End of July: Yardage Tracking and Books Read

July was a low productivity month. Between two trips to visit family - in Kansas City and Austin, Texas - and being captivated by diamond painting and round loom knitting, fabric output was low. And, there was that fabric buying time at KC Maker Studio in Kansas City. Those purchases are yet to be used, but will definitely be part of current WIPs. 

So, 6 yards of fabric came in; 3.36 yards went out, for a net gain of 2.64 yards. 

Makes that used-up fabric were:

• 8 Posh Penelope blocks
• a rice bag, and
• 17 more hand-pieced Inner City blocks (made while traveling)

Still, I'm consoling myself by looking at the 2025 OUT Yardage total thus far. It's 52.75 yards used since January. Ah, I feel better.

Audiobook listening was also at a slower pace. These are the seven titles I read, six of which I scored (5.0 is the highest rating).

1. 4.5 - Under the Tulip Tree, Michelle Shocklee
2. 4.2 - See Me, Nicholas Sparks
3. 4.1 - Tail of Vengeance, Spencer Quinn (a short story that's .03 in the book series)
4. 4.0 - The Sea Glass Sisters, Lisa Wingate (a short story)
5. 4.0 - The Memory Keeper of Kyiv, Erin Litteken
6. 3.9 - Didn't See That Coming, Jesse Sutanto
7. The Helper, Catherine Marshall

I thought Under the Tulip Tree was especially good. It's a good coming-of-age story about a young, aspiring writer, Lorena, whose family experiences the 1929 stock market crash. She determines to find employment to help support her family, but in the process learns more about the hidden side of her family, and how to start making amends.

Nicholas Sparks never disappoints. See Me was another story about people from differing backgrounds finding common ground and love. 

Other titles were short stories, like A Tail of Vengeance, #.03 in the Chet and Bernie series, and The Sea Glass Sisters that I didn't know was a short story that's part of a series.

Or disappointing.

I started the book The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune and didn't want to finish. It's about magical children in an orphanage, and the social worker who visits their house by the sea. It wasn't as "delightful" to me as recommended. 

I didn't score The Helper by Catherine Marshall, but I highly recommend reading it if you want to know more about Holy Spirit and His place in one's heart and life.

I'll mention that I caught the narrator mispronouncing several words. The most disconcerting was when she said "morality" when she should have said "mortality." 

Ms. Marshall wrote The Helper in 1978 and though she uses "current" references to make her points (making the narrative historically interesting), her truths are timeless. She was a woman of great faith!

You may know of Catherine Marshall because her popular Christian work of fiction: Christy, written in 1967. I read it when I was in my 20s, and plan to re-read it. Linda