New reads

 Tuesday's reads this week.  

I chose two that are over 30 years old but endure.  I tell the kids if a book is really good people will keep buying it and if they keep buying it the people who make the books will keep making more of them.  Some things really do keep on keeping on.

These two deserve it.

David Small is almost a household name in Michigan if you are in the children's book world. His illustrations are classic.   Imogene wakes up one morning with a huge rack of antlers on her head.  This doesn't seem to bother her in the least but it sure sets her mother off!  I mean, really, what would YOU do if your child came down for breakfast sporting a rack like this?  

I love, love, love this one.  Brigid wants markers.  Mom says no because she has heard that markers only mean trouble.  Coloring on walls, floors, themselves, they are a mess so "NO!" Brigid makes some good arguments in favor, makes some promises and keeps them so she manages to convince mom to get more.  And more.  And then temptation sets in.  With the kids there is ALWAYS a laugh and an "oh no!" moment at the end.

I am coming along very quickly on the border design for the BA quilt.  I chose to do a swag. The two long sides are swagged, I'm putting a sort of flower at the ends, which I like a lot, and when those flowers are done tonight I'll attach the long sides, measure for the short sides and keep on keeping on. It's coming and I'm on target to get it finished and layered for quilting by Christmas. But December is becoming very busy so I have to keep plugging on.  This year with only 3 weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas is very stressful. 

New stuff

 I know I said I haven't done anything other than the Baltimore Album for months but I did get some pillowcases done for the kids for St. Nick's Day.  I have made pillowcases for the kids for years and Mike asked for some new ones for Christmas.  I have some but not many Christmas fabrics in my stash and only had to shop for a few.  The two cookie baking are for Adelaide and Ceci, the bakers in the families.  The middle one is Elizabeth.  It has a carol in tiny print and she is in the choir and writes like a No-See-Um crawling on the page so this fits her.  Mike chose the red snowman and Charlie, now a college student gets the manly plaid.  I use the French seam method when I make these for the kids and they love getting new ones.  Our DIL said the kids always want "grandma's pillowcases" on bedding changing day and in their Halloween photo Mike was taking his Halloween case trick or treating to fill with candy.  

Last week I couldn't breathe much less speak and things are not going to be better anytime soon. But I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

These are the two books from last week

This one the teacher always appreciates me bringing in.  Playground behavior many times dictates apologizing and this one gives good insight in how to do that. Correctly so it means something. 

Now, don't get excited.  But I have to say this title is always a way to stop the fidgets.  This is the story of a dung beetle who is torn between wanting to be with the popular bugs and his love of his food.  No one wants to sit with him at lunch for good reason.  But when it's time to show what he's made of - so to speak - he comes through and with that the other bugs admit to THEIR idiosyncrasies which can be just as gross or weird, proving we are all a little weird in our own ways.  The teacher liked this one so much after I read it last year she bought a copy for her grandchildren.

And these are from today

As much as I hate to use our new political situation in comparison to a great storybook this one does ring a few bells.  The river was there but it didn't know it was a river UNTIL (- a refrain throughout the book so soon your audience will say it at every page - )  bear comes along.  It's a cumulative story and very good.

You must know by now how I feel about Ryan T. Higgins.  Wilfred is one of his earlier books but no less wonderful.  Wilfred is a very large hairy monster who finds himself near a village of very little people who are ALL bald, even the children.  Because he is very large and very hairy he has a hard time making friends until one bald little boy befriends him.  Big "Awww" factor here. 

Look quickly

 Look quickly because I think I have to hide this post just in case Elizabeth looks at my blog, which I'm 99.9% sure she doesn't but just in case.  New post on something else tomorrow so this goes down the que! 

Yesterday I finished the last square and then took the night off. 

Each square tell something about her life.  Still needs to be sashed and bordered.  I am forever grateful she didn't want a 'fussy' Baltimore Album and when I calmed down, made a targeted timeline I had a wonderful time researching what to do.  But holy cow, the mess on the thinking bed working out colors, making templates, cutting and organizing them.  Phew!

