Quilts and Books

Our retreat this year featured an opportunity to make a mystery quilt (instructions are passed out in phases--you bring the required fabric, but have no idea what you'll end up with). I had cheated by finding the pattern online. I decided the project would be a great way to use up some of my green fabric and make my first monochromatic quilt. Here's the quilt top that I finished the other day:
As I selected the fabrics for this I first aimed for some true green in the 3 required values of light, medium, and dark. To add interest, I chose greens that were on the yellow side of the color wheel and on the blue side of the color wheel.

Now that I study the completed top, I see that I should have worked harder to incorporate the blue/green. Only one blue/green fabric stands out, but you can see quite a bit of yellow/green. When I picked these fabrics, I really liked how they looked together. Indeed, I still do. But after making Springing Up Fun and my Flower Pots, this quilt seems k…

This month's TBR theme is "tortured hero or heroine" and I think Clay Montgomery from Brenda Novak's Stillwater trilogy fits the bill.

I was the winning bidder last year at Brenda's auction for an autographed set of this trilogy. I finally got around to reading the first book back in December. I liked it very much and really meant to read the next two sooner than this. But conveniently for me, when I needed a tortured hero I knew just what to read.

This romantic suspense trilogy tells the story of the Barker/Montgomery family who is deeply affected by the mysterious disappearance of their father/step-father, the Rev. Lee Barker, some 19 years before the books begin. The Rev. Barker was a beloved figure in tiny little Stillwater, Miss. and despite a total lack of evidence, step-son Clay Montgomery was presumed guilty of murder. With no body, Clay was never charged, but he is largely shunned and left friendless over the years by a community convinced he is to blame …

Mary Balogh’s last series of connected books, her “Simply” books, were released 1 per year from 2005-2008. As I understand it, she actually wrote much faster than that. Her publisher saved up her most recent books in order to release them at a rate of 1 per month from February through May of this year. And now we’ll wait another year for the next new book which will conclude this latest series.

1. First Comes Marriage. Feb. 2009
2. Then Comes Seduction. March 2009
3. At Last Comes Love. April 2009
4. Seducing an Angel. May 2009

It’s a strange move by the publisher on a number of levels. And I’m not entirely certain that I liked it. And I'm a huge fan--it was certainly nice to get some new books by her more often than once a year. But once a month? Obviously, it’s a blatant ploy to generate so much interest that those of us who bought books 1-3 (issued as MM paperbacks) would then happily plunk down the big bucks for the hardback. Phooey. I bought 1-3 and then put my name on the library…

I had a hard time leaving Smooth Talking Stranger off the list this month; it was one of several books that nearly made the cut. I also need to give props to two Harlequin Blazes: Anything for You by Sarah Mayberry and His Expectant Ex by Catherine Mann. I don't read Blazes very often, but I saw a good review for Anything for You and I was intrigued by the storyline in His Expectant Ex. The heroines in both of these books make a stand for what they want out of their relationships with the heroes and I really appreciated that. Strong characters made these engaging, fun reads. I also found Anna Campbell's Tempt the Devil extremely compelling. I applaud Campbell for tackling difficult storylines and I think her writing is improving. Still, that book isn't for everyone and I'm not sure I'd call it a "favorite." But I think I would read it again some day. Always a Scoundrel by Suzanne Enoch almost made this list. It was a darn close call. But, well, I just lov…

This month's theme is friends to lovers or unrequited love and this book fits in the latter category. I've had it for years now, having picked it up somewhere when I was trying to get my hands on Connie Brockway's backlist. Interesting timing to read it now, too. Having just had a hero with Asperger's, now I have a hero with Dyslexia. And sitting on the TBR pile is the brand new Erin McCarthy, another with a dyslexic hero. Of course in a contemporary, we "get" dyslexia. But in a historical no one understands dyslexia, so our hero Harry Braxton, an otherwise brilliant man, has suffered the stigma of being labelled retarded because he cannot read and write.

From an intellectual point of view, this is quite an interesting book because of how it treats Harry's condition. Added to that, Harry is paired with an equally brilliant heroine who can read a dozen languages, but can only speak English. (Lest you scoff, as a former linguistics major I assure you this is…

When I signed up for my guild UFO challenge last November, I listed 28 projects that I would attempt to finish within the year. It is now 6 months later.
I have finished 5.
Five.
I have a lot of work to do.
In fairness to me I spent quite a bit of time on Springing Up Fun.
Hey! Go bid on it!
Meanwhile, here's the latest I've finished. This is my Flower Pot wall hanging that was a challenge with two friends. We each made 2 sets of 3 identical blocks and swapped them. It came from a pattern I found in the June 2008 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. We did start with coordinated pink & orange batiks to use for the flowers. I'm giving serious thought to entering mine into the state fair.

One of my UFOs is a 9-patch flower sampler. Below is block number 5. This block was, to put it crudely, a bitch. I swear the pattern instructions were wrong in more than one place. I did more unsewing to get this finished...

OK, yes, the whole idea of a UFO focus is to NOT star…

Late again!

5. Scandal by Amanda Quick. This is considered a classic Amanda Quick and I gave it a quickie review here back when I read it. I really liked the heroine in this book as well as the quick-witted dialogue between her and Simon. I read a copy from the library, but I wouldn't mind buying it if were ever issued as an ebook.

4. Vision in White by Nora Roberts. I just reviewed this here. It was so nice to read a Nora Roberts book that was a straight romance. She does all things well, but I do love a character-driven story and this was it in spades.

3. Never Resist Temptation by Miranda Neville. This also got a mini review. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. This was an interesting story of a young French woman hiding herself from her nasty guardian by working as a pastry chef. On the surface, the story seemed unlikely, which is why I was initially reluctant to read it. But Ms. Neville made it plausible and the well-written dialogue moved the story alon…