I Made Quilted Stationery Sets for the Class of 2024 Because It Would Kill Me To Simply Give Them Gift Cards

Did I tell you that we have construction people in the house AGAIN?!?

We're rounding in on the one-year anniversary of that time that a tree fell on our house, but considering that the roof people didn't even finish that job until well into winter, and that thanks to that nightmare we have not had a single year without a construction project since 2020, I feel like I should probably replace the disused menu board in my kitchen with a sign that reads, "It's been [#] Days Since We've Last Had Construction People in the House."

This current construction project actually stems from the 2022 project of replacing the hideous floors in the kids' bedrooms. When the workers ripped out the floor in the older kid's room, they saw a ton of water damage on one exterior wall and they theorized that the old concrete porch out there might be funneling water towards the house. Sometimes this company will add on another project to the one we already hired them to do--that's how we got the kids' bathroom floor retiled!--but we had to get back in line for this one. It was a LONG line, I guess, since our turn has just come up again, but it's for the best, probably, since, you know, it took us half of 2023 to get a roof back on our house!

I was sort of afraid this porch project would result in them having to rip out and remake all the exterior walls facing the porch, since that's generally how our luck has run, but this time we were lucky! None of the water damage needed anything that extensive, none of the termite damage(!!!) turned out to be current, and the porch didn't even need to be repoured. Instead, we've got some brand-new watertight sealing on the exterior walls around the porch, and all-new termite- and water-free wood inside. And the guy putting on the siding only got stung by wasps twice.

And because you never want to let these guys leave when you've got them here (remember that long line!), my partner got them to agree to fix a shockingly janky wall in the older kid's bedroom, so to circle back around to my first sentence, THAT'S why we've got workers in the house right now. 

And the whole point of that story is that I'm too bashful to sew in the room that the wall guy has to pass through 40,000 times per day, so instead of doing this project leisurely over the course of a week, as I'd envisioned, I instead panic-sewed most of it during the day he got called to a different site, thoroughly warping my personality by listening to my fairy smut on headphones the entire time. 

My idea was that I would quilt each graduate a set of postcards and stamp them, but 1) the price of postcard stamps is now so high that you might as well just buy regular Forever stamps, and 2) my partner and older kid both thought that my quilted postcards, while they really are a thing that can be mailed, were so nice that the recipients would fret at tossing them willy-nilly in the mail as-is. So although I kept the postcard format, my older kid helped me make envelopes for them out of our stash scrapbook paper ("Are we EVER going to use up all this paper?!?" she groused, but to be fair, this single pad of 12"x12" paper *has* seemed to pop up in every paper project we've done since about 2010 or so!), and I pre-stamped them for college student mailing convenience. 

My favorite thing about these postcards is how they serve as a sort of sampler for all the patchwork techniques I currently know. Here are some triangle hexies:

That batik canvas is from the first curtains I ever sewed!

Here are a variety of log cabins:

These are actually all postage square quilt blocks I made over a decade ago... before I learned how to sew a straight seam and properly square things, ahem:

And these are new postage stamp quilt blocks made from stash, because I'm still in the habit of cutting and saving 1.5" pieces from my last bits of scraps whenever I sew:

Inside this quilt block is the very last square inch of the purple striped fabric that used to be the ring sling that was my very first sewing project ever. I wore both my babies in it!

And here's my newest-to-me technique, the quilt-as-you-go method!

And because my NEWEST newest-to-me technique isn't quilting but gif-making, here's a gif of all my quilted postcards--I've learned how to slow down the frame rate, so it's not quite as obnoxious as my quilted coasters gif:

And here's all the envelopes ready to be stuffed!

I sewed zippered pouches to hold the stationery sets, a nice pen, and a glue stick since my homemade envelopes aren't self-sealing, ahem. 

Most of these stationery sets are now with their recipients, ready to have records of college adventures written on them and sent off to loved ones. I kind of want to see what it would look like to put a quilted patchwork front onto a single-fold greeting card, though, and I also want to make a few more of these postcards for myself, because in my experience, college students like to receive mail even more than they like to send it!

P.S. Want to know more about my adventures in life, and my looming mid-life crisis? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Sew a Mini Quilt Block Coaster

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

A mini quilt block coaster is a useful–and beautiful!–way to destash some of your prettiest quilting cottons.

