Milk and Honey Quilts

Handquilting update and feedsacks

2012-01-29T04:51:00.000-08:00

Hooray! I finished that roll of the frame...

and turned the quilt in the frame

and now I'm ready to start quilting here.

Nice feedsacks in this section-here are some that just turned up :)

Postage Stamp Quilt's first 4 rows

2012-01-23T11:03:00.000-08:00

I've started sewing rows on my postage stamp quilt! I've just sewn 4 rows so far...

Looks a little skinny, doesn't it? but its a start. You can see the fabrics a bit more in the next two close-ups and also how I'm not being particularly careful about placement and repeats. LOL! Its just too much-too many little squares- I tried and failed!

In postage stamp quilt tradition, I've got some novelties in there. (The red torch fabric is from the LA Olympics...been in the drawer a while! :)

This is this wonderful batik that I always throught looked like people-I can't believe that I got this square just by strip cutting! What luck!

All this strip cutting has cleaned out my "strip drawer" of all the dark fabrics! Yippee!

Now I've started on the pieces drawer...some of these are the ends of fat quarters so I should get at least 2 1 1/2" strips from those...others have been more heavily depleted and all that remains is a rectangle of fabric.

Here's what my work table looks like...lots of cut scrap square strips ready to be counted and added on to until I get what I need for each row. I'm hoping the rows will go a lot faster now with all this prep behind me. I'll keep cutting strips and sewing strata as I sew rows . I'm thinking I should sew some rows from further along in the quilt so I'll have a mix of fabrics all through it...I can't bear the thought of cutting everything now-way too boring! I need the satisfaction of seeing rows growing.

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. Hop over and see what's new.

Week 2 Progress Report on Handquilting my DWR

2012-01-19T06:17:00.000-08:00

Here's what I got done this week:

I have to remember to outline quilt 1/2" at the outer edge so I won't just cover the quilting with the binding later. (Actually I'm not sure if I'll add a binding or do a knife edge but there's plenty of time until I get to that.)

So I've now finished half of this roll! Yeah!

I've started a new project-what I think of as the ultimate scrap quilt-a postage stamp quilt. I spent the week figuring out the sewing scheme-I'm doing it in rows-and cutting directions.
I'm using unbleached muslin and quickly cut that up. I needed 1 1/2 yards and I had a uyard and some large scraps so that was taken care of.

Then I started on this mess of strips from my scrap strip drawer. I'm going for a dark quilt so I'm also sorting out the lights. Trimming them to 1 1/2" wide took a while.

When I got tired of cutting, I started sewing some of the strips together in groups of 4 or 5. I'm going to need anywhere from 7-21 scrap squares sewn together in sections so I thought this was a way to get some strip piecing to speed things up and still have a lot of variation in those sections.

Next I went to work on the smaller strips, squares, etc. Some of these were long enough for strips and some I just cut into 1 1/2" squares...again it will help with the variation though I don't want to sew all squares.

I started to get a bit more creative in sewing the strips. From this weird bit, I'll get some 4s and some 5s, and at the end some 3s and maybe even a 2.

See its working...some sections ready to be sewn together and some "strata" read to be ironed and cut and some strips to be sewn into strata plus those individual squares
I hope to have some rows sewn today and something to show soon. If you know the pattern, I've decided against using focus fabrics around the muslin-I like the look but since I'm using dark fabrics, dark focus fabrics didn't show up and I don't think I'd like the look of light ones.

2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge: Funky Doll Quilt

2012-01-15T05:59:00.000-08:00

Sometimes having a closet with plenty of odd blocks, unfinished doll quilts, etc. comes in handy. I took a peek in there and found a little dolly quilt whatever all sandwiched and pin basted and ready to be quilted. I think I quickly put it together from leftover blocks from a baby quilt DIL and I made together for her nephew as a "sandwiching" sample for a class.

Pretty funky, huh? Makes me think of a rather wonky insect. (I'm reading Micro by Michael Crichton right now so I may have bugs on the brain.)

Here's the back: you can see the quilting better...3 pix.
This first one I removed the color so it is "black and white".

This one shows just the free motion center. Notice this one is yellow...

This one shows a close up of one of the leaves...notice it is blue. The back was unbleached muslin but I took the picture at night-no flash- so the quilting would show up so I understand the yellow but blue? Where did that come from? I have to say the blue is a lovely shade and the quilting looks quite nice on it...I seem to have a very talented camera.

About the pattern: I enjoyed doing it. I found it was easier for me to do the center "vein" in the leaf first as an extension of the stem. I just curved it and then sewed over it and up to do the curve of the leaf. It just felt more natural for me. I think this would look really nice in a border.

Click on the button on my side board to find out more about this challenge or visit SewCalGal.

Hand Quilting on my Double Wedding Ring: A Progress Report

2012-01-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

I need some help. I put my double wedding ring into the frame in 2010 and I have only just passed the half way point. I've decided that I will shame myself into finishing it by posting weekly progress reports. I took this photo last Friday-I had just turned it.

I'm ready to start quilting this section: my needle is right there in the center of the melon and my thread, candle to wax my thread, scissors and thimbles (the bigger one is for when I'm quilting away from me-I wear it on my thumb; when I'm quilting towards me, I use the smaller size one on my index finger).

And here's my progress pix for this week:

I know it doesn't look like much progress but it is some. I can only reach to quilt half the design so actually I've done 2 sections here. (You can't see it but I'm patting myself on the back. ;)
Thought you might like some close-ups of some of the feedsacks in this section.

The top wedge in the next photo isn't a vintage feedsack...its a regular fabric from the 1950s.

A bit of the mystery revealed and more embroidery blocks

2012-01-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a bit of the mystery revealed.

I started piecing the mystery quilt. This is the basic unit of the mystery quilt and I sewed 96 of them...48 are for around the embroidery blocks and the other 48? well, their role is still hidden.

Anyone good with flowers-is this sweetpea?

This one I know-pomegranate. It grows everywhere here.

I'm really having fun with these stitcheries-mixing up stem stitch and back stitch is creating a nnice texture that I like and the french knots in the flower centers is helping. The stem stitch sticks up a bit from the background while the back stitch lies totally flat.

You can see that I did all the fruits in back stitch while the flowers are stem stitch.
The Redwork Club is really having fun with these too.
I'm just getting used to the new Blogger interface-just when I got good with the old in comes the new to force me to learn. (I say force because I didn't make the switch until Google pretty much disabled the old :)
This is what's on my design wall...not much I admit! I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at
Patchwork Times...you will not believe all the work being shown this week so hop on over for tons of eye candy and inspiration.

Plaid Quilt Completed...2008-2012

2012-01-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

Yes, this plaid quilt is finished: quilting and binding...all done! Hooray!
I started this quilt in 2008 and blogged about it here (includes cutting instructions for different size blocks), here and here. Why did it take me so long to quilt it? Well, when I finished the top in 2008, it looked like this:

The border bothered me-I had sort of run out of plaids (which actually include some stripes and even a tiny polka dot) and I had pieced the inner border...if you look at the bottom right border you can see how the "stripe" in the plaid is not aligned and doesn't look good...so the top sat in the closet. Plaids don't show up in our LQS and I'd forget about this project when I was in the US. I thought about looking on-line but never did. So it sat...waiting for inspiration or a new border.
Finally inspiration came. In many antique quilts, the binding is simply the backing fabric folded over the front-why not use the the inner border as the binding and fold it over to the back. So I took off the outer green border, trimmed the corner squares and quilted.

I folded the "border" out of the way and trimmed just as with a regular binding.

Then I folded it over to the back...its wide on the back because I liked it-I could have trimmed the border.

Did you notice the football fabric backing? The quilt is going to DS the younger (he has his first solo-no roommates-apartment).
Here's the front-a nice 1/4" binding.

I did simple straight line outline quilting-I thought it went best with this quilt design and to be honest, it was quick and I'm still treating my ankle a little tenderly.

Folded on the arm of our sofa-a great lap quilt rescued from the closet and much better looking than with the original border.

Stephanie at loft creations is hosting an easy does it challenge called PIPS to inspiring us all to finish those projects. My first PIPS finish!

I'm linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and Sew and Tell at Amylouwhosews. Stop by and see the first of 2012's fabulous finishes.

A Laundry Bag and some quilting goals

2012-01-03T00:10:00.000-08:00

I don't make New Year's resolutions but I have thought about what I want to get done this year. I have several things that I want to finish, which means quilting...the silk ribbon star quilt, the applique poppy quilt, the plaid quilt and the embroidered bonnet girl top the list.

DS has been asking for a laundry bag for a while now...well that at least is off my mental to-do list. LOL! Note the buttons at the end of the cord-that's because I know my son (he used to pull his bathing suit cords right out!)

It looks pretty nice in the hamper...hope it stays put when he tosses clothes in. I tried it and when I pulled the cord tight around the hamper it seemed to work. We'll see him tomorrow and bring the hamper and the bag to him...hope it will help organize him and his laundry.

Have you thought about what projects you want to get done this year?

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T04:11:00.000-08:00

Its a beautiful New Year's Day here in Migdal...a little hazy on the hills but gorgeous.

Happy New Year everyone!

Tuesdays Tomes: The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer

2011-12-27T01:03:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line. This is the last review.

The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
This is Georgette Heyer's very first book. The Queen of Romance wrote this fun rollicking adventure when she was just a teenager and I thought it was the perfect book to finish out the year and to finish up with Tuesdays Tomes.

Jack Carstairs is the eldest son of the Earl of Wyncham but he is disgraced and his place for all intense and purposes has been taken by his younger brother, Dick. Six years earlier, Dick cheated at cards but Jack took the blame-this made him an outcast from society. So what did he do? He became a highwayman!-- but of the Robin Hood type.

Meanwhile, weak brother Dick has married a very spoiled but very beautiful woman. Her brother, the Duke of Andover, has far too much influence over her and Dick...influence that is not good for either of them. Is he truly a villain?

Enter the beautiful and sweet, Diana Beauleigh...will she change Jack's fate?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Set in the mid 18th century, Heyer already shows her wonderful attention to historical detail and one of the most interesting and fun parts of the book are the "moral lessons"...it seems that being a card cheat was just about the worst thing you could be. (There are, to our sensibilities, far worse villains in this book!)

Delightfully read by Sibella Denton, you can download the free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. e-Pub or Kindle format here.

Yes, this is the last Tuesdays Tomes weekly review. It has become harder to find interesting books, read well, than it used to be and I feel that after more than a year and half of weekly reviews, its time to call it a day. I will leave the links to the reviews on the sideboard and I will write reviews when I've read something that I want to share. I'll see if there are enough to make it a monthly feature or to just leave it as a sometime thing. I hope you've enjoyed reading the reviews and that they led to some fun books...I know I've enjoyed writing them.

Tuesdays Tomes: A bit of holiday cheer: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and The Hanukkah Song by Adam Sandler

2011-12-20T03:52:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

How about some traditional holiday cheer? You can listen to A Christmas Carol beautifully read by Kyle M. (download here) or take it along on your phone or Kindle (download here.)

Here's a fairly new Hanukkah tradition but one that will be put a big smile on your face: Adam Sandler and his Hanukkah Song.

Happy Hanukkah and/or :-) Merry Christmas everyone!

Two more embroidery blocks finished

2011-12-18T03:59:00.000-08:00

I haven't been posting much because I haven't been working much. I fell on the last day of our trip to Hanover back in October and I pulled a ligament in my ankle. Its finally getting better and I'm doing a little sewing on the machine but not much each day. I did have fun the other day at the physical therapist's: I played Wii baseball while standing on a mushy cushion! I was definitely a better hitter than pitcher-I lost to myself by giving up a home run!
I have been doing a some embroidery and some handquilting. I've now done 6 of the 12 blocks for the mystery quilt.

Tuesdays Tomes: The House by the Lock by Mrs. C.N. Williamson

2011-12-13T04:10:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The House by the Lock by Alice Muriel Williamson

Do you believe in love at first sight? I have to confess that I sort of do. Three days after meeting my husband, I told my sister that I would marry him-we’re married 33 years and still counting.

Noel Stanton, an adventurer and travel writer, has just returned to England from one of his adventures looking for a taste of home and a bit of quiet. He heads off to the theater and while at the box office meets an acquaintance from his travels in the U.S, Mr. Harvey Farnham of Denver. They sit in adjacent stalls and before the curtain goes up chat.

“Farnham explained to me that he had “run over” to England on business, intending to sell a certain mine of his, which though vastly profitable, was the one thing in which he had lost interest.

‘I’ve had a good offer’, he said; ‘indeed, I’m visiting the house of the man who has made it—a wonderful fellow, only one degree, perhaps, less interesting than you. His name is Carson Wildred.’”

Farnham explained that one of the reasons he came to the theater that night was that Carson Wildred had a previously made engagement to see the performance with some friends and he was extremely curious to see the woman whose beauty Wildred had been praising for days.

“’There’s Wildred and his friends just coming to the stage box. By Jove! what a pretty girl!’

I looked up, because I was sure the volatile American would give me no peace until I had done so; and then, having done so, I completely forgot the play…never I have I looked on a face so radiant, so bewildering.

‘Who is she?’

“A Miss Karine Cunningham.”

And so by page 10, we’ve met all the major characters and already I liked Stanton and Farnham and was suspicious of Carson Wildred to whom Stanton had a visceral and disgusted reaction…he felt he knew him from somewhere but the memory is allusive. And Miss Cunningham? Well, not having fallen in love with her myself at first sight, she’s still a mystery.

I like books that immediately get me into the story and combine romance and mystery. This book has an added allure. Written by a woman and published in 1906, there are many little peeks into what was considered propriety and convention in the relationships between men and women. Sometimes, these comments were so unexpected that they brought me up short.

Read by the always wonderful Roger Melin, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf, ePub or Kindle format here or read it on-line here.ue

Tuesdays Tomes: The Fair Reward by Thomas Beer

2011-12-06T02:15:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Fair Reward by Thomas Beer

This 1923 novel gives us a look at the American theater from the end of the 19^th century to the 1920s while telling us the story of Mark Walling: actor and producer. Mark is a truly sympathetic character and as we follow his life story, we can’t help but be moved by him…something we wish to shake him and tell him to wake up.

