Quilts and Books

Last summer I got to spend half an hour in a lovely little quilt shop, People, Places & Quilts in the heart of old Charleston, SC. An employee was doing a demo of the "Lil' Twister," a plastic template tool made by the Country Schoolhouse to help you make easy pinwheel quilts. Naturally, I had to have one. At my quilting retreat last month I pulled out a stack of purple batik or hand-dyed fabrics and started cutting them into squares. When I was finished, I laid them out rather randomly, just trying to make sure there was some contrast between a block and all of its neighbors. This was about as far as I got before the retreat ended. Last Saturday, International Quilting Day, I pulled those squares out and set to work again. After all of the blocks were sewn together and a border added to the outside, I was able to use the tool to cut new blocks that were centered on the intersection of 4 blocks. Here's an idea of what the process looked like: Next...

This month's theme is "series catch-up" and Fallen is book 2 in a trilogy by Emma Jensen (no website found) that also includes the titles Entwined and Moonlit . Ironically, Entwined was my June 2010 TBR read . The heroes of these 3 books were spies together during the Peninsular wars and carry various physical and emotional scars from their time there. Fallen takes place almost entirely on the island of Skye in 1812. Our hero, Gabriel, the Earl of Rievaulx, has been asked by his friend Nathan (and hero of Entwined ) to go to Skye and track down an elusive traitor. A SIDE NOTE: I think the fact that an Earl was running around Spain spying on French troops and is now free to go to Scotland to find a traitor causes this book to meet the definition of a "mistorical." I try not to get caught up in the finer points of what constitutes a mistorical because I am no expert. But Gabriel's "profession" did not ring true and in the end did a lot to d...

I'm sitting here watching a little March Madness, anxious to get back to some sewing. I just agreed to make a t-shirt quilt for the son of one of my best friends. He'll be a freshman at Loyola Chicago in the fall, so I can't procrastinate. These days I feel as if my UFO (Un-Finished Object) pile is as bad as my TBR pile. If I'm not careful I'll get behind on my blogging, too! 5.  The Bentleys Buy a Buick by Pamela Morsi . Morsi's latest book isn't really a romance, although there are romantic elements. Tom and Erica are a happily married couple with a young child. After being a stay-at-home mom for 5 years, Erica has resumed her career as a medical coder. Tom is working hard to grow his business which is an auto repair shop that focuses on classic cars. Tom gets an opportunity to do some work on an old Buick in nearly mint condition. His obsession with the car leads to time away from home causing Erica to wonder if he's having an affair. Her insecurit...

Two weeks ago at this time I was safely settled in my room in a beautiful state park lodge, just a few miles north of the Ohio River. My guild's annual sewing retreat was to begin the next morning at 8 am. We spent the weekend at a new location and had an amazing time. Our group has gotten smaller in recent years and because there were fewer of us I think we were able to get to know one another a little better. It also meant that we were able to spread out more in the ballroom--more sewing space for each of us. Here are a few photos of the weekend: Sunrise the first morning. This was the view from my room. Here's a view of the ballroom set up. I took the spot down the room on the far right. Near the window! And here's the ballroom just a few hours later, full of quilters working away. My sister-in-law had asked me to make something out of this pre-printed wolf panel. Here are a couple of shots of my work. Now I just need to quilt it! On Saturday we took a...