I finished this quilt late on Sunday night and am taking it to the post office today. This 60″ X 60″ quilt is winging its way to Romania for a child who lives in an orphanage there. Judi from Green Fairy Quilts and her husband have traveled to Romania for the last two years to bring quilts to the children in a Romanian orphanage. This year, I wanted to contribute something.
A little about this quilt:
I used Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain fabric line as the primary fabric in the quilt. I pieced it using a simple strip piecing method and made it random in its design. The quilting is free motion – I used Elizabeth’s tutorial to help me through the process of creating flowers all over the quilt. This is only my second quilt to use free motion quilting – so it is not perfect, but I was happy with how it came out.
Here is a close up of the quilting:
I bound this quilt with some turquoise batik fabric I had left over from another quilt. And of course, I pieced the back. I also thought it would be nice to make the label in the language of the child who would be receiving it…in English it reads: “Sewn for you with love from Wendy” – but, here it is in Romanian:
I hope that this quilt will not only keep a child warm, but will remind her that she is loved and valued. Here are a few more photos of the quilt:
As usual, click on ANY photo on this post to enjoy a full size view!
Welcome to this week’s edition of Mailbox Monday hosted this month at Chick Loves Lit.
As usual, I found some awesome books in my mailbox this week that I am eager to share with you.
I was very excited to receive a copy of Hiroshima In The Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto which came from Amy Riley at Winsome Media Communications. This memoir is due for release September 1st through The Feminist Press and I will be reviewing it in early October as part of a tour of the book. In June 2001, Rizzuto left her husband and two sons to travel to Hiroshima on a six month trip in order to interview survivors of the atomic bomb. Initially, the people she spoke with were reticent and revealed little new insights into their experience. But then September 11th happened…and everything changed. As the survivors in Japan began to open up in astonishing ways, Rizzuto’s marriage became strained and began to fail. The publisher’s blurb explains: “The parallel narratives of Hiroshima in the survivors’ own words, and of Rizzuto’s personal awakening show memory not as history, but as a story we tell ourselves to explain who we are.”
Rahna Reiko Rizzuto won an American Book Award in 2000 for her first novel Why She Left Us. In 2001, Rizzuto was awarded a US/Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, in order to travel to Japan to research her next novel; while there she began work on her memoir. She teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Goddard College and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about Rizzuto and her work by visiting the author’s website.
Erica at Harper Perennial sent me three books edited by Simon Van Booy: Why We Need Love, Why We Fight, and Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter. I’m fascinated by these little books which Van Booy says he hopes “present interesting and exciting philosophical ideas in a straightforward, but intelligent, language that can be understood by everyone.” Each book includes readings, poems, quotations and visual images to present philosophical ideas about love, arguments, and decisions which ultimately “don’t matter.” I am looking forward to ruminating over these books soon.
Simon Van Booy is the author of two collections of short stories: The Secret Lives of People in Love (read my review), and Love Begins in Winter (read my review). His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and The Daily Telegraph. Van Booy lives in New York City where he lectures at the School of Visual Arts and is involved with the Rutgers Early College Humanities program which is geared toward young adults living in underserved communities. His collection Love Begin in Winter won the 2009 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Read more about Van Booy and his work by visiting the author’s website.
Thanks to Meghan at Random House, I received a copy of Precious by Sandra Novack in time to take it with me to New Hampshire. Novak’s debut novel centers around a missing child and her ex-best friend, Sissy. Described as “complex” and “powerful,” and compared to the works of both Joyce Carol Oates and Anne Tyler, this is a novel I am looking forward to reading. Want to be tempted? Read an excerpt from the book.
Sandra Novack’s fiction has been published in The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, Gulf Coast, and Mississippi Reviews. She has appeared on the Pushcart Prize nominee list three times. Novack received her MFA from Vermont College. She currently lives in Chicago with husband. Precious is her first novel. There is a great interview with the author on the Random House site. To learn more about Novack and her work, visit the author’s website.
What awesome books found their way to YOUR home last week?
Good morning! I slept in this morning…I needed it and we got a little taste of autumn here yesterday and last night with temperatures dropping into the 50′s during the day (with rain) and into the 40′s last night which made sleeping easy. Only in five years out of the last 116 has there ever been rain recorded in Northern California…so this is rare, but delightful weather.
Yesterday I worked on my Romanian Charity quilt which is taking me a good bit of time to quilt. I am free motion quilting flowers all over it and although they looked great, they are time consuming to stitch. I have one small corner of the quilt left to finish, and then I’ll put the binding on it, wash it and put up some photos before getting it in the mail tomorrow.
