A Good Read

The Frozen Dead by Bernard Minier
Diane Berg, a young psychiatrist starts her first job at a secure asylum for the criminally insane. She is made to feel very unwelcome by the current director of the institute, Dr Xavier, and his grim assistant Lisa Ferney. Diane soon suspects there is something going on between them. Meanwhile, at a nearby hydroelectric power plant accessible only by cable car, maintenance workers make a gruesome discovery. A decapitated horse hangs suspended from the edge of the frozen cliff.
Commandant Servaz, a Toulouse city cop, can't believe he has been assigned to the death of an animal. But there is something disturbing about this crime that he cannot ignore, DNA from one of the most notorious inmates of the asylum is found on the corpse... and a few days later the first murder takes place.
In this snowbound valley, deep in the Pyrenees, a dark story of madness and revenge is unfolding. It will take all of Servaz's skill to solve it.

This is a very clever story with edge-of-the-seat suspense and atmospheric writing, you can feel the dark chilling landscape wrapping itself around you.

~Happy Reading ~

Polly x

Hibernating and More Quilts

I have neglected my blog of late. I lost interest, preferring to spend time on other activities. Throughout January, February and March I did my usual hibernating and making quilts for Project Linus. Another 12 rolled off the sewing machine production line. All the material was gifted to me. They are all lap quilts approx 36" x 36" for children in hospital. The patterns are pretty and the fleece backing is cosy, providing warmth and comfort, and the children get to keep them.

 Top right and bottom right are the same material, but TR is triangles and BR is half square triangles.

All have the pale blue fleece backing.

After completing this Star Wars quilt above I noticed a small tear in one of the plain orange squares.
I had used all the material so I used the signature label, which I usually put in a corner, to cover it.

Last year I used oddments of fleece for the backing of one of the quilts, I didn't want to waste them and thought they would look nice in a sort of fan of rainbow colours, see here. Well it was very difficult and I said I would never attempt anything like it again. Then I was given these 4 rectangle pieces of fleece above right. The colours matched this material perfectly, they were just begging to be used.  They were much easier to work with though as they followed the lines of the squares.

Courtesy of BeFunky.com

These patterns of rabbits are quite pretty but I think the colours are a bit drab. 

This hasn't photographed very well, they are pretty shades of blue and yellow. I'm not happy with the border though, I haven't matched the patterns very well. I didn't really notice it until I hung it up. I'm debating whether to unpick the border and re-do it!

And finally this one, using strips of all the odd pieces of material left over.
It's time consuming but very satisfying.
I don't use wadding with my quilts, but I have to when I do these because all those seams make it bulky.

Here in the UK we've been enjoying gorgeous warm weather,
I hope it continues into a hot summer like last year.

~Keep warm and well ~
Polly x

Happy Easter

Flowers And Chocolates

A winning combination


I hope you have a happy/sunny/fun/peaceful Easter 

~Polly x ~

A Good Read

The English Assassin by Daniel Silva is a taut, fast-paced thriller confidently rooted in fact - Switzerland's shameful WWII record of profiteering and collaboration with Nazi Germany. During the 2nd World War vast numbers of the world’s great painting masterpieces were stolen by the Nazis and given to the bankers of Zurich for safe keeping. Many of these paintings were owned by the then persecuted Jews. Under Swiss law if an item was unclaimed after 5 years that item then became the property of the person who was currently in possession of it, making it impossible for the rightful owners to prove provenance.

When art restorer and occasional Israeli agent Gabriel Allon is sent to Zurich to restore the painting of a reclusive millionaire banker, he arrives to find his would-be employer murdered and a secret collection of priceless, illicitly gained Impressionist masterpieces is missing. Gabriel's handler steps out of the shadows to admit the truth - the collector had been silenced, and Gabriel is put back in the high-stakes spy game, tasked with recovering the paintings and returning them to their rightful owners. But the Swiss Bankers are not about to give billions of dollars in artwork away and are quite prepared to kill to keep possession of the masterpieces.

Tense, expertly crafted, and with a few twists and turns, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also found the exploration of the secretive world of Swiss banking and the secretive culture of Switzerland fascinating.

~Happy Reading ~

Polly x