As the novel begins, we are introduced to Mr. John Carlson, producer of an imported play, Nicoline. He’s nervous about the opening. Mr. Fitch tells him not to worry.

“This’ll be a hit. It’s been a hit in London and Paris. The critics-the adapter smiled- won’t dare say anything worse than that it’s immoral. And Cora Boyle will make them laugh in the third act, so that’ll be safe.”

“Boyle? Who’s she? That black headed gal that plays the streetwalker, y’ mean? She’s no good…Common as dirt and no more sense than a turnip.”

And so we meet Cora Boyle. She and Mark Walling are a young married couple when the book opens-it is she that has gotten him into acting and a small part in the play.

Mark and Mr. Carlson eventually become partners in producing plays with quite a bit of success. And Cora…well, I’ll leave that to you to find out when you read this very interesting novel.

A 1922 review in the New York Times just stopped short of calling this novel brilliant. “…it has style and sophistication and personality, intermingled with a truly vivid show of imagination. It even borders on brilliancy…”

Read by Greg W., you can download this free audio-book here or read it on-line here.

New embroidered mystery quilt beginnings

2011-12-01T01:39:00.000-08:00

I've started on the new embroidered mystery quilt for the Redwork Club I lead at the Quilt Center quilt shop. The theme this year is butterflies so using vintage embroidery patterns as my inspiration, I designed the blocks with butterflies and flowers sprays. Here are the first 4 blocks completed.This will be a nice scrappy quilt and I've chosen 30s reproduction fabrics. I love these cute bright fabrics and how well they go with colorful 30s style multi-colored embroideries.l

Tuesdays Tomes: The Young Ladies Cooking Club of Monroe, Michigan Cookbook

2011-11-29T01:38:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

Cookbook: Young Ladies Cooking Club of Monroe, Michigan

This delightful cookbook was published by the Young Ladies of the Cooking Club of Monroe, Michigan in 1884.

I’ve found that small cookbooks published by organizations or clubs are often very useful precisely because they are not written by professionals. It’s more like having a chat and receiving a recipe from a friend or a friend’s mother or grandmother. This book is exactly like that…but this chat is across more than a hundred years.

What made these young women decide to have a cooking club and then to publish a cookbook

“In launching our little book on the turbulent waters of public opinion, we think some explanation of our audacious undertaking is perhaps necessary, therefore, kind friends, we are going to let you into the secret of its inception with the hope that our frankness may pave the way to a warm reception.”

“It is only fair to say that we started out as a very unassuming little Cooking Club, of only 10 members about two year ago, imbued more with the desire of having a good time together as is the well-known custom of Monroe maidens, than to burden our minds with culinary facts.”

As their membership increased (indeed, they “rose to the dignity of a Constitution”) they began to think about publishing a cookbook and dreaming of what they might do with the proceeds--a trip to Europe being everyone’s favorite idea. (I really like these girls!)

What they do at the Club

“Pray, what do they do at the club?”

T’is ever the question they ask;

But to answer it fully, I fear,

Were rather a serious task;

And yet, if you’ll listen to me,

And pardon my rhyming with “grub”,

I’ll venture a bit of a song

To tell what they do at the club.

The book’s recipes are combined together as menus for entertainments :“Lunch Party” , “High Tea”, “Refreshments for New Year’s Day” includes 3 different menus, “Supper”, “Breakfast”, “Coffee”, “Supper”(2 more menus), “Tea”, “Supper” (6 more times but I really like the first menu in 3 courses: First course-Strawberry Shortcake!. As my son is fond of saying, “Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.”), “Hallow e’en Party”, “Coffee”, and another “Supper”. The last group of recipes are classed under “Miscellaneous” which includes everything from roast goose to Boston Baked Beans to Lemon Drop Cookies… these just didn’t seem to fit into the categories-you’ll notice there was no “Dinner”. On page 36 there is an index.

Some reflections on the recipes: lots of gelatin in use here (they have a recipe for Coffee Jelly!), lots of canned seafood (well, they are rather far from the ocean!), lots of mayonnaise type salads, and cakes.

Here are a few of the recipes-exactly how they appear in the book.

“VEAL CROQUETTES --Take one veal cutlet, cook and chop very fine, four potatoes boiled and mashed hot, one onion chopped, salt, pepper, butter and a little parsley; mix with the veal adding the juice of one half lemon. Roll in the shape desired, dip in egg and crackers and fry in hot lard.—Miss K. Chapman”

(I never would have thought of adding the lemon juice. And yes, just about everything is fried in lard. I think there was 1 recipe that called for frying in butter.)

“FROZEN PEACHES—One quart of fresh peaches crushed fine and added to one quart of sweet cream all made very sweet; or you can freeze the cream partially and then add the fruit.—Miss Mollie Morton”

(Mmm! And you don’t even have to bother putting this into an ice cream machine.)

You can see in this little cookbook how recipe styles are changing: some of the recipes are given in the “old” way that are common in 19^th century cookbooks and some are given in the “modern” way that is more familiar to us though they’re still not quite there. Take a look at these two muffin recipes and you’ll see what I mean. (The italics are mine.)

MUFFINS No. 1—Mix one teaspoon of baking powder and a little salt, into one pint of flour; add to the beaten yolks of two eggs, one tea-cup of sweet milk or cream, a piece of butter (melted) half the size of an egg, the flour with baking powder and salt, and the well beaten whites of two eggs. Beat well, bake immediately in gem pans in a hot oven. -- Miss Hattie Harvey.

MUFFINS No. 2—Half cup of sugar, half a cup of milk, half a cup of water, two and half cups of flour, two heaping teaspoons baking powder, two heaping teaspoons butter. Mix and bake about fifteen minutes. -- Miss Sadie Noble.

You can read this lovely little time-travel cookbook free on-line here. If you would like to look at other vintage cookbooks free on-line, check out this page …there are over 185 cookbooks to look at…have fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T14:06:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Thanksgiving is a bit different here...Thursday is football but dinner isn't until Saturday when all our guests are off work. You could say we take "Thanksgiving week-end" literally. :)

I ordered the turkey last week and picked it up today. Oh my! It has to be the pin featheryest bird I have ever seen!
But a pair of needle nosed pliers came to the rescue.
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and May All Your Turkeys be Featherless!

Tuesdays Tomes: The Chestermarke Instinct by J. S. Fletcher

2011-11-22T10:01:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Chestermarke Instinct by J.S. Fletcher

John Horbury, bank manager at Chestermarke’s bank in the small English town of Scarnham, walks out of his house one Saturday evening and disappears. His ward and senior clerk at the same bank, Wallington Neale, cannot imagine where he has gone to and worries that he has had an accident. When Gabriel and Joseph Chestermarke, uncle and nephew and owners of the bank. declare that securities are missing, Neale refuses to believe that Mr. Horbury took them and fled. When Lord Ellersdeane arrives at the bank and asks the owners to please give him his wife’s jewels that he had left with Mr. Horbury, they insist that not only are there no jewels but that they know nothing about any jewels being deposited for safekeeping with the bank and since Lord Ellersdeane is not a regular customer of the bank, the bank is not responsible. When he gave the jewels to Mr. Horbury, it was a personal transaction with Mr. Horbury, friend and not with Mr. Horbury, Bank Manager.

Neale and even Lord Ellersdeane do not believe that Mr. Horbury took the jewels as well as the securites and fled. Only the bankers do.

When lovely, independent Miss Fosdyke, Mr. Horbury’s niece arrives as she and her uncle were to begin their vacation trip together and discovers her uncle is missing, she has no patience with her uncle’s employers. If they don’t want to call in the police “just yet” as they are more worried about a possible run on the bank when word gets around that the Bank Manager is missing, well she does. She too does not believe any rubbish about stolen securities and is simply worried about her uncle.

This is a rousing good mystery with lots of questions, a few clues, a tinker, a moor to roam around in, a Scotland Yard detective and a bit of romance. And best of all, it was kind of fun to read a book in which the bankers are clearly somehow off. I’m not going to give anything away but believe me when I say that every character in the book is sympathetic except the bankers!

Charmingly read by MaryAnn (at one point, you can hear her children in the background :), you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf, ePub or Kindle format here.

Tuesdays Tomes: A Gothic Romance: The Thing From the Lake by Eleanor M. Ingram

2011-11-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Thing from the Lake by Eleanor M. Ingram

“The Thing from the Lake”-does the title make you think of a 1950’s Roger Corman film? It did me but in truth this delightful 1921 story is more romance than horror.

Roger Locke, a New York composer of popular music and Broadway shows, decides he needs a country house as it is too hot in New York to work during the summer.

“There, Mr. Locke, is a bargain,” the agent called back to me, where I sat in my car.

I nodded, surveying the house with an eagerness of interest that surprised myself. A box-like fairly large structure of commonplace New England ugliness, it coaxed my liking as had no other place I had ever seen; it wooed me like a determined woman.”

He of course buys the house…indeed, he decides that he wants to sleep in it that very night -a bit of “camping out” in the partially furnished house. He gets a bit of a surprise. He’s suddenly awakened during the night. A woman is in his room-she tells him a tale of magic, witches, death and evil-and slips away as mysteriously as she entered.

Locke leaves the next day for New York, after contacting various workmen to set the house to rights.

His cousin, Phillida, has been called home from college by her parents-to be berated for not doing well in her exams and he has agreed to meet her at her train and travel home with her. When her train is late, he calls her parents and telling a small fib says that her train will arrive too late for the connection and that he will take her out to dinner and home later. When he meets Phillida and sees how downcast she is, he offers to let her choose the restaurant. She surprises him by stating she wants to go to a nightclub with an ice dancing show.

There she really surprises him: she introduces him to her secret husband, Ethan Vere, one of the ice dancers. Roger is shocked but he realizes that Phillida has not fallen for some fly-by-night and that Vere is a serious young man who grew up on a farm in Maine and took to ice dancing as the only way he could make a living after returning from the War and that he loves Phillida deeply. Roger offers them the management of the farm and house in Connecticut so they can finally begin their married life together. What he doesn’t realize is that he has won a valuable friend in Vere.

Soon it is summer and Roger Locke is up at the Connecticut house with Phillida and Ethan. ..and the mysterious woman! Who is she and why does she whisper to him to leave the house.

Bright and sunny by day, mysterious doings and chills by night, this Gothic Romance is very entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the last chapter-a chapter with an alternate explanation for all that has happened throughout the book! Eleanor M. Ingram wrote several novels-I’m definitely going to read another and I'll report back.

Wonderfully read by Roger Melin, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf., e-Pub, or Kindle format here.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Survivors by Tom Godwin

2011-11-08T01:16:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Survivors by Tom Godwin

A little over 4,000 people, men, women and children, are left on an unknown planet after their ship has been boarded by earth’s enemy, the Gern –and left to die. The first night, about a quarter of them do die-killed by a terribly swift lethal disease and by the wild animals that inhabit the planet. But by the second night, they have defenses in place.

Life is not easy on Ragnarok (a perfect name-it is a bit of a rag of a rock). There is a brutally hot summer and a brutally cold winter but over the years, the “colonists” learn to cope better and better. And they vow to someday get back at the Gern and defeat them.

This tale, while technically science fiction, is actually the story of pioneers who rise to meet the challenges before them and to conquer them. The story covers generations-something I really liked-and while its true that we don’t really get to know many of the characters very deeply, we get the overall flow of families establishing themselves in a former wilderness.

Wonderfully read by Mark Nelson, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf, Kindle, or ePub format here.

Published in 1958 (the photo above is of the dustcover to the hardback edition), this book got a title change to “Space Prison” when the paperback was published in 1960. I thought you’d enjoy seeing the 1960 and 1962 paperback covers.

LOL! Isn't the first paperback cover hilarious! A perfect example of Pulp Fiction style. Two years later, the cover returned more to the hardcover graphic style.

Pastel Baby Coin Quilt

2011-11-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bit of fun exploring the ever popular coin quilt...this flimsy has mainly 30s repro fabrics with some novelties. Next up-I'm trying plaids!I'm teaching a basic machine quilting class and thought this quick quilt would be a great one to get them started on free motioning quilting.

I'm linking to Can't I get a Whoop Whoop. Stop over at Sarah's and see all the wonderful finishes this week.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Sheridan Road Mystery

2011-11-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Sheridan Road Mystery by Paul and Mabel Thorne

A shot is heard in the night! A man runs out into Sheridan Road, Chicago, in his pajamas looking for a policeman! The police arrive, search and search, but there is no body-only a blood stain on the carpet in an apartment whose tenants have been away for months! Was a murder committed? By whom? And who died? What a mystery!

Don’t worry, there are fearless and clever detectives on the case. Detective Sergeant Dave Morgan and Detective Tierney of the Chicago police with the help of the no longer pajama clad Mr. Marsh get their man in the end. On the way, there are twists and turns as the true identity of various characters is revealed and there’s even a bit of romance. Yes, Mr. Marsh has his eye on the young lady in the apartment across the hall, Miss Atwood.

This fun book was written by the husband and wife team, Paul and Mabel Thorne in 1921. It was their first collaboration-after that they wrote one more mystery together and then Paul wrote several on his own.

Delightfully read by J.M. Smallheer, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf, e-Pub, or Kindle format here.

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Fall 2011

2011-10-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Its that time again: the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2011...and more than 350 quilts are on view at Amy's Creative Side. I'm coming a little late to the party but I just put the last stitch on this quilt.

I'm calling it, not very creatively, The Circle Quilt.
The circles are made from left-over cut-offs from my Drunkard's Path Quilt. (BTW, you can see a tutorial on using Marti Mitchell's templates for this quilt on my side board.) I actually hand-pieced the quarter circles last spring when I was visiting (and helping out a bit with) my new twin granddaughters in Boston. I machine appliqued the circles with a buttonhole stitch...you can see how I used iron-on interfacing to make this super easy to do here.

I used an overall free motion quilting pattern of simple round loops and I've really happy with the look...and it was quick too.

I love the bright yellow and white circles on this narrow red and white striped fabric. The stripes are about 1/8" wide. I used it in the binding and I'm enjoying the horizontal stripe in the narrow 1/4" binding.

Here's the back...a minimalist quilting delight!

Tuesdays Tomes: Oops! my iPod died

2011-10-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line...but there's no review this week.

