Rayen

After watching Glass Onion a few years back I decided to give the sequel Wake Up Dead Man a go. I'm not in love with Benoit Blanc, the supposedly master detective character, and the cast of characters from the first film were very unlikeable, but I did think the writing was okay. This sequel is star-studded and filled with a lot of religious hoopla, both downsides for me, but what the heck. It's Christmas! The premise: a former boxer and currently disgraced young Catholic priest is sent to a remote parish where the old priest in charge is chasing off his congregation with his fiery and highly prejudiced attitude. From the beginning the old priest takes a strong dislike to the young one, and does everything he can to patronize and alienate him. The old priest also has a bizarre control hold on a small group of his most loyal parishoners, all of whom seem to be worshipping him instead of God. Then the old priest is murdered in the middle of mass, and everyone decides t...

This little cobbled together utility quilt that came in the trio lot is actually really sweet; the original maker may not have known how to piece but still put a lot of work in it. I'm going to use it as a mat for under my home office computer chair, so I laundered it and it held together beautifully. There are a few seams that have popped or torn that needed to be sewn down. What was used for batting migrated and bunched in one corner, so I decided to remove that. The batting was cobbled together, too, and included part of an old flannel blanket. This is what made up the bunch in the corner. I repaired the seams that needed it, and the quilt went to join my other utility quilts in the closet.

The Price of Confession is a twelve-episode Korean murder mystery drama that practically reinvents the thriller; it's artfully plotted with a cast that couldn't be more perfect for their roles, including Kim Go-eun as a murderess who offers to take the blame for another inmate's crime . . . if she will murder someone for her. The premise: an unusual and quirky art teacher (Jeon Do-yeon) finds her husband murdered, and swiftly becomes accused of killing him with no practical way to prove her innocence. While in prison awaiting trial she encounters Mo-eun, a killer who offered to confess to the murder of her husband if she will kill the teenage son of her two victims. When they make the deal things start getting out of control in a hurry, and suddenly you don't know who to believe, even the cops and the prosecutor. I started watching this with serious misgivings, but Kim Go-eun never steers me wrong, and as with The King ~ The Eternal Monarch I ended up being ...

I picked up a lot of three quilts at the thrift auction that were not photographed very well, and (because of the lack of good pics) kind of a mystery. They just arrived, so let's take them out and see what I got. All three were in rough but still usable shape, with staining being the biggest issue. A small polyester and wool utility quilt that is topstitched together with a vintage sheet backing, probably from the sixties or seventies. No issues other than a few seams that need to be sewn down. I love that the maker cobbled together scraps to make this piece. A machine stitched queen size quilt top with patchwork depicting a very long dachshund pup. Stained but adorable. A very old unfinished crazy quilt top, probably from the turn of the twentieth century, with exquisite embroidery. Sadly someone tried to launder it (never ever ever wash vintage crazy quilts.) There are obvious signs of dye migration, silk patch shattering and overall age and water damage....

My guy and I were out walking an antique mall last week when I spotted a bundle of vintage DMC floss in a bunch of very old plastic bags held together by a key ring. I knew even for $9.95 no one would probably buy it (the bags were soiled and worn, and the floss had probably been in them for decades) but when I looked through the floss and saw how pretty it was I decided to take it home with me. The ring held thirty bags of floss, some with multiple skeins. I'd date it back to the 60's or 70's. Once outside the old bags the floss glowed like it was brand new -- 44 unused skeins and 16 partials. To pay less than ten dollars for it is a major score, because it's worth about fifty bucks. The seller obviously didn't know (or didn't care) about how much floss is worth. I do. DMC just raised their prices this year, and on average floss went from .79 a skein to .95 a skein. That doesn't sound like much to people who don't embroider, until you ...

I've created an album with pics of my 2025 mini-quilt calendar project for anyone who wants to see more, and read my thoughts about the project and how it helped me get through what has been a horrendous year.