Millicent Finds a Mask

I could not resist this design from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Halloween special issue:

I absolutely love the mix of patterns for the moon, bird, and wing. I did change some threads to make use of my stash, but kept to the variety of metallics, variegated threads, and solid floss the original has.

Book Round-Up

A Rare Murder in Princeton by Ann Waldron: This volume is part of a series centering around a journalist who solves murders at Princeton, in this case the murder of a book collector who promised to leave his collection to the University. The writing, especially the dialog, was surprisingly awkward. So were the characters, but that's not so surprising given they are academics and bookish sorts.

Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis: It's rare that I don't finish a book, and yet here we are. It's a middle-grade fantasy with lots of imaginative, intriguing parts, but the story never coalesces into a whole. Worse, the reaction of the parents to the kidnapping of their baby was, frankly, absolutely off-putting. I understand the point -- get them out of the way so the older sister can go on her quest -- but there are far more credible ways to do that.  The novel was especially disappointing given how much I love Colin Meloy's songwriting as part of the Decemberists.

The Stories of English by David Crystal: A thorough and detailed look at the development of the English language, with a particular focus on all the contributions -- vocabulary, syntax, pronunciation -- from other languages. I find this sort of stuff fascinating, although I will admit my interest petered out towards the end, when he was discussing the English language in the 20th century.

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey: As you might guess from the title, basically a rom-com in book form. This is the author's first adult novel, and I did find the story a little too antic and juvenile for my tastes, but the characters were fun and the reason for the heroine's obsession with romantic comedies was touching.

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin: This retelling of Pride & Prejudice, set in an Indian Muslim community in Toronto, was wonderful. Unlike other Austin fans, Jalaluddin does not feel the need to slavishly copy the characters and plot points of the original, instead developing her own story. She also understands that the social commentary of P&P is just as important as the romance.

Summer Book Club QAL

Kate Basti of Quilt with Kate ran a QAL the first half of the summer, centered around her adorable Tall Tales block. I don't like foundation paper piecing at all, but I couldn't resist. And despite being so sick all summer, I did manage to spend a couple of weekends participating -- probably because I only made a wall-hanging for my door (a door-hanging?) rather than the full-sized quilts others made.

I used some Anna Maria Horner scraps for the book covers, solids for the bindings, and a handy text fabric for the pages. Because the rest of my fabric was in storage, I used plain muslin for the background. Which was way too boring:

Brightly-colored frames made it better:

To add texture to the background (and get in some much-needed practice) I forced myself to free-motion quilt the muslin. No close-ups, though, because I'm still no good at machine quilting. Or basting.

My cat, "helping" with the binding:

Again, I don't enjoy paper-piecing, but this block came together so quickly and easily I'm tempted to make more.

A Field of Flowers

I've been sick the entire summer, and my productivity has suffered. I've worked on a few things here and there, but don't have much to show for it, except this:

The pattern is by Floresita, from Feeling Stitchy.  The inspiration for it was also from Floresita -- she introduced me to Linladan, a delightful online shop that specializes in reproductions of vintage Swedish embroidery patterns, stitched with linen threads on linen fabric. I have not yet been able to buy a kit of my own, but I have some of DMC's linen threads (now discontinued) and linen fabric from an old skirt.

The simple but varied embroidery stitches were a nice change of pace from all the cross-stitching and quilting I've been doing.

Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

No sophomore slump for Chakraborty! In fact, I think Kingdom of Copper, the second in her fantasy series, is better than the first -- more assured in its depiction of its world. The novel takes place five years after the first, and the three protagonists have gone their separate ways: Ali is slowly learning about his mysterious water powers, Dara is building an army to take back his city, and Nahri has made a political marriage and is struggling to fulfill her call to heal people while everyone around her tries to use her for their own purposes. These three plot strands converge at the end, but although that was entirely expected, Chakraborty's ability to ramp up the tension kept me eagerly turning pages until the very end.

It's not just the plot, though, that makes this series so great. The world Chakraborty has created, with political intrigue, powerful magic, all kinds of djinns, complex characters, and gorgeous details, is utterly fascinating. And filled with allusions to our current world: Chakraborty shows just how difficult it is to detangle centuries of violence, grievances, and resentments in the quest for peace and stability. I was genuinely dismayed to finish the novel, and I can't wait for the next one.