I do not know what happens to all of my coasters! Over the years I’ve made tile coasters, chalkboard coasters, and endless quilt block coasters, and nearly all of those are simply… gone! To be honest, I probably don’t want to know why they go missing so regularly in the house I share with my partner and two teenagers, but just between us, I suspect foul play.

It’s fine, though. I do LOVE the hexagonal rainbow quilt block coasters that I sewed four years ago–rather, I love the single one of those that still exists in my family room!–but change is fun. Anyway, a new set of coasters is a great way to destash a bit of my quilting cotton!

For this project, I was specifically excited about destashing the last bit of a super cute honeybee print that I’ve had for quite a while and was down to its very last 1/16 or so of a yard. There wasn’t a panel of it wide enough to do much of anything with, but there were just enough bees left on it, at just the right size, for me to fussy cut the center piece of a set of bright, summery quilt block coasters.

So that’s what I did!

Turning a mini quilt block into a coaster is an easy project–all the hard work is in sewing that quilt block, after all! Here’s how to do it!

Materials

You will need:

• mini quilt block. Any quilt block that’s approximately coaster-sized, say between 4 and 6 inches wide, will work for this project. If you want something bigger, just call it a mug rug! For mini quilt block ideas, check out my mini log cabin quilt block tutorial.
• cotton batting or equivalent. Coasters are actually a great way to use up the last scraps of cotton batting leftover from a quilt project. I also like to use recycled polyester felt; if the felt is on the thin side, like craft felt often is, you can double it up for this project.
• backing fabric. This back-to-front binding piece should be 1″ larger than the quilt block on all sides.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing supplies.

Step 1: Cut the batting.

Iron and square the mini quilt block, then set it directly on the felt or batting and use it as a template to cut the piece to size.

One of the nice things about both felt and batting is that they’re a bit grippy, so if you’re moving straight to the next step you don’t even really need to pin this. But a few clips around the edges are also fine!

Step 2: Measure and cut the backing fabric to size.

Prep your backing fabric by washing, ironing, etc., then lay it right side down onto your work surface. I like to set my quilt block + batting stack right side up directly on top of the backing fabric, then use a clear, gridded quilting ruler to cut the backing fabric 1″ wider than the quilt block on all sides.

You’ll need to trim the corners of the backing fabric to reduce bulk in the binding. I always just eyeball this by first ironing the corners down, as in the above photo, then hand-cutting them off about halfway between that fold and the corner of the quilt block.

Step 3: Sew the binding.

Fold each side in to touch the edge of the quilt block, then iron to crease. Then, fold each side in again at the edge of the quilt block, bringing that first folded edge over the quilt block to create the binding. Adjust the corners by hand until they look tidy; you can make them look mitered or leave them as-is, as long as there are no raw fabric edges showing.

Stitch the edge of the binding down to the coaster. On my sewing machine, a basic Singer Heavy Duty, I use a zigzag stitch with a width of 3 and a length of 2.

That’s the entire process to make a coaster! I made six coasters, some with hearts and some with bees, and I’ve already thrown a couple in the wash because apparently we’re all messy coffee drinkers in this family. I LOVE that these coasters are as easily washable as our quilts and clothes!

Because these coasters are so summery, AND because I’ve got so much fabric, ahem, I’m already thinking about the idea of using these seasonally and sewing some different coasters that we can use in the autumn and winter. Little skull centers with orange, black, and purple frames would be perfect for October, don’t you think? And perhaps little hearts with pink, purple, and white frames for Valentine’s Day?

P.S. Want to know more about our adventures in learning, and the resources that we use to accomplish them? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

I Love My New Mini Quilt Block Coasters

Also, look what I learned how to do!

It's nifty, but a little of that gif goes a loooooong way--please feel free to scroll down until you can't see it! I'll wait!

That's more soothing, right? Now, let's begin.

As of today, I think I've finally broken out of my months-long obsession with mini quilt blocks--nothing like a seven-hour session sewing mini quilt blocks to finish up gifts for my two favorite members of the Class of 2024 to break me... I mean, break me OUT. Ahem.