My iPod died and while my new one is ordered I haven't yet received it. Sooo, no review this week as I haven't listened to any book! Hopefully, Tuesdays Tomes will be back next week.

Happy Circle Quilt

2011-10-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

When I was in Boston last spring, I hand pieced the quarter circles I had left over from cutting my yellow and white Drunkard's Path quilt but I hadn't done anything with the circles. I was thinking about it however.

I wanted to machine applique them but I didn't want to do raw edge applique. So I decided to use non-woven iron-on interfacing. I thought of the shiny (glue) side of the interfacing as the right side and I pinned the circles to a rough cut square of the interfacing-right sides to right sides.
Then I sewed with a 1/4" seam allowance around the circles, trimmed the interfacing, and carefully slit the back of the interfacing.
Then I turned the circles out...
and laid them on red and white striped square and pressed. The iron-on interfacing held well enough that I could sew them (using a buttonhole stitch) without any pins.

The circles were about 9" and I played around a bit with the size of the striped square until I decided I liked a square that would finish at 11". (Any bigger and I thought the red was too dominant.)

I wondered if the interfacing would act as a lining and not let the red stripe show through but it didn't, so I cut out the centers.
Then I started playing with them on my design wall and I liked them off-set. It just added to the fun.
So I sewed it all together with sashing that finished at 3", then added a 3" outer border in white too and a fun red and yellow 3" square outer border.
I'm linking to Finished for Friday at Lit and Laundry and to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop. Hop on over and see all the terrific stuff happening.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Calico Cat by Charles Miner Thompson

2011-10-18T03:42:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Calico Cat by Charles Miner Thompson

Mr. Peaslee and his wife moved into town from their farm one year ago and ever since he has been tormented by a rascally calico cat who likes his hen house. He’s convinced that this calico cat is the smartest, most annoying cat ever: a cat that delights in making him miserable.

When he’s full of his good news-he’s been called to serve on the county Grand Jury and pictures himself serving with wisdom and great dignity, he sees that calico cat sitting on the fence. He’s certain that cat is mocking him and he goes a little crazy. He tries to shoot it!

Now don’t worry, the cat is fine but the ramifications of that shot go far.

This hilarious, generous hearted tale of a small American village on the Canadian border is filled with wonderful characters.

A first novel (1908) by Charles Miner Thompson with illustrations by F.R. Gruger, this story first appeared in The Youth’s Companion, a family magazine (1827-1929). BTW, Francis Bellamy who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in1892 (it was adopted by Congress in 1942) was a staff writer at The Youth’s Companion.

Charmingly read by Allyson Hester, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf., e-Pub or Kindle format here.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Shadow of the Rope by E.W. Hornung

2011-10-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly review of vintage books available free on-line.

(Sorry for missing the past two weeks but I just didn't have any time to read while we were away...too busy sightseeing! :)

The Shadow of the Rope by E.W. Hornung

Romance? Mystery? While its hard for me to assign this book a genre, it is easy for me for say how delightful it is.

Young Rachel, alone in the world, jumps at the opportunity to travel from Australia to England as a lady’s companion. On the long crossing, she meets Alexander Minchin. They marry as soon as the boat docks. At first, things go well but soon Mr. Minchin begins to drink heavily and to gamble more heavily. They fight. She finally determines to leave him and having packed her trunk, goes out looking for a hansom cab. On returning, she is shocked to find the police in her home. Mr. Minchin is dead-shot- and she is accused of the crime!

Acquitted of the murder by the jury but not by public opinion, Rachel finds herself penniless and alone. White-haired Mr. Steel, who sat everyday at her trial, offers his assistance. She is hesitant- why would this man, a perfect stranger, want to help her? She has heard of other women, acquitted of horrible crimes, that are later besieged by marriage offers…is this his intention?

She accepts his help because she truly has no other choice, and because he clearly states that she will have her own rooms at a respectable hotel. The next morning he does propose marriage-a completely platonic one. His explanation of why wants to marry her is one of the delights of this book.

“I want a wife; or rather, my neighbors seem bent upon finding me one; and, if the worst has to come to the worst, I prefer to choose for myself. Matrimony, however, is about the very last state of life that I desire, and I take it to be the same with you. Therefore--to put the cart before the horse--you would suit me ideally. One's own life would be unaltered, but the Delverton mothers would cease from troubling, and at the head of my establishment there would be a lady of whom I should be most justly proud.”

Take that, Mrs. Bennet!

What should Rachel do? Considering her last hasty marriage, you would think she would give Mr. Steel’s offer a pass but she is truly friendless. They marry and after a tour of Europe, they return to his large estate in Yorkshire. She lives in fear of anyone realizing who she is-her innocence and acquittal seem scant protection from the notoriety-and she lives filled with curiosity about Mr. Steel’s never referred to past.

The Yorkshire characters are truly wonderful. We first meet them in Chapter 9-now a favorite of mine: kindly Reverend Hugh Woodgate , his young wife Morna and the incomparable Mrs. Venables (who thought Mr. Steel barely 45 when she wanted him for one of her daughters but now thinks him 65 at the very least). Another interesting and important character is Charles Langholm, a fiction writer.

“The novels of Charles Langholm were chiefly remarkable for their intricate plots, and for the hope of better things that breathed through the cheap sensation of the best of them.”

I had to wonder if the author was thinking of himself but my favorite comment is yet to come.

"What!" he cried; "you call yourself a lady, and you don't look at the end before you reach it?"

Ahh, from now on, I will not feel guilty when I peek at the end of a book.

That’s it for now…you’ll have to read this 1902 novel to find out more about Rachel and Mr. Steel. This is the second novel by E.W. Hornung (brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) that I’ve read and I liked it even more than the first. (You can read that review here.)

Read by Christine DuFour, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf., e-pub., or Kindle format here.

Some rather cheesy yet romantic illustrations

Home Again: views from Hannover and the Harz Mountains

2011-10-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

We're back from our trip! We celebrated Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, at reform synogogue services in Hannover. Tonight is Yom Kippur Eve.

We had a wonderful time. Hannover has a "Red Line" walking tour (with guidebook) which was perfect for keeping me busy while Dan was at the conference during the day. I really enjoy this type of walking tour-I always go into all the buildings along the way so it takes me days rather than hours to finish. Here are just a few highlights plus photos from the wonderful trip to the Harz Mountains organized by the Leibniz conference.

This simple and elegant monument in the plaza of the Opera House (right behind the monument) is the Hannover Holocaust Memorial.
It is the most powerful Holocaust Memorial I have ever seen-each person's name, age or date of birth and place and date of death is inscribed on the sloping sides. They finally have a gravestone.
I think I went to every museum in Hannover-large and small. Here are just two of the wonderful things I saw that I wanted to share: a pair of antique dolls ( taken through the glass case).
Most evenings we went out to dinner with other conference participants-it was nice to finally meet many people that I've heard Dan talk about for years. We did go to the opera one night (The Marriage of Figaro) and this is the door knob of the Opera House! Pretty cool!
Saturday, the conference organized a trip to the Harz Mountains (bird seed, anyone?). I've discovered that the Harz Mountains are really a plateau of rolling hills and
beautiful forests.
We made a friend...isn't he gorgeous!
The trip was organized around Leibniz, of course. Besides math and philosophy, he was interested in industry and general problem solving. The silver mines in the Harz Mountains had terrible problems with water in the mines...the solution was to use water wheels to run the pumps to get the water out! Leibniz thought he had a better way-windmills-or at least a closed water system that then utilized the water pumped from the mines to run the water wheels. It wasn't actually put into practice at the mine he worked with but both were later used at another mine.

We saw a model of a water wheel...
sluice and pump house.
And a real water wheel...look at the size of it!
How did they get enough water to run the water wheels? They dug channels to bring water from higher, more distant mountains-these covered miles and miles-
and they created reservoirs to collect the water from local streams and creeks-creating lastingly beautiful places.
Now that we're back, Tuesdays Tomes will resume-I definitely had no time to read on our trip!

Hannover: Gardens and Bricks

2011-10-03T04:23:00.000-07:00

While DH was busy at his conference (this part of the trip was "part work" for him and all vacation for me :) I took a bus tour around Hannover. I had been there two years ago but there was still lots more to see. The tour took us to the Herrenhausen Gardens-Ducal Gardens that are done in the formal Baroque style.

Look at this wonderful vista and the two gorgeous fountains! Unfortunately the high spray of the back fountain blends into the sky but you can just see the spout behind the round fountain.
Here you can see one of the formal mazes-with two special Hannover differences: 1) flowers and 2) the maze is cut very low (those aren't mutant giant flowers!)
Our hotel was in the old quarter and right down the street was the Old Town Hall...the streets were too narrow for me to get a picture of the whole building so this is from the internet.
Isn't that quite an amazing brick building? I just love the crazy high frontage. This is the most southern building in Germany done in the North German Brick Gothic style. Parts of the building date from 1410.

I was able to get some fun close-ups...here you can see not only the inside of the Gothic entrance but see that round metal loop-that was for the pillory-punishment was public and right in front of the Town Hall.
Historians don't know why this was added into the brick work on the side wall...maybe this is how the townsfolk felt about the local government!

Leaving Copenhagen-a City of Canals

2011-09-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

This is the school building directly across from our hotel...I loved watching the ivy get redder and redder over the past week. The sun finally came out and so did the green awnings.I never realized that Copenhagen is a city of canals. We really enjoyed our canal tour...isn't that an amazing church spire?
the new opera house...
getting dark as the day grows older and clouds denser.
Finally, leaving Denmark ...that's Jutland taken from the airplane! On to Hannover, Germany.

A Visit to Sweden

2011-09-29T02:27:00.000-07:00

We took a day trip to Sweden! I just loved the idea of taking a half-hour train ride to another country!

We first went to Lund-to see the historic university there (yes, that was DH's choice and you can see how delighted he was.)
Wandering about-into museums and churches- we saw this absolutely wonderful floor! Double wedding ring anybody? I'm thinking of giving drafting this a try.

Now I have seen lots of half-timbered buildings-in England, Denmark, France and Germany but this is the first time I have ever seen a half-timbered brick building! Brilliant!
Then it was on to Malmo...but it was getting late and cold so we just looked at the wonderful red and white lighthouse from afar. (Its right in the center-behind me! :)
And its back to Copenhagen. This was taken on the bridge through the not very clean train window.

Historic Sewing from Copenhagen

2011-09-27T00:39:00.000-07:00

We had a little computer problem at our hotel...they suddently changed networks and after that no one could get on-line! Fixed for now...

One of the highlights of our visit to the Open Air Museum in Copenhagen was the Lace Making School. A farmer's wife opened the school to teach her skills and of course, for the extra income.

I had never seen leather used on the bobbin lace pillows...I wonder if it simply made it easier to move the bobbins about...any ideas, anyone?

Do you see that half globe in the upper left of the picture...that is a glass globe filled with water and hung in front of the candle-apparently it diffused the candle light better! (You can see some more hung on the wall-waiting for the students to arrive and use them :)

In the pantry of the same house, little lace-like doilies covered the shelves...but look closer-they're cut from newspapers!
At the same museum, there is also a restored 1930s co-op store with shelves filled with bolts of fabric, a sewing machine for sale on the top shelf, and
in another cabinet, different sewing trims and do dads!
Fun stuff, huh?! Just outside the shop, in the hall is a pay telephone (you put the money in the box next to the phone-on the honor system). So, if you just had to tell to your friend about the lovely new cottons the shop just got in...well, you could!
The Copenhagen Open Air Museum (Frilandsmuseet) is definitely worth a visit - lots of old farm houses from all over Denmark and southern Sweden (Scania) have been reassembled just as they were-including the gardens and any out buildings. The wells and ingenious methods for pumping the water are all reproduced. Lots of old farm tools too.

Tuesdays Tomes: Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung

2011-09-20T01:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung

The amateur cracksman is A.J. Raffles…perhaps you’ve heard of him? He’s rather the antithesis of Sherlock Holmes: Raffles is the gentleman thief. (His connection with Sherlock Holmes is really quite close-E.W. Hornung was the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.)

Published in 1899, these are the first tales of the adventures of Raffles and his school friend and assistant, Bunny Manders. They simply are gentlemen without adequate means to support themselves who resort to burglary to make ends meet. Bunny has run through his inheritance and Raffles is a well known cricket player but as a gentleman he’s, of course, an amateur player. They take only enough for their needs although Raffles does dream of the “big haul” which will allow him to retire in comfort. Bunny is never very sure about burglary at all.

I enjoyed this series of short stories-each chapter is a separate tale. I suggest skipping Chapter 2-racist comments abound. The only real point of the story is to show that Raffles will never leave Bunny in the lurch.

Many Raffles movies have been made over the years. Most of them have little relationship to the actual tales except for the 1976 British Yorkshire Television mini-series, “Raffles”. (The 1940 “Raffles” starring David Niven is however charming!)

Beautifully read by Kristin Hughes, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf., e-Pub, or Kindle format here.

I thought you might like this: the author “reading” the opening of The Amateur Cracksman. Clever, isn’t it?

Hello from Copenhagen

2011-09-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hello from Copenhagen! We arrived Saturday night and were met at the airport by our son who had arrived earlier that morning. We checked into our hotel and then were off to meet friends for dinner.

Yesterday we went to the Workers Museum which was very interesting. Besides the informative placards, the period rooms and the shopping street were fascinating.

Here's a photo from a 1950s workers apartment...pretty cool!

After that we went to the Rosenborg Castle and saw the Crown Jewels-or at least a selection of them. Fantastic. There was an absolutely gorgeous natural pearl necklace (you know what I mean-the pearls weren't perfectly round)-each pearl must have been the size of "jawbreaker" candy! And the diamond necklace-oh boy, the square cut diamonds were almost as big!

Three crowns were displayed but one was absolutely incredible with little figures and dolphins in ivory.

Besides the treasury, we also made a tour of the rooms of the castle. The most interesting-an all mirrored "closet". Fantastic!

Then we met friends again for dinner, including the bride and groom-to-be. They're off for a pre-wedding "honeymoon" to Amsterdam and will be back in time for the wedding on Saturday.