Quickly:  she wanted flowers, the colors red, yellow and green to predominate, and I took it from there.  Top row: flowers and the right corner is cherries, her favorite fruit.  Next row: her yellow cat, and on the end oak leaves and acorns for the oak tree outside her bedroom window that she is very allergic to BUT that tree has been dated to the Civil War (1860s) and so it stays.   Next row, red colonial pineapples, old pattern.  Laurel wreath for Ancient Rome, her initial on the fabric she brought home from Williamsburg, Hamilton.  Next row, small wreath with raspberries for the many, many trips to pick berries every summer, next a red rose because June's flower is the rose and she was born in June, next, their house, next Hobbit hole door with the first line of the book embroidered under it. Bottom row, books.  She is an avid reader, the clunky flowers she painted on the mural on their garage when she was just a tot. I always thought her leaves looked like popsicle sticks.  

When she was just an infant she had a sleeper she wouldn't give up when she grew out of it.  She called it her cuddle.  We called it Cuddy.  Cuddy still sleeps with her.  Well, it was a dusty pink with gray rabbits on it.  I interpreted that by nestling in a rabbit on some of her blocks.  There's one on her initial, one on the house block, one on the wreath of berries. and in the center of the oak leaves/acorns there is an owl that you can hardly see because it blends in so well....as owls do in trees.  She has always had a thing for owls, too.

Each square is cut to 10.5 inches, to finish at 10. I cut them to size yesterday. Today I put the sashing on then measure and cut for borders then cut the pieces for the VERY simple border. 

Phew! Nowhere near done but I am on target.  

"Pity the Nation"

 My state of disbelief is beyond words so I had to let someone else say them.  I don't even have the capacity to react.  Disgust? Shame? Fear? I'll think of a few more when my heartrate settles down and my stomach stops churling.

My disappointment is mammoth.  I never, ever dreamed that the entire U.S. was so overrun with people who are bigoted and intolerant, who believe white people are the only ones worthy of living life, who would actually allow old white men to tell them what to do, who believe it's so ok to hate, to disrespect the person sitting next to them.  Who want to turn our history back 400 years ago.  That's not you, you say? Really? 

NEVER EVER did I think this is what people believed, truly in their hearts.  How can you hug your children if you believe in this person?  How can you smile at your neighbor if you believe in this person?  How can you proclaim yourself if you believe in this person?  People would actually say they 'didn't like what he said but liked his policies" and I would laugh.  He has no policies.  He doesn't know what a policy is.  YOU weren't listening.

Now, I know those of you who voted for this poor excuse for a human being think I am the one who is all of these things.  That I am the one casting aspersions on you, if you voted for him.  That I am the one who needs tweaking.  That I am the one who is intolerant of you.  Maybe so, now.  But I don't think so.  If  YOU voted for him you did this. You think his hatred, his complete ignorance, his criminal behavior, his white supremacist beliefs, that putting him in front of a microphone and doing NOTHING but spewing hate and name calling, things we put our children in time-out corners for, things we don't allow on the playground with kindergarteners, you applauded it, and rewarded it with the highest honor a citizen of the U.S. could hope for.  You allowed someone into that chair who declared he WOULD be a dictator and punish women and surrounded himself with the scariest power hungry white men.  You did this. After what will be 14 years of his vile behavior I don't know if we will ever turn away from indecency.  I hope you know something that I don't because God help us all. 

Now, that's the last I'm going to say about this, even though my heart rate won't slow down and my stomach won't stop churling and I am trying to decide what to do about the people I personally know who voted for him.  My capacity for forgiveness, let bygones be bygones, doesn't stretch that far. 

Hate wins

 I'm sorry, but I can't talk right now.

