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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!