Whirlygiggles

All these fabrics came from my stash, except the background. It seems I never have backgrounds in my stash and have to buy it. I have blogged about this fabric before, but now I am really using it in a project. This idea comes from Jacquie of Tall Grass Prairie Studio. Here is A link to the tutorial by GreetingArts so you too can make this fun quirky twist on the pinwheel called Whirlygiggles.
I, like Jacquie thought the template was easy to make. The tutorial was great and easy to follow. Even gave you pictures. Who could ask for more? I wanted my blocks to finish 9" and learning from Jacquie I made up a mock block to see if I had everything right. Well, three mock blocks later I had my blocks just right. I kept putting in the wrong amount for the seam allowance. It's not that I forgot it. These are all cut at an angle and I couldn't get my brain to wrap around that idea. My ends were off as well. Not much more than 1/4 inch. Nothing that squaring up could not fix.

My BH and I laid out my blocks and found a placement that we like, but as we were viewing this quilt we only saw a sea of cream color. I had to do something about it so back to my stash and we found a dark green strip that set this quilt off and at the same time broke up the cream. You can see bits of the green fabric in the above picture. I hope to get this quilt pieced today so I might get started quilting this one. I plan on doing an all over serpentine pattern with some nice variegated orange and red thread.

As most of you know by now I love to listen to books. I sometimes do this while I quilt, but most of the time I do it in the car driving to work. If it was not for audio books I would never read. From time to time I love to share with you books that I think you might like or that i feel is a must read.

I've found one such book. Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. In 2008 this book was the winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award and John Newbery Honor Medal Winner.


In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American South, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

Elijah of Buxton might be my new favorite book, but I am going to think on that for a while before I move To Kill A Mockingbird from that spot. I would say this is in my top five of must read books of all times. I was reading some reviews of this book online and while most of them were good, a few said they had problems with the slang in the book. To that I say get it on audio and there will be no problem. This is not slang that Christopher made up it is how people talked 1859. This is no different than the way kids talk nowadays. Truth be told I understood the slang in this book more than slang of today. The powerful ending is violent and unsettling, yet also manages to be uplifting. I might of felt a tear welling up in my eye.

Charlie

P.S. Not sure how my BH does it, but he has an eye for color. I wish I had this gene.