What a weird reading month. I only finished 4 books and that's because I wasted time on 3 others. I've never given up on 3 books in one month. Of the 4 books I finished I can't say that any of them have a chance at my 2025 top 10 list. If I have to name a favorite, I'd probably pick Glorious Exploits.  The Stolen Queen was the most fun.

If you are wondering how I can find so many undesirable books, it's because I spend too much time watching book reviews on YouTube. Every one of these were BookTube recommendations. I probably need to spend less time there.

Tell me the good books that you read this month. Your recommendations are more reliable! 

DNF Books:
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr - I was so looking forward to this one because I loved All The Light We Cannot See. This one was too hard to follow with frequent hoping between 3 time periods. It would have worked well done sequentially.
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue - A mystery set in 1876 San Francisco. Might have been interesting with some serious editing.
Hula by Jasmin Iolani Makai - I think this would have been interesting to read in paper but, in audio, I couldn't keep up with the Hawaiian names and language.

Code Name Helene
By Ariel Lawhon, Read By Barrie Kreinik and Peter Ganim

TLDR: Historical fiction novel about an amazing WWII heroine told in an unnecessarily disjointed way.

Nancy Wake was born in Australia but in 1936 she was a journalist living in Paris and writing for the Hearst corporation. She married a wealthy businessman, Henri Fiocca. When Germany invades France, Henri goes off to war and Nancy becomes an ambulance drive. The eventually turns into a job working with the French Resistance delivering messages and helping people escape. 

As the war continues, she finds herself in the British Special Operations and is parachuted back into France to assist behind the lines. It's an absolutely amazing story and, even in novel form, most of the events are factually true. Some have been compressed in time or changed in other minor ways to make the narrative move better.

The characters are very rich and there are a lot of them, most with multiple names. That would be OK but the narrative structure made this book hard to keep up with. It jumps back and forth in time from her pre-war life, her early war assignments to the SOE assignments. It is completely unnecessary and really takes away from Nancy's story. I can't imagine why the author did the book this way. I read another of her books, The Frozen River, last month and it was a much better narrative. This is a story work reading but I'd recommend reading a paper book so you can easily refer back in the book.

Glorious Exploits
By Ferdia Lennon, Read By Ferdia Lennon

TLDR: Read it in paper, skip the audio version.

It's the Peloponnesian War and the Athenians have invaded Syracuse. Syracuse beat them back and have take the Athenian hostages and out them in a vacant mine to be starved. Enter Lampo and Gelan, two unemployed potters who love poetry and are bored. The decide to visit the Athenians in the mine and bribe them with food just to hear lome lines of Euripides. Eventually the get the idea to put on Medea with the Athenians as the actors.

The soon learn that this whim is going to be more difficult that thought and will set some very dangerous events in motion.

I think this is a very unique and fresh story and it's gotten a lot of great reviews and promotion on BookTube. The problem I have with it is the author's narration. He has a beautiful Irish voice but it comes off as too "Dumb and Dumber" for me. 

The Dunsmuir Saga
By Terry Reksten

TLDR: This is for people who love Canadian history or industrial history or histories of famous families.

This is a book that I picked up in a library book sale for $2. It's clear that it had never been opened and that's too bad because someone missed an interesting read.

Robert Dunsmuir immigrated to British Columbia, Canada in the 1850's from Scotland. He was from a mining family and started working in the coal mines near Vancouver when he arrived in BC. He eventually owned his own mines, was instrumental in the expansion of the railway and became one of the richest men in Canada. The book tells of how Robert built his wealth and how succeeding generations were unable to preserve it. It's a common story but still interesting.

There was one interesting little factoid. Robert's son James was sent to Virginia for his education. He went to the school that became Virginia Tech for his mining degree.

The Stolen Queen
By Fiona Davis, Read By Linda Jones

TLDR: A good easy historical fiction centered on the MET Gala and Egyptian artifacts. 

Fiona Davis writes good, easy historical fiction and it was refreshing after 3 DNF books in a row (see above). I was happy to hit on one that I could happily complete.