I also might have damaged my mind by listening to A Court of Mist and Fury pretty much that entire time. At one point I walked through the family room, where both kids have so far spent their summer doing their darndest to keep the couch from flying away (and it makes my heart sing with joy to see it!), and I was all, "Kids! I am so worried about Feyre's plan to steal the Book of Breathings! I know she's the only person who can stop the King of Hyburn from using the magic cauldron, but you can't winnow into the building where it's hidden! It's too dangerous!"

The kids gave each other that look that I don't understand since I'm an only child, but I think it means something along the lines of "What are we going to do about Mom?", and then one of them carefully said, "Um, are you still reading that fairy smut?"

Y'all. This one is barely smutty at all! And it turns out that it's very good! It even provides some fixes for stuff from the first book that makes it less stupid!

Anyway... the grad gifts I sewed are sooooo darling, and as a bonus I was able to use up several practice mini quilt blocks I'd made without knowing what I wanted to do with them. Y'all KNOW how much I love using up stuff!

Before that, though, I made these!

Oh, and this guy, too:

I used the mini log cabin quilt blocks that I have the tutorial for here. I couldn't get the binding quite as tidy as I'd wanted--I'm a sucker for mitered corners without any real ability to attain them--but the stitching and piecing is just about as neat as I've ever done. I have FINALLY learned the lesson of picking a seam allowance and sticking to it!

Or not, because for this project I cut a ton of fabric 1.5" wide, and whenever I wanted to vary the finished width of a piece I played with varying my seam allowance. It only kind of worked, because for some reason I couldn't figure out how to make the log cabin pieces around the bee .5" wide after sewing a .25" seam on the other side to preserve my fussy cut bee--

But whatever. It still keeps my coffee from dripping onto the table:

My newest innovation comes from splurging on some gridded mylar stencil sheets, because I cut a template for the 1.5" square that let me fussy cut my pieces, perfectly centering the element I wanted to feature. That and these plastic sewing clips that I'm still delighted by have transformed my sewing for the better!

I've got a proper tutorial for sewing these coasters scheduled for Wednesday, and then I'll show off the patchwork quilted grad gifts that I'm SUUUUPER excited about. 

And then I should probably get started learning how to Foundation Paper Piece, because I can't send my baby off to college without a bookshelf quilt!

P.S. Want to know more about my adventures in life, and my looming mid-life crisis? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Sew a Mini Square in a Square Log Cabin Quilt Block

My log cabin quilt block obsession has grown both larger… and smaller!

The log cabin was the second quilt block that I ever learned to sew (everyone’s first quilt block should be the Nine-Patch!), and it’s remained my absolute favorite. It’s the kind of block whose versatility works for both newer sewists–wonky pieces are absolutely acceptable here!–and advanced sewists who want to experiment with color, value, and dimension.

My current obsession is mini quilt blocks, and I’m loving one specific type of log cabin quilt block, the square in a square subset, for highlighting a fussy cut center piece. The pieces around it, while constructed in the traditional log cabin way, make a series of frames that further highlight that piece, similar to the concept of highlighting the red “hearth” piece in the center of a traditional log cabin quilt block.

Even with this very simple block pattern, there’s a lot of scope for the imagination. I wanted something summery, so I’m playing with yellows and oranges, but there’s an infinite amount of variety of color and width to be played about with here.

Here’s how to make these mini square in a square log cabin quilt blocks:

Materials

You will need:

• fabric. Even though it’s a bit of a waste of fabric, depending on what width I choose for my log pieces, I’m cutting all my fabric 1.5″ wide and then simply adjusting my seam allowance to get the finished width that I want. My narrowest log pieces will be .5″ wide, so for those I’ll also be sewing with a .5″ seam allowance. The pieces that I want to end up 1″ wide will get a more traditional .25″ seam allowance.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing supplies. I LOVE a clear, gridded quilting ruler for precise measuring and cutting. I cut the strips with a self-healing cutting mat and rotary cutter, and I fussy cut the center square using a pair of sharp sewing scissors. To make the fussy cutting even easier, I recently splurged on a piece of gridded plastic that I could use to make my own cutting templates. It’s NOT eco-friendly, but I love it and I’ll use it forever! For machine sewing, I like a narrow, sharp needle and matching thread. And like it or not, you have to have an iron!

