Christmas Table Runner (gift!)

I made this!

So, last year I bought all this fabric to make a table runner as a gift for my dad and his wife. 

And then I broke my leg before I even cut it out. And then I got covid. And then I pretty much slept through the summer. And then school started again and I was also taking classes, writing my dissertation proposal, presenting at a conference, trying to get my child through college apps, getting a couple of my moles biopsied, also trying to help the child get her driver's license. 

Suffice to say, the pile sat. 

As did this cryptic note:

But finally I re-found the site I had found as my guide becuase, believe it or not, this craft was far enough outside my comfort zone that I could not just wing it. 

So, I figured it out, and sat down to cut the pieces for my squares.

Well, actually, I measured them and then ripped them, because I know accuracy is important for quilting... 

Dear reader, they were still not all the same sizes. 

But, I made the squares! Perfectly imperfect? 

But this meant I had to figure out the next step, which involved cutting triangles. 

Fortuitously, I thought to lay the whole thing out on the ironing board, becuase (after I'd ended up ruining some by making the the wrong size) I hadn't even cut out enough. Whoops. I was super worried about having enough fabric, and about not being able to replace it (becuase who knows if there would he any left a full year later)but it worked out. Just barely. No scraps left of that one!

And then borders? I legit messed up this measurement when buying fabric (maybe? Or maybe this wasn't how I had originally intended it to look?) And so this is also every single scrap of that fabric, and there’s a seam in the centers, and I had to add corner squares to the design to make it work. Good thing I had accidentally made a couple too many squares at the start!

And then I had to figure out quilting? This is where things really started to go weird. I laid out all of the layers on the ironing board and safety pinned them all in place. Then I just sewed all of the seams. 

It's okay.

Not great. But okay. 

Trimmed down all the excess fluff, cut all of the millions of loose strings, and then put the binding on!

Yeah, not perfect. But I think it looks nice?

That's my table. Theirs is dark wood, so I think it will pop more. 

So that's my quilting adventure! 

Pretty sure my brother is the only one who actually reads this, but just in case I'll save this in my drafts folder until after itit'been gifted.

Iron Widow

By Xian Jay Zhao

Hardback

391 pages

YA Sci-Fi

LGTQIA+ characters 

Loaned to me by a student

This is a student’s favorite book, and they have been passionate about having me read it. I told them if they lent it to me before a break I would. They made sure to get it to me just before we left for Winter Break. 

This is what I was handed. No synopsis, no dust jacket, very little idea of what to expect. It was an interesting adventure. 

So, synopsis (relatively spoiler free):

Setting: a fantasy version of China. There is a war. Males pilot these big sort of magical mecha suits, but they have to have a female co-pilot, who is often killed by the experience. Poor families often sell their daughters to the army to be these co-pilots. It is a sexist, patriarchal society. 

Protagonist is from a poor, frontier town. Her elder sister was recently sold to the army and killed by a pilot. Protagonist plucks her unibrow, dresses nice, and also sells herself to the army with the intention of getting revenge on the pilot who killed her sister. 

But that plot actually wraps up really early, and the book evolves. 

At the start of the book, they kept talking about needles, so ick.

The first chapter, when I had no idea what to expect, was difficult for me to get into, but it really was a great story. I mostly read it yesterday. 

I thought there was going to be a cliché love triangle thing happening, but they subverted my expectations. 

The annoying thing is that the next book doesn't come out until August 2023. 

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

By Olga Tokarczuk

Fiction/Mystery 

Hardback

274 pages

Library 

Book Club

This will be a spoilery post, becuase I read this for book club, and I'm trying to make note of things to discuss. Because we all know I'm eager to pick up another book, and I want to be sure to have intelligent things to day at our book club meeting. Although last time I actually made it to one, I was literally the only person there for a few, and only 3 people total showed up. I didn't even finish that book, because I didn't like it. This one was interesting, if a little difficult to get into. 

I fully admit that part of my issue getting into it is probably becuase it's written for grown ups and I'm still in the middle of my YA love affair. 

But also, it wasn't what I expected. I expected amateur crime drama mystery hijinks, and this was a strange wandering through woods, and philosophy, morality, and aging. With some murder. It also wasn't as funny as I was hoping for. 

Summary: She watches a neighbor choke on a bone from a poached deer. Finds a photo in his house which confirms that her dogs had been shot by hunters. Kills the other people in the photo: a police commissioner, mafia boss, and a priest. Occasionally haunted by dead mother and grandmother and dogs. Confesses to friends after burning down the church. They help her escape the police. She hides in a forest research station. 

That being said, there were some amazing moments. I loved the top line on this page. 

I maybe too deeply felt the middle paragraph of this page. The attempt to being an amazing, engaging teacher, the crushing of the system. 

I really enjoyed this passage. 

Anyway, it was sometime in the last third of the book that I began to wonder if the protagonist was actually the murderer. It didn't seem fully likely, but possible. She was a strange lady who didn't use anyone's actual name. She was emphatic about the idea that the animals - the deer - had done the murdering. 

Then she gives a deer hoof to the departing neighbor?

After being so focused on the deer prints?

And after the first death she was so weird about the plastic bag she hung in the tree to freeze. I kept expecting something more from that; however, I had not expected it to be a murder weapon. 

Questions for the discussion: 

And why did her friends help her?

What is actually wrong with her? (Physically)

How do you think she dies? 

author info

Overall opinion: I'm glad I read it. I wouldn't re-read it.

What Moves the Dead

By T. Kingfisher

Hardcover 

Horror

160 pages

Library 

It's a retling of Fall of the House of Usher.

It's creepy, wonderful, and horrific. 

I took longer to get into it than I would have expected, based on how interesting I thought it was, but that's also probably just because I have so much else going on. 

endpapers

I picked this one up on impulse when I grabbed the book club book from the library. 

author info