We're planning lots of interesting trips around Copenhagen...today we just went to the City Museum and saw the archaeological excavation of the first castle in Copenhagen-the ruins under the Christianborg Palace. Built by Bishop Absalon, the founder of Copenhagen in 1167, we really enjoyed tracing the old castle/city walls.

LOL! I took the little camera because it fits in my jacket pocket but alas no batteries! I've just fixed the problem and will have photos later this week!

Tuesdays Tomes: What Katy Did At School by Susan Coolidge + covers over the years

2011-09-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

What Katy Did At School by Susan Coolidge

(This cover is from 1966...more covers below :)

This delightful 1872 novel for young adults (girls really) is the second book in the adventures of Katy Carr.

The first, called What Katy Did, is I think the earliest example of the later oft used plot device of a young girl falling and becoming bedridden with a back injury. How many later books used that same device? (Pollyanna,(1913) of course, but lots more.) These poor girls did something they were told not to but ended up better people for their trials-more obedient too! It makes me wonder how many boys fell out of trees and ended up bedridden for months or even years, never sure they would walk again.

This story is quite different. What Katy Did at School begins in a most unusual way-it is taken for granted that we have read the first book. I was a bit at sea at first as to who was who. Dr. Philip Carr (Papa) is widowed with 6 children: Katy, Clover, Elsie, Dorry, Joanna called Johnnie, and Phil. (It took me a while to realize Johnnie was a girl! :)

By chapter 2 we’re well on our way into the heart of the tale-Katy and Clover are going off to boarding school for one year. It takes them 3 days of traveling to get from Ohio to their New England school. While we don’t hear too much about their actual studies, this book gives an interesting peak at educational attitudes in the mid 19^th century.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the girls’ school friends and I especially liked their games and the account of the fads that came and went. We also get some decorating tips!

“They went in. (Room) No. 5 was precisely like (their room) No. 6, in shape, size and furniture; but Rose had unpacked her trunk and decorated the room with odds and ends of all sorts. The table was covered with books and boxes; colored lithographs were pinned on the walls; a huge blue rosette ornamented the head-board of the bed; the blinds were tied together with pink ribbon; over the top of the window was a festoon of hemlock boughs, fresh and spicy. The effect was fantastic, but cheery; and Katy and Clover exclaimed, with one voice, ‘How pretty!’ “

Prettily read by Karen Savage, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf, e-Pub, or Kindle format here.

This book has been quite popular for a very long time. I thought it would be fun to share some of the cover art that has graced this book over the years.LOL! I particularly like the covers that look contemporary to the date of their publication…”Groovy, Katy, groovy!”

1900

1927
1939 (Gotta love that short skirt!)
1949
1968
1975

Tuesdays Tomes: The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick

2011-09-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick

You may not have read many or even any short stories or novels by Philip K. Dick but I’m sure you’re familiar with his work. Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and this year’s Adjustment Bureau are just some of the films based on his stories.

The Variable Man is a very early story by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1953. (Interestingly, science fiction stories, usually first published in magazines, have entered into the public domain much sooner than other novels.)

The year is 2136 and Terrans are locked into their own solar system by the aging Centaurus Empire. On Earth, life is very well regulated and based on statistical prediction. Terrans are gearing up for a war against the Centaurus Empire-they’re just waiting for the statistical prediction that they will win. Security Commissioner Reinhart keeps a close on the predictions…he’d like nothing better than to give the go ahead for war. Peter Sherikov of Military Design is working on a new, fantastic weapon-one capable of reaching Centaurus faster than light speed but he’s having trouble wiring the control module. (He would love to be able to use the technology for faster than light speed travel rather than as a weapon but the last time it was tried-it exploded-hence the weapon.)

The year is 1913 and Tom Cole, a general traveling fix-it man, is sharpening a knife for the lady in the green house in exchange for a hot meal. Suddenly he and his cart and his two horses are picked up in what he can only call a “tornado”. When he lands-he’s no longer outside-he’s in the middle of a building and people in white coats-lab coats-are all staring at him. (He doesn’t know it yet but a research bubble from 2136 had gone back to 1913 in preparation for the start of WWI and had caught him when it was summarily brought back to 2136.)

Is Tom Cole, general fix-it man, the man to help Terrans break out of the hold of the Centaurus Empire and fill the galaxy or is he the statistical variable that makes prediction impossible?

As usual with Philip K. Dick, his prescience is where the fun really is. Here are two quotes to think about: “Nobody fixes things. When they break you throw them away.” And: “Too much knowledge has piled up in each field. And there are too many fields.”

Wonderfully read by Gregg Margarite, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. e-Pub or Kindle format here.

Here's the original cover of Space Science Fiction, September 1953 in which "The Variable Man" appeared.

Jelly Roll quilting progressing and a new mystery quilt started

2011-09-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks for everyone's input on quilting straight lines on the rectangles...I love it! I've started doing the pebbling inside the rectangles and I'm very pleased with the look, even though my pebbling isn't perfect! :)I've embroidered the first block for this year's LQS Redwork Club Mystery Quilt-the theme is butterflies and I've designed all the blocks (with inspirational help from vintage designs.)
The blocks will look like they're set on point but actually the set of the quilt is straight. Fun, huh?

I'm linking to Sarah's Can I get a Whoop Whoop so hop on over and see some great work!

Tuesdays Tomes: The Middle of Things by J.S. Fletcher

2011-08-30T03:08:00.001-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Middle of Things by J.S. Fletcher

As I read this mystery, my mind kept thinking about that old TV show “Murder She Wrote”-I was sure the mystery writer’s name was Fletcher. In fact her name was Jessica Fletcher or J. Fletcher! Aha! As prolific a writer that Jessica Fletcher was, J.S. Fletcher has her beat. He wrote over 100 detective stories!

In the Middle of Things, Mr. Richard Viner lives with his maiden aunt, Miss Bethia Penkridge in Markendale Square, Bayswater. She likes it when he reads to her of an evening and her favorites are always crime stories.

“What she loved was a story which began with crime and ended with a detection--a story which kept you wondering who did it, how it was done, and when the doing was going to be laid bare to the light of day. Nothing pleased her better than to go to bed with a brain titivated with the mysteries of the last three chapters; nothing gave her such infinite delight as to find, when the final pages were turned, that all her own theories were wrong, and that the real criminal was somebody quite other than the person she had fancied.”

I totally agree with Miss Penkridge-don’t you?

This fun beginning sets up the story quite nicely. After the evening’s reading and once his aunt had gone off to bed, Mr. Viner enjoyed nothing more than a late evening’s walk about the neighborhood. On the night we first meet him, his walk ends with something terrible. He’s quite near home, by a narrow alley, when suddenly a man comes running out! A man he vaguely recognizes! Mr. Viner enters the alley and there, under the single street light, finds the body of his new neighbor-Mr. John Ashton-dead! Stabbed!

Well, the police come and Police Inspector Drillford asks Viner to go with him to break the news of John Ashton’s death to his young ward, Miss Wickham and her companion. Soon a man is arrested but when Viner goes to court for the hearing to testify to finding the body and he sees the accused he realizes that he does know the man: the fellow attended school with him. He’s certain that he can’t be the real murderer and that there must be some mistake and takes it upon himself to find out the truth. (He is totally in the middle of things!) And yes, he-with the help of his aunt and a broken typewriter letter-does!

I thoroughly enjoyed this 1922 mystery and had a good chuckle at the rather contrived romance at the end but as they say, “All’s well that ends well”!

Read by Kehinde, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf., e-pub or Kindle format here.

Quilting my jelly roll quilt

2011-08-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

I've started machine quilting my jelly roll quilt. I'm happy with the circly vine between the blocks but I'm not sure about the straight lines on the rectangles. Maybe I should try the same thing on another rectangle but with yellow thread?I'm planning on a pebble pattern inside the rectangles-repeating the circles like in the "sashing" but just circles.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Poor Little Rich Girl by Eleanor Gates

2011-08-23T02:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Poor Little Rich Girl by Eleanor Gates

This book was not at all what I was expecting. I knew it had been a Shirley Temple movie and I thought that I remembered that the family loses its money and the poor little rich girl becomes poor. That is not the plot at all! (I now think I mixed it up with another Shirley Temple movie: The Little Princess based on the book by Francis Hodgson Burnett.)

There are actually 2 Poor Little Rich Girl movies: the first starred Mary Pickford and the second Shirley Temple. I love the marketing for the first movie: merging book and movie.

This book is really quite strange.

Little Gwendolyn lives in the nursery. She’s cared for by her nursemaid Jane, her governess Miss Royle and the footman Thomas with a French teacher and music teacher periodically giving her extra lessons. She is sometimes called downstairs to pay a brief visit to her parents in the dining room and to be shown off to their various guests.

Its her seventh birthday and she thinks she’ll now be grown up and she hopes to have dinner with her parents and to go day school. Her fondest memory is of a week spent in the country with her parents where she was allowed to play with a local little boy, Johnnie Blake. They went fishing and he told her that he was all grown up because he was seven.

Frustrated at every turn by Jane, Miss Royle and Thomas and fairly abandoned by her parents (they send a cake up and gifts but don’t even see her on her birthday) she is miserable. She asks Thomas to let her go with him when he walks the dog and he says no and then to quiet her tells that she could be kidnapped! Jane threatens her with “calling the doctor” and “the policeman will come” pretty much whenever Gwendolyn wants to do something other than sit at the window seat and play pretend. When the three hear that she wants to eat dinner with her parents and go to school they watch her even more carefully and as little as she sees her parents they would prefer that she not see them at all so she couldn’t make her requests.

Gwendolyn hears the adults around her and is often confused by the many idioms she hears: ”she’s two faced”, “he’s head over heels”, etc. She constantly asks questions and is constantly rebuffed. (These idioms are rather a theme in this book and it might be fun to actually count them.)

Getting more and more frustrated, Gwendolyn lashes out the only way she can-by crying and tantrums. She’s put to bed where she just cries herself to sleep. The next day, she still doesn’t want to get up and by evening Jane is a bit concerned. She asks Thomas if there is any more of “the quietin’ medicine” but there isn’t. She wants to have the doctor in but Gwendolyn really gets quite hysterical at the very idea (she’s become really quite terrified of the doctor thanks to Jane’s threats) but she agrees that Jane can call him for more medicine.

Now here is where the story gets strange. I’m convinced this medicine is Laudanum-a liquid opium mixture that was very prevalent in the 19^th and early 20^th century and was given to women and yes, children for nervous complaints. It was even given to infants by their nurses to quiet them.

Jane puts a teaspoonful in a cup for Gwendolyn, gets distracted by the organ grinder outside and goes to the window to shoo him away telling Gwendolyn to drink the medicine. She does-but she puts the spoon in Jane’s coffee cup. Jane, returning to the bed, doesn’t believe Gwendolyn actually drank the medicine and sniffs her coffee cup. Hmm, it smells of the medicine (from the spoon) and despite Gwendolyn’s complaints, gives her another teaspoonful!

Except for the last chapter, the rest of the book is Gwendolyn’s opium induced dream. There’s the organ grinder and Jane, Miss Royle, Thomas, her lost teddy bear, her parents and all those idioms-now explained -with literal meanings. (Some of these are quite enjoyable-one, the King’s English is completely un-understandable!)

Gwendolyn, through her dream, works out to her own satisfaction many of her frustrations and you can just imagine how her illness works on her parents so by the end of the book all is well.

It’s rather hard to believe The Poor Little Rich Girl was meant as a children’s story-it’s more a guide for parents. If any children did read it, I think that they would decide that they didn’t want to be rich!

Perfectly read by Susan Umpleby, you can download the free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf., e-pub or Kindle format here.

I found the Mary Pickford movie at You-Tube. The first segment is really quite delightful and true to the book. (I peeked at the Shirley Temple movie and immediately I saw it was quite different.) So if you'd like to watch...

Tuesdays Tomes: A Woman Who Went to Alaska by May Kellogg Sullivan + photographs

2011-08-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

A Woman Who Went to Alaska by May Kellogg Sullivan

Mrs. Sullivan’s recollections begin in 1899 with her first trip north to Dawson, Canada by ship and train during the Klondike Gold Rush. She traveled alone, on her way to surprise her father and brother. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her-she was quite shocked by the sometime drunkenness of the passengers. Like many travelers anxious to arrive, she also does not have very nice things to say about Canadian officialdom. She spent the summer in Dawson but really tells us very little about her time there and is soon back on board ship leaving-though this time with her brother.

Something must have clicked for her because the following spring she’s travelling again-this time to Nome with a group of friends. They’re all planning to find work there. Mrs. Sullivan is by now clearly a much more seasoned traveler

For me, the book really got interesting with Chapter 9 when her true tale begins. She finds work as a kitchen help, first at a mining camp and then at a restaurant run by several Swedish women she met on the steamship. These women become her true friends and when winter approaches, she goes with them to winter at a mission on the Golovin Bay where they know the minister. Alma, Mary and the other ladies become truly alive for the reader and Mrs. Sullivan’s adventures in Chinik are very interesting. She often simply quotes from her journal and so gives a day by day account which gives us a feeling for the rhythm of her life there. One funny story which all sewers will enjoy tells of her trying to make a pattern for footed pajamas! I also enjoyed her recital of the meals that they ate and the temperature! (That actually surprised me-I expected a constant 30 below or so but no, there were often wide fluctuations.) She has some of the men prospectors she met at the mission stake some mining claims for her. (No, we don’t hear how these turn out!) She has some rather harrowing adventures too when she moves from the mission to a nearby hotel to be near a sick child she is teaching.

Perfectly read by Karen Commins you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf, e-pub or Kindle format here.

You can also read my review of a fiction work on the Nome Gold Rush here. While fiction (and a rousing good story) the author, Rex Beach, was actually in Nome and partook of the Gold Rush.

Mrs. Sullivan seems to never have been without her camera and so I’m sharing below some of her-as she called them-Kodaks or you can look at all of the book’s photographs here.

Mrs. Sullivan herself in her Alaskan winter clothes.

The Hannah that we hear about.
Nome and its white tents.
The Mission at Chinik including reindeer!
Prospecting in winter...did her hole bear golden fruit?
From her visit to Bonanza just before she left for home the second time.