Step 1: Cut the pieces.

Above, you can see that I’ve got my colorway figured out and my pieces chosen. All the strips are 1.5″ wide, and the center block is 1.5″ square. The little heart in the middle is just .25″ square, so I’m going to aim for all my finished logs to be .5″ wide. That means that all my seam allowances will be .5″. It’s overkill and don’t tell the quilting police, but just between us, I kind of love piecing with a wider seam allowance. It always feels so much easier for my fumbly fingers to handle!

Step 2: Frame the center piece.

Line up the seams of the first log piece and one side of the center block, wrong sides together. This first log piece will be the shortest, and although you won’t be able to tell by more than the lines of stitching, since all the pieces of this frame will be the same color, I nevertheless like to place it at the bottom.

I don’t like to start my stitching at the very edge of the fabric, because I can’t figure out how to keep the fabric from bunching at that edge when I do (let me know if you have tips!), so I like to offset the log pieces and then trim the extra away after sewing each seam.

Sew the seam, then use your sharp sewing scissors to trim each side of the log piece to match the edge of the center piece. Unfold and finger press the seam to whichever side you prefer–for this project, I’m pressing the seams open, but again, I think that’s something that I don’t want you to tell the quilting police that I do…

Above is the block that I sewed from the right side. You can tell that the top left is a little uneven, and if you want you can trim it down so it’s perfect again before you continue sewing.

Do I want to, though? Nope!

Here’s the block from the back side:

One piece of advice that I did receive once upon a time, and that I DO follow, is to iron quilt blocks from the right side, not the wrong side like in the photo above. I don’t know why that is but I do it anyway.

Sew the next three log pieces just the way you sewed the first one, continuing to border that center piece.

Each time, you’ll trim the log piece to match the two sides of the block, then iron the seam open (or to the side you prefer!) from the right side:

Remember that you can always trim the block to the correct size, so I don’t think you should get too fussy if one of your seams is a little imprecise. These blocks are tiny!

Your complete frame will look like the photo below:

Notice that you can see the lines of stitching for each piece in the frame, but that won’t really be visible if you’re not looking at it with your nose two inches from it like we are right now.

Step 3: Continue piecing additional frames.

Add as many additional frames as you want to this log cabin quilt block. I kept up with the .5″ seams for this quilt block, and you can see in the photo above that it’s definitely added “dimension” to the quilt block, but I don’t think it made it too bulky. I think I’m going to use these quilt blocks for coasters, anyway, so a little more thickness will just make them more absorbent.

I think that it looks the nicest to continue rotating the blocks and adding pieces in the order that you started with the first frame. So if you went clockwise like I did in the above photo, keep going clockwise! And even though we’re still looking at it with our noses two inches from the block, I think the stitching in the frames already looks less obvious, and it will continue to fade into the background the more frames you add.

Here’s my finished quilt block, below:

Instead of adding another frame with that 1.5″ strip I have there, I’m going to use a different piece of that fabric to sew a back-to-front binding when I turn this, and several of its identical friends, into coasters.

But the world is your oyster when you’re choosing what YOU want to do with your square in a square mini log cabin quilt block! You could make a zippered pouch, or a needle book, or a quilted postcard, or gather it together with 359 more mini quilt blocks and make a whole quilt top.

Let me know what you end up making--you know I'm nosy like that!

P.S. Want to know more about our adventures in learning, and the resources that we use to accomplish them? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

I Didn't Think I Was Cut Out for the Fairy Smut Book Club, But 700 Pages Later and I Might Be After All?

SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERS!!!!!!

There will be ALL the spoilers for A Court of Thorn and Roses here, and some bonus spoilers for A Court of Mist and Fury, since I've somehow already found myself fifteen chapters in...

While you think about whether or not you ever want to read this book for yourself and therefore do or do not want spoilers of it, here is some actual footage of me posting this book review on Goodreads:

And now, on with the show!