Halloween

Did you think I forgot Tuesday's books?  I did.  I thought of this post this morning.  Oops. Both are very Halloweeny books so save them for next year.

 I already told you what I think of Ryan T. Higgins.  He started with a book called Mother Bruce (instead of Goose) and it was an instant hit, not only for the story but this guy is a master at illustrations and expressions and making adults laugh.  This is his Halloween book and probably, *cringe* the weakest ONLY because I think knowing what the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is about helps with the humor and kids don't know that story.  But if you own all of the Ryan T. Higgins books, like I do, this is in the collection.

This one, though, has been a Halloween favorite for many years.  I can't imagine not reading it just before the holiday.  Mr. Wilkerson is a very crabby, mean ol' guy who wants his pumpkin pie perfect.  Demands it.  Mrs. Wilkerson makes his pie and as he was taking the first bite he dies. She buries him in the pumpkin patch and moves away.  A grandma and her grandson move in and unwittingly put a fresh baked pie on the windowsill to cool. Yup, Mr. Wilkerson wants a pie so bad he will rise from his grave to get one. And holy cow, trying to please that old codger isn't easy.  But Grandma isn't afraid of an old puff of smoke grump.  Again, the illustrations are amazing.

I am within three squares of 20 for the BA quilt for Elizabeth. I debated stopping at 16 but couldn't get my mind around a square quilt for a tall girl and I also didn't want to make four more.  Adelaide stopped by Saturday, I showed her what I have, she said Elizabeth will love this quilt and we brainstormed a few more ideas so ok, I'm making four more for 20. I will determine if she looks at the blog before I post any pics because she said even though she gave me some thoughts, she wants it to be a surprise.  Since that is the ONLY stitching I am working on there isn't much else to show.   

For now, the weather is unusually warm but it's windy so the leaves are all off the trees and the forest has a new blanket of fresh yellow and it's beautiful.  Too beautiful to be sitting inside so I am taking my book and tea out to read.  

A Sky High Adventure

 Our weather has been spectacularly beautiful lately.  Very mild temperatures for October and the colors are peak right this minute.  I have been feeling very guilty about not being out there in it so yesterday PH and I drove three hours north to Boyne Mountain.  It's a ski resort, there's golf and there are trees. Between two of the highest hills/mountains they built this:

Can you see that bridge strung out there with people walking on it?  It's called the Skybridge and you don't get much closer to feeling like you are walking in the sky than this.  

I suggested it to PH for a day trip and thought he would say no because he is very uncomfortable of heights and being out there on something like this, well, it would take all the courage he could muster. BUT he doesn't tell me no.  So we went.

It was a Monday so we thought weekend crowds might be lessened.  Nope.

You go up one ski lift to the top, walk across - everyone going in the same direction, and at the end take another ski lift back down.  

The bridge wobbles a lot. You are walking down then it evens out they you go back up.  Not a lot, but when it evens out in the middle it's also a glass floor.  I kept telling PH, who was concentrating his mostest to get across at all, not to look down.    I thought this would never be something I'd do but lately I've been talking about a hot air balloon or sky diving and so in PH's thinking this was small potatoes. And for me, I was surprised at how easy it was, how short it felt and how quickly it was over!  The views? Spectacular.  Do it again? Absolutely.  

Our son, who grew up on the Indiana Jones movies and can recite every single word of the dialogue of all the movies and relates just about anything to a scene in the movies sent this to me after I told him what we did. He thought I would have the problem with the crossing, not PH.

I don't know why I felt the need to go somewhere else because this is the view outside the door right next to where I am sitting now.  Our forest goes on and on with hills and the trees so golden the glow changes the whole inside of the house to golden.  Sit out there and the leaves fall on you like feathers and you can hear them rustle against each other as they come down.  Everyone says they love fall but hate what's coming.  But you don't want to hurry this.

 

It's Tuesday and these were my reads for today.  I didn't bring absolute Halloween books with me this time but stuck with the night and with a bat.

