One True Thing by Anna Quindlen

I just finished this and wanted to share.

This is actually the first paragraph in the prologue.


"Jail is not as bad as you might imagine. When I say jail, I don't mean prison. Prison is the kind of place you see in old movies or public television documentaries, those enormous gray places with guard towers at each corner and curly strips of razor wire going round and round like a loop-the-loop atop the high fence. Prison is where they hit the bars with metal spoons, plan insurrection in the yard, and take the smallest boy--the one in on the first offense--into the shower room, while the guards pretend not to look and leave him to find his own way out, (...) the shadow at the backs of his eyes changed forever." 



I left out a particular graphic part of the last sentence. None of us need to read that to know what happened. Although this scene is intense and others are too, I really, really liked this book. I recommend it for all. We all can understand the mother daughter relationship between Kate and Ellen Gulden.

This is not a new book, probably many have read it. But if not, I think it is worth a look.


Til next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's really summer here in the high plains desert!  All last week the temperature reached 90 and above. This week looks like a repeat. That is hot for our part of the country!  Thank goodness it cools off some at night. I am writing this post at 6:23 am local time and it is 61 degrees. We have central air but it is an old system and we hate the noise. So we turn off the compressor as soon as the sun goes down and it starts to cool.

I am keeping up with my goal of reading 24  books this year. I realize that is doable and a not a lofty goal. Most of you bookies read many many more. But I do what I can do.

I'm almost finished with:

One True Thing by Anna Quindlen.  This book is amazing. I mean the story is wonderful, about the relationship between a daughter and her mother and father. But Ms Quindlen says things that most of us only think and would not likely utter out loud. A few pages back, a passage touched me deeply. It has been a long while since a book felt so personal and brought me to tears. Not sobbing, inconsolable tears, but the "OMG, how did she know this about me" kind. 

Upcoming this weekend, is our state quilt guild convention. I will be there Friday, Saturday and some of Sunday. This year it is in our own town, so I will sleep in my own bed. But of course, meals will be shared, friendships renewed and hopefully new techniques will be learned. If I get One True Thing finished early on, next up is: 

I know I will enjoy this one too, but in a totally different way. 

That's what I'm reading, what are you reading this week?  I'm linking up with Kathryn at Book Date. Come by and check what other book bloggers are into. 

Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Finish It Up Friday ! Pinnies and a SB baby gift

Last week was a kind of slow week as far as finishes go.  I did do two pincushions, inspired by Amanda Jean.  But I cheated.  The first one was a re-do. Years ago I made a pincushion to match my family room colors, using Doreen Speckmann's Norwegian Chicken Pincushion pattern. The pattern is dated 1997, but I think I made it around 2001 or 2002. Shortly after my breast cancer treatments and my learning to quilt. I developed a seam malfunctions ( due to improper construction I am sure) and so I then un stuffed it and fixed the open seam. There is sat all floppy and un stuffed. Until Amanda Jean asked if we had a pincushion collection and I gathered all mine together. There she sat, forlorn and unloved. I decided to fix that!  Here she is, stuffed and sitting up proudly.

The little pincushion beside her is really a cheat!  I backed a baby quilt with this chevron fabric. When I sent it to the quilter, she had used the edges to practice and check her tension....so there was this scrap of cute fabric already "quilted to batting" and I just put a backing on it, stitched it into a rectangle, filled it with walnut shells and Voila!!  , a tiny pincushion for my couch side sewing basket.  Here is the other side of both pinnies.

Also this week, I got busy and put together a self-binding receiving blanket for the sister of my daughter-in-law.  I had the yellow surfboard flannel in my stash and found the robot blue flannel at JoAnn's.  The new baby is a boy and his big brother  and parents are all tech types. I thought the robot fabric was too cute to pass up. It turned out really well, I think.

And a better look at the backing fabric and the stitching that holds it all together. Have you ever done one of these?  Super easy and fun.

It's a Missouri Star tutorial...they even have a snuggle ( minky) version.

Anyway, those are my Friday Finishes.

I'll be linking up with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts.


Til next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

ps: I also finished reading,

both really good. 

Finish It Up Friday----Shhhhhh! It's a Secret!