This week I read two great books. Zoe Ferraris’s latest mystery City of Veils did not disappoint (read my review). Once again, she captures the culture of Saudi Arabia and the difficult conditions women face in that country. The mystery itself is great – there are many twists and several suspects. There is a scene with a dust storm that had me completely captivated. Hope you’ll read this one and let me know what you thought of it.
Next up was Liz Rosenberg’s debut novel Home Repair (read my review). I have had this book in my stacks for a while, and I’m glad I finally read it. Rosenberg reminds me of Anne Tyler in her style and characters. I liked that! This is a simple book, and the characters drive the story. They are quirky and lovable – I hated to say good bye to them at the end of the book. Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
My current read is Simply from Scratch by Alicia Bessette (I love that cover, don’t you?). I’m only fifty pages into the book, so I don’t have strong feelings about it either way except to say it is an easy read and the nine year old little girl in the novel has already stolen my heart. I need to get this one finished before Tuesday when I leave for New Hampshire because it is a hard cover and I don’t want to carry it on the plane. So hopefully you will see a review on Bessette’s book by (at the latest) Tuesday morning.
Later today I am going to start packing for my trip. I have been laying things on the guest bed that I think of to take, and it is beginning to look like one bag won’t be enough. My biggest decision will be which books to take with me. I’ve already decided I’m going to have to mail some to my sister’s house because I want to bring at least 24 books (12 for each month). That seems a bit much to pack on the plane!
I hope you are having a great day – and whatever you are doing, I hope it involves a wonderful book!
Have you been over to the Book Blogger Appreciation Week blog lately? There is a lot going on…and more to come. Today the short lists for awards were announced and I am thrilled that Caribousmom has made the short list in two categories this year:
Honestly, I spent about 2 hours today visiting all the blogs in all the categories, and the quality of these blogs is just wonderful. I am really flattered to have my blog recognized among them.
Her husband had walked out on them in the middle of a garage sale, in the middle of a rare blue Binghamton summer’s day. She knew as surely as if he had bent over her, lanky as he was, and whispered it into her ear, his blond hair brushing her skin. He was simply – gone. - from Home Repair, page 13 -
Eve has already lost one husband – her beloved Ivan who went out to get her chocolate ice cream and ended up dying in a car crash. So when her second husband, the handsome free-spirit Chuck, drives away from their upstate New York home on fine summer day (in the middle of a garage sale), Eve instinctively knows he has left her and her children. Eve gathers up the remnants of her yard sale and digs deep to find the courage to move forward. Her teenage son from her first marriage (Marcus), and her precocious nine year old daughter from her union with Chuck (Nona), along with Eve’s fiesty, sharp-tongued mother Charlotte (who moves from Tennessee to be close to her abandoned daughter) motivate Eve to keep going despite her broken heart.
Home Repair is the story of what it means to experience love and loss, and yet still find fulfillment in the small things that life offers. Liz Rosenberg’s prose reminds me a lot of Anne Tyler – the quirky, lovable characters and matter of fact narrative of ordinary life peppered with all the sadness and laughter that comes with it, ring true. Eve’s journey is not a straight line – she takes one step forward and three steps back – but, her persistence and sincerity, her love for her children, and her hope for romantic love again, all work to her advantage. Despite all of Eve’s setbacks, she is able to find the beauty that still exists in her life.
The two dogs groaned, leapt heavily off the sofa and came to stand behind her. It was beauty that dragged you back into the world. The pine trees dripping with snow, branches curved downward like wings; or that deep electric blue that the TV shimmered between stations, so vibrant a blue it aspired to something beyond color. It was all the same message she could not decode – the fairy-tale gold of the Christmas lights across the street, the rainbow on the back of her hand. A maple tree holding onto a few last spiky leaves. The dark macadam of the street shone like iron. – from Home Repair, page 184 -
Rosenberg’s strength is in the development of her characters – my favorite of whom was Charlotte, an aging woman whose crusty exterior belies a loving heart. Rosenberg captures the bittersweet process of aging, as well as the connections between grandparents and children, and the ambivalence between mothers and daughters.