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Setup: I read this book because the cover was copy-pasted onto a flyer advertising the "Fairy Smut Book Club" at a college I was touring with my high schooler. Nobody else in the parent/kid tour group reacted when we walked through that hallway and passed this flyer, but I was all, "Fairy smut? What on earth is FAIRY SMUT?!? If other people know about fairy smut, then *I* should also know about fairy smut!!!" I figured, if it's good enough for some undergrads to make a whole club about, I should read it!

Later I learned that you only need four kids to start a student club at this college, AND I think all the student clubs get funding from the school, so maaaaaybe you don't have to have a super big reason to start a club there and I didn't need to feel fairy smut FOMO, but what's done is done.

All that to say that I'm willing to concede that I might not be the target market for fairy smut. But I listened to this on hoopla (having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card!) while I washed dishes and sewed some new coasters for the house, so at least I know how to pronounce all the names... but I might not know how to spell them correctly for this review, ahem.

Also, the coasters are little log cabin quilt blocks with a fussy cut bee print as the center panel. They're adorable.

Soooo... this book in general is kinda... rapey, right? Are we all getting the rapey vibe? And it's not just the scenes in which Feyre's consent is violated--the fact that I had to pluralize SCENES, because it happened more than once, is grossing me out all over again!--or the specific scene in which she was almost gang-raped by fairies at that spring sex party, but also, seriously, it was a vibe throughout the entire book. Like, that's half the "fun," ahem, of the Rhys character, right? That he's a dark, night-themed sexy boy who's always on the cusp of raping her? And he forces her to dress in "sexy," super revealing clothes that she doesn't want to dress in? And he forces her to have her "intimate areas" painted by fairy servants? And he forces her to dance I'm assuming "sexy" dances for him in public--which reminds me that the other time that she danced a "sexy" dance for Tamlin, which, yuck, SHE WAS ALSO DRUNK!--and in the morning she can't really remember what she did but she's relieved, y'all, that there's evidence that he only touched her waist and arms. Oh, and he non-consensually body-modified her.

That's rapey, right?

Also: Tamlin. Not only does he absolutely sexually assault her, because I HEARD her tell him to let go while I was trimming the batting for my coasters (I'm using stash polyester felt instead of proper batting, but I think it's working really well!) and he did not, and then she literally pushed him and I think that's when he bit her, but tbh that's not even the rapiest thing about him. So maybe it's because I listened to this book instead of reading it with my eyes, but did anybody else notice how many times Feyre says "high lord?" A high lord just spoke to her at the breakfast table! A high lord serenaded her with his fairy fiddle! A high lord wants to swim in liquified starlight with her! It's just... if she's using his status instead of his name when she thinks about him, that's because she thinks about him as his status instead of his name. And she's clearly super impressed by it, so it's definitely a factor in how she feels about him. It sets up a power dynamic between them, and crossing that power dynamic is always going to be sketchy. Like, sub in "my boss" or "my teacher" if you want to set it in the mundane world. See? It's sketchy, right? And not to mention that she's not *exactly* imprisoned inside his estate, but she IS imprisoned inside of fairy land, and if she does leave his estate then she'll get eaten so also she is kind of imprisoned inside his estate. Sub "my warden" or "my guardian" for "high lord" and it's even grosser!

All that to say that I'm not even dinging the book on stars because it's rapey, because books are allowed to be rapey if they want--it was just something I wanted to talk about. I DID personally ding the book on stars because Feyre said "high lord" into my headphones so much. It got on my nerves.

I also dinged the book for being weirdly plot-less for the first 80%, and when Feyre finally went under the mountain and started doing stuff it honestly made me even more annoyed because hey! She was always capable of doing stuff! We could have had a plot the whole time! Tamlin is apparently NEVER capable of doing stuff so it's not his fault we didn't have a plot while we were at his house, I guess. I'm trying to think of something he even DOES in the book... Okay, he came and scared the snot out of Feyre's family in Beast Mode and abducted her and did a ton of magic to ensorcell the rest of them while setting them up for life, which must have taken all the energy out of him for the rest of the book because later he makes a huge stinking deal about magicking his dining room table to a different size. Otherwise... he picnics with Feyre. He sits at the table and eats. He stands there and lets Feyre be the one to comfort that random wing-less fairy as it dies from blood loss. He gets hopped up on spring fairy magic at one of his parties and nearly rapes Feyre, and then at another party he's part of the house band. He sits on the dais with Amarantha and widens his eyes once. He sneaks her off to try to have sex with her the night before her third task, I'm only assuming so Amarantha kills them both on the spot instead of making Feyre go through the actual task. Like, half the time when Feyre is admiring how powerful or whatever he is when's he's standing there doing absolutely nothing, she's all, "His claws almost came out that time." But they didn't.