A Challenge Met

My Friday finish is for a challenge. One quilting group I belong to has an annual retreat in October. Last year, we were to bring a yard of FALL fabric for a game and and exchange. The game was played kind of like musical chair. We each had our yard of fabric and passed it to the right as fast as we could til the music stopped. The fabric you were holding at the time, was torn in half. One half you kept and the other half continue to be passed. This went on until there was too little to tear in half. We each ended up with 5 pieces, ranging in size from 1/2 a yard down to just a chunk. I wish that I had take a picture of the fabric before I started my project.   The challenge was to make something from the fabric you took home. You were allowed to add a piece of two from your stash to complete the item.  The item will be revealed at our retreat in October this year.

 This is all the fabric that is left after I finished my table runner.  I had no idea what I was going to do with those pieces of fabric, but was lucky enough to get the orange floral in the 1/2 yard and the orange with the brown acorn as the 1/4 yard. I added the "ucky"green mottled, mainly because it picked up the green in the floral and the green in the leaf fabric. That was a odd one. Grey background, with green, rust and dark blue leaves.

 I also added the beige moda marble as the constant light background for my pattern.

I had taken a class at our LQS using this book by Deb Heatherly and the accompanying Cat's Cradle ruler by Creative Grids.  I decided to give a pattern in the book a try.

The pattern is called Appalachian Table Runner. It uses 2" squares, 2" by 3" rectangles of various fabrics and  larger rectangles (3.5" X 4.5")  and  12 squares( 3" X 3") of the light background.  Also the centers of the stars are cut 5.5" square.

This is the finished table runner. From this angle you can see I also added 2 dark squares to get variety. They sort of jump out at you, don't they!  All in all I am very pleased. I used the floral in the center of the stars and as a border. Also I bound it in the same fabric. I had to use straight seams as diagonal seams would have made the binding too short. It was ok , though.

Here is the center star and you can see the light triangle in the lower left corner almost disappears. That happens with scrappy sometimes. 

I quilted this table runner myself. That is not usual for me, but all my go-to long armers are in my group and this challenge is supposed to be a secret until October.....so I had to get brave and do it!

I quilted concentric squares in the center of each of the stars, using my walking foot and the edge of it as a guide. Sometimes it went wonky. Then I echo quilted in the background triangles and corner squares.  I did a wavy serpentine stitch ( the zig zag on my Bernina, as wide as it would go and stitch length to 3 blips longer than the #3 on the screen) in the sashing. 

You can see the serpentine stitch a little better on the backing. The backing is also from my stash. The border was just channel stitched around and around, using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. 

I am excited to have it done, early no less!!  But don't tell anyone, OK?  None of my friends know I have a blog, so that is not a problem.

I am linking this post up with Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish It Up Friday and also Finished or Not at Busy Hands Quilts. 

Until next time, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? OOPS LATE!!

UPDATE: I forgot to post this on Monday the 25th.  I will post it now on the 29th and link it with next Monday's  What Are You Reading?


Last week in June.  I'm staying a little bit ahead of my goal to read, 24 books this year. I downgraded my goal from a few years ago. Mainly because of family commitments and also some sewing challenges I entered this year.  What are you reading this week? Join in at Book Date and see what lots of bloggers are reading and doing this week.

This week I am reading:

Paris Runaway by Paulita Kincer

and

Liar, Liar, Tabloid Writer by Suzie Quint

Both of these have been on my kindle for quite awhile. I am over 1/2 done with Paris Runaway. I am enjoying it!  I always like Paulita's writing. She draws me in with her characters and the situations they end up in. I wonder what I would do if my teenage daughter took a flight to Paris without telling anyone!  I can't imagine just chasing after her without much of a plan.  I'm a bit of a wuss as far as travel to faraway places. Must be the reason I like Paulita's writing. She takes me where I would never go on my own. 

I am barely started on Liar Liar but I am already involved. I don't know yet exactly why Cleo Morgan  has had to stoop to writing for a tabloid, but I want to know. This one is a bit on the racy side. Not that this old granny minds that one bit. Live vicariously, I always say!!

I finished My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman.  I will wait to do a review until my book club meets again in September. We are reading 3 of Backman's books this summer. A Man Called Ove, 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry,

 and Britt-Marie Was Here.

