Dolly Quilts and a New Book to Read

It's another late night blog post, so I'm typing as fast as I can. I just took my nightly dose of muscle relaxant, so here's hoping I can get done before side-effect of drowsiness kicks in. (I hurt the ligaments near my left knee a few days ago though I'm not sure how I did it. I didn't do anything.

(Oh, no! The yawning has already started!)

Well, let me show you this cute little doll quilt. I made it out of some "twosies" left over from another project. Alejandra, an Our Generation Doll from Target, looks nice and cozy.  The finished size of the squares is 2 inches which is about as large as you can make them without their looking horribly out of scale. I used a very thin batting for this quilt, but it still too stiff to drape nicely over the side of the bed. I think next time I'll use flannel for the middle layer.

I'm currently working a on doll-sized quilt with 2 inch Log Cabin blocks. And the logs are 1/4 inch wide. That means I'm saving even tinier scraps that I used to. Here a picture of a completed block next to my rotary cutter -- just to give you a feeling for scale. As you can see, these blocks are made using a stitch and flip method. The sewing lines are printed onto thin muslin with a rubber stamp.

Well, the yawns are starting to overcome me, so I'll just leave you with a very brief book recommendation: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge.

It's a YA fantasy with a gorgeous cover. But what's inside is even better. It's being marketed as a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast, " but I also see a strong influence from  the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

Here is the blurb from the publisher:

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom—all because of a reckless bargain her father struck. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.

Betrayed by her family yet bound to obey, Nyx rails against her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, she abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, disarm him, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. But even if she can bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him?

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

I'm not a big fan of Young Adult books. But this one was different. For one thing, it has more depth because of the moral compass within which the characters operate. I like the world building. And what's really cool is that the author uses many elements of YA fantasy which normally leave me cold. But in this novel they work. And I found myself loving them.

I'm about to fall over with dizzy fatigue, so for a really competent appraisal of Cruel Beauty, please read Happy Catholic's review here.

And here's where you can read the first 70 pages of Cruel Beauty for free.

Disclaimer: I am personally acquainted with the author, but I bought my own copy. My opinion of the book is honest and frank -- though possibly incoherent due to sleepiness.


This week I'm joining Jennifer Fulweiler in writing seven posts in seven days. To check out other bloggers who are doing the same, see the list here.