One Quilt Plus Four Other Finishes in December

This little quilt made from leftover blocks is the very last finish of the year for me.  I stitched the binding today and it now only awaits a wash and dry. 

It's already dark so the photos are with a flash.  Even if I'd finished it earlier I would have needed a flash because we've had such a grey day.  (Love those grey days.  No kidding!)  And it's snowing now as I get ready to post this. 

The quilt measures just 41½" x 54¼" (before wash and dry) -- a little quilt just big enough for a baby, or maybe the top of a table, maybe big enough to go over one's legs for warmth.  I used leftover Cream Rose batting and Americana thread. 

The quilt looks crooked below but it's the angle of the photo.  (If people are born with photography genes, I didn't get any.)  When I see photos of a finished quilt I notice things I didn't when it was in progress.  Like, maybe I should have arranged those blocks a little differently, or maybe the sashing should have been wider/narrower/another color; etc.  But it's done and I'm happy enough with this little quilt.

My other finishes this month were books and, sadly, not quilts.  They were books.  Four books in a month is a record for me.

This first books was one I noticed on a shelf of Christmas books at the library.  It looked light, simple, and Christmasy.  And it was short:  just what I needed after plowing through American Grit for a month.  Away in a Manger by Rhys Bowen takes place in New York City in the early 1900s.  The heroine, Molly Murphy, discovers several supposed-waifs begging in the street.  It doesn't take her long to realize that they hadn't always needed to beg and determines to learn their situation and story.   This was a cozy mystery, a genre new to me -- or at least the name of the genre is new.  Other authors include Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, Mary Steward, Jacqueline Winspear, and plenty of recent authors who are new to me.  I recommend this book as a fun, fast, light read.

Next I read The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, also the author of Better Than Before, a book about habits.  She discovered the tendencies while researching how people created habits and discovered that the way people respond to expectations can be grouped into four different categories, sometimes overlapping.  They are upholder, questioner, obliger, and rebel.  You can read a little more about the tendencies here.  I found this book really  helpful in understanding my "rebel" husband.  She also offers an online quiz to learn your own tendency. 

Then I moved back to fiction and read Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate in less than a week.  This story was inspired by the Tennessee Children's Home Society scandal of the early 1950s.  The story is told in the first person by two individuals:  Avery, a 30-something daughter of a N.C. senator whose father and grandfather had been senators; and May Crandall, a resident in a nursing home.  Avery meets May when she attends a birthday party for a 100-year-old resident.  May greets Avery and walks away with the dragonfly bracelet Avery's grandmother, Judy, had given her.  It happens that Judy is also in a nursing home struggling with memory loss.  When Avery returns for her bracelet, she visits May and becomes aware of a possible connection between May and Judy.  May's story of her childhood was sad and sometimes horrible but the resiliency of the human spirit wins out.  I loved this book. 

Wonder by R. J. Palacio is the last book I finished this year.  It is about a boy who was born with some genetic that caused his face to be malformed.  It was told in the first person by the boy, August; by his sister, Via; Via's boyfriend, Justin; and several of August's classmates.  It’s a story about seeing past appearances; about accepting others and being kind; about bullying....  You may have seen a preview for the movie but based on the preview, I think the book is better.  It was definitely worth my time to read it.

I'm linking this post to
> Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts
> Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts
> TGIFF at Kathy's Kwilts and More
> Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
> Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
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