End of August

So many things to post about... 

For the past seven days, hubs and I have been in Kansas City to visit my dad (two nights), and in Ohio (two nights) to meet-up with my siblings and a half-dozen cousins.

The drudgery of travel - some of it quite unpleasant with traffic jams and accidents, and finding alternate routes - was enlightened by going-to and coming-from stops at Buc-ee's near Calhoun, Georgia. 

A Buc-ee's is our favorite enroute destination for gas. Bathrooms are immaculate; the coffee is great; and their snacks are bounteous and always delicious. Our favorite take-away is Praline Pecans.  

I took a quilt along to give to my cousin Bill and his wife Linda who let us stay with them, and hosted our family gathering in their Ohio "party barn." They're more than relatives; they're dear friends. So it was easy to pick a quilt to give them. Linda decided to put this one on one of four single beds she has in a "bunk room," where their grandkids stay when they visit.

The quilt is Satisfaction, an English paper-pieced quilt design I made last December while participating in Amy Friend's @duringquiettime quilt along. 

Since hubs prefers to do all the driving, I had 3,000 miles of seat time to spend hand-piecing. Before we left I cut lots of convex and concave shapes to make Curvelets - 1" finished Drunkard's Path blocks. I kept all the pieces and tools in a little box that I used on my lap. 

I have no doubt that if I had cut more convex and concave pieces, I could have pieced more than these 132 blocks which are now pressed and ready to be trimmed to 1½" X 1½". 

If you're curious about how to make these little blocks, and if you're a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, you can watch Itty Bitty Curves: Curvelets by Jen Carlton-Bailey, and download cutting templates too.

As yet, I don't know what I'm doing with my curvelets, but I'm considering how I might use them along with hundreds of 1½" X 1½" print squares in my Leaders and Enders basket.

August travels really cut into my Quilt Your Life block-making, as I made only 35 blocks to represent engagement in 10 different activities. In July I made 46 blocks! As of August 31, I'm 92 days into my 100-day commitment to Quilt Your Life with a total of 131 blocks made so far. September 8 is my last day of tracking.

August Quilt Your Life blocks

All tallied, in August I made:

• 35 - 5½" X 5½" Quilt Your Life blocks
• 170 - 1½" X 1½" Curvelets 
• Like Totally BOM blocks
• pieced a backing and binding for the Bibliography selvedges quilt (finished quilt photos yet to come)
• 2 Dayna Packs (see previous post for info about that 👎 pattern) 

I used a total of 5.89 yards of fabric.

One yard came into my stash for lining Dayna Packs.

My net fabric usage for August is 4.89 yards.

I know it's not much, but fabric is going the right direction - out of my stash. 

Book Recommendations

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn takes place in 1950, in a sub-par Washington DC boarding house where women of diverse ages and personalities live under the roof of a persnickety mother of two children. The book begins with a murder, but who it is remains a mystery until the end. 

The real story begins with the arrival of Grace March to Briarwood. She accepts living in a dingy attic space, and gradually improves upon the whole house. She hosts dinners, paints flowers and vines on walls, and engages with each resident enough to draw them out so they get to know one another. Each boarder has her own story to tell, and the reader gets an inside look at every one.

It's worth listening to the author and narrator (Saskia Maarleveld) interview at the end of the book where Ms. Quinn explains her characters and where some of her ideas came from. Much of it is based on documented history. You may find Saskia's voice familiar; she also narrated The Rose Code, and The Alice Network - both wonderful books!

This was my favorite August book. Linda's score: 4.3/5.0

The Lady of Tarpon Springs by Judith McCoy Miller is a book I picked up because of the title. Tarpon Springs is a Florida coastal city on the Gulf of Mexico. It's actually the city where I had my 2013 lumpectomy for breast cancer.

The book takes place in 1905 when most people thought women were not meant to be lawyers or doctors. Yet two female characters in this story hold those positions.

Zanna is a young Greek woman, living with her parents and practicing law. Her grandmother and father would like nothing more than to have Zanna return to Greece to find a husband and begin having children. But Zanna is determined to help her female doctor friend follow-through on the doctor's deceased father's plan to start a sponge-diving business. Fifty men are on their way to Tarpon Springs where they will dive in a new, special suit that will take them to greater-than-ever depths. And they'll be diving from three boats especially made for retrieving sponges. 

When Nico arrives from Greece with his 49 men, Zanna is their Greek/English interpreter, and she must learn about the sponge business. As Zanna learns about diving for sponges, processing them, and selling them, I learned too. While their first efforts to gather sponges are successful, as the men make more trips to sea, one boat has problems. No one on the crew will tell Nico what's going on. 

This is a must-read for Floridians! Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

This month I listened to seven audiobooks. Those I gave a score of 4.0 or higher, out of 5.0, are:

• The Briar Club, Kate Quinn - 4.3
• What Have You Done?  Shari LaPena - 4.2
• Closer Than You Think (#4 in the Mags Monroe series) Jean Grainger - 4.2
• The Lady of Tarpon Springs Judith Miller - 4.2
• The Next Mrs. Parrish Liv Constantine - 4.1
• The Lost Hours Karen White - 4.1

A blog-reader and friend, Mary, emailed to let me know that she found two of my blog posts in her spam folder. At her suggestion, I'm mentioning this in case you too are having problems reading your favorite blogs. Seems that Google has done something new, and accessing posts has "gone sideways." Personally, I haven't yet encountered any problems, but as we know with Google/Blogger, technology can change quickly! Linda