Hello dear Off-Topicers,
I hadn’t been planning to write on Easter Sunday, but I’ve just finished a novel I loved so much - and which seems so perfect for a long weekend - that I feel compelled to share it right away in case you’re in need of something indulgent to read during these days.
I only discovered Curtis Sittenfeld’s novels recently and, although I think I chose the wrong one to start with (Prep, which I found a bit lacking in likeable characters), I adored her writing and was left wanting more, so when Romantic Comedy was released last week, I downloaded it on Audible. I have a sizeable soft spot for novels about love. And by that I mean the undiluted kind that will leave my heart glowing and my cheeks aching from excessive smiling. But it can be tricky finding ones that are also brilliantly written and which don’t make me feel slightly ridiculous as I gobble them up. Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel is that unique thing. It has excellent characters and wonderfully snappy dialogue. And Isn’t Romantic Comedy a fantastic title - there’s something nice about sitting down to a book that promises to deliver a very specific thing (in the same way Emily Henry’s Beach Read did a few years earlier). And I love that the cover steers away from being a confection of pink - it reminds me of the styling for Ann Patchett’s brilliant Commonwealth. The story is based around a comedy-writer for a Saturday Night Live style show, and a musician who appears on it as a guest host - not a world I thought I was interested in, but I found the mechanics behind the show fascinating and it’s obviously been carefully researched. If you liked Daisy Jones & The Six, I think you’ll love this.
As I sat in the evening sunshine listening, I noticed the pieces I was sewing happened to be a brilliant match for its cover :) I think I was about four hours in at this point, by the way - chapter one is a biggie of many parts.
If you’re following me on Instagram, you might have seen that I’ve been working on a new version of the framed piece below (which I made several years ago, and which hangs above our dining table).
While I’ve been sewing my latest version together, I’ve also written up the pattern for anyone who’d like to make one too. The block’s angled triangles and oddly-shaped edge pieces create a sort of fractured rain-on-windowpanes feel once they’re all assembled and act as a canvas for something akin to an abstract painting. The pattern includes a colouring sheet to help with planning, as well as some ideas around how to get started for anyone like me, whose mind initially freezes at the design stage. I’m currently on row four of six and still following my plan - I love getting that bit done at the start so everything that follows is just the unthinking joy of wrapping pieces and hand-sewing (when I say unthinking, there is, of course, still an absolutely excessive amount of thinking, just not of the indecisive-about-fabrics-and-where-I’m-going-with-this variety).
If you’re interested, the pattern is available from my Etsy shop as an instant PDF download, ready to print at home. The instructions are for construction using the English paper piecing method. A friend recently said she’d assumed English paper piecing involved working with paper rather than fabric, and I realised it’s a really misleading term. In reality, EPP involves wrapping fabric around paper to make it easier to sew together more complex shapes, but the paper is then removed (although for an unquilted wall hanging like this, I often leave them in place. That’s covered in the pattern notes too).
For both versions I’ve used a combination of solid cottons, shot cottons, and silks - I love seeing this mix in the sunshine when they suddenly come alive.
Anyway, I hope you’re having a lovely Easter weekend. We’ve had a house full of teenagers as my son has had extended birthday celebrations, mixed in with our own friends and meeting up with family. It’s been lovely, although I’m now looking forward to the nice green leaf that is a bank holiday Monday with absolutely no plans. Just sewing, reading, and perhaps a quick scurry up and down a hill somewhere with husband and dog, if only to make me feel I haven’t frittered away the sunshine.
With love,
Florence x
Gosh, 'Romantic Comedy' sounds smashing* as, by extension, do your other book mentions. I'm always looking for good books for Audible. I prefer to listen rather than to read as I not only find it easier to take in the story somehow (the act of reading can get in the way sometimes, especially when I'm tired) but also I do like to be doing with my hands at the same time, sewing or knitting usually. I do follow you on Instagram and have seen your new piece. I intend to buy the pattern, though must confess to feeling rather daunted about starting such a large item as a first epp piece. I'm no stranger to throwing myself into complex projects without any experience though. Being carried along by a love for the project isn't a bad MO in my opinion. Jen x
* I've just started following Susan Calman on IG. I love her warmth and humour and frequent use of the word 'smashing'; I'm now trying to slip it in as much as possible myself too.
PS this has been quite difficult to type as i have a cat on my lap as I sit on the sofa, so have been plonking away one fingered. There's a lot to be said for phones and their autofill of punctuation etc!
No footnotes? *faints*