips.  She uses dollar story glittery nail polish to finish them up!  That's them, above.  Find the tutorial (only 2:35 long!!!) here.

Crafted by Christy wraps paper around paper clips to make dangly beads.  She paints over them with a glossy finish and they look great!  Here's her video.

The Creative Cove hides a paper clip (with its end sticking out) with paper/cluster, then attaches a dangle to the protruding clip.  Clips onto the edge of any journal.  Video's here.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Tags, Tags, Tags... Bookmarks..... Tuck-Ins.....and Journaling Cards!

Fun, fun, fun, different (and yet still easy!) tags from book pages folded into quarters, then sewn (or not), painted a bit with spray oxides, gessoed, painted, and stencilled...final touch a stamp with a bit of thread bunched up beneath the stamp.   Love, love, love them!  Thanks, Shanouki Art!
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Easy scrappy tags for your junk journals - these happen to be for Halloween, but can easily be done for anything!  Mass making ephemera, too!
Sweet Bee Designs Co   (2:20) shortie

She also makes journal cards from index cards and small strips of leftover paper....here. 
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Tiny Tags are Like Junk Journal Candy!
  The Paper Outpost, in her usual fun style, creates 3/4-inch by various length tags that are simple and fun and you can make a slew of them at a time!  Book pages, tiny toppers, stamps...you don't need much!  Here's the video.
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Cindy Burkhalter makes folding bookmarks that have lots of journaling space ... easy!  Fold any piece of paper - book page, map, children's book page....into fourths.  Glue one section (the back) together for a little more strenght, thenglue down writing paper on the remaining flips.  A ribbon on top, she dangles some beads from the bottom (unnecessary) and voila!  The video's here.
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Camelia Craft's Designs
(she's such a riot with a British accent) makes a bookmark/journaling card with a vellum belly band.  She uses Christmas paper to make it into a Christmas card!  Love it. (Note: My vellum paper was really too dark, and the first one should have been a little thinner.  Learning more and more with every creation... Find that video here.
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Cathy's Garden uses a double-side sheet (a rectangle a bit smaller than 12 x 12) to make a three-fold tuck-in with three pockets.  Cool!  Find it here.
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Pink Monarch Prints makes ticket strips by sewing (without thread) every few centimeters on a strip of paper, then stamping and adding simple (small) embellishments.  Must try these!
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Brenda Clark aka The Simple Crafter uses the middle part of a corragated box as the background for a tag....a really different look with a bit of substance.  Check it out here.
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Kathleen Mower takes a long piece of one-sided paper and turns it into a folding envelope-type things that is a great large journaling space with  a beautiful embellishment.  Perfect for lots of journaling, and really easy to make....just folds and a little distressing.  Check it out here.
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I've got to make these three Christmas tags by Root Pursuit.  Trees, square on square cluster, and hanging ornaments, quick and easy and very eye-catching. Video is not long.
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Cindy Burkhalter made REALLY quick "file folders" to journal inside by quickly embellishing the outside and adding a punched-out tab.  See "Easy File Folders for Journaling here.
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Saturday, November 23, 2024

Used Postage Stamps as Ephemera in Junk Journals


 Nina Ribena uses different methods to use and show off used postage stamps on ephemera.  Here's the video.  I particuarly like the way she's made a "masterboard" using same-sized stamps!

Recrafted by Carol has some really fun ideas to use when you have bunches of postage stamps, particularly if you have a lot of the same color.  This I must do!  (She glues them over hanging clothing labels!)

Friday, November 22, 2024

No-Sew Junk Journals


This is cool - megjournals uses the front and back cover of a decent-shape old book and "patchworks" the pages inside using leftover papers. It's an accordian-style book.  I like it!  Watch her YouTube here.

LeNae Creates makes a journal using all sorts of leftover 6 x 6 paper (and other sized, too).  She scores each paper/page at 1/2 inch, then glues this gusset to the next piece, making sure this gusset/bound edge is even.  At the end, she glues a piece of paper around this to make a decent binding.  She adds all the usual pockets/tuck spaces and creates a pretty cool junk journal!  This is a must try!  Check it out here.

Liz the Paper Project uses four leftover/unused greeting card envelopes to make a flip book/accordian-style junk journal.  The first half of the video is her showing the finished product, but the second half shows how to put it together.  YouTube video is here.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Mass Making Ephemera for your Junk Journal

Black Swan Journals uses food packaging (with both white and kraft-colored) backing to make tags, belly bands, etc. to have them ready to go into any journal she may be working on.

