Instastitch Done

This was a fun project. I've long admired Sue Spargo's work, and I was glad to try my hand at it (there's my cat project, too, but I've made little progress with it.) I also learned a bunch of techniques and stitch combinations I can use in the future.

To finish it I backed it with some batting and quilting cotton and quilted it by hand with size 5 perle cotton (the better to pretend my quilting stitches are uneven on purpose), then bound it with more fabric. It's now on my bedroom wall, where I've taken to displaying those projects that are personal to me and/or don't really go anywhere else.

I think Spargo will be removing the stitch diagrams from Instagram to publish it all as a book, which is too bad (albeit entirely understandable) because I only did 42 of the circles. On the other hand, I was unlikely to ever get to the other 48.

Three Days to Never by Tim Powers

Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, the Harmonic Convergence, the Mossad, time travel, and a 12-year-old girl with a psychic connection -- not many can weave these elements together into a cohesive story, but that's what Tim Powers did with his Three Days to Never. It's another "secret history" story like Declare, and if I didn't love it quite as much as I did that novel, it was still an amazing read.

Powers has a knack for grounding the most high-concept and bizarrely supernatural events with ordinary characters trying to get by. It's not just the plot that keeps the story going, but the people too: the Mossad agent who can't stop thinking of the son he might never see again, the reluctant member of a dangerous secret society who desperately wants to restart her life with a clean slate, and above all the father who loves his daughter and just wants to keep her safe. That familial bond is the best part of the book, and it's what leads to the most harrowing parts of the novel -- the glimpses of alternate timelines where their relationship goes horribly wrong.  It's frightening to think how love can be twisted or even broken, but that makes it all the more important to protect and nourish it.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

This novel was well worth the three months I had to wait to get it from the library. It's billed as a romance novel, I think Henry's first for adults, but it's really so much more than that. January Andrews is a romance writer dealing with writer's block, her beloved father's death, and a devastating family secret. She moves into her father's lakeside cabin to prep it for sale and finally write the book she owes her publisher, only to discover her next door neighbor is her college rival. Augustus Everett is a highly-acclaimed literary novelist also dealing with writer's block and personal troubles. They soon agree to a competition of sorts, swapping genres to see who can get a book sold first.

There was absolutely nothing surprising in the outcome -- January and Gus fall in love, she comes to terms with her father's complicated legacy, he heals from past trauma, and they both finish their books. The joy of this novel was watching it all unfold; the characters (all of them) were interesting and complex and the issues they dealt with felt real. January is a genuinely funny narrator, with a sharp wit that kept her from becoming too melodramatic.

I stayed up way too late reading this, and now I wish I had bought it (I could have read it sooner!).

Quarantine* Bracelets

A very simple bracelet, on which to practice my knot clasps. The charms are heavy, and I wish I had knotted them in place. I'll have to see what I can do.

Garnets, amethysts, and silver beads. I love this one a lot.

A TierraCast project:

A "Bollywood" bracelet (not crazy about that name):

Another rhinestone bracelet from Candie Cooper:

Still waiting to wear one somewhere ...

*Not actually a quarantine, but easier to say than "Stay-at-home-except-for-essential-trips Bracelets."