It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10-19-15

Sheila at Book Journey has passed the baton of hosting this favorite Monday meme to Kathryn at Book Date. Do you like the new button? Sheila designed it and Kathryn decided to keep it for now. Tell us what you are reading or planning to read , then link up at Kathryn's blog, Book Date.


This week will be a good reading week for me. I am leaving Tuesday morning to sew with 10 other women at a ranch resort near Buffalo WY.  Although I will sew, sew, sew, there will be time in the room at night to read. I won't have meals to fix, nor laundry to do, nor will I have a roommate to be concerned about.

I want to read this one:

“If we know this story, we haven’t seen it yet in American fiction, not until now. . . . Deep, heartfelt.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing,Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

The above is the synopsis from Goodreads. 

I also hope to start reading The Round House by Louise Erdrich. It has been on my list for quite awhile now and my F2F book club decided to read it for discussion in November. Yay!

From Goodreeads: 

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning. 

I am anticipating a great time with quilting friends and some unexpected but welcome alone time in the evening. 

Til next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Non Reading Quilting Challenge #4 Stonehenge Challenge.

Using the Scrap Crazy Templates I pieced the following quilt using Stonehenge fabrics that I won at a quilt retreat. I used this Scrap Crazy Template set. It was easy and fun. I used a pinwheel type of setting. 

The large pinwheel type blocks are made up of 4 of the small 6" blocks, so they are 12" square. I drafted the pattern on graph paper and colored it in so I could remember how it went together. Then I tried several sizes of borders.  Below I auditioned some different fabrics for the borders. I finally settled on brown. I scraped a bit but did have enough. The backing was some grey I have had in my stash for 11 years ( I know this because I used it on my oldest granddaughters graduation quilt.) Since there was not quite enough, I used the PINK shown below in backing. 

 This is another of the different fabrics. I did use this in some of the blocks to give it a punch of color. It is so varied that some of the pieces were green and some more peach.

I decided on dark brown for borders and will make a scrappy binding. This is a photo of the quilt just back from the long arm quilter. It needs to be trimmed and the binding added.

The basket is a door prize I won while we were at a RC Aircraft Fly In in Sheridan WY.  That is where the long arm quilter lives so I was able to pick up my quilt while we were there. 

Below is a close up of the quilting. 

And it is done! The binding is done, the label is on for display at our NEW Quilt Show, Oct 3rd. Then I will change the label to a more personal one and send it to my brother in a neighboring state. He recently lost his life partner and I feel he needs a Comfort Quilt. 

10/18/15    End note: I mailed it off to my brother, he got it yesterday. He called me with tears in his voice. He was touched. Even better, last week would have been Rhonda's 65th birthday and he says she would have loved it too. 

Saturday Snapshots 10/17/15

Join us for Saturday Snapshots hosted by Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads.  Share snapshots that you or a family member has taken, not random photos found online. Make sure they are suitable for all eyes and share them on your blog. Then link up at West Metro Mommy Reads and tell us as little or as much as you would like to about them. Fun!

This week I don't have much to share, but my infamous amaryllis bloomed again, way way early. I wondered if it was a reminder that Christmas is only 9 Saturdays away!  Yikes!  So, I will share that news and a photo reminder.

I am headed for a quilt retreat next Tuesday through Thursday, so will have some photos to share when I return  I am really looking forward to 3 days to sew and maybe read a little and enjoy.


Stay Busy and Stay Happy

TGIF Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

This week I have finally begun a new book or books to be more correct. I have a couple of challenges to be finished before the end of the year and need to get reading to complete them. I joined Cruisin' Thre the Cozies, hosted by Yvonne at Socrates Book Reviews. I joined at the Investigator Level - 7-12 books. You can find my changing list here.   I also have a Favorite Book Challenge going at Goodreads with the group Love of Reading. You can see my post about that one here.  So here goes:

Friday 56 : Page 56 from A Corpse for Yew by Jim and Joyce Lavene.

"You can't exactly call me a redhead anymore." She pushed at her white hair self-consciously. "Now in my youth..."

Book Beginnings : Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

                                       Lydia is dead. But they don't know it yet. 

I need to read quite a few books that start with the letter "E".  This will be one.

Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday 10/13/15

I've been absent here for a bit. Just busy I guess and not finding any wondrous words in my reading. This remains true today. So I turned to my Word of the Day emails from Merriam-Webster. I found several words that were very familiar to me.

delve - verb   to dig or labor with or as if with a spade.

 "I finally found time to delve into the instructions to program our new blu ray player."


proclivity - noun    an inclination or predisposition toward something; especially :a strong inherent inclination towards something objectionable.

     Martin's proclivity to lose his temper made him difficult to work with.



And I found a couple that were completely new to me.


manque - adj    short of  or frustrated in the fulfillment of ones' aspirations or talents

       Natalie is an actress manque who moved to New York ten years ago and is still looking        for her first big break. 


haplology - noun    contraction of a word by omission of one or more similar sounds or syllables. 

" Haplology is responsible for a number of forms found in rapid speech in English: not just "probly", but also "libry" ( library) or "nesry" ( necessary). 

I did not know there was a name for that!


Did you find any Wondrous Words this week.?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10-5-15

It is Monday!  Time to link up with Sheila at Book Journey and see what everyone else is reading. Come join us!

I finished reading Trail Mix by Paulita Kincer. My review is here.  

I am still reading Fire On the Mountain by John McLean. As with much non-fiction, it is bit slow going. Because I know the outcome of the event he is reporting on, I may be reluctant to get to the end.

Last night I started Flesh On the Bone by Karen Schutte. It is the 3rd installment in the series by Karen Schutte. The one started of very well. I am enjoying the story and finally turned off the light last night at 11:45pm.

That is all I have planned for reading this week. It is rainy and much cooler here in NE Wyoming today and probably for the rest of the week. So I suppose if the sun does come out I should put away deck furniture, bring in my house plants and put hoses away.  I may even help Mr Busy winterize the camper. I have my fingers crossed for a couple more weeks of warmer days at least. I am not ready for winter!


Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday - The Bell Jar

Wednesdays are wondrous in this part of blogland. We can share words that we found while reading or listening. My words this week are from my recent read , The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

roman-a-clef - noun : a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise.

---and in fact, Plath was quite insistent that it shouldn't be published in America because it's roman-a-clef elements would be hurtful to her family and friends.


sepulchral - adj:  very sad or serious, very dismal or gloomy

"My!", I said, in the same sepulchral tone. "That was quick!"


animalcules - noun :  a minute usually microscopic organism; nearly invisible to the naked eye.

.... and Buddy's arms went on waving feebly as antennae from the other side of the field swarming with tiny moving animalcules like germs, or bent bright exclamation marks.


Join us at Kathy's blog, Bermuda Onion's Weblog. You will learn a new word or at least you can show off your vocabulary and say you knew them all!!!  "grin"



Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy