All posts by Sherry

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Books

Author: Umberto Eco

I think I’m done with this author. I loved the first one I read, hated the second one, but was fooled into picking up this one.

There isn’t much of a story to comment on. A man in his early sixties has lost his entire memory due to a stroke. He returns to the village and house where he grew up and searches through boxes and boxes of books, journals and records trying to recreate his memories. It seems to be of no avail as at the end of the book he has regained his memory but he is in a coma (at least that’s what I think happened to him).

I was very tempted to “break the rules” before I was even halfway through the book.

Goodreads Rating: *

Julie

Quilting
~ 13″ x 13″

This was my pattern for the March sew-along with Stacia and Deloise. Because they had both done this one before I had a few notes in my book regarding cutting errors. I tried to follow them but found even with the updated measurements mine wasn’t coming out the right size. I was almost finished when I realized I had completely missed one of the borders. Because I was so far along I chose not to correct my mistake. It finishes a bit smaller than it should have but I’m okay with that as it hangs in the stairwell as part of my collection of small projects.

The fabric I picked for the basket didn’t have enough contrast with the background so I outlined it with a blanket stitch. I’ll keep that technique in mind for another time. Most of the flowers were cut from scraps of fabric I’d used for my One Block Wonder project.

Trees

Needlework

I have joined a wool felt embroidery group this year. Each month we get a new tree pattern and very basic instructions on how to stitch them. I ask a lot of questions and take a lot of photos of other participants’ projects and somehow muddle through. I know I won’t keep up with the monthly schedule but I enjoy working on them.

This is Tree #1 (January)

That Fairy Tale Quilt

Quilting

I picked up this pattern during the CQA quilt show in Vancouver in 2022. I had seen a number of Jen Kingwell’s patterns but really liked the idea of this one. I didn’t read carefully enough though as it wasn’t one of Jen’s, but rather one of her daughters.

I have to admit that I struggled with this one. There were scads of templates that I had to draw and cut onto sandpaper. I didn’t follow the steps as listed in the pattern book (yes, it was a book) but went block by block. In hindsight it might have been better if I’d followed the instructions. As I went along, I had to redo a few of the blocks, and I added a few clouds to the sky.

On a trip to Panorama, Stacia and Deloise helped me pick out the backing for the quilt and it is perfect. I searched through all my fabrics until I found a binding that I was happy with.

It wasn’t until the call for the Guild’s 2025 quilt show came out that I got down to finishing the top.

Can you find the six fairy tales in the quilt?

Someday I hope to have great grandchildren that I can share fairy tales with as we cuddle under this quilt. I quilted it on my domestic Janome.