Charlotte Dunrea, the meticulous, the upright, was beginning to drip gravy down her front, to spill coffee in her lap. The seat of her slacks sagged. She complained that it was harder to do everything – to get in and out of the car with Marcus. You could see what an effort it was, getting up out of the kitchen chair after dinner, clinging to the table for support. She might need a walker soon. She was slowing down. It seemed to Eve as if her stubborn little mother was now a permanent fixture in their lives, and the only way she’d ever leave was for her to be carried out, feet first. – from Home Repair, page 48 -
I enjoyed this lovely book. My only complaint was a minor one – that Rosenberg makes a small error re: medical information (being a Physical Therapist, I am probably more tuned into the nuances around medical procedures than the average reader). But, aside from that, the pages of this book turned effortlessly. I began to feel like the characters in the book were old friends, and I regretted saying good-bye to them. I hope Rosenberg is working on her next novel because I look forward to reading more from this talented debut author.
Home Repair is a mixture of happy and sad, laughter and tears – it reflects the real stuff of our ordinary lives. Readers who chose to go along on Eve’s journey from joy to loss and back to happiness will find it a satisfying trip.
Recommended.
*FTC Disclosure: This book was sent to me from the author for review on my blog.
By clicking on the link below you will be redirected to Indiebound to learn more about the book. If you chose to purchase this book through an Indie Bookstore on their site via this link, I will receive a small commission based on the sale.
Thanks to all of you who helped make my 5oth Birthday a bit more special…I loved all your comments, birthday memories, and reasons why being 50 or older is so great. There were many of you who asked not to be entered in the giveaway but still stopped by to wish me a happy birthday – that was so sweet!!
For this giveaway, I decided to randomly pick four winners, and have the fifth winner be one I selected based on their comment. Wow, that was much harder to do than I thought it would be because I loved many of your comments. A few of my favorites were from those of you who asked NOTto be entered in the give:
Happy 50th birthday! What beautiful dogs you have in your header! It reminds me of our dear German Shepherd, Freddie, who passed away in 2006. Honestly, though I read a lot, you don’t need to enter me because I read large print books now. (It’s easier on the eyes and I can even read them outside without glasses.) But I’m glad I found your blog. As for what I like best about being 50 or older, I’d say the freedom to say “this is who I am.” When you’re younger, you’re always thinking “what do I want to be?” or “what am I going to be?” But I think by the time you’re 50 (or older), you know. – Ellen from Life is Just a Bowl of Chicken
Obviously I’m late in catching up on my blog reading/commenting. I have to admit, you stunned me with this post. I’m 50 and for as long as I’ve ‘known’ you I’ve thought you were at least 10 years younger than me. I’m not entering the giveaway, but just wanted to stop by and wish you a happy belated birthday. As I said, not entering the giveaway, but I can say for myself that turning 40 felt very empowering, and turning 50 felt very freeing to me. I’m more confident and content with myself and my life than I ever have been and it just keeps getting better. Or maybe I keep getting better and ignoring or avoiding that which causes aggravation.
Anyway – happy happy belated birthday and I hope you’re finding 50 as much of a great age to be as I am. – Suzi at Whimpulsive
Best thing about being over 50 (and I’m 52 – almost 53) is that I don’t care that I’m over 50. I’m here, alive, cancer-free, and grayhaired (stopped coloring and what a relief that was!). My hubby and I just took a marvelous 2-week vacation and had our 30th anniversary and it was great. He loves me, I love him and we’re hoping to have 30 more together. Maybe life begins at 50! LOL – Kay at My Random Acts of Reading
I actually had two favorite comments from those of you who entered the give-away…
Avis from She Reads and Reads who wrote: Mr. B took me to Paris for my 29th birthday so we could have dinner in his favourite restaurant in the world! We were only in Paris for a long weekend, but it was lovely. The funny thing was we didn’t reserve a hotel room in advance and wound up staying in a very pink room on the Left Bank. (And when I say very pink, I mean everything was pink: the walls, the sheets, the towels, the toilet paper… It was a bit much!)
AND
Lori from She Treads Softly who wrote: The best thing about being over 50? Hmmmm… On the one hand I am an even better listener, with more patience and compassion than I had when younger. More life experiences make it easier to see the “big picture” without sweating the small stuff. On the other hand, I’ve also become more fierce and less likely to suffer fools gladly. I know who I am and no longer feel the need to prove myself or tolerate extreme stupidity, so I am more likely to speak my mind if pushed too far.
I couldn’t choose between them…so I decided to pick them both!