Punch Needle Quilt: Block 8 finished

2011-08-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

I just finished another block for my punch needle quilt. I chose this block to do because I wanted one that wasn't symmetrical like most of the blocks are. I used the purple and I like it but I liked it even more with the orange accents in the other block.

One more to go and I'll think about whether I'm happy with 9 blocks or if the quilt needs more-maybe 12.I have to think about sashing or no sashing and I'll have to think more about the border-right now I'm thinking of a punch needled vine with flowers.

It finally cooled off here a little-its been sooo hot.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Dragon's Secret by Augusta Huiell Seaman

2011-08-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Dragon’s Secret by Augusta Huiell Seaman

Leslie Crane and her Aunt Marcia have rented a cottage on the Jersey Shore-not in the summer as most people do but in the early autumn. Aunt Marcia suffers from nerves and her doctor recommended rest and Leslie has come along to keep her aunt company and to generally “keep house”. She’s missing school but isn’t worried-her friends are sending her all the lessons she is missing.

“Oh the ocean is wonderful in October!” she murmured aloud. I never had any idea how wonderful. I never saw it in this month before. Come, Rags!” A black-and-white English sheep-dog, his name corresponding closely to his appearance, came racing up the beach at her call.”

One very wet and stormy night, Leslie, looking out her window at the wondrous weather, sees a light through the cracks of the shutters at the closed house next door. Could someone be in there? Its just for a second but…

The next day she and Rags walk on the beach amidst all the flotsam and jetsam from the storm.

“There was a new and wonderful fascination to her in examining this ancient wreckage, speculating on the contents of unopened tins, and searching ever farther and farther along the shore for a possible treasure-trove of even greater interest or value.

“Why shouldn’t I find a chest of jewels or a barrel full of golden coins or a pocket-book crammed with bills, Rags?”

But instead Leslie finds a treasure of a different sort-a friend. Walking with her head down looking at the sand, she plows right into someone-Phyllis Kelvin, a girl about her age who is at the Shore with her father and brother Ted.

The girls go off walking down the beach, back towards Leslie’s cottage, calling for Rags all the way. They spot him in the yard of the closed cottage next door.

“There’s Rags! He’s after another hermit-crab!” cried Leslie…They both raced up to him and reached him just as he had apparently attained the end of his quest and backed out of the hole.

“Why, what has he got?” exclaimed Phyllis. “That’s no hermit-crab!”

It was a burlap bag and inside was a beautiful carved box: a box carved with a dragon!

And so begins the girls’ adventure. Who did the box belong to? Why and when was it buried under the tree? How did the box open? What did it contain? And who was sneaking around trying to get it? All these questions are eventually answered of course but a ripping good time is had until they’re all answered.

I thoroughly enjoyed this 1921 young adult mystery. If you’re a fan of Nancy Drew type mysteries, I’m sure you’ll enjoy The Dragon’s Secret too.

Read by J.M. Smallheer, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf., epub, Kindle and more formats here.

If you would like to know more about Augusta Huiell Seaman and the collectability of her books, you’ll enjoy reading this article on bookfever.com.

Jelly Roll quilt progress

2011-08-05T04:14:00.001-07:00

I finished the blocks-the block includes the side "sashing" on the long sides and thenI sewed all the rows together. The center of the quilt top is finished!
Only borders are left and I have two ideas of what I'm going to do. I do like how this is looking.

Give a Whoop Whoop! Check out Sarah's Can I get a Whoop-Whoop for more terrific Whoops!

Tuesdays Tomes: The Green Rust by Edgar Wallace

2011-08-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Green Rust by Edgar Wallace

Edgar Wallace with about 200 titles to his name is one the most prolific writers ever and he’s the creator of King Kong!

The Green Rust, written in 1919 (one of 3 novels he published that year) begins with a bang-as all good melodramas should.

We meet Mr. John Millinborn, deathly ill and attended by the local Dr. van Heerden, telling his lawyer about Miss Olivia Predeaux, the niece he has never met. He has just left his entire fortune to her and charges Mr. Kitson with finding her and protecting her from unscrupulous men. Mr. Millinborn has added what he thinks is another protection for Olivia-she is not to inherit until she is married.

Before the first chapter is finished, a hobo has been seen lurking around, we have met the main villain and Mr. Millinborn has been murdered in his bed!

Although the action keeps apace, it doesn’t always make the most sense but that hardly seems to matter: the strength of the book is in the wonderful characters. Olivia Cresswell/ Predeaux is delightful and Mr. Beale, the private detective Mr. Kitson has hired to find and protect Olivia is charming. Dr. van Heerden, a German posing as Dutch, is devious, unscrupulous and revengeful. (He has an evil plan to destroy the Allies wheat crop.)

My favorite part: definitely the window scene in chapter 20. Trust me-this scene gives Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet a run for the money.

Read by Don W. Jenkins (in a hardy Western voice that made me rather surprised to find that this book takes place in England!) you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or kindle format here.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Money Moon: a Romance by Jeffery Farnol

2011-07-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Money Moon, A Romance by Jeffrey Farnol

This humorous tale of Romance stars:

Mr. George Bellew, An American Millionaire

Miss Anthea Devine, An Independent Woman

Master George, Young Nephew

Sergeant Appleby, A Retired Soldier

Miss Priscilla, Housekeeper

Adam, Farm Hand

Prudence, the Cook

Mr. Cassilis, Local Squire

Ah, have you already guessed the match-ups?

George Bellew’s girlfriend has decided to marry a Duke and he, plagued by the “Haunting Spectre of the “Might Have Been”, decides that a walking tour is just what he needs. Off he goes from London to Kent where he meets first Adam (he falls asleep in Adam’s hay wagon) and then Young George-who takes him home.(The two Georges immediately have a bond-after all, they have both been called Georgy Porgy and accused of kissing the girls!) And there George Bellew meets Ms. Aunty Anthea and decides he’s found Arcadia.

I thoroughly enjoyed this really sweet and rather silly novel from 1911-a perfect summer read.

Jeffrey Farnol, with Georgette Heyer, is credited with beginning the Regency romantic genre: he does quite well in this “modern” romance.

Read by John Lieder, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

Jelly Roll quilt beginnings

2011-07-22T03:36:00.000-07:00

While in NY in the spring, I picked up my very first Jelly Roll: Moda's Modern Workshop by Liesl Gibson.

I started thinking about what I wanted to do with it. Sketch #1:

Sketch #2: I liked this better.
But in fabric...too much of good thing?
So now I'm thinking about this...
and this.
Once I got the idea of doing some single color blocks I dipped into my stash a little. :)

I'm just going to make some more scrappy blocks and then I'll put it back on the design wall and decide which way I want to go. (Did you notice the light switch: my design wall is truly a wall-I just stuck a little masking tape behind the blocks and stuck them on the living room wall.

What's on your design wall? Check out all the wonderful work on Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes

2011-07-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Lodger by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowdes

Mr. and Mrs. Bunting are in desperate straits: they have a boarding house with no boarders. Since their last lodger left, they have quietly pawned many of their lovely things and have even borrowed money from their young friend, the police detective Joe Chandler . Retired from service upon their late in life marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Bunting never thought they would ever face starvation but they are very close now indeed.

Mr. Bunting hears a news crier, “Horrible Murder! Murder at St. Pancras!”…”The Avenger! The Avenger at his work again!” He hasn’t read a paper for days and it was always one of his greatest pleasures. He can’t resist-never mind the cost-he gets up and buys a penny paper.

“He stepped past her heavily, and though she said nothing, he knew she grudged him his coming joy. Then, full of rage with her and contempt for himself, and giving himself the luxury of a mild, a very mild, oath-Ellen had very early made it clear she would have no swearing in her presence-he lit the hall gas full-flare.

‘How can we hope to get lodgers if they can’t even see the card?’ he shouted angrily.”

Sure enough, a little while later there’s a knock on the door…a man looking for lodgings. As Mr. Sleuth settles in, Mrs. Bunting becomes more and more unsettled. The Avenger murders continue and she begins to suspect her lodger.

This 1913 novel is a psychological drama…the question is, is it a psychological drama of a serial killer or of Mrs. Ellen Bunting? I definitely feel that I know much more about Mrs. Bunting and yet have many more questions as to why she acted the way she did than I do about the murderer. We are told about the murders as they are reported in the newspaper: are they connected to the Bunting household in any way or is it all in Ellen’s mind? The suspense builds-I could hardly restrain myself from peeking at the end of the book. (Definitely don’t look!)

This is one of those books that is perfect for a Book Club-I know I could discuss Ellen for hours.

The Lodger has been made into several movies: the first by Alfred Hitchcock in 1927. You can view this silent film free on-line here (and yes the storyline is as usual different from the book).

Perfectly read by LeeAnn Howlett, you can download the free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or kindle format here.

A new blue floral punchneedle quilt block finished

2011-07-18T11:36:00.001-07:00

We had a lovely morning swimming in the Sea of Galilee (actually a lake)-our first time this summer. We've been driving an hour to the ocean (actually the Mediterranean Sea) instead of just the 5 minutes to the lake but now the jelly fish have taken over the sea so we were off to the lake. We try to go early in the morning because by 1 o'clock in the afternoon it gets too windy.

After we came back, I finished up another punch needle block.
So now there are 7. Here are the six I finished earlier.
You can see my punchneedle tutorial here.

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times so hop on over and see lots of gorgeous work in progress.

Embroidered mystery quilt is quilted!

2011-07-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here it is: finished! I just put in the last few stitches on the white binding-I'm so glad this is completed! Hand embroidery and machine quilting team up quite well!Here's a close up of one of the baskets and the diagonal curvy lines I quilted through the embroideries.
Here you can see the wandering vine with leaves I quilted in the large white areas and
the small vine with leaves and larger flowers I machine quilted in the smaller isolated white areas
The center embroidered block shows how the curvy lines meet in the middle.
Here's the quilt-folded on a chair and showing the white binding outside the black border.
I'm linking up with Sarah's Can I get a Whoop-Whoop today. Hop on over and see the wonderful things on view.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Cinder Pond by Carroll Watson Rankin plus illustrations

2011-07-12T05:06:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Cinder Pond by Carroll Watson Rankin

This 1915 novel by Carroll Watson Rankin is quite a different tale than Dandelion Cottage also by this author and previously reviewed here. Dandelion Cottage was a delightful tale of four young friends growing up in favorable circumstances; Jeannette Huntington Duval’s story is quite different. All the “action” in Dandelion Cottage happens in one place, the girls’ home town; in The Cinder Pond, Jeanne does not have such a gentle life and has to deal with new places and people.

Jeanne’s mother died when she was very young and her father remarried the kindly but overwhelmed Molly. Her father, once a gentleman but now struggling to support his large family as a fisherman, builds a house on an abandoned formerly industrial section of wharf on Lake Superior-next to the Cinder Pond. (Yes, it doesn’t sound too healthy!)

Jeanne is clearly her father’s favorite: she is the child of his first wife, a lady, and he exerts a lot of energy and time educating her. Eventually he sends her away to live with her mother’s well-to-do family. She slowly builds a relationship with her Grandfather but never with her Aunt and Uncle or her cousins. After living away from her family for several years, Jeanne begs her Grandfather to let her visit home and knowing that he is nearing death and aware of how the rest of the family feels about Jeanne, he consents. Jeanne is thrilled but finds things not as she expected when she returns to Cinder Pond.

When reading this story, I couldn’t help but be struck by similarities with Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna and other young adult (girls) fiction of this period but there was an important difference: I feel that this book makes a serious attempt to explore class prejudice.

Read by the wonderful reader for young adult books, Betsy Bush, you can download this free audio-book here or read this free e-book on-line or in pdf download here. (BTW, this on-line reader does allow page flipping.

I thought I would share the lovely sketches/illustrations by Ada C. Williamson that accompany the text for all you audio-book listeners.

Here's a view of Cinder Pond Marina as it looks today in Marquette, Michigan. I have to say that I think Marquette is a must visit if I ever get back to Michigan. It would really be fun to see Dandelion House and the Cinder Pond Marina.

Punch Needle Quilt: Block 6 finished

2011-07-07T01:21:00.000-07:00

I finished another punch needle quilt block...don't you think I work fast? LOL! This block was partially completed last summer-I had done the flower but I had run out of the green pearl cotton so it languished all winter!There are now 6 completed blocks and I'm really liking how they all look together on my design wall. This looks like a lot of red but it really isn't. Two of the blocks have the variegated thread, one a hot pink and only the one is truly red.
I've posted a punch needle tutorial here if you'd like to try this. Its fun, its fast and it's an easy take-along-to-the-pool summer project.Best of all, it looks like nothing else with its unique texture!

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times(I know, I'm so poky!), Finished for Friday at Lit and Laundry and Sew and Tell at AmyLouWho (now I'm an early bird so the links will go up tomorrow!:). Stop by and see all the wonderful projects everyone has going!

Tuesdays Tomes: Democracy: An American Novel by Henry Adams

2011-07-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

Democracy: An American Novel by Henry Adams

Happy 4^th of July!

Politics as a dirty word has a long history. This novel’s sole purpose is to explore just how dirty it is. Written in 1880 by Henry Adams, grandson of President John Quincy Adams and great grandson of President John Adams, Democracy: An American Novel was published anonymously with the author only revealed in 1918 after Henry Adams’ death.

Mrs. Madeline Lee, a young widow who lost both her husband and child within a week of each other, had been living in New York. She tried to find meaning for her life in good works and philosophical studies but was still terribly sad and restless. Moving to Washington, D.C., she wants to understand what makes government “tick”. She quickly meets Senators, Ambassadors, lawyers and lobbyists. (Yes, there already were lobbyists!) Her home becomes a sort of “salon”.

Mrs. Lee becomes particularly involved with Senator Radcliffe of Illinois, a powerful man in Congress with his eye on the Presidency who is generally thought to be a bit “rough”. Mrs. Lee has a distant relative in Washington, Mr. Carrington, who befriends her and tries to guide her.

I can’t say I enjoyed this book-it really is very wordy in that 19^th century way-but more importantly, the ideas (as intended) evoke disgust. I do think it is worth reading however. It raises questions that are important and touches on issues (campaign finance for one) that are as topical today as when this book was written. I liked Sybil and Mr. Carrington. They are definitely the most naturally rendered characters.