Stellaluna has been a favorite for 25 years.  I remember when I worked in a bookstore and it first came in I was won over with the illustrations, they are gorgeous.  

Stellaluna is a fruit bat.  One night she is separated from her mother by a hungry owl but falls into a nest of birds. Well, talk about being confused!  Birds eat yucky bugs and don't hang by their toes and don't fly at night.  She adapts, though she will never like the bugs.  Eventually she finds her momma who promises she will never have to eat a bug again.

This one is silly.  The animals are afraid of some night noise and thus afraid of the night animals the perceive are making the noises.  This one needs close examination of the pictures because the expression on this opossum's face when skunk demonstrates his way of dealing with a threat is hilarious. Not a lot of words in this one, the pictures tell the story so a little one who is learning to read can pretty much handle this one.  I love this one!

Tuesday Titles

 It's Tuesday!  Here are the two books I read to the kids today. One is silly, one is sweet.

It's coming on to Halloween, if you can push Christmas aside to buy your Halloween candy. I don't know about you who live outside the U.S. but here Christmas started creeping in in late July and its full blown out there now.  

This is the silly one.  The most important ingredient in a witch's favorite soup is a spoonful of frogs. If you can catch them. 

This is the sweet one.  When it first came out it was almost impossible to get a copy because quilters were buying it like crazy. Who wouldn't want this one if you are a quilter? Lucky for me I follow publishers very closely and knew it was coming before it was published and had my order in.  Little ghost wants to be like the other ghosts, light enough to fly easily.  But he is a quilt and so he is heavy. As he tries to enjoy Halloween like the other ghosts his life takes a turn toward an adventure the other ghosts can't experience.  There is a big "awww" factor here.  

Friend Laurie and I went to Shipshewana yesterday. I wanted to find what I needed for new pillowcases for the grands.  I found some really good ones!  I thought of each of the kids and found something that fits them.  We then had lunch and went to the bulk food grocery and stocked up with great prices.

Update on Elizabeth's BA.  On zoom the other night I made the comment that sometimes I struggle with a square so much that I just tear off the applique when I finish, or don't finish it at all.  Sometimes I just didn't like the colors when they got together so I tear it apart and pick new colors.  Sometimes t's something else.  After we zoomed I continued the struggle with the current block and ended up tearing it all out, back to blank background.  I struggled with it so much I was just plain tired of it, didn't like the way it looked, so- gone.  Yet the next block went together in two evenings and its perfect.  I am now going to start on their house and am not sure how it's going to go.  I took a nap today so will hope for the best. 

A Party

 We had a party.   We were gifted the use of the Showboat for a day and decided to cook dinner for our immediate circle of friends, the ones we see on a regular basis, the ones who live in our stories.  

I cooked.  We served chicken, kielbasa, sauerkraut, German potato salad, applesauce from the wild apples we picked in the Upper Peninsula, squash, corn cut from the cob, rolls and PH's mom's famous apple cake.   I would rather plan and cook a feast than dinner every night...anytime. 

Our lovely daughter made sure she took lots and lots of photos of each table.  A few were home with sicknesses but we had 32 here.

 

And when everyone left, we gave them their own little apple pie to take home.  

It was a lovely day, we had such fun. We are so grateful for our friends and know we are very lucky.

It's Tuesday so here are the books I read to the kids today.  These are the last of Ryan T. Higgins' Penelope Rex books.  As I said last week, Ryan T. Higgins is a genius, a grown man with the mind of a six year old.  He gets it. 

I really am not sure if these books are available outside the U.S. but if they are, even if you don't have littles around, they are a delight for any one.  