Congratulations to Avis who wins a copy of Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy
Congratulations to Lori who wins a copy of Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
And since I promised to pick four random winners, I decided to give all SIX books away. Here are the random winners (chosen by Random.org):
Meredith Miller from Cerulean Rosa Reviews wins the CD of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
Amanda Sue wins a copy of One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I will be mailing each of the winners. Please respond to that email as soon as possible with your snail mail so I can mail you your books (I’d love to get them in the mail by Tuesday as I am leaving town the next day!!).
Once again – thanks to all for the warm, heartfelt wishes and wonderful stories!!!
Thank you to all who entered to win a copy of The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell. I used Random.org to select a winner. Congratulations to:
Rhonda who wrote: “Please count me in. Thanks.”
Rhonda, I’m sending you an email – please respond to that and send me your snail mail within 5 days so that I can have your book sent out to you!
I hope those of you who did not win a copy will consider purchasing this book…by clicking on the link below you will be redirected to Indiebound to learn more about the book. If you chose to purchase this book through an Indie Bookstore on their site via this link, I will receive a small commission based on the sale.
“They needed a woman to handle some of the more sensitive matters for certain female victims.” She motioned gracefully down to the body but didn’t let her eyes follow the gesture. “They told me it was for the victims whose families requested it. The people who didn’t want a strange man touching their beloved daughters or wives. But the truth is that I get to handle the cases that the male examiners don’t want to bother with. Housemaids, mostly.” She looked down at the corpse now. “I’m not saying she’s a housemaid. But on the important cases there’s always a male examiner standing by. They don’t trust us to do our jobs, and that’s the problem. One little mistake on my part justifies all their biases against me. The good news is that the pressure has turned me into the best examiner in the building.” – from the ARC of City of Veils -
In the sequel to Finding Nouf (which I reviewed here), Zoe Ferraris once again gives readers a glimpse into Saudi Arabian society where women’s rights and freedoms are challenged, even when it comes to solving crimes against them. The novel opens with the partially clothed body of a woman on a beach. She has been brutally murdered and her identity is difficult to ascertain. Dubbed “Eve” by the police, her murder investigation falls on the desk of Detective Osama Ibrahim – a man who bucks the conservative attitudes toward woman in his job, but has difficulty accepting his wife’s modern views. Katya, one of the few female investigators in the coroner’s office, quickly becomes involved in the case. Her friendship with a desert guide named Nayir involves him in the murder investigation as well. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent than any one of a number of people might have reason to murder the victim: a Koranic scholar with unpopular theories, a missing American whose wife is left to fend for herself in the paternalistic Saudi society, the brother of the victim who harbors barely contained anger towards his sister’s activities as a filmmaker, to name a few.
Fast paced, gritty, and riveting, City of Veils is a thrilling ride. Ferraris has brought back familiar characters from her first novel and continues to develop them here. She writes in multiple viewpoints – a technique which allows the reader to understand each character’s motivations, strengths and weaknesses.
City of Veils revisits themes from Finding Nouf – women’s rights, the struggle between the modern and traditional cultures of Saudi Arabia, and male/female relationships in an evolving society where traditionally men wield all the power. Ferraris easily balances the mystery aspects of her book with the deeper issues of Arab culture.
I really loved this novel – in fact, I found it hard to stop reading once I got into the final 100 pages. Ferraris’s writing has grown since publication of Finding Nouf which results in a novel that fully captures a veiled society while dazzling the reader with a mystery that has many twists and turns before the killer is finally revealed. Readers who love a good mystery and want to learn more about Saudi culture will not want to miss City of Veils.
Highly recommended.
*FTC Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for review on my blog.
The link below redirects you to Indiebound where you can purchase the book at an Indie Bookstore. I receive a small commission based on the sale if you purchase City of Veils in this manner.
Welcome once again to Mailbox Monday – hosted this month by Chick Loves Lit.
Each week readers share the books which arrived in their mailboxes.
I have had some stellar weeks in books…and this week was no exception. Here is what found its way to my home this week:
Tavia from William Morrow sent me an Advance Readers Edition (through a Shelf Awareness offer) of Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, by Conor Grennan. This nonfiction book (due for release in January 2011) is 30-year-old Conor Grennan’s memoir. His year-long trip around the globe began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What began as a lark became a passionate commitment that would transform the young American and the lives of countless others. Described as “the powerful story of a soul’s awakening and a reflection of the noblest and darkest of human intent,” Little Princes is the “true tale of the power of optimism, love, and dedication to overcome greed, violence, and hate.”
