Triangle Quilt for My Baby Alice

I wasn't sure if I would ever get to make this particular quilt, so this one is a particular pleasure to share. I've enjoyed making quilts for other people but making one knowing it was for a little baby growing inside me and kicking away as I sat at the sewing machine was a joy! We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl (turns out my bump contained a gorgeous girl) so we chose a gender neutral palate. Colours were chosen by my husband. I'm really pleased with the result, I think it looks quite circusy.

The quilt design is the same one I used for my niece, so it's nice to have a bit of a theme running in the family. 

I used lots of animal prints on the back of the quilt. My husband really likes owls and so when I found fabric with owls on it I knew that we had to use that in the quilt. It turned out to be quite blocky but I quite liked the effect. I think I can imagine looking for the fox or the blue owl with my daughter in the future. 

I completed this crib sized quilt in my 37th week of pregnancy - so I was cutting it fine! The project got decidedly trickier the bigger my bump became. In the end Baby Alice was born exactly on her due date.

The Last Empress

I finished this book on the morning of the 30th December. This is only significant because later on that night I started my contractions and gave birth to my beautiful daughter the next day. Just to be perfectly clear, however, this book did nothing towards helping my labour or even ensuring that my baby arrived bang on time! This information is just by the by...

The Last Empress is the follow on book fromEmpress Orchid and picks up where the last story left off. Orchid remains in charge of the country ruling in the stead of her son. It is more of a historical novel than a romance in comparison with the previous book and the author almost seems to be bogged down with ensuring that she includes historical details: a list of dates, who's who and cross referencing to Western press documents. As such it wasn't a particularly smooth read. It was interesting in so far as I am interested in how China moved from being a monarchy, but I feel that it didn't suit the author's writing style as much as the first novel did. Not a book I would read again.