Saturday, January 24, 2015

52 Book Challenge

When Iola Anne Poole, an old-timer on Hatteras Island, passes away in her bed at ninety-one, the struggling young mother in her rental cottage, Tandi Jo Reese, finds herself charged with the task of cleaning out Iola's rambling Victorian house.                                                

Running from a messy, dangerous past, Tandi never expects to find more than a temporary hiding place within Iola's walls, but everything changes with the discovery of eighty-one carefully decorated prayer boxes, one for each year, spanning from Iola's youth to her last days.  Hidden in the boxes is the story of a lifetime, written on random bits of paper--the hopes and wishes, fears and thoughts of an unassuming but complex woman passing through the seasons of an extraordinary, unsung life filled with journeys of faith, observations of love, and one final lesson that could change everything for Tandi.                                                             

                                                         
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This story had potential and I really wanted to like this book, but for me it seemed so disjointed, which made for slow reading.  It took a long time to get into the story.  I'm glad I finished it though, because I was really intrigued with the idea of a prayer box.  It left me wanting to make my own prayer box. So because of the prayer boxes I could recommend this.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Goodbye sweet Mother..........

Cardinal in snowfall...such a beautiful sight each winter.....just wish we had winters like this to see the contrast!

goodbye sweet Mother
your hand has slipped from mine, but
your love stays with me


Emma Catherine Hitchens Armstrong
November 1, 1919-January 18, 2015

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Slow Stitching Sunday


I'm taking a short break from working on the baby quilt.  I'm still trying to figure out how I want to put it together.  But mostly waiting now for baby to arrive so I can embroider her name on it (want to make sure the name doesn't change and the spelling is correct)---any day now!

So I got out my Hocuspocusville quilt and started quilting spider webs in the black squares.




I'm linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.  She ask us to post a picture of our hand stitching, not an easy feat to do by yourself.  I noticed that everyone that posted a photo of their hand quilts toward themselves with the thimble on their middle finger.  I've never been able to quilt like that.  I've always quilted away from myself with the thimble on my thumb. 



I have vegetable soup going in the crockpot, so I am ready for a bowl of soup and a relaxing evening watching Downton Abbey.


Saturday, January 17, 2015

52 Book Challenge





Finished two books this week!  Love cozy mysteries and think the Cat in the Stacks Mysteries will be fun series.

Murder Past Due

The Sea Glass Sisters by Lisa Wingate was a prequel to the Prayer Box--now looking forward to reading the Prayer Box. Love books that take place along the North and South Carolina coastline.  South Carolina is especially somewhere I always wanted to visit.




Sunday, January 11, 2015

Sunday Favorites -- Reading and Stitching


I love to read and I have seen several book blogs with reading challenges.  One that interested me was to read one book a week--52 books in a year.  I normally read maybe 20-25 books a year and thought I would see if I could increase it to 52. I'm not officially signing onto a challenge, but will be recording books read here on my blog. I may make a list of required reading for myself to make it a bit more of a challenge, but mostly it will be books for pure enjoyment. At this point in my life, that is what I want to spend my time on---enjoyment!!

I just finished my first book of the year.  Jan Karon's, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good.  Loved it!  I have always been a fan of the Mitford series and was so happy to revisit with Father Tim and all the "old" characters and the new.  She left plenty to carry on in more stories, so I hope there will be more books to come.







Today I'm working on more embroidered bunny blocks.  I finished one that I personalized a bit.  My son-in-law coaches children's basketball and their colors are gray and lime green.  So I made the ball into a basketball and gave the gray bunny a lime green bow.

Join Kathy and other Slow Sunday Stitchers to see what they are working on.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

I'm not exactly sure what this quilt is going to look like but this is what I'm starting with.....

Hope my new granddaughter will like it!

I'm linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching
It has been so long since I have been here-guess I'm not a very good blogger.  But I will try again!
This summer I had some remodeling done on my little cabin. I had the front porch enclosed to add a bit more space. I think I'm up to about 400 sq. ft. now. With all of that going on it limited my quilting time.





But I did finish two scrap quilts.  









The hexie quilt has a real puckered look to it ( which I couldn't capture very well in the photo). I think that is one of the things I like about hand quilting.

My top priority right now is a baby quilt for my youngest daughter who is due January 21st. So I'm going to take advantage of our cold, snowy weather and hibernate until it's done!