Chookshed and books

 It's October first and there is only one Chookshed Challenge left.  I had to give up on doing the challenge per se because I needed to concentrate my time on Elizabeth's BA quilt.  Boy, did I.  Boy, DO I.  It has been an adventure so far.  There are 11 blocks done and some of them really give me fits. I'm probably going to be arrested for how I am approaching the blocks but believe me, I'm changing and rearranging them so much they would be unrecognizable to the original.  Like the one I'm struggling with now.   I get an idea, try to execute it, get part way through and change my mind either with the fabric I chose or the design and rip it apart.  Soon I will get them out, lay them out and see how they look.  My ideal goal is to have them finished by Christmas so I can start quilting it in January. Until then I keep on. The whole idea and concept is fun because I'm doing things that relate to her so it's a lot of time inside my head with memories.

It's Tuesday and I went to school to read to the kids today.  They didn't want me to leave and begged for a third book. I always only read two because they have other things to do besides listening to me read stories. But teacher said ok.

This title ALWAYS stops the fidgeting. Always.  Achilles is a little crocodile who decides one day he isn't going to eat what his mother fixed for his breakfast. And no matter how much they try other foods (sound familiar?) or beg he says what he really wants is to eat a child.  I like this one so much I have two copies!

Ryan T. Higgins is a genius.  Or he never grew out of a five or six year old's brain.  He knows kids. 

Penelope Rex is starting school and she is a little nervous but excited, too.  What a surprise when she gets to school to discover the classroom is filled with CHILDREN.  Children are delicious and she eats them.  She can't help it.  There is some comeuppance, and she learns her lesson when she finds out how it feels to be nibbled on.

The next in the series (and to get his humor I think they need to be read in order) Penelope is very nervous about her turn to bring the class goldfish home for the weekend.  Everyone takes turns and she works herself into a lather over the anticipation.

Now, Ryan T. Higgins IS a genius, he gets into the minds of little kids but to adults his illustrations are laugh out loud funny when you really pay attention.  I'm not sure how much kids really, really notice but when I first read one of his books and turn a page, I will absolutely laugh out loud.  Me, this grey-haired grandma laughs out loud at the humor in his illustrations.

I always tell the kids to pay attention to the pictures.  These aren't called picture books for no reason. The words tell part of the story, the pictures tell the rest.  Ryan T. Higgins is a genius.

Therapy

 Our retreat weekend has been cancelled.  I'm still processing that.  Our group is down to six.  One chose a different activity for the weekend, and two have injuries that are severe enough they couldn't even think of going. We are all at the age where a sneeze could make us fall out of our chairs and break a hip and that's too close to the truth!  We are all devastated to miss this very anticipated time together.

Now, I fully realize there are far worse things happening in the world and within our blogging community right now so having to cancel a retreat seems like small potatoes.  And it is.  But that doesn't mean it isn't disappointing.  

So this morning I went out for some book therapy. 

Have you read the Thursday Murder Club books?  You haven't???  Oh, my. Do.  This is Richard Osmun's newest, it just came out last week and is NOT a TMC book but I don't care.  I'm hooked.

Yes, I still buy picture books.  At my age. But since I am reading to first graders now, I choose even more carefully than ever.  I have to love the art, love the story, love the concept, love the telling, and especially love the author's work.  This one is new to me but it ticked all the boxes so it came home with me. 

I am an author follower.  When I go to used book sales I look for authors hoping to find some of their earlier work because if I really like them I already own their recent work. 

I just finished this a night ago.  It was really quite good, and I say that like I'm surprised, but I bought it because it's been getting good reviews from everywhere - that's important.  It came recommended by a small bookstore owner - that's important.  And when I am in an independent bookstore I ALWAYS buy something but I didn't know this author, so I was taking a chance. This is a mystery set in the Adirondack mountains at a summer camp for rich kids, owned by rich people.  One day the camp owner's daughter disappears from camp. But the thing is, 14 years earlier her brother also disappeared from the same camp.   And so it begins.  

Now, this one was on my library list.  I took it with me when we were on our trip to the Upper Peninsula thinking it would be a good light read.  And it is.  But underneath there was more to it than the occasional giggle. 

