Quilts and Books

This month's theme is a book that received a lot of hype. I suppose the definition of hype can vary, but I remember seeing lots of comments on Twitter about this book, as well as positive reviews at Dear Author ,  Smart Bitches , and elsewhere. At some point I was obviously compelled to buy it and it's been sitting on my Kindle for several months. I'm awfully glad I finally got around to reading this. I think I needed something with a good dash of humor. It had been a rough week. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and several times I laughed out loud. I found it smart, sexy, and emotional. Now I want to go read more by this author. For those of you who missed the hype, Ride with Me , by Ruthie Knox is the story of Tom and Lexie, two people who are doing a cross-country bicycle tour on the TransAmerica Trail . Lexie advertised for a companion to ride with; Tom had intended to go it alone. But Tom gets maneuvered by his sister into riding with Lexie and the two of them set ...

5. Lady Louisa's Christmas Knight by Grace Burrowes . My first Christmas book of the year was a very enjoyable story in Burrowes' Windham family series. Lady Louisa would very much like to retire from the Marriage Mart and head off into a life as the family's spinster aunt. But a scandalous encounter finds her wed to Sir Joseph Carrington. Louisa is a wonderful heroine. She's a very smart woman trapped in an era when women were given few opportunities to learn. In addition, both Louisa and Joseph have secrets. As their relationship begins to deepen, it's wonderful to see Joseph notice, and appreciate Louisa's talents. This makes it easier for Louisa to trust Joseph. For Louisa in particular, the demons of the past need to be laid to rest. Louisa's various family members all leap to her defense, but it soon becomes apparent that Joseph is the one who knows, and appreciates her best. Meanwhile, Joseph has his own big secret. The family dynamics are fun and so...

Philippa Naylor is an award-winning quilter whose quilts I have admired for several years. She came and spoke at my guild last week and gave a wonderful, funny, and touching talk about her journey from fashion design to quilting. The next day I got to take a class from her called "Precision Piecing" where I learned some new stuff. Lots of pictures follow. Here is Philippa during her lecture (sorry for the grainy picture from my phone). She brought two quilts with her. She dyes her own fabric and then densely quilts them on her domestic sewing machine.     For the class, this is the small project we worked on. She taught us her methods for achieving sharp points and matching seams. Lots of helpful demonstrations. This is my work area and my block, partially assembled, on the left.  The class at work.  Some of my classmates' completed center blocks. And here's mine with the borders added. It's 22" squ...

I actually remember where and when I bought this book. I was in Pittsburgh with my sister in May 2009 attending Quilt Market , the quilting industry's trade show. There was a book store near our hotel and while I had, up to that point, read books 2 and 3 in Pamela Clare's I-Team series, I had never read the first one. So I snapped it up, intending to read it right away. OK, so that plan didn't work so well. But since this is PNR/RS month, it was clearly time to read Kara and Reece's story. Kara McMillan works as an investigative reporter for a Denver newspaper. Clare writes what she knows here, as a former reporter herself. The inside look at journalism in this book, and the whole series, is interesting and Clare manages to incorporate the details without going overboard. Anyhow, as the book opens Kara meets State Senator Reece Sheridan at a bar that she goes to with a friend one evening after work. Despite the influence of too many margaritas, Kara makes quite an...

Things are usually pretty slow here at Phyl's Quilts and Books. They've been slower than usual of late because I badly pinched a nerve in my lower back in mid-August. Pain, drugs, and physical therapy have dominated my landscape since then. The good news is that I'm way better than I was a month ago. The bad news is that I'm still dealing with some pain, weird nerve activity, and weakness in my right leg. The goal is to avoid back surgery at all costs, so I've been faithful with my exercise routine. I'm glad to be resuming most of my normal activities, including sewing, but at the risk of being repetitive, it's slow. So very slow. Fortunately I actually wrote a couple of these (#5 and #3) right after I read those books, before the pinched nerve. I read #1 and #4 while I was stuck in bed. Frankly, I'm amazed I remember anything from the "Vicodin is my best friend" days. But here we go: 5.  The Chocolate Thief  by Laura Florand . I've bee...

I'm bending the rules a little this month. This book was not in my personal TBR pile. It was a library book I'd picked up at the urging of my QBFFs who had read and loved this book. Since they often read the romances I recommend to them, it seemed only fair to follow up on a rec from them. It was almost due and I needed a non-romance for this month, so I decided to write about Sarah Dunant's rich historical novel set in Florence during the turbulent 1490s. Dunant is apparently well-known for her suspense novels, including a series of crime novels with the recurring character, Hannah Wolfe. The Birth of Venus  was her first historical novel. She's since gone on to write a few more. At any rate, I found this to be a very interesting novel, full of details about the art and politics of Florence during a time when a monk named Savonarola temporarily wrested power from the Medicis and preached a very puritanical gospel. He defied the Pope and claimed to have visions t...

5. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker . I wish I knew where I saw a recommendation for this book. It's YA, I genre I really tend to avoid. But the story intrigued me so much I had to read it and once I started I couldn't put it down. This is the story of Julia, an 11-12 year-old girl who writes about the year the Earth's rotation began to slow down. The earth's 24 hour rotation slows to over 72 hours by the end of the book. The magnetic fields of the earth have shifted, people's circadian rhythms are disturbed, and the world slowly begins to die. Be warned, this is not a book with a sudden miraculous happy ending. Julia, already a lonely only child, finds ways to cope with the changes around her. She's resilient and determined to move forward. This first novel by Walker is compelling and emotional. Thank you to whoever mentioned it online. I'm so glad I read this. 4. Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey . This dystopian story is set on earth at an unspec...