Brenda Clark aka The Happy Crafter takes 10 playing cards at a time and gets them ready for more embellishments.  She uses torn paper, tissue paper, washi tape, and oxide paints.  See the YouTube video here.

Shanouki Art made these tags six at a time!  Fun, fun, fun, different (and yet still easy!) tags from book pages folded into quarters, then sewn (or not), painted a bit with spray oxides, gessoed, painted, and stencilled...final touch a stamp with a bit of thread bunched up beneath the stamp.   Love, love, love them!  Thanks, Shanouki Art!

Tiny Tags are Like Junk Journal Candy!  The Paper Outpost, in her usual fun style, creates 3/4-inch by various length tags that are simple and fun and you can make a slew of them at a time!  Book pages, tiny toppers, stamps...you don't need much!  Here's the video.

How to Mass Make Journal Tags in Minutes - No MeasuringEtcetorize paints one side and covers the other to quickly make a whole bunch of tags to have ready for further embellishment!  Here's the video.

I really love mass-making a bunch of clusters.  One of the first projects I tackled!  In her recent Christmas video, Lillian Guerrero makes quickie, ripped scrap paper clusters of three and then shows further embellishing depending on the theme.  Having a pile of these ready sure comes in handy!  See the video here.

Using Paper Napkins in Your Junk Journal

              

Liz the Paper Project
uses a glue stick to adhere napkins to book page envelopes and pockets.  She puts nothing on top to decoupage so you can feel the texture of the napkin.  Her YouTube video is here.

Creating Masterboards and What to Do with Them


Paper Outpost uses "ugly" scrapbook paper, covers it up with papers, then stencils and stamps on it to create a really cool masterboard/background!  Check it out here.

Tracie Fox Creative shows you how to create and 12 x 12 masterboard and then finishes the video with all sorts of simple ways to create tags of every shape and size.  Love it!  Here it is.


My Favorite Junk Journalers

49Dragonflies - Barbara from Vienna, Austria

Annette Green

Camelia Crafts Designs - funny older lady with a British accent, enjoy her creations

Cathy's Garden

Cindy A. Lewis - Inspiring You to Create
       She usually gets right down to business and her ideas are wonderful.  Lots of ideas on masterboards.

Hither and Yon
This is one of my favorites she thinks like I do and is not particularly "neat."  Lots and lotsand LOTS of page and ephemera ideas.  Her videos tend to go a little long, but all the talking is meaningful and she doesn't drone on and on about stupid stuff. 

Kathleen Mower : Be Again Books, Creative Junk Journals and Inspiration
     No excess talking.  GREAT ideas, usually easy.  Videos aren't incredibly lengthy.

LeNae Creates
She doesn't go razily long and doesn't seem to overtalk either.  She's a good one.

Lillian Guerrero
She rips and doesn't spend a lot of time inking edges.  Likes to give all sorts of additional ideas and her videos don't seem to drag on and on....

Liz the Paper Project
From Ontario, Canada, she has great ideas and although she talks continually all through her videos, she keeps working and showing you how it's done.  

Margarete Miller
Loves stamps, seems to be a collector.

The Paper Outpost
She talks fast (and a lot) and always has a mess on her desk. She cracks me up. She does stick her stupid, fluffy little dog into the screen at the end of each video and have it pretend-talk.  That's obnoxious. Part of her quirky personality.

Pink Monarch Prints
     I love that she preps all her papers ahead of time (cutting, ink around the edges) so that she just shows how she puts it together and you miss the tedium of all the tie-consuming stuff!  She makes most of her stuff from kits that she sells.

Root Pursuit

Septeria18 - young woman from Sydney, Australia
She uses the scoring board tool to great effectiveness

Shanouki Art
No Nonsense!  Not a lot of stupid chatter.  Fast, clear, EASY ... I love her videos!

Tracie Fox Creative

Vicky Papaioannou
A gal from Greece(?) with a very Greek-ish accent.  No nonsense, great, easy directions, doesn't seem to waste time!


Creating Pockets for Junk Journals

 Cindy  A. Lewis has three folded multi-pockets that are QUICK and work really well!

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Hither and Yon uses 6 x 6 and 6 x 8 double-sided papers to make a cool, easy double-pocket to either glue onto the page or clip on. They're also perfect for mailing fun stuff in a card.  Love this one
I made a lot:



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On TicTok The Vintage Journal makes a folding, pocketed "insert" that's fun to make and to put anywhere.  Find her video here.

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Septeria18 uses scrap papers to make simple pockets... The video's here.
Cut a 2 1/2 x 5 scrap and fold up 1 1/4 inches.  Glue the two sides.  Punch a half circle into the upper right side of the card.  Glue onto a 3 x 4 leaving the side open for a pocket.