Read by Nicholas Clifford, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

I thought you might enjoy these photos of Henry Adams...the first is dated 1875 and the second is dated 1858 when he graduated from Harvard.

Punch Needle Tutorial

2011-07-04T04:42:00.000-07:00

Last week when I posted my newest punch needle quilt block, several people commented that they were interested in punch needle and a punch needle quilt but had never done it. I thought I would post a punch needle tutorial to help people get started.

Here's what you need to get started: A punch needle, a threader, pearl cotton # 5, muslin (or white bleached muslin), a pattern to draw or trace onto the wrong side of the fabric and an embroidery hoop-size 6".

Punch needle can be done with many different kinds of threads or yarns...since these are punch needle quilt blocks, I'm using Pearl Cotton. There are many different types of punch needle needles-some of them have a dial that can change the size of the loop that the needle makes. I prefer using a needle that doesn't have a dial and therefore always makes the same size loop. If you are using a needle with a dial-try out different settings until you find the one best for your project. For quilt blocks, I recommend a short loop.

Any simple applique pattern-with fairly large shapes-works wonderfully for punch needle. My patterns are from the book: The Wickersham Signature Quilt from The State Museum of Pennsylvania, by Patricia Harants. The Wickersham Quilt was made in the mid-1850s in York County, Pennsylvania.

Here's the block I'm working on now. You can see the marked pattern, partially worked. Embroidery hoops come in two parts. Put the whole ring under the block. Open the screw (but don't let it come loose) and slip the top of the hoop over the block/bottom of the hoop.
Tighten the screw. You want the fabric as tight as possible in the hoop (like a drum) so if you need to, pull gently on the fabric around the hoop.
Now thread your needle. Put the needle threader along the groove all the way through the needle. (Click on the pictures to enlarge.)
Now put your thread through the end loop of the threader...
and pull the threader completely out of the needle (with the thread! :)
Gently pull the thread out of the threader.
Hold the thread as shown and...
put the threader through the hole in the needle.
Put the thread through the end loop of the threader and pull the threader (and thread) back out the hole.
Here's the threaded needle. Leave only a small tail of thread.
Now you're ready to punch. Your needle should be held so that you do not see the groove in the needle-only the hole. (You can also punch with the needle facing side ways.) You will be punching towards your body.
Push the needle all the way in.
Lift the needle out just enough to clear the fabric and in it goes again for your next stitch. (Don't worry about the tail-we'll leave that for now.)
Keep punching-remember to have the needle go all the way in on each stitch.
Go along the outside, drawn line of your design.
The next row goes right up next to the first row...you'll slowly fill in the design. Remember to keep the thread loose coming off the spool.
The rows should be close together but don't worry if there's some fabric between rows. Look on the other side-the front side-at the loops and you'll see that its filling in nicely.
Oops! What if I take a break and when I come back some stitches have come out? Or, what if my thread was pulled too tightly off the spool and the stitches came out?

Don't worry! Here you see how a stitch has come out. Now, how do I get the thread back to being short-just a stitch from my fabric?
Just gently pull of the end of the thread...remember gently! just until the needle touches the fabric. Now punch some more.
Finished! How do I end? Hold your thumb on the needle and thread and gently pull the needle away from your work.
Now snip the thread very close. (You can snip the beginning tail now too.)
There, a leaf all punched and threads neatly trimmed.
Here's how it looks on the right side. (I don't see any funky long loops on this leaf but don't worry if you have some. I'll post a part 2 tutorial on how to finish up your punch needle that will cover that and more.)
Once you've finished part of your block and you have to move your hoop, you will have to have some of the punched area under the hoop. Its fine, it won't be permanently squooshed or anything but it will mean that the fabric won't be quite as tight in the hoop and you may have to gently pull on the fabric around the hoop now and then.
Hope that's helpful for getting started on your Punch Needle Quilt or any punch needle project.

Quilting the Mystery Quilt and Best of Web feature

2011-07-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to use diagonal lines for my quilting so I used my Hera marker so I would have guide lines.I decided to use curved lines and while I'm not finished yet some interesting things are coming up...check out that corner! Pretty cool.
I like the way the quilting looks on the embroidery blocks too. I have a confession-I've never machine quilted over embroidery before. I always quilted around the embroidery. Now this isn't heavily quilted over the embroidery but still...
see-stitches right over the embroidery and looking good!
I'm one of several sewing/crafting blogs featured this week as Best of the Web at Pocketchange. Hop on over-its a fun blog for finding other blogs and I'm sure you'll enjoy the blogs featured this week-I know I have.

Tuesdays Tomes: Deephaven by Sarah Orne Jewett

2011-06-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

Deephaven by Sarah Orne Jewett

With her parents planning a summer tour of Europe, Kate Lancaster decides to spend the summer at her late aunt’s home in Deephaven, Maine. She invites her friend and our narrator, Helen Denis, to join her.

These two Boston girls are intrigued by the village which has seen better days. Once a prosperous ship building center today is at most a sleepy fishing village though there are still the remnants of the best families-including Kate’s late aunt, Katherine Brandon and by extension Kate herself.

More a collection of short stories than a novel, these slow moving descriptive tales give a sketch of life in a small village and the people living there. There are no adventures, no men come and save the girls from danger…nothing happens but the passing of the summer-important for some, unimportant for others and tragic for one family.

I can’t really say I enjoyed this book…the slow pace does create a dream like quality. I peeked at a couple of review of this book because I had heard of Sarah Orne Jewett and I was curious what other reviewers thought of this book…well, all I can say is that they read much more into these tales than I did. One reviewer states, “Sarah Orne Jewett presents two American identities in the hope that they could explain each to the other.” I’m not sure if this reviewer meant Kate and Helen or the city vs. the village. Another reviewer writes:

“…closer scrutiny of these descriptions indicates that more than rendering a region they reveal the inchoate concerns of the young women themselves: in that respect the narrative can be better understood as psychological realism in which the women's literal and symbolic (written) ventures into unfamiliar regions allegorize revelatory journeys into the self.¹

At the very outset Jewett suggests that the women's writing and, by extension, her own, will involve psychological revelations. Taking up residence in the ancestral house, the two find writing desks with "secret drawers":

I have to say that I saw none of this-no revelatory journeys into themselves other than that while they loved their summer they couldn’t see themselves giving up their busy and very social lives in Boston.

Read by the always pleasant to listen to Betsey Bush, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

A new punchneedle floral: Punchneedle quilt progress continues

2011-06-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

With the summer heat and my love of air conditioning, I'm back to working on the punchneedle quilt which I haven't worked on since last summer.

My design wall now features this:
Here's a closeup so you can see that the little flowers are actually orange and the center red.
I've now completed 5 blocks and still have quite a ways to go.

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times so stop by and see the amazing work on the wall this week.

Tuesdays Tomes: In the Bishop's Carriage by Miriam Michelson

2011-06-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

In the Bishop’s Carriage by Miriam Michelson

Nance Olsen is in love. She’s so in love with Tom Dorgan, she picks pockets for him. When we first meet her she’s just picked a nice pocket watch from a fat man in the crowded train station and is hiding out in the Ladies Waiting Room. She sees a policeman looking in so she darts off to the inner room where ladies can have their traveling coats brushed and even small repairs done by the attendants. She hangs up her coat and hat and then:

“Oh, it was long; long enough to cover you from your chin to your heels! It was a dark, warm red, and it had a high collar of chinchilla that was fairly scrumptious. And just above it the hat hung, a red-cloth toque caught up on the side with some of the same fur.

The black maid misunderstood my involuntary gesture. I had all my best duds on, and when a lot of women stare it makes the woman they stare at peacock naturally, and -- and -- well, ask Tom what he thinks of my style when I'm on parade. At any rate, it was the maid's fault. She took down the coat and hat and held them for me as though they were mine. What could I do, 'cept just slip into the silk-lined beauty and set the toque on my head? The fool girl that owned them was having another maid mend a tear in her skirt, over in the corner; the little place was crowded. Anyway, I had both the coat and hat on and was out into the big anteroom in a jiffy. …What nearly wrecked me was the cut of that coat. It positively made me shiver with pleasure when I passed and saw myself in that long mirror. My, but I was great! …As I ran down the stairs, its influence so worked on me that I didn't know just which Vanderbilt I was.”

Nance is out of the station but she’s still worried about that policeman. She sees a carriage waiting out front and just ducks into it with the sleeping coachman completely unaware. Then the Bishop comes…

“He was a little Bishop, not big and fat and well-kept like the rig, but short and lean, with a little white beard and the softest eye -- and the softest heart -- and the softest head. Just listen.

"Lord bless me!" he exclaimed, hurriedly putting on his spectacles, and looking about bewildered. I was slumbering sweetly in the corner, but I could see between my lashes that he thought he'd jumped into somebody else's carriage. The sight of his book and his papers comforted him, though, and before he could make a resolution, I let the jolting of the carriage, as it crossed the car-track, throw me gently against him. "Daddy," I murmured sleepily, letting my head rest on his little, prim shoulder.

And so Nancy Olsen meets the Bishop and begins to mend her ways. Not immediately and not easily but definitely.This is a wonderful book, beautifully written and with a host of enjoyable characters. A 1904 best seller, In the Bishop’s Carriage caused quite a stir at the time of publication because of the morals and ethics of the heroine and narrator, our Nance. I found Nance quite believable as she struggles to figure out right from wrong, what does loyalty mean and when is it misplaced. I just loved the opening-what can clothes do for a person? Can they change how we perceive ourselves and want to live up to the image we’ve created?

Cheerfully read by Lee Ann Howlett, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

In 1913, In the Bishop's Carriage was made into a silent film starring Mary Pickford. Unfortunately, it is presumed lost.

This and That Sewing

2011-06-17T00:19:00.000-07:00

I've basted the embroidery Mystery quilt and its ready for machine quilting...I'm still working out in my mind what I'll do. I had a little fun with the back: a bar quilt! Its hard to see in the photo but the black fabric is really a reproduction black/gray print.I also finished hand piecing the little circles that I started in Boston...still thinking about what to do with them.
I did this little embroidery using chain stitch-I haven't ever done much with chain stitch and it was fun. I think I'll frame it. (I don't know why it came out quite this bright-its a batik but its really not this garish!)
I've been quilting at the frame but now I have a dilemma. I use Mettler 40 wt. thread for all my hand quilting. While I was in the US I grabbed two spools of Mettler white for this quilt but now I see I grabbed the wrong thread-the 50 wt. silk finish regular sewing thread. So either I switch threads in the middle or I order on-line the 40 wt. Yes, I will have to put the hand quilting on hold. Oh my! It really annoys me though because I actually was sitting and hand quilting again finally! That quilt will take two years at the rate I'm going.

That's my this and that sewing. I really need to start a new project. The Jane Quilt triangles are preying on my mind so I think I had better make a start on those-I can baste up the applique triangles and then I'll feel like I'm making progress! :)

Tuesdays Tomes: Frenzied Fiction by Stephen Leacock

2011-06-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

Frenzied Fiction by Stephen Leacock

This collection of short tales contains some hilarious “doozies”. Written by the acclaimed Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock and published in 1918, the humor is different from today’s humor books by someone like Dave Barry. Give these tales a chance-they really can deliver a good chuckle and a belly laugh or two.

My favorites are the first and the next to last. The first, “My Revelations as a Spy” is a spy story of the First World War and trust me it like no spy story you’ve ever read. (I’m smiling and chuckling as I write this.) J

The next to last tale “In Dry Toronto” deals with Prohibition. Now, I never knew that there was Prohibition in Canada. Having lived in Minnesota, I met several people who remembered their grandfathers’ tales of “rum running” from Canada to the US during Prohibition. So what was going on? Well, it seems that Quebec Province was dead set against Prohibition so each province could decide for themselves if they wanted to be wet or dry.

The story begins with our narrator (each story has its narrator) on a train from Montreal to Toronto. On the train, he’s befriended by a man-a true Toronto booster-who takes him around and shows him all the “changes” since Prohibition. This is truly hilarious-you’ll be very surprised by what has and what has not changed!

There was just one story-“The Prophet in our Midst-that I didn’t enjoy…it seems that humor can get too dated and too rambling-at least for me. You may have better luck.

As in the best humor, there are interesting ideas and principles raised and its fun to think that these ideas are almost a hundred years old. How much has changed? Not much.

Perfectly read by Debra Lynn ( in a dead pan way), you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

This month is audio-book month. Stop by Heather’s June 9th post at Books and Quilts for information on audio-book activities and deals this month. BTW, if you're particularly interested in Canadian books and authors, Books and Quilts is the place for you.

Stephen Leacock’s summer home in Orillia, Ontario is now a museum and open to visitors. Find out about the museum and other Orillia fun places here.

Hannah's Quilt

2011-06-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

LOL! Talk about UFOs! My friend Hannah began this sampler quilt 8 years ago! She basted it 3 years ago-planning to hand quilt it. Finally she asked me if I would machine quilt it. She looks very happy that its finally finished!
I used a different design in each block-sometimes a squiggle and sometimes
I followed her markings like in this block and the grid quilting.
I just used a simple 1/4" outline for the sashing as that had been her plan.

Tuesdays Tomes: Being a Boy by Charles Dudley Warner

2011-06-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.Being a Boy by Charles Dudley Warner

Being a Boy definitely fits into the nostalgia genre. Whether speaking in generalities about a New England boy's life on a farm or when calling the boy John as Charles Dudley Warner sometimes does, it is clear that this book is autobiographical. Charles Dudley Warner was raised on a farm near Charlemont, Massachusetts from 1835-1844 (from the age of 6 until 14). He was a lawyer in Chicago for a few years but returning to New England, he is best known as a newspaper editor, including co-editor of the Hartford Courant. He was also the editor of Harper's Magazine. He published Being a Boy in 1877.

The chapters extol the "fun" of being a boy on a farm with all the moans about chores. The delightful remembrance of driving the ox wagon for the very first time in an early chapter is simply wonderful...the adult feelings about the boy hitting the ox with his whip thoughtful. The story of the boy's first party and the description of the games played vs. forbidden dancing is hilarious. (Yes, the games included kissing games!).

