I Sewed Something!

In mid July my Mom and I met her Minnesota siblings for lunch in a nearby town to celebrate my aunt's birthday. Afterwards we decided to shop our favorite places there - a perennial nursery and a quilt shop. This morning I decided I HAD to get into my quilting room and came across the package of goodies I snagged that day.

The Stash Baskets pattern was in the 50% section and caught my eye right away. Just imagine having some of those to use instead of boring plastic bins! The shop had the Bareroots pattern stitched up and also had some of the cute little bags sitting around. I thought they would be a great way to use up those mini charm packs that seem to find their way into my shopping cart often.

I have some precuts of both of these holiday fabric lines so was happy to add these from the clearance section and as I was drooling over a gorgeous table runner sample one of the sales women steered me to the kit for an easy sale. There is something to be said for REAL shopping vs. online shipping.

So, about 2 months later I have a few four patches...

and some soon to be four patches laying on my ironing board.

Perhaps this little kit of charms is just what I needed to awaken my Quilty MoJo. I'll be gone until Monday celebrating a cousin's wedding in Dallas so I'll share more next week.

September Goals

I thought long and hard about setting ONE goal for the month:

Just Sew SOMETHING!!!

But I will give it a try with 3 short & simple goals instead.

1.  Do this month's orange blocks for RSC14 and catch up on one prior month.

2.  Start 1 new project.

3.  Finish 1 old project.

My Something New project will be one of these pillows from the book PillowPOP - either Flying Rainbows (above) or Crimson Stones (below). These are the projects chosen for a Sew Along on Threadbias for the month of September. Since I love this book and need some new pillows I had better get on the stick and make one!

My Something Old project will be my Memory Garden UFO so that I can hang it in my entry way this fall. It just needs to be sandwiched, quilted and bound. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm going for small & easy here. This will also be my September project for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

But, most of all, I need to JUST SEW SOMETHING! Pronto. Stat. ASAP.

Summer Reads

After a bit of a layoff I'm getting back on track with linking up to The Bibliophile Files@sarah did it! this month. It seems that all of my travels did a number on my reading in August as I've fallen slightly behind my goal pace according to Goodreads. 

While I used to be able to read anywhere when I was younger I have found lately that I have a hard time concentrating when there are other things going on around me. The car radio, pretty scenery, thinking about the next toll both or the next stop all kept me reading and re-reading the same paragraphs for miles! Or being distracted by sights like this.

A dog in a backpack on a motorcycle on the Interstate in New York... yes, really! And very happy about it too by the looks of things.

In my last Good Reads post on July 15th I was working my way through Vince Flynn's series of books featuring Super Spy Mitch Rapp.  Since then I've finished reading all about Mitch and now am taking a break from that genre (I can only take so much adventure I guess!).

My 4 star reads during July and August were:

• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
• Lost by Michael Robotham
• Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch
• Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (re-read)
• Eat Like a Woman by Staness Jonekos

My favorite was What Alice Forgot - I really enjoyed the premise of the book and the characters were vivid, funny and enjoyable. This was my 3rd book by Moriarty this year and I've liked them all very much.  Lost was a fast moving police procedural with lots of twists and turns. Summer House with Swimming Pool was, like his last book Dinner Party, dark and rather disturbing. Koch seems to write his characters to repel us rather then attract us. But I couldn't put it down and thought about it long after I was done reading it.

Peace Like a River was a pleasure to read... great story, engaging characters and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. I found Eat Like a Woman to be filled with solid information on good nutrition, how women's dietary needs are unique and how to plan balanced meals. I took lots of notes.

So there you have it... 8 months down and 4 to go. Next month I'll show you how my bookshelves are starting to dramatically thin out at last! Miss Elsa thinks I should finish this post and feed her dinner.