Quilts and Books

Time for a quilting post! I've done a fair bit of sewing lately. As usual, multiple projects going at once seems to be the way I've been working. And after several months of no finishes, I have 3 projects I can show off. This first quilt was mentioned here just over two years ago. It's called "Moss Garden" and the top was made by my late mother-in-law. It was made from a kit she purchased to go with a pattern in a book called Inspirations from Japan by Maria Tamaoka (no web site found). The fabrics are a combination of Japanese wovens and American commercial cottons. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing my mother-in-law finished the top in the 6-12 months before she died. She usually had someone else quilt her tops on a longarm, so I imagine only her final illness kept her from sending it off to her favorite quilter. So, after basting it into a quilt sandwich two years ago, I finally buckled down in the late winter and quilted it. I bound it in May...

This month's TBR theme is Westerns (historical or contemporary), a sub-genre that I enjoy, but don't go out of my way to collect. I wasn't sure I'd even find any in my collection, but as I scrolled through my Kindle I did run across this one. As I recall, Harlequin made a number of its e-books available for free in celebration of its 60th anniversary, and this was one of them. It's the third in a series of connected books, but it stands alone quite well, except for the cheesy baby-filled epilogue which seems pretty standard for this sort of book. It's a contemporary romance set in and around Dallas, TX. This Philadelphia Phan will try hard not to hold that against it. Linda Warren's Once a Cowboy is the story of Brodie Hayes, a retired rodeo star who now lives on a small ranch near Dallas. Private Investigator Alex Donovan works with her father Buck at his agency, and occasionally takes on missing persons cases. She is approached by Helen Braxton ...

Hi all. I have been seriously AWOL lately and I am sorry for that. Unfortunately I had some minor, nagging health problems that had me just sitting around much of the time feeling lethargic and sorry for myself. I'm hopeful that the worst of it is behind me now and I can catch up and show off some recently completed quilts! Meanwhile, let's see if I can remember what I liked about these books: 5. The Christmas Child by Linda Goodnight . This book was listed as a RITA finalist in the Inspirational category and when I saw it at the library I decided to pick it up. It's about a couple who are brought together when a lost, mute, 6-year old boy shows up in the small town of Redemption, OK. Kade is a big-city undercover cop recuperating from a tough assignment when the little boy is found huddled in the back of a dumpster. Sophie is an elementary school teacher who takes an interest in both the boy and the man. This is a sweet story about love and faith that is told with a l...