I was pretty much just listening to this book for the noise until Feyre went Under the Mountain, and then all of a sudden it got interesting! I don't know if I really liked it yet at that point--I'm still not sure if I actually liked this book at all or not--but it was surprising, and I became much more interested in the plot and unable to predict the characters' actions. I am so invested in how completely odd Rhys behaved and how he was written, for one thing. I was all, "Wait! Are Rhys and Feyre about to be A Thing? Ooh, are Rhys and Feyre and TAMLIN going to be A Thing?" I'm still not totally sure, tbh; I'm pretty sure we got some Rhys and Tamlin backstory at some point but I wasn't paying attention, so I'm not sure if Rhys and Feyre are supposed to be low-key into each other and that's why Rhys kept sticking his neck out for her, or if Rhys and Tamlin are down-low a thing and he's sticking his neck out for her to help Tamlin... or he's just supposed to be a chaos lord who's sticking his neck out for Feyre just to have something to do. Being an immortal fairy really seems like it would wear on you. I'd be bored to death after four of those Under the Mountain cocktail parties, and they've apparently been doing them every night for multiple human generations, yawn.

Okay, but until then the book was pretty uneventful and very light on graphic details, and then all of a sudden it got INSANE and I was so there for it! The worm battle was kind of stupid but Feyre was left with literally her ARM BONE STICKING OUT OF HER BODY and OMG they just left her like that! For a crazy long time! And then Rhys is all, "I'll heal you but only if you enslave yourself to me," and Feyre is dithering about how she should probably wait for Lucien to do it, but then she does the deal with Rhys and worries that it was a huge mistake, etc. So the way I'd have expected this to go is that Feyre says, "Nope, I'm loyal to a fault, that's why I'm here Under the Mountain instead of on a boat halfway across the ocean with my asshole family by now, duh, and I am of course going to wait for my pal Lucien," and then she does, and Lucien heals her.

But y'all!!!! NOOOO!!! Later, after she's done the deal with Rhys and has to do all the mostly-nude dirty dancing, she actually talks to Lucien about it, and he shames her for her decision even while in the same breath telling her that Amarantha fucked up his back torturing him and he'd only been able to stand up the previous day. AND THEN NOBODY SAYS, "SEE? IT WAS THE RIGHT CHOICE TO DO THE DEAL WITH RHYS BECAUSE OTHERWISE YOU'D HAVE DIED." Nobody mentions that AT ALL!!! I am both inordinately amused/entertained that the wrong decision *was* the right one, and irritated that nobody pointed that out to congratulate Feyre on making what it turns out was the right decision after all.

Okay, and then. And then! Obviously, the entire point of the third task should have been for Feyre to refuse it. It should have been an agonizing decision for her, of course, but in the act of refusing it, that's when the solution to the riddle should have come to her. Because the whole point should have been that she, as a human, while she doesn't have the powers that the fairies have, has the power of her humanity and that is what makes her equal to them and able to overcome Amarantha's fairy wickedness. Also, she's showing that she's no Jurien and Amarantha is obviously wrong to treat all humans like they, too, are inconstant and immoral. Because YOU GUYS. HUMANS OUGHT NOT EXECUTE INNOCENT PEOPLE IN COLD BLOOD. I'm sure that's a basic moral stance that should unite us all. If someone, anyone, any fairy tells us to, they're wrong and we shouldn't do it. If there's some magical task that instructs us to do it, the task is wrong and whoever made it is bad and we should not do it. Even if it means death, we are supposed to embrace our humanity and make the right choice.

So I was shocked--and honestly thrilled because it was so surprising--when Feyre literally murders those people just because the task told her to! OMG! I mean, she was very sad about it and she's definitely going to be traumatized for life, but I can't believe she did it! AND that it was apparently the correct move! Like, what on earth kind of amoral psychopathic fairy tale IS THIS?!? Our heroine just executed two innocents for The Greater Good like freaking Grindelwald! It would have been even more hilarious if it had been a test and she failed it, but whatever, at least the plot kept moving.