I wrote a quick review of  A Man Called Ove, here and a mini review of sorts on Grandmother here, if you are interested.

I also picked up Ceremony in Death by J,D, Robb 

and  One True Thing by Anna Quindlen

at the library yesterday. So I have some reading to do! 

There will also be some sewing and some baby watching this week. On Saturday we are planning our youngest great grandchild's 1st Birthday!!  Her actual birthday is the 7th of July, but her daddy is off this next weekend, so the party will be then. 

Until next time 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Finally a Friday Finish to talk about!

I have a finish!  Hooray!!  And it's complete except for the label before the baby comes.in August!

 It's a small quilt, only 40 X 40. But it's for Tummy Time.  It's from a free pattern I found on All People Quilt. It's called Playing Tag.

Here is a close up of the  taggies of ribbon and rick rack that are sporadically used on the quilt. The fabric is Lil' Red by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda Fabrics and Coral Queen by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda. The colors are just yummy. I bought backing fabric from our local JoAnn's and also a fabric for the binding. In the end I used the dark rose floral for an added border, just to make it a bit bigger. 

Here is the backing fabric. Some modern chevron in the perfect shade of peachy coral and red to coordinate with the front.  I ended up making a scrappy binding from left overs. There are lots of seams, but I carefully positioned it around the perimeter to make sure no seams landed at the corners. Success.  I love it when you are stitching the binding down and each corner miters perfectly!  It was quilted by a friend who has a longarm. Not sure of the design, but it is loops and then a three petaled flower and more loops. Very feminine.

Earlier on FB I posted a picture of my "porch stitching". In this photo, the binding is the aqua with tiny bubbles . Too cute!!

Ummm!  I also used lots of wonder clips and enjoyed my porch time with a glass of Pomegranate Riesling wine.  I know, I know, not a wine glass, but I was worried about spilling it and breaking a stemmed glass. I have stemless wine glasses, unbreakable even, in our camper. But it was not available for me to raid the cupboards there.

 Do you notice the little white canister with the black strip?  It is a chewing gum "car cup" emptied, decoupaged with pieces of scrap fabric. and a label that says "itty bitty trash can".  We made them at a retreat. The perfect place for bits of thread and clippings. The black strip on the lid is a magnetic business card, cut to size and stuck down with double sided tape. The perfect place to park a needle while you sip your wine!

If I am lucky I will have just enough of the perfect coral thread to attach the label. I have it mostly ready to print from my computer, but will wait until she is born to add her name, date of birth and other pertinent information.  The quilt is for our 2nd great granddaughter  and our 5th great grandchild. Her family lives in Arizona, she won't need the quilt to snuggle, but it will be a good one to lay her on. 

That is my Friday Finish. I will be linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts today. And also, Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt. 

And now I am off to finish a scrappy table runner that is for a challenge and then maybe, just maybe, to straighten my sewing room. It needs a vacuum and a neatening up at the very least!

Until next time, 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Saturday Snapshots - Strawberry Moon

I  missed getting this posted on Saturday. I was waiting on permission to post a picture of the moon taken Friday night in our area. The full moon is June is traditionally called the Strawberry Moon. Not because it's pink, although it might appear so sometimes. The Algonquins  named it, They thought it was the best time to pick strawberries.  A link to the Farmers Almanac page about moon names is here. 

The moon was beautiful. My friend Susan posted this photo to Facebook. She takes great pictures and has an artists eye. She and her husband live outside of our town, so there are no city lights to detract. 

 I live on  the north edge of our small city and this was my view at bit later. And from my cell phone camera, not Susan's "real " one. 

I experimented a bit with my cell phone in the dark. Here is a picture of my small strawberry patch. As you can see, nothing to harvest. 😄   

This was taken write before the next picture was taken. My flash works pretty well. 

And then the clouds moved in and obscured the moon. This photo from my front porch.

It's been warm here in NE Wyoming, but today, Sunday it is forcast to be cooler and cloudy. We could use the rain. Our famous Wyoming wind drys grasses, veggies and flower very quickly. 

I have been sewing, hand embroidering and taking littles to the park. More pictures about those activities in a future Saturday Snapshots.   I'm off to breakfast with friends, then back here to check out others' snapshots and get some more sewing done. 

Have a great week!

Judy