   Lauren returns home from a hen party to find her husband Michael waiting for her.  But she isn't married.  She hasn't got a clue who this Michael is but clearly, he is her husband.  The apartment is decorated with their wedding photos, decorated in a style she doesn't recognize, the refrigerator filled with food she isn't familiar with. She discreetly asks her sister and her neighbors about him and finds out he is indeed her husband and is she feeling alright?   He goes up into the attic to change a lightbulb and down comes a completely different husband.  Behind her the apartment decor, photos, food, clothes....it's all changed in this marriage.  She is, of course, trying to figure this new one out.  Her family all recognizes these husbands.

    As an experiment, she sends him back up into the attic and down comes the third different husband. And there are more.  Many, many more.

    What's fun and funny is the description of these guys. Their weirdness can be taken care of with a trip to the attic so the attic becomes convenient for dealing with large and small weirdness.  And so it goes.  I kept wondering how there could be so many weird guys out there and ARE they all strange and what's normal and to whom? And I kept side glancing at PH and telling him he really was quite normal - to me.  And then I started staring at the people on the street and wondering how weird THOSE guys might be. I was hooked.  And I kept wondering how she was going to get herself out of this mess.  

    Yes, it was funny sometimes, but the underlying theme was far different.  

This is usually the first book I read to the first graders every year.  It sets the tone.  It's funny, shocking and they can see themselves in trying to deal with patience. There is nothing wrong with this one!

Betty Bunny doesn't even know what chocolate cake is till she tastes it and then is obsessed with it. 

    We question:  patience, what it is to 'be a handful', which Betty certainly is, the No Thank You Bite (you have to at least take one bite before you can say 'no thank you.') 

There are a few Betty Bunny books and they all deal with something any child or adult can relate to. This one is self control.  Betty fills the shopping cart at the toy store with everything, even though her mother said she can have ONE new toy.  But she wants it all.  And of course, when they leave the store with nothing there is the temper tantrum.  The kids always relate to Betty Bunny, and again, there are many talking points. 

OK, that's my book therapy, my salve for missing our quilt weekend.  Sigh.

Felt Book

 My felt book has interested some people and so I'm going to do a little show and tell.  People use felt to hold their pieces and shapes but it was the netting between on each page that was different.

The netting isn't easy to see but it does help hold things in place on the page. I'm still thinking on this one so not everything is here. I'm thinking wreath with the fruits she loves but so far it's not exciting me.

I peeled back the netting so you can see.  I think the point of it is that the pieces stick just to the right hand page and so when you open or turn the page the pieces stay on the right hand page.

I load up everything I think I'm going to need as I think through a block - since I'm not going to be home with my stash.

This book measures 19.5 long by about 9.5 wide.  This is the middle.  What Friend Marilyn did was layer a piece of felt, then a piece of netting, felt, netting, four times.   Stitch it in place down the middle for a seam. It's really simple, you have eight pages and with the netting separating it all stays put. 

Brain work

 I am exhausted with thinking.  I am on a personal time crunch to get Elizabeth's BA quilt under control and it's happening from dogged determination. But the Thinking Bed is covered in fabrics, bits of cut acrylic applique pieces, photos of the planned squares, fabric auditions, my felt book that holds each page in place with finished and unfinished square plans - it's all part of the process and it's ok, but I'm exhausted.  My brain is tired. 

The weather has been hot by September standards, thankfully it is NOT humid right now, but just plain hot.  So, the planning and cutting is taking place on the front porch table under an umbrella.  Now, some of you would say, "then move inside!"  But this IS September,  this IS Michigan and these warm temperatures aren't going to last so I am taking advantage of it, even if it means carting my supplies in and out of the house.  And keeping the ice water flowing. We will all be locked inside soon enough.

