Trick or Treat Blog Hop

 Happy Halloween to those of you coming from Jo's blog! Your letter is:

It's been kind of a terrible year, so I have gotten very little stitching done. I decided to focus on an old pattern I started decades ago (while I was in law school, I think) but never finished -- Liz Turner Diehl's Cider House Garden. I didn't manage to finish it this year, either, but I made good progress, stitching the house, one of the maple trees, and six of the apple trees:

 

I think I might finally be able to finish it next year.

I also started Wild Violet's primitive tarot set, but didn't get very far:

I dyed the aida myself, using black tea with a little baking soda to (I hope) cut down the acidity.

On to the next blog: http://guavagems.blogspot.com/  Have fun!

Earrings, Earrings, Earrings!

 I've been on a jewelry kick again.

The pair on the left started out as just the large faceted bead; I got them long ago as a subtle earring to wear when the rest of my jewelry stands out, but they were too boring. I added a glass bead under each one, and then for fun added smaller faceted beads to the ear wires. Still subtle, by my standards.

The second pair have gorgeous crystal skulls, which I got from a Halloween kit by Candie Cooper. In keeping with both the autumnal palette and the Dia de Muertos theme, I added two different gold vermeil flower beads. I absolutely love them.

The last pair have czech skull beads from yet another Candie Cooper kit. I didn't intend to make more skull earrings (I have three pairs already, including the crystal ones above), but I couldn't resist the kooky details on those beads.

 

These took longer to make; I'd been meaning to try brick-stitching seed beads around a ring, and this seed bead mix (also from the Halloween kit) gave me the opportunity. As you can see, I need more practice, but I've got all sorts of ideas percolating now.

There are lots more fun beads from the kit, but as the needs of my family go up, my crafting time goes down, so I doubt I'll be able to make much more before Halloween.

Book Round-Up

 Flying Solo by Linda Holmes: Her second novel was just as enjoyable as her first, with wonderful characters, a sweet romance, a little mystery, and an unconventional happy ending.

Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron: A fun thriller about a young lawyer who, after spectacularly blowing up her life and career, has to start over as a contract attorney doing document review. The documents she reviews, which lead to a new, dangerous obsession, are a lot more exciting than the documents I reviewed when I was a lawyer.

The Bear Went over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle: A laugh-out-loud-on-the-subway book about a bear who finds a manuscript in the woods and decides to get it published. It's a satire not only of academia and publishing, but humanity, too.

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova: Córdova's short story was one of the only good ones from Toil and Trouble, so I was excited to read its expansion into a novel filled with family legacies, art, magic, and resilience.

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden: This was a disappointment. The protagonist, stuck in her life, is given three magic lemon drops that allow her to live out a day where she has made different choices in the past. She was far too passive and martyrish, though, and the resolution was a bit too pat. A far better novel about regrets and "what ifs" is Matt Haig's The Midnight Library.

Calico Cats

 My latest lap quilt:

It's very wrinkled, because while I waited days -- DAYS -- for the rain to stop so I could take a good picture, one of my cats claimed it. Fittingly.

The cat head pattern was from ... actually, I don't remember, and the pdf I have has no metadata. The calico fabrics, except for the border, are from the Little House on the Prairie fabric collection. The leftover squares (it was a "layer cake," meaning a set of 10-inch squares) I used for the back:

The quilting was very basic, which about all I can handle on a quilt this size -- in the ditch quilting between the blocks, diagonally through the nine-patches, an outline around each cat, and a very wide zigzag along the borders. I tried to do a swirl design instead of the zigzag, but although it seemed so simple to do in my head it was a disaster in execution. Sigh.

My husband and kids have worn out the other lap quilts I made, so this one is just for me!*

*And the cat.