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Root Pursuit makes four corner pockets at a time with this method using scraps of paper and an interesting technique of gluing before collaging, then simple cutting.  The video's here.

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Using Playing Cards in Junk Journals

Annette Green photocopies a playing card so that it's a bit bigger (and white on the other side) to create a decorated pocket that a regular size playing card can tuck into as a tag. She also shows how to create a frame with kings, queens, jacks..... Find that video here.  

Here's the video that shows gluing tiny bits of book pages to playing cards and turning them really vintage-y.  Fun, easy process!  Find it here#Treasure Books

Week 3 - Playing Card Tags | Summer Fun Ephemera Challenge - Let's make Ephemera Series
Sweet Bee Designs Co.  (22:10)

Brenda Clark aka The Happy Crafter takes 10 playing cards at a time and gets them ready for more embellishments.  She uses torn paper, tissue paper, washi tape, and oxide paints.  See the YouTube video here.

One Page Wonders Using 12 x 12 Paper


You can do so much using a 12 x 12 piece of paper!  Here's my first attempt, guided by #cathysgardenyoutubechannel. She's title it "One Page Wonder - Mini Journal - Journal Making":

Flip Flop File Album One Sheet Wonder from two pieces of double sided 6 x 12 inch paper.  PinkstrawberryzFind it here.  This is a Christmas one, which is exactly what I'd like to make!

Cathy's Garden uses a double-side sheet (a rectangle a bit smaller than 12 x 12) to make a three-fold tuck-in with three pockets.  Cool!  Find it here.

LeNai Creates made a folio/flip page booklet from one piece of double-sided 12 x 12.  This is the way I made the gift card holder for Laura's birthday...and she asked me to make two more for her.  Then I made four more for my Book Club buddies.  The YouTube video is here.

Pinkstrawberryz makes a "One Page Wonder Christmas Passport Book Folio" that ends up being 6-inches tall with lots of pockets and a flip page in the middle.  It took her no time at all to make.  Here's the video.  I like her videos, she doesn't spend a whole lot of extra talking time...and uses all sorts of different glues.

Misc. Junk Journal Ideas

Mini file tab pocket folder using one 6 x 6 single-sided sheet of paper
Find it here.  #Septeria18  (really great for gift card holder)

Shanouki Art makes a "waterfall" notebook/stack of papers that fill the page from top to bottom.  Looks great!  Check out the video.

Shanouki Art also makes Index cards with Tim Holtz numbers - the background of the ordinary index card looks SO fun....first a few collaged tiny pieces of book pages, then a little white gesso wiped on with a finger....some spray Distress ink, splats of white and black acrylic paint, then some Tim Holtz numbers.  Very cool!  Here's the video.

Junk Journaling - My Current Obsession



Card Holder Junk Journal

Clusters are Fun and Easy!

Dangles for Your Junk Journal

Masterboards and What to Do with Them


One Page Wonders (using 12 x 12 paper)


Using Paper Napkins in Junk Journals

Using Playing Cards in Junk Journals

Creating Pockets for Junk Journals


Tags, Tags, Tags...and Journaling Cards...and Inserts...and Tuck-Ins

Saturday, October 12, 2024

Marigold Blanket with Larksfoot Crochet Stitch


Looks like a great pattern to try for my next Homeless Blanket!

I've saved the printed pattern on my home computer under "Patterns."

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

75. A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner

listened on Libby
370 pgs.
2014
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 10/9/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.09
My rating: 2.5
Setting: NYC 1911 & 9/11

My comments: Not a huge fan of this book, for a couple of reasons.  Told in two voices, one of a nurse, Clara, who survived the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 to "hide" on Ellis Island and a quilt shop fabric-lover, Taryn, who lost her husband on 9/11.  The majority of the story is told by nurse Clara ... whom I didn't like.  At all.  Her inconsistent personality (she flip-flops between a mamby-pamby-scared-everything watcher-of-the-world to a brazen in-your-face do-gooder) drove me nuts. A minority of the story was told by Taryn, ten years after 9/11, still bruised and barely living, which was more powerful and believable.  But not enough!  And the connection of this scarf was feeble, to say the least.  I didn't rate it lower because I enjoyed the history it shared and the 9/11 portion, but the 1911 lengthy section didn't work for me at all.

Goodreads synopsis:  A beautiful scarf, passed down through the generations, connects two women who learn that the weight of the world is made bearable by the love we give away....

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries …and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her? 

September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers …the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?