I am trying to get several of the squares prepped for retreat next week.  Each retreat I usually take just one thing to work on and really dig in.  Usually it's something that needs to be quilted but this time I'm taking this BA project.  I have five blocks prepped, fabrics chosen, applique pieces mostly cut, the photos folded in for guidance. I certainly won't finish five blocks but I can dream.  Wish me luck I get at least two done.

 I keep each block in this felt book Friend Marily made for me several years ago.  It's simple.  Inexpensive felt and netting so each project has a page to lay pieces on the felt but the netting lays over the top to hold everything in place.  Sew down the middle for a seam and voila! I use this thing CONSTANTLY.  

Now to sit with my threads and choose what I'm going to take.  I pack minimally when I go to retreat because I don't take a machine.  I take a basket or tote with my hand project and my light and a chair. Yes, we have been taking our own chairs because our old behinds can't tolerate sitting in a folding chair for 4 days.  

On Tuesdays I go to the elementary school the granddaughters went to and read to a class of first graders.  When the girls were there I followed them through to the grade they were in each year. But when they left I didn't want to stop.  Their first grade teacher didn't want me to stop either so each week I go in, read two books and get hugs from the littles.  I started yesterday with this new group.

For those of you who are grandmas and read to littles when they visit, I'll post what I've read each week.  Being first graders they want funny books, nothing TOO serious but I like to mix things up with thinkers once in awhile. I have hundreds of picture books here at home so can usually just choose from my shelves. 

Here's what I read yesterday:

Every first day of school can be apprehensive to the littles.  Whether it's kindergarten or any year.  New teacher, new classroom, different classmates, new classroom rules, new lessons.  But what does the actual school building think?  Especially this school because it's brand new and has no idea what's about to happen and whether it will like it. 

Coincidentally, yesterday was the first day for show and tell in the classroom I was in so this one was fun.  Sometimes something seems like a good idea but isn't.

 

To Glue or Not to Glue

 Do you glue?  I don't glue.  I don't use fusible anything, I don't iron on anything that binds or sticks one piece of fabric to another.  I know a lot of you, probably most of you glue. Or fuse. I don't like the way fused fabric feels and I don't like the idea of dried glue on my stuff. 

I pin.  It's not that I'm trying to make work for myself nor am I so stubborn I won't learn new techniques, if that were the case I'd be using old cereal boxes cut up into my applique shapes.  But I have a thing about glue on fabric. So I don't glue my applique pieces onto paper nor onto fabric to hold them in place.  Since I don't machine applique glueing isn't going to make much difference to me.  I can understand in the machine applique process that glueing the fabric means not stopping for pins.  It takes a lot of time to pin. This future wreath shape for Elizabeth's BA of course was being tried on for size and when I've decided it's right I'll take it all off and iron that fabric clean straight and then pin again.  But it's a gorgeous day outside and I can do it on the porch while enjoying the day.

Katie over at katiemaytoo quilts posts about books each week.  I like that.  I don't feel so alone out here in bookland.  Many of the books she has read I have, too.  Today she posted a book about Shakespeare and coincidentally, I am within an hour of finishing this one.

I don't read a lot of Jodi Picoult.  I did read a couple but moved on.  This one was offered to me as a review copy and I thought I'd give it a chance since it's about Shakespeare and the popular controversy over whether he really did write those plays.   Whether it's true or not, I kept thinking while reading that it puts us in mind of the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.  True or not it sure is a conversation.  

I listened to a podcast Jodi Picoult did with Charlie Gibson and his daughter Kate.  They have a great podcast called The Bookcase ( The Book Case Podcast - ABC Audio )  - if you listen to podcasts and if you read, give this a go.  I get into a lot of trouble with it.  I write down just about all of the titles as TBRs (To Be Read.)  Well, after listening to this podcast I remembered I had the book loaded on my iPad and started it.  It is truly thought provoking, and obviously controversial but given the facts in the podcast, hard to set aside as nonsense.  I advise you strongly to get in the mood and listen to the podcast before reading the book. It's like a pep rally.