Reading list #4

The first blush of autumn on the maple leaves. Looking forward to cooler days.

1. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson depression era Kentucky and the pack horse librarians and a rare blood disorder.
2. Die and In the Wool by Katherine Hayton Murder mystery and a yarn shop just for fun and very short, fewer than 200 pages.
3. The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen about an English girl who is studying art in Venice WW2 era and her modern day great niece who inherited the great aunts sketches and 3 keys.
4. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. For book club after the last couple books which were sad and tough to read it was my turn to pick a book so I checked out all the Fannie Flagg books from the library because we needed something fun and uplifting. This was the only Fannie Flagg book that I had not read. The movie followed it very closely but there were parts that were left out of the movie. The book was wonderful and I still love the movie.
5. A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg re read for book club feel good story everything works out for the best for everyone. The second time I read the book and as good the second time as the first.
6. NDearly Departed in Deadwood by Ann Charles book 1 of series I saw this series in a shop when DD and I were in the Black Hills in July it was fun to read because the setting in the Northern Black Hills was familiar but three green eyed characters in the book? Really!?! I asked the assistant at the eye doctors how many green eyed patients they see in a month…..she said one or two a year.
7. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg second time for this book but I had completely forgotten most of it so was like reading it for the first time, a real treat.
8. Signal Moon by Kate Quinn a short story WW 2 Wren listening to radio transmission and a futuristic twist.
9. Jamaica Inn by Daphne DuMaurier I read this many years ago so long ago that I remembered none of the story but when one character appeared I knew he would be the worst villain but I had no idea how until the end.
10. Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict fiction about an Irish immigrant who is hired to be ladies maid to Andrew Carnegie’s mother self educated and inspiration to Carnegie’s public libraries.  Very good
11. Growing Wild in the Shade by Jean Grainger contemporary story mostly ordinary life with some vandalism and drugs at the end. I like her historical novels much much more. Fortunately it was short, 250 pages and I skipped over wardrobe choices, dinner fare, and some conversations. 
12. The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick absolutely delightful about a writer who is in a slump with her latest book and her cleaning lady, about reaching for dreams and aspirations lots of twists and surprises. Wonderful fresh story.
13. Educated by Tara Westover for book club non fiction. I read this 2 years ago the few parts I remembered were so trivial in the storyline it was like reading the story for the first time. I also had the book mixed up with Unfollow by Megan Phelps Roper  about leaving the Westboro Church. Once I separated the books in my head everything made sense. There are a lot of similarities in the two books. Westover and Westboro, those two words are an awful lot alike, two young women with questions about how they were raised and learning to think for themselves, leaving their family but still loving them. It was a good discussion at book club.
14. Poirot  Investigates by Agatha Christie a book of short stories.

Knitted Bears

 

Baby steps of progress last week, the trousers are finally finished after ripping a couple times I needed to add 5 or 6 rows in the length of the crotch so the waist of the pants covered the bottom of the t shirt because I didn’t want the bears belly hanging out. I thought I could knit a dress just like the t shirt by increasing the number of stitches a couple rows past the under arm for the skirt. So far so good.  I weighed the garments on my little kitchen scale in grams so I can weigh leftover yarn and know if I have enough for the next little bear outfit. Fun to knit up the stash. ~~Ann~~

Loop de loo

 

Here we go loop de loo

Here we go loop de li

Stitch in a butterfly

Watch them flutter by.

Free motion machine quilting.  --Ann--

Lovely weekend

 

Darling daughter called Thursday evening and asked if I had any plans for the weekend and thought she might come down. I had no plans imagine that and if I did I would have changed them for her  because she is my darling daughter.  I needed a girls weekend.  Friday evening we watched the first few episodes of  The Crown it seemed a good way to commemorate the passing of Queen Elizabeth.  She didn't get into it and I had watched it a year or so ago.  I got lots of knitting done.  The bears each have a shirt but they need some pants and dresses and a cardigan..........

After much discussion we decided to go shopping for shoes the next day in Sioux Falls and make a stop at Always Your Design Quilt shop in Dell Rapids.  I just needed batting, it was going to be a quick stop.............DD saw a rag quilt that she really really liked I suggested she make it since she made one when she was ten or eleven...........has it really been 20 years ago that she sewed that quilt.  She chose the fabrics then the sales lady grabbed a bundle of precut squares in exactly the colors and plaids she wanted.  Decisions and math simplified!  Then to meet son for lunch.  We had a delightful time.

We both found shoes then to the apple orchard for fresh picked apples. They are so juicy and sweet.

Then we got busy cutting a few more squares because she wants the quilt longer than the precut size would be and to cut the backing squares.  Good thing she suggested we count the sets of 4.....we have enough leftover yardage for a couple pillows.  

Sunday after lunch we cut the batting and yippee all the squares were cut from scraps!!! Then she sat down to sew and it was power sewing!!!! all 54 blocks have the X sewn across so the next time she comes home she will arrange and sew the blocks.  There are lots more girls weekends ahead with all the hunting and fishing the guys have planned.

A lovely, lovely weekend.  --Ann--

Little sweaters

 The softest sweetest little sweaters are finished. The knitting part was the easy fun part. Then to do the finish work stitching in the ends, stitching the button holes, they were called forgotten button holes because after you ate done knitting you go back and make a hole between stitches bigger then stitch around the opening. That wasn’t so difficult but then to find small buttons to push through the holes was another challenge. Newer buttons are thick. I looked through my jar of antique buttons which are all thin either because that is how they were made or they were worn thin but I didn’t have six that matched and I needed two sets of six.  More fussy work of sewing buttons to hand knit fabric. No coffee until They are all attached.  Ahh finished……—Ann—

One ta da done

 

One done! That sweet feeling of completion! A great tummy time quilt. And all but the backing from the stash.  Just simple half square triangles put together as friendship stars and 4 patches.  I like simple patterns and fun fabrics. Free motion quilting just stitching an arc from corner to corner with a variegated thread. I used the backing fabric for the binding because I’m down to small scraps with all these colors, another great feeling, using it up! On to the next.—Ann—

Happy fingers

 

Knitting with this sock yarn and kid haze is a dream, I had the first little sweater knit just past the arms so I finished it as we drove across North Dakota. We left the corn and beans of eastern South Dakota for the wheat and sunflowers of the north central part of the state. Then more of the same in central North Dakota. We followed 1804 ( highway named for Lewis and Clark’s trip up the Missouri River in 1804.)  

Fields of sunflowers in bloom always give me a thrill but I have never gotten a good photo of them. The scenery changed to hills and hay bales and beef cattle. And more wheat fields and canola and into Saskatchewan, Canada. Then to start the next sweater on our way to Moose Jaw to pick up hubby’s moose head. More wheat, canola and lentils and a road that was flat and straight just like the land.

The return trip was much the same a few more wheat fields had been harvested and in the few days between the sunflowers began to droop, their glory faded with the waning summer.

Why didn’t I finish the first sweater completely before starting the second you ask? I like to knit on cable needles in the car, I’m afraid of loosing a double point needle in the car or worse outside the car. I’ll knit the sleeves at home.  Happy fingers when I like the feel of the yarn for happy knitting.  Ann