Conor Grennan spent eight years at the EastWest Institute (EWI) in Prague and Brussels focusing on peace and reconciliation before traveling to Nepal where, in 2004, he began work at the Little Princes Children’s Home outside of Kathmandu. In 2006, he founded Next Generation Nepal (NGN), a nonprofit organization that reconnects trafficked and displaced children with their families. He currently lives in New York City with his wife and son. Read more about Grennan and his work by visiting the author’s website. Watch a video interview with Grennan:
Meike from Peirene Press sent me a copy of Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Freidrich Christian Delius. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch, this novella is described as a “mesmerizing psychological portrait of the human need to safeguard innocence and integrity at any cost – even at the risk of excluding reality.” The story takes place one January afternoon in 1943 Rome and consists of a single 120-page long sentence. I’ve already seen some gushing review of this book and I can’t wait to read it.
Fredrich Christian Deliu is a critically acclaimed contemporary German writer. He was born in 1943 and lives in both Rome and Berlin. He has published a poetry collection in 1965 followed by fourteen novels, five poetry collections and a libretto for the opera “Prospero” by Luca Lombardi. His work has been translated into seventeen languages.
Melissa from Berkley Trade Paperback was kind enough to send me a finished copy of Good Enough to Eat by Stacey Ballis (due for release in September). This novel is the story of a chef who works very hard to lose half her body weight, only to have her husband leave her for a woman twice her size! Described as funny and poignant, the book includes a mini-cookbook of original recipes for delicious comfort foods, both healthy versions and decadent ones.
Stacey Ballis is the author of four previous novels. and has appeared on The Rachel Ray Show. She and author Jen Lancaster are currently hosting a pre-sale contest of Good Enough to Eat (the winner gets lunch for themselves and a guest with Jen and Stacey in their hometown). To learn more about the contest (which ends September 6th) visit this post on Ballis’ blog; to learn more about Ballis and her work, visit the author’s website.
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver came courtesy of Harper Perennial for a TLC Book Tour in October (this looks like a fantastic tour as readers will be posting about several of Kingsolver’s books including The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees, Animal Vegetable Miracle, and Prodigal Summer). Prodigal Summer is Kingsolver’s fifth novel (fisrt published in 2000) and celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature and nature itself. Kingsolver weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia.
Barbara Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky. She earned degrees in biology from DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and has worked as a freelance writer and author since 1985. She has traveled extensively. She has published thirteen books which have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Kingsolver’s books have been nominated for and won many literary prizes and awards. To learn more about her and her work, visit the author’s website.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sent me an advance readers edition of The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart. Due for release in October, this debut novel is being compared to works by Cormac McCarthy and Kent Haruf. The novel is set in Texas during the early part of the twentieth century and centers around Karel, a character whose birth stole his mother’s life. When Karel rides in the ultimate high-stakes race against a powerful Spanish patriarch and his alluring daughters, his father’s fortune, his brother’s futures, and his own fate hang in the balance. Fourteen years later, he is finally forced to dress the wounds of his past and to salvage the tattered fabric of his family.
Bruce Machart has published fiction in some of the country’s finest literary magazines, including Zoetrope: All-Story, Story, One Story, Five Points, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. He was born and raised in Texas, spent three years in the Boston area (where he taught literature and writing at Berklee College of Music, Boston University, and Grub Street Writers) and finally returned to Houston in 2003 where he joined the faculty of Lone Star College. The Wake of Forgiveness is Machart’s first novel. A collection of his short stories is forthcoming in 2011. He is currently at work on his second novel. To learn more about Machart and his work, visit the author’s website.
Allie at W.W. Norton brought my attention to Original Sins by Peg Kingman. This hefty novel was released just this month and looks amazing. The book crafts a tale of two harrowing journeys into the American South of the 1840s. Anibaddh Lyngdoh, a former Virginia slave, returns to America in 1840 to learn the fate of the child she left behind eighteen years earlier. Described as a “thrilling and suspenseful tale of race, sex, religion and law in America,” Original Sins looks like a captivating read.
A fourth-generation Californian, Peg Kingman has lived and traveled in the United States, Scotland, France, India and New Zealand. She worked for many years as a technical writer in the high-tech, medical, environmental and marketing fields, and now lives in northern California. Original Sins is her second novel. To learn more about Kingman and her work, visit the author’s website.
