Quilts and Books

During May and June I read--and loved--three popular historicals by Pamela Morsi . Then I discovered she had a new book out which was released just over a week ago. I managed to be first in line at the library for it. Technically, this is probably more "chick lit" than romance, although there's a strong romantic relationship featured in the book. Normally I avoid this kind of book, but I was curious to see what Morsi's current writing is like compared to her older books. I dove right in and found myself captivated by this very engaging story. Andi Wolkowicz leaves her successful corporate career to move back to her small home town. Andi has a mentally disabled twin sister and Andi believes her father needs help caring for her twin, Jelly, now that their mother has passed away. She moves in with them and begins looking for a job. Andi's father is retired from his car wash business and the car wash sits empty in the town's center, which is slowly dying because o...

I discovered Pamela Morsi in May . I've begun a glom, so 2 of the titles below should come as no surprise. 5. The Time Weaver by Shana Abé . At least one review I read about this book described it as "lyrical." I think that's a good word to use--there's a beauty to the descriptions in this book that draws you in. Plus the way it is constructed reminds me of a symphony. There are several parts, all quite different, that come together to make a whole. Abé's latest book is the 5th title in her dragon series. In this book, Honor Carlisle is a dragon who cannot shift, but instead finds herself going back and forth through time. Her gift is that of "weaving" through time. She is drawn again and again to Prince Alexandru of the Zaharen dragons and their relationship is seen as threatening by the dragons in England. This book uses three different narrative voices: 1st person for Honor, 3rd person POV for scenes involving Alexandru, Lia, and Zane, and an om...

No commentary. Just some pictures chosen at random for you to enjoy.

NQA is a member-driven organization that relies heavily on volunteers. Each year it holds an annual show and accepts up to 400 quilts for display and judging. Ribbons are awarded, but there are no cash prizes. It's fairly prestigious to win a ribbon there, although there are shows like AQS and Quilts, Inc. that are probably more prestigious. Anyhow, at NQA a quilt is entered into one of 16 categories. Within each category three ribbons are awarded (first place, second, etc.) and, at the judges' discretion, one or more "honorable mention" ribbons are awarded. So, my quilt was in the pieced wall hanging category. There were 27 quilts entered. Four received honorable mention ribbons, thus a total of 7 ribbons were given out. Truly, there were some pretty awesome quilts in my category. Let's look at them, shall we? First, I have photos of 3 of the 4 Honorable Mention winners: This is smaller than the others. Those little squares are 3/4". This is accurately pi...

In the 25 years I've been quilting I've displayed a handful of quilts in shows sponsored by the guilds I belong to. Only three times, though, have I entered a quilt into a competition--that is a show that has judging and awards ribbons (and sometimes cash prizes). One of those 3 quilts was one my sister & I made together, and for the purposes of this blog entry, I'm going to leave aside for now. The first quilt was a 36" x 36" wall hanging made entirely by hand and I entered it in the state fair--about 20 years ago. It did not win a ribbon. The second was the quilt below that you've seen here a few times recently. That would be 20 years between competitions. Why did I wait so long between entries? Well, I did go through some major life changes that sent my quilting goals in other directions for awhile. But mostly, I was waiting to complete something that I felt had a reasonable chance of showing well against competition. Not necessarily to guarantee a win,...

One of my May phaves was Pamela Morsi's Wild Oats , the first book of hers that I'd read. Wendy first reviewed Wild Oats and a commenter mentioned Simple Jess as another Morsi classic worth reading, so when I saw a used copy available on Amazon, I ordered it. This is such an unconventional romance that I felt positively compelled to talk about it. In a nutshell, SJ is a story set in the small, isolated mountain community of Marrying Stone (in the Ozarks?) in 1906. Largely untouched by the outside world, the community governs itself, even to the extent of intruding upon the individual, personal decisions of its members. When the town decides that a young widow, Althea, must remarry, she is given 3 weeks to decide who she will pick to marry. Althea owns a farm in a favorable location and she is trying to preserve it for her young son. She is highly resistant to the idea of remarriage because she fears her son would be shunted aside by his new step-father. It turns out Althea...

First, my apologies for neglecting my blog lately. Lots of other stuff seems to be keeping me busy these days... So, when I started reading romance again, about 7-8 years ago, I joined the Regency readers Yahoo group where I gathered up a ton of reading recommendations. One particular trilogy that people would refer to time and again was a series by Emma Jensen (I couldn't find a website for her) consisting of the books Entwined , Fallen , and Moonlit . I managed to find used copies of all three and then they proceeded to sit unread in my TBR pile. Entwined is the first book in the series and the one I read for this month's challenge. I think I'll save the other two for July and August. I definitely enjoyed this one and I'll be looking forward to the next two. Entwined is the story of Nathan Oriel, a wounded war veteran, and Isobel MacLeod, the daughter of Nathan's steward. Nathan is mostly blind--he can only see large shapes and colors. He manages to fool most peo...