Homeless Blanket Project #33 - Groovy Gert

 

Tired of hand sewing, I started this blanket on a whim to use up some of my bits and pieces of leftover yarn in a mindless manner.  I love the way the triple crochet/single crochet rows work up, I decided to crochet a set of variegated and then a set of solid.  While working on it I decided it was REALLY ugly, but once all lain out it doesn't insult my eye the way I thought it might!

Saturday, October 5, 2024

74. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

listened on Libby when I FINALLY got it from TPPL
336 pgs.
2024
Adult RomCom
Finished 10/6/24
Goodreads rating: 4.14
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary LA (with some Houston)

My comments: I love Katherin Center's writing.  And this novel about writers writing together is a winner for me!  A completely clean romance with ups and downs and two funny, clever protagonists is a surefire hit.  Highly recommend for a feel-good story with an HEA.

Goodreads synopsis:  She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Homeless Blanket Project #32 - Finicky Freddy

I know this looks like gray, but it's not.  I'm using three big skeins of medium sage worsted with two shorter strands of various, multi-colored yarns that have been tied between each green.  I'm using the same crocheting pattern of one row of triple crochets followed by one row of single crochets.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

73. Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

listened on Libby
384 pgs.
2024
Adult spicy romance
Finished 9/28/2024
Goodreads rating:  3.67
My rating: 2
Setting: Contemporary Austin, TX

My comments: Bleh.  Disappointing.  Tried and tried to like the female protagonist, Rue, but we were only given snippets of her inner self, and many didn't come until later on in the book.  Ice skating was a life changing event for both protagonists, and it should have been a bigger part of the book.  Rue was fighting with her brother about a cottage left in a will, but why?  Only because it was needed to move/change the plot a few times.  Not well done.  A disappointment from this author.

Goodreads synopsis:  Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.

September 2024 Handwork

Completed Projects:


for Homeless Blanket Project
Finished afghan:  124 sts. in each row and 54 sets of tc/sc in length

On-going projects:


39 appliqued onto indigo (that's +16)
3 pinned on, ready to applique
10 flowers ready for pinning
42 other hexies complete & ready to form into flowers

total flowers: 52 (up 15)     total hexies: 406 (up 107)


Grey Hexie Quilt
23 rows (x28) all sewn together = 644 hexies
1 row ready to add = 28 hexies
25 triples,  18 doubles,  86 single hexies waiting

841 HEXIES TOTAL (that's up 75 hexies)


Finnicky Freddy
Homeless Blanket #32
two row pattern - one row of triple crochet, next row of single crochet
pre-wound yarn of 2 short bursts of color, then longer burst of mediium sage
166 sts. per row
30 (set of 2: tc & sc) rows

Saturday, September 21, 2024

72. Storm Child by Michael Robotham

listened on Libby
336 pgs.
2024
Adult Contemporary Mystery/Thriller
Finished 9/21/24
Goodreads rating: 4.26
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Nottingham, England, and the coast of Scotland

My comments: Back and forth between two points of view: Cyrus and Evie, detailing how Evie slowly gets her memories back and discovers what had happened to her, her sister, and her mother.  The first half of the book takes place in their hometown of Nottingham, the second half in Scotland, where the fishing families that continue to be involved in the movement of illegal aliens into Great Britain are still hiding their participation from ten years before....as well as currently.  Good story.  Very well narrated.

Goodreads synopsis:  The mystery of Evie Cormac’s background has followed her into adulthood. As a child, she was discovered hiding in a secret room where a man had been tortured to death. Many of her captors and abusers escaped justice, unseen but not forgotten. Now, on a hot summer’s day, the past drags Evie back as she watches the bodies of seventeen migrants wash up on a Lincolnshire beach.

There is only one survivor, a teenage boy, who tells police their small boat was deliberately rammed and sunk. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is recruited by the police to investigate the murders—but recognizes immediately that Evie has some link to the tragedy. By solving this crime, he could finally unlock the secrets of her past. But what dark forces will he set loose? And who will pay the price?

Saturday, August 31, 2024

August 2024 Handwork - Finished

New-this-month projects:

Indigo Hexie Flower Quilt
23 appliqued onto indigo
4 pinned on, ready to applique
10 flowers ready for pinning
42 hexies complete
(total flowers:  37, total hexies: 299)

Ongoing projects:

Cotton Dishcloths
knit 6 fairly good-sized dishcloths in Calfifornia, need to sew in ends.

Grey Hexie Quilt
20 rows (x28) all sewn together = 560
1 row ready to add = 28
36 triples, 19 doubles, 32 single hexies waiting
766 hexies total

Completed Projects:  

None in August, but plenty of headway on hexie projects!