Good morning to all my readers. This has been quite an emotional week for me. I posted earlier about my sister’s battle with cancer and my plan to head back to New Hampshire to help take care of her. I mentioned that I was trying to get my PT license in NH so that I could stay as long as I need to, and still work a little bit. Well, that finally came throughthanks in large part to Congressman Wally Herger and his staff. Then on Friday, my sister went into surgery. I was a complete wreck. She is on the surgical intensive care unit and doing well. She will be in the hospital for a week to ten days as this was very serious surgery. I head to New Hampshire on the 1st of September and will be staying with my sister indefinitely. But, I’ll have Internet access, and will still be posting here, so I will keep you updated. Thank you to all who have been keeping my sister and our family in prayer and good thoughts…you cannot imagine how comforting it is for me to know that there is so much positive energy being directed our way.
I also blew through Still Missing by Chevy Stevens (read my review) which was pretty terrifying and graphic (not all readers may be able to stomach this one). It definitely lived up to the hype of being the thriller of the summer…but I have to admit, some of the violence got to me a bit.
After that bit of genre fiction, I decided to delve into something a bit more literary. Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi fit the bill perfectly (read my review). This is really a novella (almost a short story), but it packs a big punch. This is certainly a keeper for those readers who love literary and world fiction.
My current read is City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris (released by Little, Brown and Company earlier this month) which I have been eagerly anticipating ever since I read the first book by this talented author (read my review of Finding Nouf). City of Veils is the sequel to Finding Nouf…so readers will find the characters familiar. The novel opens with a dead girl on a beach in Saudi Arabia. Then Ferraris begins to introduce her cast of characters which include Nayir (the desert guide from the first book), Katya (one of the only females working in the coroner’s office – also a repeat character from the first book), Miriam Walker (an American woman living with her husband in Saudi Arabia), Eric (Miriam’s husband who disappears), and Detective Osama Ibrahim. The book is told in multiple points of view…and so far I am thoroughly enjoying it! I should have a review up mid-week.
I also picked up Home Repair by Liz Rosenberg which has been in my to-read stacks for far too long. I have a feeling it will be an easy and satisfying read for me.
Later today, I am going to finish a quilt I am making for a Romanian orphan. Judi (from Green Fairy Quilts), and her husband have traveled to Romania for two years in a row to deliver quilts to an orphanage there. This September will be the third such trip…and so I decided I wanted to help. I have pieced the quilt I’m sending…so only the actual quilting remains. My goal is to have it in the mail by the end of this week. I promise to post photos soon!
What are YOU doing today? Whatever it is, I hope it involves a GREAT book!
For more information about my review policy and what genres I consider for review, please refer to About This Blog.
If you would like Caribousmom to read and review a book, please email me at: caribousmom (at) gmail (dot) com
Thank you!
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I used Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain fabric line as the primary fabric in the quilt. I pieced it using a simple strip piecing method and made it random in its design. The quilting is free motion – I used Elizabeth’s tutorial to help me through the process of creating flowers all over the quilt. This is only my second quilt to use free motion quilting – so it is not perfect, but I was happy with how it came out.
I hope that this quilt will not only keep a child warm, but will remind her that she is loved and valued. Here are a few more photos of the quilt:
Welcome to this week’s edition of Mailbox Monday hosted this month at 
I was very excited to receive a copy of 
Thanks to Meghan at 
This week I read two great books. Zoe Ferraris’s latest mystery City of Veils did not disappoint (
Next up was Liz Rosenberg’s debut novel Home Repair (
My current read is Simply from Scratch by Alicia Bessette (I love that cover, don’t you?). I’m only fifty pages into the book, so I don’t have strong feelings about it either way except to say it is an easy read and the nine year old little girl in the novel has already stolen my heart. I need to get this one finished before Tuesday when I leave for New Hampshire because it is a hard cover and I don’t want to carry it on the plane. So hopefully you will see a review on Bessette’s book by (at the latest) Tuesday morning.
Thanks to all of you who helped make my 5oth Birthday a bit more special…I loved all your comments, birthday memories, and reasons why being 50 or older is so great. There were many of you who asked not to be entered in the giveaway but still stopped by to wish me a happy birthday – that was so sweet!!
Tavia from 
Meike from 
Melissa from 
Allie at 
Good morning to all my readers. This has been quite an emotional week for me. I posted earlier about 
I finally sat down and wrote 
I also blew through Still Missing by Chevy Stevens (
After that bit of genre fiction, I decided to delve into something a bit more literary. Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi fit the bill perfectly (
I also picked up Home Repair by Liz Rosenberg which has been in my to-read stacks for far too long. I have a feeling it will be an easy and satisfying read for me.
= Excellent
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