We get a peek into the yearly cycle of a 19th century farm including Thanksgiving (with an interesting aside about pumpkin pies), Maple Sugaring, Sundays, Winter School and more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book...it is rare to read a childhood autobiography about the first half of the 19th century. The author remembers a Grandfather who fought in the Revolutionary War! Here's a short excerpt to give you a feel for this book and its unexpected take on things:

" Say what you will about the general usefulness of boys, it is my impression that a farm without a boy would very soon come to grief. What the boy does is the life of the farm. He is the factotum, always in demand, always expected to do the thousand indispensable things that nobody else will do. Upon him fall all the odds and ends, the most difficult things. After everybody else is through, he has to finish up. His work is like a woman's,--perpetual waiting on others."

Exuberantly read by Mark Penfold, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Brand of Silence by Harrington Strong

2011-05-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Brand of Silence by Harrington Strong

This mystery tale, published in 1919, reads like a serial…you know what I mean-cliff hanging endings to chapters, repeating information given in an earlier chapter in a new way, etc. I haven’t been able to find out if this was a serial but the author, Johnston McCulley here using one of his many pen names, was certainly a master of the genre. Johnston McCulley is best known for creating Zorro-first introduced in 1919 (yes, the same year as our tale) in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly but he wrote over 50 books and hundreds of stories-often using different pen names.

Sidney Prale is returning home to New York City after 10 years in Honduras making his fortune. Did he succeed? You bet! He started with $10,000 and now he’s returned with a cool million! He’s looking forward to seeing the city and meeting up with his old friends. But even before the boat docks, odd things start happening.

He goes to his stateroom to finish packing and realizes that someone has been in the room and messed with his things. Nothing is missing but there’s a note pinned to the pillow…”Retribution is inevitable and comes when you least expect it.” Whatever could this mean?

Odd things keep happening…he’s asked to leave his hotel, only one old friend, Detective Jim Farley, is glad to see him, the bank that received his money from Honduras doesn’t want to invest it for him. In fact it wants him to transfer the money that very day! (Now who ever heard of a bank refusing money!)

And then he’s accused of murder!

Besides the obvious murder/mystery plot there are some very interesting insights into finance and money…the value of money and who regards it as important and who doesn’t.

Read by the ever pleasant to listen to Roger Melin, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

Tuesdays Tomes: When Mother Lets Us Cook by Constance Johnson

2011-05-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

When Mother Lets Us Cook by Constance Johnson

This is a charming cookbook for children from 1919 with a ton of recipes and all the tips and rules written in rhyme. The rules are dispersed throughout the book-on the left hand page opposite a recipe.

“Things to Remember”

16 tablespoons make one cup

If milk and or water fill it up;

It takes but 8, heaped full and high,

If what you measure ‘s fine and dry.”

Here’s another very useful rhyme called “Ps and Qs”:

Two cupfuls make a pint; in short

Four even cupfuls make a quart.

And folks have found this saying sound-

A pints a pound the whole world round.

Besides the usual pudding or cake recipes-all very simple and geared for children (there’s a very easy fudge recipe on page 90-it almost sounds too good to be true), there are other interesting recipes.

On page 67, there’s a wonderful recipe for making your own cottage cheese…I’m keeping that one for the next time milk goes off. It’ll be fun to try and I may have a success!

And some “Ever wonder”s are answered!

Ever wonder how Beef Tea is made? (I have-it often comes up in novels and I’ve wondered how it differed from beef broth.) Well, the answer is on page 71!

How about Milk Toast…page 72 tells all.

Neither of these sound particularly appetizing to me but it is nice to finally know how they are made.

I definitely think you should take a look at this charmer…its fun to read. I particularly liked how Constance Johnson tells where to put the saucepan-on the hot part of the stove for example in the fudge recipe-now that is something I never realized. You didn’t just turn up or down the flame on a wood stove-you had to know your stove and know where the hot spots and cooler spots were.

You can read this free e-book on-line or download it in pdf. or Kindle format here.

If you have ever wanted someone to read a cookbook to you, here’s your chance. Kara Shallenberg does a delightful reading of this free audio-book available for download here.

There are some lovely woodblock prints as illustrations throughout the book-this one is the frontpiece.

Mystery Quilt Reveal

2011-05-20T00:37:00.000-07:00

Here it is finally! I'm not sure about the black border...what do you think? I like how the black border brings out the embroideries but I'm wondering if I should use no border and just a narrow 1/4" black binding.

Here you can see better the true colors of the fabrics.
As leader (and designer) of the mystery quilt I told the group that they needed 4 fabrics for the blocks plus one for the embroideries. I chose to use the same fabric-white-for one of the 4 block fabrics and for the embroideries. You can see how this mystery quilt looks with 4 different fabrics here-Barbie @ the Quilt Center posted hers earlier this month-scroll down one post to the May 3 post.

I have the batting...now I just need to decide on the backing and solve my border/binding dilemma. I don't want this to just go into the closet-I want to be inspired by all of you who actually finish your quilts!

Tuesdays Tomes: A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe

2011-05-17T03:41:00.000-07:00

Oops! I scheduled this post while Blogger was having difficulties and I guess it didn't register so here's Tuesdays Tomes on Wednesday!

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.A Sicilian Romance...oh what a tale! If you like romance, mystery, beautiful heroines, a bit of "It was a dark and stormy night" this book is for you.

Ann Radcliffe was the most popular writer of her day (as Jane Austen readers can testify to-Harriet Smith (Emma) was quite fond of The Romance of the Forest and Catherine (Northanger Abbey) couldn't stop talking about The Mysteries of Udolfo).

In this second novel (1790) by Ann Radcliffe, two sweet sisters, Emilia and Julia, live together with Mme. de Menon, their governess and dear friend of their late mother, in their father's castle-the castle of Mazzini on the northern shore of the island of Sicily. Their father seldom comes even to visit-he quitted the castle, taking his son, Ferdinand, with him, soon after his wife's death. He and his second wife prefer the lively times in Naples.

When the old retainer Vincent becomes deathly ill, the Marquis de Mazzini returns with his son, his son's friend Hippolitus de Vereza (that has to be the worst name for a hero ever!), his second wife and various friends and hangers-on.

Here's just a peak at what awaits: Julia loves Hippolitus, he loves her, her father wants her to marry the rich and powerful Duke de Luovo, they try to run away but her father catches them, there's a sword fight...and that is just a bit of a spoiler.

Several years ago, I started to read The Mysteries of Udolfo but I found it so tortuously slow that I gave up. Not here-in A Sicilian Romance the first two chapters quickly set the stage for all the swift moving events that follow.

Perfectly read by Betsie Bush, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

Ann Radcliffe has been called the Mother of the Gothic Novel but in my opinion, that should be amended to the Mother of the Romance Novel. Yes, she excels in the atmospheric and there are certainly enough abbeys, ruins, caves and trap doors in this novel to satisfy everyone but its her touch with young love that I found most endearing.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival-Spring 2011

2011-05-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

It's that time again...time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. I'm a little late to the party but better late than never! :)

I decided to show my Drunkard's Path quilt because it is truly one of my favorite quilts.
I wanted to make a two color quilt, a drunkard's path quilt, and use hanging diamonds quilting since I started quilting over 20 years ago and its all in this quilt. Plus, I really love the way I doodled the free machine quilting-I'm really happy that I doodled right up to the cable.
You can see what I mean in this pix-lots of machine quilting and I love it!

Hop over to Amy's and see all the amazing quilts being shared this week.

Mystery Quilt update: Last block embroidered!

2011-05-14T05:22:00.000-07:00

Was Blogger hacked? I tried to post yesterday and I got a message that Blogger was down. I checked it out and it doesn't seem that Blogger was hacked-rather someone made an "Oops" during regular maintenance. Hope your post wasn't one of those eliminated.I've finished the last embroidery block for the mystery quilt. Its not a great picture because I took it with the block in place with all the blocks laid out on the bed. I've pinned the rows and have started sewing them! This is the large center block-12" x 12". The quilt also has 12 6" x 6" blocks and I actually embroidered 13 which was good because I didn't like how one block came out.

More pix later in the week-the mystery quilt is coming to completion!

Tuesdays Tomes: Life Magazine (featuring the May 31, 1948 issue)

2011-05-10T07:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line. Today is something a little different: Life Magazine free on-line.

Today is Israel's Independence Day so I'm featuring the May 31, 1948 issue of Life Magazine-with that historic photo of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. (page 19)

Of course, there's lots more in the magazine: from joy (Shirley Temple showing off her new baby, page 34) to sadness (Boys Town buries Father Flanagan, page 30). You'll just love the ads too!

Just click here and be transported back to May, 1948. For a history trip or a nostalgic visit to the Life Magazines you remember , click here for a scroll bar linking you to every Life Magazine! The bar is broken up at 5 year intervals so just click on the time you want and there will be all the Life Magazines for those 5 years. Enjoy and thank Google and Google Books for this fun read.

Home Sweet Home

2011-05-09T04:25:00.000-07:00

I'm back home! I'm tired and jet lagged but its good to be home.

The babies were wonderful on the flight and now they're with their other grandparents but we'll see them soon too. DH got to hold them and coo over them at the airport for a bit but he can't wait for more. They're visiting for a month so there'll be plenty of time.

Big news! DS got a wonderful fellowship so he won't have to teach next year...which means that he and DDIL will be able to handle the child care between themselves and we won't be going to the US for the year after all. :( I think that is the very best child care arrangement possible but it would have been fun to be the nannies and fun to be in Boston for the year.

As the babies got a little "older" and quieted down a bit I got to tour around Boston quite a bit and I even went to NYC for a week with DD. I had a great time and did a lot of shopping! :)

Can't wait to "wake up" from this jetlag and get into my sewing room...lots of unfinished projects await me plus I have a lot of new ideas (and even a bit of new fabric) to play with.

Tuesdays Tomes: Jill the Reckless by P.G.Wodehouse- A Romantic Comedy

2011-05-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

Sorry I missed last week-I was worried that I wouldn't have much time to read while away so I wrote and scheduled a series of reviews but not enough. This past week, I went to NYC to see my daughter so I had a chance to listen to this hilarious book while on the bus...it got a little embarrassing when I'd chuckle out loud!
We first meet our heroine, Jill Mariner, at the theater. She is there with her fiancee, Sir Derek Underhill, MP, his disapproving mother and a childhood friend, Freddie Rook, when she strikes up a conversation with the man sitting to her left. The play is abysmal and the gentleman turns out to be the playwright! He's not only the playwright but another childhood friend...well, maybe friend isn't quite the right word-he used to put worms down her back. (A sure sign he liked her!)

Things go from bad to worse with Jill and Derek, under the undermining influence of his mother and her dislike for Jill's unconventional and independent ways (like talking to the man sitting next to her at the play!)

Derek breaks off the engagement and then Jill discovers that her dear Uncle Christopher has lost her fortune in a speculation. Well, what shall she do? In P.G. Wodehouse fashion-its off to America where Jill's adventures take a happier turn...she joins the chorus of a Broadway show and meets up again with her old "worm tossing" friend, Wally Mason.

I loved having a woman as the heroine of this hilarious Wodehouse tale from 1920 and as usual all of the characters are a riot. Wally is "to die for" he's so sweet but I think my favorite is the rather ridiculous Freddie Rook.

Adding to the fun is the reading by Don W. Jenkins for the audio book available for free download here or you can download the e-book in pdf. or Kindle format here.

Freedom on the Internet

2011-04-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

-We all use the internet all the time. As bloggers from many different countries, I thought that you might be interested in a report that just came out: Freedom on the Net by Freedom House. This report is both a follow up and an expansion on the Freedom on the Net report from 2010 which covered 15 countries-this report covers 37 countries as you can see from the picture of the cover of the report.

You can look at the summary with easy to read charts and graphs and to-the-point analysis here or read the booklet of key findings with more analysis here or access the full report here.

Freedom on the net is such a timely issue with all that has been in news lately about how the Internet has provided an organizing tool for the protests around the Middle East.

Freedom House is an independent organization celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. I guess you would call it a watchdog of democracy. It issues annual reports on freedom around the world, press freedom and now internet freedom.

How did I find out about this fascinating report? DD (Sarah Cook) is one of the authors/editors.

Colonial Embroidery exhibit

2011-04-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely time at the Boston Museum of Arts. I went to see the Colonial Embroidery exhibit with pictorial embroideries...there were about a dozen-about half like the one above done in plain stitch on linen (a counted stitch embroidery like cross stitch and needlepoint but only going up and down) and half on satin and done with long and short stitch. One of these was especially beautiful. I asked about a catalogue but no, not even any postcards. :( You can see a few emore of them on-line here.

One of the most interesting parts of this exhibit was that the curators had identified the embroidery teachers of some of these schoolgirls: Elizabeth Murray and Jeannine (Janet) Day.

I totally lucked out: I went looking through the new reopened American Wing and I actually got to see the Harriet Powers Quilt. Its only on view for a while so if you're in Boston-go see it!

And listen to this: its machine appliqued with a simple straight stitch!! Now that's something you have to see the quilt to know.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Master Mystery by Arthur B. Reeve and John W. Grey

2011-04-19T02:05:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Master Mystery by Arthur B Reeve and John W Grey

“…When inventions threaten to render useless already existing

patents, necessitating the scrapping of millions of dollars' worth of

machinery, vested interests must be protected.

...Brent and his partner, Herbert Balcom, had evolved a simple method of

protecting corporations against troublesome inventors and inventions. They

had formed their corporation, International Patents.

Their method was effective, though desperate.They bought the sole rights from the

inventor, promising him glittering royalties.The joker was that the invention

was suppressed. None were ever manufactured.Hence there were no royalties and

the corporations went on undisturbed while Brent and Balcom collected huge

retainers (from the corporations) for the protection they afforded them."

What a scheme? Who can stop them? Its been going on so long-not only hurting the

inventors but stopping progress!!Little does Mr. Brent know that his young

assistant, Quentin Locke, is actually a federal investigator.Will Quentin Locke

succeed in arresting Brent and Balcom?

Mr. Brent's beautiful daughter, Eva, is unaware of what her father's business

really is but she does know that she really doesn't want to marry Balcom's son-

she's rather partial to her father young assistant.Will Quentin Locke succeed

in winning Eva?

