New Stuff, Including Old New Stuff

I just returned from the library sale at my local library. I found some interesting old books.

I picked up Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, which I read a lifetime ago. Pearl Buck's Kinsfolk, a volume with three John O'Hara novels, and an interesting volume by Hendrick Van Loon on Tolerance throughout history.

I once had all of Thomas Mann's books! I think they were all sold when we left Philly for Michigan. We sold $500 of rare and vintage books to a bookshop in Princeton, NJ. That was a lot of money in 1989! We needed to downsize for the move.

Tolerance is illustrated by the author. I thought it would be interesting to read considering today's worldwide tendency toward intolerance.

Van Loon's name sounded familiar. I did a Google search and learned that when our son was young we had picked up the author's multi-volume set The Story of Mankind! It was let go a few years later. Van Loon is an interesting character, apparently lacking in scholarship and with a definite bias.

This month at the library two of my quilts are hanging! My Autumn Leaves is all made by hand: hand pieced, hand applique, hand quilted, and even hand dyed fabrics. The central image was inspired by the sight of orange leaves against a blue sky, an image that stayed in my memory for years. I used bleach on the leaves and also Pigma pen.

Autumn Leaves by Nancy A. Bekofske

This quilt began as my interpreting pictures of doors in a photo book. I used hand dyed fabrics. I set the blocks in fabrics that looked Autumnal, and then I thought of the Thomas Wolfe quote from Look Homeward, Angel: Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. I printed the quote onto fabric and appliqued it to the quilt. I scanned real rocks onto fabric and appliqued them onto the quilt, then added silk leaves.

Speaking of books, I am currently reading Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore, compliments of A. A. Knopf, and Claire Fuller's Bitter Orange.

 Algonquin Books sent me Sugar Run by Mesha Maren.

And from St. Martins Press I was sent An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.

My TBR galley shelves are full! I am reading Big and Bang and Bomb books...

Big Bang by David Bowerman, an epic fictional consideration of the Kennedy assassination

Quilt Big by Jemima Flendt, creating big quilt block quilts

Atom Bomb to Santa Claus by Trevor Homer, a compendium of American inventions

And waiting are...

Once Upon a River, an atmospheric blend of historical fiction and fantasy by Diane Setterfield, author of The Thirteenth Tale which I have read

A Glad Obedience: Why and What we Sing by Walter Brueggemann on hymnody

Queen Victoria by Lucy Worsley

The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and his Times by Jerome Charyn, recommended by Michael Chabon

Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (After I read Moloka'i which I have had on Kindle for a while)

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts, whose The Eighty-Dollar Champion I enjoyed although I missed last year's much-touted The Perfect Horse. This book is historical fiction about Mrs. Frank Baum1

The Editor by the author of Lily and the Octopus Steven Rowley

Saving Meghan by D. J. Palmer, a thriller

Quilt projects in process: 

I am still hand quilting my Peter Pan quilt.

I need to add borders to my hexie flower quilt April Showers Bring May Flowers.

I decided to add borders to my quilt using the Thistle line printed animals. I don't like the white blocks along the edges. They need a frame to contain them.

During our recent mini-vacation, I worked on these Little Red Riding Hood Redwork blocks based on an 1918 pattern.

And I am getting ready to sew together the quilt for our son! The 18" blocks are all sewn.

My husband had his Edison Disk Player and Victrolia repaired and can now play his 78 record collection!

And he found my 45 record collection to add to the Seeburg Bandshell jukebox!

Some of the records were given to me as a child by my Aunt Alice (Wimoweh and Ride an Old Paint with the Weavers) and mom (Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White and The Poor People of Paris and Love Letters in the Sand) and others are from my teenage collection  (Color my World by Chicago and Flowers on the Wall by the Statler Brothers) or my husband's (My Sweet Lord by George Harrison and Amazing Grace by Judy Collins). Also, I have Kisses Sweeter than Wine and Scarlet Ribbons and Tom Dooley and Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert and Purple People Eater and The Battle of New Orleans and Snoppy vs the Red Baron.

This will fill up the jukebox. Now I can listen to the jukebox or the 78 records while I work in my quilt room.