WIP, TBR News

Like many quilters, I have multiple projects going on at once. Some in the design stage, some in the sewing stage, and some waiting for inspiration to know how to finish them. I have two with long-arm quilters as well.

I am trying to finish projects. And trying to check off as read books on my TBR shelf as part of NetGalley's #Reviewathon. 

I have conceded I am no longer able to quilt fast enough to keep up with my quilt tops. I just picked up a quilt from the long-arm quilter. It is BIG. The fabrics were from Dear Stella. Now to bind it off!

For a simple pattern, it was not easy for me. The pattern did not work for directional fabrics and I had to make hard decisions.

 the quilting

 The back

I have made four pillowcases and a throw pillow to go with the quilt. And I am making a throw with the scraps!

Here is my latest quilt top finish! I bought the pattern from Bunny Hill several years ago. When I saw this fabric collection from Connecting Threads it all came together in my head and I love the result. I left it with the long arm quilter today.

I caught up with Barbara Brackman's new block of the month Hospital Sketches on her blog Material Culture. I love applique so these are a joy to make. 

See Barbara's post on the project with photos from some of the marvelous quilters participating here.

I finished the just for fun and play quilt with the Jane Sassaman Folk Tales fabrics. My son loves it and it will go to him.

This little quilt includes an antique quilt block in the center. It will soon be on display at our local library.

I have been requested to make a table runner with this adorable print from JoAnne Fabrics.

The flu has been going around in my family. On my birthday we couldn't have a celebration so I treated myself to a trip to the bookstore and purchased The Overstory by Richard Powers and All the Lives We Ever Lived by Katherine Smyth. I have wanted to read The Overstory since it was a galley but wasn't able to get my hands on it. Smyth's book about reading Virginia Woolf is a good excuse to revisit To The Lighthouse.

I am currently reading

• Cold Warriors by Duncan White. I am learning more about the Cold War history than I ever imagined.
• A Polar Affair by Llyod Spencer Davis, an immensely readable and enjoyable history of the study of Penguins.
• The Long Call by Anne Cleeves, a new detective mystery series
• Threads of Life by Claire Hunter, how through history women have used needlework for self-expression and political power
• We Love Anderson Cooper by R. L. Maizes, a short story collection

I need to get moving for these are all books coming out in late August or September, along with Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petinah Gappah which I have not even started!

Then still on my shelf are the galleys for

• Adventure of the Peculiar Protocol by Nicholas Meyer, a new Sherlock Holmes mystery
• Inventing Tomorrow by Sarah Cole, about H. G. Wells
• Broke by Jodie Adams Kirschner, about the housing crisis in Detroit
• The Book of Science and Antiquities, a novel by Thomas Keneally
• A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler, a novel about racism
• Family Record by Patrick Modiano, a novel about how "history influences identity"
• Blow Out, in which Rachel Maddow takes on the fossil fuel industries

I won another book from LibraryThing

• Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights by Dovey Johnson Roundtree. I just started it--powerful prose and story!

I am still waiting for other LibraryThing wins: Falter by Bill McKibben, Archeology from Space by Sarah Parcak, Country by Michael Hughes, and Inland by Tea Obreht. I have been disappointed that these Early Reviewer wins from January, April, May, and June have not been fulfilled.

And from GoodReads I won

• America is Immigrants by Sara Novic

NetGalley is running a #Reviewathon to encourage readers to plow through those TBR lists. I need to get to work!