It does make sense, then, that she's turned into a High Fae herself, since she apparently gets nothing and no guidance from her humanity. Considering how poorly her family and most of that village treated her, actually, maybe she'll go all Evil Fae on them in a future book?

Okay, last thing that got on my nerves: I'm not going to try to sift back through the audiobook to check, but I swear that when Rhys and Feyre did the deal to heal her, she promised to enslave herself to him for one week a month "for the rest of her life." I was sure that part of the ending gimmick would be that because her life had ended then she was free. But nobody mentioned that, so I guess no? I could have remembered wrong, though.

No, wait, this is the last thing, but this is something I loved: We never learn what the question was that Feyre had to answer with the levers in the second task, lol!

Predictions for future books:

*We're going to learn that Feyre's mother has some sort of connection to the fairies, or some other reason for making Feyre be the one to promise to support her entire family, and not, say, her older sisters or, I don't know, her FATHER?!?

*Nesta is going to become a mercenary and there will be conflict and drama there. Because otherwise, what was the point in having that scene with the mercenary at the beginning of this book? Just to tell the news about Trouble in Fairy Land? We didn't actually DO anything with that news!

View all my reviews

Here lie the spoilers for the first fifteen chapters of A Court of Mist and Fury:

Are you SURE you want to keep reading? Don't spoil yourself if you think you might want to read A Court of Mist and Fury, because shockingly, it's good so far! While you think about it, here's some archived footage of how I spend my days:

Fortunately, I solved the above problem with this series, as I'm listening to it on audiobook while I sew lots of little patchwork pretties. I finished the coasters, and now I'm making blank greeting cards with patchwork fronts to give as graduation gifts. They're turning out so adorable!

Now, back to our show!

Mind you, I know nothing about the author of this series, but if I had to guess, I'd say that ACOTAR (check out how I can do the acronym title like all the real fans!) is one of her early works, and she learned a lot in the process of writing and promoting it. I wonder if she got some good feedback and applied it, or if she thought through the plot and characters with a long-term view. Because ACOMAF (I don't even know if people do acronyms for the later books or not, but I love it and I will not stop) is SO much better!

And not just better than the first book--it's SO genuinely good so far!

There's more action, yes, and although Feyre hasn't actually acted much of that action her ownself, Maas is writing in a ton of realistic trauma responses that make a lot of sense and that are also easily applied to the characters' stupid behaviors from ACOTAR. 

Like, I still don't know if we're supposed to really, genuinely think that Feyre murdering those innocent fairies for the third task was the Right Decision, but Feyre is for sure hard-core suffering from it in a way that shows that it wasn't, at least morally speaking. 

And Rhys, who was a full-on sociopath in the first book, literally told Feyre that his 50 years Under the Mountain with Amarantha had been a hostage situation for him, and he strongly implied that Amarantha had been raping him the entire time. So his awful violations of consent with Feyre, and that one bonkers torture scene where he touched her literal ARM BONE VOMIT, are still awful, buuuuuuut now they're in line with his character at that time, sort of a "hurt people hurt people"/Stockholm Syndrome/acting out one's abuse onto others sort of vibe. 

Even some irritations that I had with this very book are calming down as I get further in. I was so irritated with what a miserable bastard Tamlin was being at first, because the same thing happened in the first part of ACOTAR with Feyre's family, mainly implying that when you're not supposed to like someone, DON'T WORRY ABOUT FIGURING IT OUT BECUASE MAAS WILL TELL YOU. 

But I dunno, because now I'm pretty into what a miserable bastard Tamlin is being, AND it makes sense with his behavior in the first book, AND AND it's turning into quite a compelling domestic violence narrative that actually reads pretty realistically considering it's a fantasy novel. I still don't really love how Maas writes her secondary characters without a ton of nuance, but I would not have told you even 24 hours ago that I would be 15 chapters into the book and gushing even this much about it.

So stay tuned, I guess, because I think this book is going to see me through at least the rest of this graduation present and possibly through the Little Free Library bookmarks I'm making next!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!