Ooops! I did it again. Bought yet another book that is ...

I finished reading Ann Patchett's excellent 'The Dutch House' the other day, and started on Sarah Winman's 'Still Life'.  Which meant my To-Be-Read pile was a tiny bit smaller.  Only now it's not as I succumbed to another charity bookshelf purchase.  A lovely hardback copy of Kate Summerscale's 'The Haunting of Alma Fielding'.  I am partial to a hardback, just that bit classier than a paperback somehow.  Summerscale wrote 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' and I enjoyed that, so I've high hopes of Alma and her mysterious haunting.  

'Still Life' is one of those books that you start and immediately feel like you're in safe hands.  It's set in 1944 Italy, a meeting between Ulysses, a young British soldier, and Evelyn, a lively 64 year old art historian.  The blurb on the back of the book claims it's 'Big-hearted, sweeping and full of unforgettable characters'.  Just the ticket, eh?  

What else have I been up to today?  Lots of sewing.  The hoovering went undone, and rainfall meant I'd a valid excuse not to bother with any laundry as it couldn't be pegged out on the washing line.  But housework will always wait if there's something crafty to be getting on with.  

I added wadding and backing fabric to this -

Forgive the slightly blurry photo.  This second view of the same quilt shows the backing's made of two different materials, continuing with that mainly blue theme of the top.  

I also started working my way through this quilting book.  

Irene Roderick illustrates how she makes a series of different shapes, so I began with skinny lines.  

First off, I cut a strip of purple 3/4 of an inch wide, and used that as an insert between two pieces of my dark blue background fabric.  Making one long skinny line.  Then I made another strip of alternating pieces of purple and blue - rather fiddly to do - and sewed that as an insert.  Your eye only sees the skinny purple rectangles as the blue melt into the background.  

The next insert is about half and half purple and blue.  

After that, I sewed stripes that were angled, varying the width of the inserts, giving a sort of fan shape.  

I'm going to try various techniques from the book, mainly using these two colours, and hopefully at the end I'll arrange the odd sized blocks into some kind of overall design.  Or at least have a jumping off point for a design.