Quilts and Books

I bought this used over 2 years ago because I saw several references to it by readers who considered it one of their favorite Anne Stuart books. It has been sitting in the TBR pile all this time and I was glad for the excuse to finally get it out and read it. I was not disappointed.

Lord of Danger is a medieval-set historical, the story of Alys of Summersedge and Simon of Navarre. Alys is half-sister to Richard de Lancie. Simon is a magician who works for Richard. Because of his dark looks, crippled hand, and mastery of the dark arts, everyone is afraid of Simon except for Richard. Alys and her younger sister Claire were raised in a convent and have been brought home to Summersedge so Richard can marry one of them to Simon. This will tie Simon to Richard so that Richard can continue to make use of Simon's talents. Simon, who manages to quietly manipulate Richard, has his own reasons for agreeing to the match. He views his association with Richard as temporary and will move on again…

So I should be working on The Kid's quilt in the sidebar. But in 8 days there's a baby shower at work for a friend. Can I whip up something in time? For the last 3 nights I've been cutting out 6 inch squares and here's how they're laid out up on the design wall. Before I can start piecing them together I have to finish my taxes. Which I would need to start first.

And I'm going away this weekend. And I have to read the book for next Wednesday's TBR Day. And I'm sure there are a ton of other things I really need to be doing. But nope, I'm working on this quilt for Jenn. Yes, she's having a girl.

I fell in love with this pattern some time ago. I think it is simply elegant. I had seen it made up at more than one shop, usually in batiks, and it was all I could do not to buy it. I have soooo many patterns coming out the wazoo, I really didn't need another one. Then I thought of the perfect excuse! I knew I'd be needing a wedding present, so I caved and bought the pattern. I even finished the gift on time for the wedding. I finished my version today at 2:30. The wedding began at 3:30. Fortunately I live 1.5 miles from the church where said wedding took place. Best of all, I made this entirely from my stash.

So here is my version below. After I finished piecing it, it wasn't laying as flat as I would have liked. I knew I'd have to make the quilting denser in the border to take up the excess fabric. I did a simple meander in both the center and outer border, and some straight lines in the middle border. I was extremely pleased at how flat it turned out so I didn'…

You know what? I actually liked this one. I really didn't expect to. It's not great and it definitely suffered from Bedwynitis. First time readers will no doubt be annoyed with the plethora of secondary and tertiary characters who took up space and had little to do with Claudia and Joseph. I'd have been annoyed if I hadn't read the previous books. Maybe this is what most readers want these days--revisiting ad nauseum old favorite characters.

Anyhow, what I did like was the part that was JUST Claudia and Joseph. On the surface here are two people that should have no interest in one another. Yet they're drawn together when Joseph asks Claudia to meet his illigitimate daughter, Lizzie. These sections were the best part of the book and very enjoyable as Claudia and Joseph interact with Lizzie, and one another. In Lizzie's presense they are themselves and their attraction felt real, not forced.

If you're a Mary Balogh fan you're going to read this whether I re…

I find myself trying more and more romantic suspense. I think I'm spoiled by Karen Rose and her very tight, and tense books. This was my first book by Ms. Freethy and while it didn't have near the same degree of suspense, I still found this to be quite a page turner and I found it nearly impossible to put down. I ended up finishing it in less than 24 hours. The house is STILL a pigsty. Oh well.

Silent Run is the first of 2 linked books released back to back. The second book, Silent Fall is out now and I'm sure I'll be reading it before the end of the month. It's the story of Sarah, a woman on the run who, after a car accident, finds herself in the hospital with amnesia. A man named Jake shows up and it turns out that Jake is the father of her baby--who is missing. Sarah had mysteriously left Jake 7 months ealier, taking baby Caitlyn with her and Jake had been frantically searching for the 2 of them ever since. He's hurt and angry, and desperate to find his daugh…

This was the kit I bought during last summer's shop hop, pieced over Christmas vacation, and quilted at the retreat. I finally got the binding on and have it hanging for spring.

About 5-6 years ago I was reading some fiction reviews in Library Journal when I ran across a brief review of Mary Balogh’sA Summer to Remember. I decided to check it out of the library and a day later my love of the romance genre was reborn. I loved this book and I loved the way Ms. Balogh created a book with such emotional depth. I proceeded to buy (and read) every other MB book I could get my hands on, although for some reason I never really wanted to read the precursor to ASTR, One Night for Love. I think because I “knew” what happened in that book, it was not a priority to read it. So it’s been in my TBR pile for all these years.

With Mary Balogh’s newest release (Simply Perfect) due next week, I decided it was finally time to read ONFL. This is the book where SP’s hero, Joseph, Marquess of Attingsborough, makes his first appearance. It seemed appropriate that I finally read it before reading SP.

ONFL is the first book in what has become a rather massively connected series known be…