Is Mr. Brent really evil or is he a dupe of Balcom's? How far will Balcom go

to stop Quentin Locke? And who or what is the Automaton??

If this review makes you think of a breathtaking, heartstopping silent movie

serial...well, its because this book is actually the prose version of a silent

movie starring Harry Houdini and the first ever movie robot! Enjoy this fun

romp with ever more death defying feats as a free audio-book (perfectly read

by Roger Melin) or a free e-book in pdf. or kindle format or watch below the

first installment. (You can see all the rest by following the links on the

YouTube page.) Have fun!

Touring Boston!

2011-04-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

It hasn't been all babies-all day...I've done a bit of touring too.

My cousin Diane, her friend and I went to out to Salem to the beautiful Peabody Essex Museum to view the wonderful Chinese house there. This house was completely dismantled and reassembled with all the family's belongings! Its simply wonderful. I don't know if I'll ever get to China but I now feel that I've taken a step in Chinese History.

You can view the house on-line here with wonderful explanations.

I also did half of the Freedom Trail...why only half of a walk that is really not very long-well, I kept stopping into all the museums along the way including the Old State House.
And I've got a complaint! :) They had Paul Revere silver pieces on display and they were tarnished-tarnished black! Really!

I also spent a long time in the fascinating Granary Burial Ground. Reading the tombstones was just so interesting as was looking at the skeleton/angel heads and noting when the change came about. (Sorry no pictures-these pix are all from the web-I didn't bring my little camera with me this trip.)
John Hancock, Paul Revere and Samuel Adams are all buried here as well as the five victims of the Boston Massacre so when visiting Boston I definitely recommend leaving enough time on the Freedom Trail to stop and stroll through.

I definitely plan on finishing the trail-I've still got lots of time-I already have my ticket to the Paul Revere House!

Hand piecing project

2011-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

I knew I would need something to sew while with the kids, so taking a leaf from Karen at Quilts, etc. I packed a zip lock bag with a hand sewing project. Now I haven't hand pieced in years but I do still know how to do it!

I had all of these rotary cut quarter circles left over from the Drunkard's Path quilt (they were the cut-outs from the not-quarter-circle pieces) in yellow and white. I just drew a line a 1/4" from the edge for my sewing line on the straight sides of the yellow quarter circles...

and sewed away using a simple running stitch. Voila!
(Ooops, voila again...anyone know why I can't delete this twice uploaded picture?)
I'm thinking I could sew whole circles and then applique them to a background...
or do something like this or just use them in the border of a not-yet-designed quilt. Lots of possibilities.
And, of course, I just have to add some baby pictures...here Mika looking very minxish
and Ella in a quiet moment (lots of her pictures came out blurry because she's always on the go!)

Tuesdays Tomes: Star Born by Andre Norton

2011-04-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

Star Born by Andre (Alice) Norton

Generations ago a group of settlers left Earth seeking freedom and landed on Astra. There they met and were befriended by the MerPeople, a race that had been slaves to the Others and on gaining their freedom after the Others violent civil war lived in the seas and in coastal areas near the sea-still in fear of the Others.

Young Dalgard Nordis, a fifth generation settler, and his best friend, the MerMan, Sssuri, are on a trek to the northern lands.

About a hundred years ago, there was a political revolution on Earth (defeating the anti-science/anti space travel Pax) and now once again, man was taking to the stars.

Raf Korbi, small craft pilot, was waiting and hoping that they would find a planet to land on soon. They had been on this spaceship RS 10 for what seemed like forever and no one knew what their fate would be…no one even knew what had happened to most of the RS flights before them. Then the gong sounded-they’d made it-they had found a planet.

I loved the way this book was written-alternating chapters between the adventures of Dalgard and Sssuri and Raf and the Earthmen until of course, they eventually meet up. (Don't be put off by the first chapter and the many descriptions-its just setting the scene and no other chapter reads like that so stick with it.)

Lots of exciting adventures and there are some interesting insights into how people from different cultures evaluate their environment and how after all, evil reveals itself. For me, this book shows all the best of science fiction.

Pleasantly read by the always gentle voiced Mark Smith, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or kindle format here.

Andre Alice Norton wrote more than 300 books and stories. She was a tremendous influence on generations of science fiction and fantasy writers. She is probably best known for her Witch World series but she wrote many other series and singles. (Star Born, published in 1957, is technically the second and last book of the Astra series but it easily stands alone.) She was born Alice Mary Norton in 1912 and changed her name legally to Andre Alice Norton in 1934. She wrote mainly young adventure fiction and thought it would make her more marketable if her readers thought she was an Andre rather than an Alice! (This was not so unusual-I’m sure you can think of other women writers who adopted male names). I enjoyed this so much that I’ll be on the look out for more books by Andre Alice Norton.

Baby quilts

2011-04-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

I finished the two baby quilts for my new granddaughters before I got on the plane...even the bindings were finished!

I've been wanting to make a coins quilt since I've been seeing them around the blogs...my coins come in all different denominations-some fat, some thin! I quilted it with an automatic stitch on my machine that makes wavy lines in a grid pattern.

I love how it came out...crinkly and it was really quick to machine quilt.

Here's the second quilt:

I added the side borders because my blocks used pieces that I had already cut at 5" so the blocks came out a little smaller than in the pattern. I'm really pleased with it. To see the original and get the pattern (very cute, quick and easy!) go here. Thanks Jaimie!

I quilted it too with the same wavy lines but just vertical parallel lines for this quilt. So fast and easy with my walking foot! Both quilts were finished in less than a week!

LOL! I'm such an old granny...there was no pink in the quilt so I just had to use a pink binding.

Here's the back of the coin quilt-little baby foot prints.
Butterflies here.
And here's Mika under her coin quilt....
and Ella under hers.
I'm linking to Finished for Friday at Lit and Laundry and Sew and Tell at Amylouwho.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Spoilers by Rex Beach

2011-04-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Spoilers by Rex Beach

The Spoilers is a “bosom heaving” romantic novel and much more.

Dextry and Glenister rescue the beautiful Helen Chester from the men chasing her and hide her away in their room on the boat taking them back to Nome, Alaska and their gold mine on the Anvil Creek, The Midas, for the summer prospecting season. Roy Glenister falls hard for Helen but can he ever win her? Can she ever forgive him for:

“He stood over her, tall, virile, and magnetic… She was staring up at him unaffectedly, so close that the faint odor from her hair reached him. Her expression was simply one of wonder and curiosity at this type (of man), so different from any she had known. But the man's eyes were hot and blinded with the sight of her, and he felt only her beauty heightened in the dim light, the brush of her garments, and the small, soft hand beneath his. The thrill from the touch of it surged over him--mastered him.

"What I want--I take," he repeated, and then suddenly he reached

forth and, taking her in his arms, crushed her to him, kissing her

softly, fiercely, full upon the lips. For an instant she lay

gasping and stunned against his breast, then she tore her fist

free and, with all her force, struck him full in the face."

Little does Glenister suspect that the woman he so deeply desires has had a hand in helping McNamara and her uncle, Judge Stillman, steal the Midas right out from under him and Dextry and by using the Law to do it. They put up a claim jumper to state that the mine was his (which they knew it wasn’t) and then said that the mine had to be put into the hands of a receiver (McNamara) while it was all sorted out. The gold was to be deposited into the bank for now but the only ones with rights to the bank account were McNamara and the Judge.

This is a true story! Well, I don’t know about the romance but the attempt to steal and control the Anvil Creek mines is part of the historical record. You can read more about this and the real scoundrels Alexander McKenzie and Judge Arthur Noyes here.

I enjoyed this rollicking story, both the romance and the intrigue. Rex Beach wrote this in 1906 just a few years after it all happened (he was in Nome and witnessed all the shenanigans) but for us it’s an enjoyable historical novel. You may have seen the movie “The Spoilers” with John Wayne, Randolph Scott and Marlene Dietrich loosely based on the novel.

Perfectly read by Tom Weiss, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf or kindle format here.

For some wonderful photos of Nome at the time of this story, click here and here.

Tuesdays Tomes: The Blue Lagoon by Henry De StacpooleVere

2011-03-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole

I’m not sure what’s going on here…I’ve never taken a long ocean voyage nor have I been to the South Seas but here I am reviewing another shipwreck story. This 1908 book is quite different from The Coral Island which was a simple adventure story; for here there are interesting philosophical asides and speculations on the nature of love, religion, and nature. The author, Henry Stacpoole spent more than 40 years in the South Seas as a ship’s doctor and his ruminations are thoughtful. One I particularly liked:

“Memory cannot produce a picture that Imagination has not retouched; and her pictures, even the ones least touched by Imagination, are no mere photographs, but the world of an artist. All that is inessential she casts away, all that is essential she retains; …She is a painter, but she is also a poet.”

The basic story is that young Dick (about 7), his cousin Emmeline (6) and his father are sailing to San Franscisco from Boston when their ship must be abandoned due to a fire. They end up in separate boats, the children with one of the deckhands that had befriended them aboard ship while the father is with the Captain. The boats get separated with the children and Paddy eventually arriving at a small island (the father is rescued by a ship). I enjoyed Paddy, he is wonderfully portrayed and I think the most defined character in the book. I especially liked his way with the children and there’s a lovely bit about him making a new skirt for Emmeline.

We watch the children grow up on this island-no early rescue, no pirates -simply their daily life and how they deal with both the good and the sad that happens.

This highly intelligent book, wonderfully read by Adrian Praetzellis, can be downloaded as a free audio-book here or as a free e-book in pdf. or kindle format here.

LOL! Check out the last names and there’s one plot error at the end of the book-see if you catch it.

Drunkard's Path Quilt Finished!

2011-03-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

This quilt was put on hold for so long but its now finished! Completely quilted and bound! In the end I was so pressed for time I quilted simple parallel lines 1/2" and 1" apart as the final border quilting.
As good as the front looks, I think the back is just gorgeous! Its hard to see in the photo but the triple ring "flowers" just appear out of nowhere in the midst of the hanging diamonds and I just love the look. I'm glad this quilt isn't going anywhere but on our bed.
Here's the quilt folded on a chair. You can see the four different quilting designs I used: the parallel lines, the cable, the hanging diamonds crosshatching and the triple circle free motion design.

You can see my tutorial for using Marti Mitchel's rotary cutting templates for the Drunkard's Path here.

Special thanks to P at The Way I Sew It: seeing all your free motion design experiments inspired me to have a go with the triple ring/circle design and I'm so glad I did. It took a long time and used a ton of thread but oh, it looks so good! I'm definitely starting to love machine quilting.

I'm linking up to Finished for Friday at Lit and Laundry and Sew and Tell at Amylouwho. Hop on over and see all the wonderful finished this week.

Beginning Two Bright Modern Quilts

2011-03-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

There's been some exciting and unexpected news: I'm off to Boston next week! A shout-out from the kids is why. Tali's Mom has been with them since the twins' birth but she's leaving on Sunday...I'll get there on Thursday...they want a few days to try it out alone ! (But apparently not too many days! LOL!)

Sooo Jane has been put on hold and I've been having fun making some quilts for the girls. What a pleasure to be just quick cutting and sewing fabric!

I made a quick stop at Moda Bake Shop because I knew I wanted to make a modern quilt and that seemed like a good place to look for a quick and easy pattern. Sure enough, there was just the thing from Jaimie at Sunflower Seeds. I used her block design but I changed the size because I had only just so much of the bright fabrics I wanted to use and a lot of it was already cut into 5" lengths (leftover from a commission quilt I did).
The other quilt I've been aching to make for a while...yes, one of those coin quilts that I've seen just about everywhere. Well, here's my start on it. Its a bit of a mixture of a coin quilt and a string quilt because I've used different width strips! I wanted the twins' quilts to be different and yet the same and I'm getting there-different patterns but many of the same fabrics and the same bright summery feel.
Now its time for the borders and I'll have to work out something for the first one as my blocks are a lot narrower than in the original.

I've also finished the machine quilting on the Drunkard's Path (finally!) and I'm sewing the binding down. Yippee!

Tuesdays Tomes: A Cowboy Romance: The Duke of Chimney Butte by George W. Ogden

2011-03-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays Tomes is a weekly book review of vintage books available free on-line.

The Duke of Chimney Butte by George W. Ogden

This cowboy romance is entertaining right from the get go and is a combination Western, comic novel and romance. Young Agi college graduate, Jeremiah Lambert decides “to make his fortune” and save up enough for a farm by being a peddler of the magnificent “All-in-One” gadget but things don’t go quite as he expected. His sales territory is the Bad Lands and after 15 days and over 500 miles, he’s sold just 7 - houses being very far apart indeed. He’s been reduced to walking-his bicycle! has a flat tire-when he comes across the cowboy camp and his future takes a different turn.

Leaving off selling the All-in-One, he joins up with the cowboys, wins himself a horse, makes both friends and an enemy and gets a new moniker: The Duke of Chimney Butte, usually shortened to just Duke. On Sundays, the boys like to go and race the trains…now they usually race the slower moving freight trains but not Duke, oh no! As he’s flying fast, he sees a young woman cheering him on from the train and waving a handkerchief. His horse speeds up even more and Duke gets his trophy-the handkerchief and a hankering to meet that lady. So off he goes, with his friend Taterlegs to follow the train line and try to find her.

I’m not going to tell you any more and you really need to read it to get all the humor of the bicycle, etc. but just let me say, there’s never a dull moment and there are not one but two girls: Vesta Philbrook and Grace Kerr!

Wonderfully ready by Mike Vendetti, he really has the perfect voice for a cowboy book, you can download this free audio-book here or the free e-book in pdf. or kindle format here.

The most disconcerting thing about reading vintage books is how racial slurs or epithets can suddenly appear. Here the author uses negative “racial” characteristics to portray one of the bad guys (he is part Native American) and has another bad guy utter racial slurs. What was he thinking? Was this an attempt to make them unsympathetic? But how so? We can see the utterer of racial slurs negatively but what about the author’s own use of racial stereotypes? Was he “just following convention” – i.e.,in a Western, the Indians had to be bad? I think I have to read more by this author and see if this comes up again.

BTW, The Duke of Chimney Butte was made into a movie a year after publication in 1921…no moss grew under young Hollywood’s feet-they knew a hit when they read one!