Sewing and more reading

 Since my last post my husband finished painting the basement floor on my side so we were able to start setting up my sewing studio.  I’ll show pictures once it is a bit more finished.

Here is a pillowcase that I made.  My brother in law likes Florida sports teams.  So when I went on a FART (fabric acquisition road trip) with several of the ladies from my guild I found this fabric for the Florida Gators.  I thought it was fun and tried to reach my sister to see if she thought it would work.

I didn’t hear back from her until after I had the fabric cut……Gators is one Florida team that is not liked! LOL

So, brother in law won’t be getting this…..it might go to my husband’s grandson (he lives in Florida).

As for the rest of the Gators fabric……well it will probably go into a charity quilt.

I don’t know if you can see it when zooming in on the picture, but the accent band has the word, touchdown, on it repeatedly.  I thought it was a fun touch.

Out guild had a class for making X and + sign blocks.  I wasn’t able to attend the class due to a bad back.  But since I had the directions I started them on my own.

So far I have four blocks done.  I am thinking that I will make 20 blocks for a nice size lap throw.

I am a member of the StashBee swap group this year.  The block for March was a log cabin variation.  Here’s the block that I sent out.  This was a fun block and I may put it on my “to do” list.

It seems like it would be a great way to use up scraps.

I am still reading up a storm.  I’ve finished three books since my last post.

All of them are from authors that I have read this year…two more from Joanne Fluke (I’m up to book 9 in the Hannah Swenson series); and one from Barbara Bretton.

I have enjoyed these books as well.

I was also notified that I won something through the Villa Rosa Designs blog hop…..AND….. I have two entries for one of the Grand Prizes!  How exciting is that!?

Have a great day and a blessed Easter tomorrow,

Sherry V

Oh my, where has the time gone?

 Well, so much for blogging more regularly!  Ha ha ha

However, I have not been idle at all.

Since my last post I have read EIGHT books!

This is the first in a series that my librarian referred me to. It is another cozy murder with a supernatural twist, plus a love story.  It was easy reading and the characters are very relatable.

Since the main character owns a knitting shop there are knitting tips and tricks included at the end of the book.

I have already gotten the next book in the series to read.

I could definitely recommend this series….plus the author has other books so I plan to check them out as well.

Again, a cozy murder series, this one has the main character owning a couture dress shop in Victorian era England.

This was an audio book and the reader was very good.

I enjoyed this book also, although the back story for the main character was hinted at without actually explaining it.  That caused the interaction between the main character and one of the secondary characters seem a little weird.

I would recommend this and plan on reading more books in this series.

Surprise! Not a cozy mystery!

This is the sequel to The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society that I read earlier this year.  It is Christian fiction written by a minister.

I enjoyed both books but feel that the first book was more cohesive than the second.  This book felt a little rushed and not as well written as the first.

When I looked to see if there was a third book in the series I didn’t find any.  However, it seems that both this book, and the first one, are being republished with different titles.  That seems a bit of a “cop out” to me.

These five books are all from the same cozy murder mystery series that I have gotten hooked on.

These were all great and I love how good some of the included recipes sound. I have copied some of them so that I can try them.

I would definitely recommend this series, but I would suggest that they be read in order.  Because of availability I read some of them out of order….and it was a little weird since it felt that I was doing “flashbacks”.

Lest you think that all I have been doing is reading…..

This is a bookmark that I made as an entry for the first challenge from Project Quilting (Kim Lapacek). The challenge was birdhouse.  Since the entry had to be completely finished I had to do something easy since my sewing room is still not done.

These are soap sacks and prayer squares that I have been working on for donation through the Cosby Community Stitchers.

This group is the group that started as a knitting class at our library, Cosby Community Library.

Since the beginning of the year I have made 15 soap sacks and 41 prayer squares for donation.

I have also made 55 granny square blocks.  These are joined into lap throws or blankets for donation also.

This is a sample of a project that will be used in October at the retreat we attend at New Like Island in Frenchtown, NJ. This year the theme is about using up your scraps.

The design was a tutorial that I watched on YouTube….but I can’t remember the name. It is a fun pattern.

The woman who runs the knitting classes also provides card making classes through the library.  These are two of the cards we recently made.

I have loved making the cards and could definitely see myself getting hooked on card making….but since I already have a couple of expensive hobbies I am resisting the urge.

Hopefully my next post won’t be so delayed.

St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and the first day of Spring are right around the corner….hope you enjoy them.

Take care,

Sherry V