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

On Hold at TPPL

 

All as of 8/27/2024

Atkins - Don't Let the Devil Ride   #6 on 3   (2)
Center - The Rom-Commers    #44 on 10    (4.4)
Hazelwood - Not In Love   #20 on 15    (1.3)
Johnson - Death at Morning House    #24 on 5    (4.5)
King - 11/22/63    #16 on 5     (3.2)
Mandanna - The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches    #59 on 6    (9.8)
Mayne - Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder   #14 on 2    (7)
Miller - Norma Dean's Little Library of Banned Books   #2 on 5   (2.5)
Moore - The God of the Woods   #118 on 20     (5..9)
Picoult - By Any Other Name    #131 on 15     (8.5)
Poston - The Dead Romantics   #21 on 3    (7)
Robotham - Storm Child   #2 on 2    (1)
Sullivan - The Cliffs    #46 on 8    (5.7)

Next to get to me should be:
     Robotham, Hazelwood, Atkins, Miller, King

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Indigo Hexie Flower Quilt

 Once I got to Dede's and we went into Bay Quilts I got a brainstorm about how I want to finish my appliqued grandmother's flower garden quilt!  This is what they had displayed:

I instantly fell in love.
And I even want to slow stitch it!

So I started collecting indigo-colored quarter yard strips for my backgrounds.  Dede had six or seven scraps, and I purchased a handful more while I was in California, because OF COURSE we went to a quilt shop or two!
  I'll start with an 8-inch square, then cut it down to 7.5 or maybe even 7 inches unfinished after I've appliqued on my single-row hexie flower.

As of today, I've got 18 finished!
The new Ott Light I bought REALLY helps.  Appliqueing with thread as the same color of the flower worked best. It's so much fun and going really fast.

9/28/24
39 squares appliqued as of today

Thursday, August 1, 2024

EE - Exuberant Ellsworth Afghan


This afghan, triple crocheted (with single crocheted rows between each triple) was used with the huge skein of dark charcoal that Heather got me at Christmas.  However, I also used in in another afghan, so I didn't have enough.  I tried finding more on the internet, but that color (sumac) is no longer being made and is out or stock everywhere.  Luckily, on a whim, I went into Marden's in August (8 month later!) and they had ONE skein left.  Can you believe that?  Meant to be or what?

I used bigger small balls of leftover yarn than for the green magic knot blanket.  This works up fast and fun, and I love the magic knot - so NO weaving in ends.  Hope the knots don't come out!

Finished blanket:
124 sts. in each row
54 sets of tc/sc in length
Finished 9/29/24

Monday, July 29, 2024

Movie - Despicable Me 4

PG (1:34)
Wide release 7/3/2024
Viewed 7/29/2024 with Tristan at the Carlisle Theater
IMBd:  6.3/10
RT Critic:  56  Audience:  88
Critic's Consensus:  Fast paced and teeming with slapstick gags, Despicable Me 4 is as overstuffed as a piñata but full of enough candy to give audiences an enjoyable sugar rush.
Cag:   4/Liked it a lot 

My comments:  I wasn't looking forward to it (animated!) but Tristan said he'd like to go, and I'm taking every opportunity to spend time with this now-14-year-old!  It ended up being a very good movie that I liked a lot.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Gru welcomes a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who's intent on tormenting his dad. However, their peaceful existence soon comes crashing down when criminal mastermind Maxime Le Mal escapes from prison and vows revenge against Gru.

Saturday, July 27, 2024

67. The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

listened on Libby
355 pgs.
2021
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 7/27/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.95
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1888 Dakota Territory

My comments: Entrancing historical fiction based on true events where on January 12, 1888 an unforgiving blizzard belted the Dakota territory and killed many people, mainly kids that were walking home from school on the prairie.  We follow a number of main characters for many years, finding the outcomes of all their lives.  Good , but sad story.

Goodreads synopsis:  The New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator's Wife reveals a little-known story of courage on the prairie: the freak blizzard that struck the Great Plains, threatening the lives of hundreds of immigrant homesteaders--especially their children.

The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a long cold spell, warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats--leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At just the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard struck without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions: keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn't get lost in the storm?

Based on actual oral histories of survivors, the novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers--one who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. It's also the story of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose miraculous survival serves as a turning point in her life and touches the heart of Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It is Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed immigrants to settle territories into states, and they didn't care what lies they told them to get them there--or whose land it originally was.

At its heart, this is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents' choices. It is a story of love taking root in the hard prairie ground, and of families being torn asunder by a ferocious storm that is little remembered today--because so many of its victims were immigrants to this country.