In 1936, 19-year-old charlotte Cross is offered a position on an archaeological dig in Egypt. It's the perfect trip until tragedy strikes and she returns to New York City alone. Eventually she lands a job at the Metropolitan Museum working in the Egyptology department. In 1978, Charlotte is still at the museum when she meets 19-year-old Annie Jenkins. Annie had landed a coveted job as an assistant for Diana Vreeland as she's organizing the Met Gala. Because of the fervor around the King Tut exhibition, the Gala theme is Egypt and Vreeland wants to use an ancient collar as part of the fashion display.

The night of the Gala goes horribly wrong when another rare antiquity goes missing amid chaos at the Gala. Soon Charlotte and Annie are off the Egypt to look for the stolen artifact.

There's nothing realistic about this story unless you believe that artifacts can be verified in a few hours but the characters are nice and everything wraps up beautifully at the end.

I finished another crochet project this week! This is a donation shawl that I made with 1 1/3 Caron Cotton Angel Cakes. The yard is a cotton/acrylic blend. I didn't really love working with the yarn but I think the shawl will be comfortable enough. 

I have one more cake of this yarn. I bought all of it on sale several years ago. I gave some thought to donating this but have decided that I need to use it up. There's not enough for a shawl like the one above but I think it will work in this pattern on YouTube. I'll get it started this weekend.
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The other project that I'm going to start is a scarf using the yarn leftover from the poncho. I might have enough yarn for 2 scarves. The yarn was expensive enough that I'm determined to use it up.
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In other news, we have another nest! We haven't had a clutch in the second box in a few years. If successful, this will be a Tufted Titmouse family.

Chris is away on his annual golf escape. I'm hiking with some friends Sunday but hope to make some progress on my veterans quilts and my etching project this weekend.
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I had a very social and fun weekend. Saturday I got to see my favorite dog and help her owner hang art. Weesie missed me so much that I might have sneaked her a few too many treats. Apparently she had a little upset stomach later that night.
On Sunday I went on a hike with two other friends. In between I got these two veterans quilts quilted and trimmed. They are ready for binding.

​The next 3 days are relatively quiet so I will get the third one quilted and get started on binding. 

Chris left early yesterday for his annual Myrtle Beach golf trip with a group of high school friends. I admire that he is still so close to high schoolmates. I went to school in a small factory town and couldn't wait to get out. I'm closest to friends that I've made since we moved to Richmond almost 30 years ago. 

So, what do you think I did on my first day alone? Sleep late? No, I had a chiropractor appointment. Sew all day? Nope. I deep cleaned the stove! Crazy, huh? It's been on my list for a few weeks. I decided to get it over with while I had a good book to listen to.

After that I got into the sewing room late in the afternoon and I pieced some end-of-bolt pieces for quilt backs. I got a back made for these 2 quilts and got them loaded.

While I was loading the quilt I noted how happy the mosaic wall makes me. It would be dungeon like in my quilting space if not for that wall. After 8 years, it still makes me happy every day.
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I also pieced a back for this quilt. It's possible that I can have all 3 of these veterans quilts finished by the end of the month. My weekend will not be totally alone. I'm visiting a friend today and hiking with some other friends Sunday, but there should be ample quilting time in the mix.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a drive. Mom and I got in the car and headed to Harrisonburg to meet up with Mary, her sister Deb (art quilter) and their Mom. The last time we met up was at least 10 years ago. It was so much fun to catch up again. Mary lives in Georgia but spends a lot of time in Virginia now so hopefully we will be able to meet up more often.

We met for lunch and then visited the Virginia Quilt Museum and Patchwork Plus, a great fabric shop that's been around for years. On the way home we stopped near Waynesboro to visit some of Mom's old neighbors. It was a really great day.

​It was a treat to visit the Virginia Quilt Museum in their new location in Dayton, VA. In the early 2000's our quilt club was very involved in the VQM. We used to do docent duty on a regular basis but, honestly, it kind of got less and less fun. Until a year ago, the museum was located in a historic home in downtown Harrisonburg. It was a cool house with a lot of history but it required tons of expensive maintenance that, in my opinion, took away from the focus on the quilt collection. I had not visited the museum in at least 6 years.

It was so refreshing to see the museum in its new location. The space is so much more appropriate for quilts and the director gave us a lot of background on how they found the building and about how much better the new arrangement is for budgeting and management. I was very impressed! 

The current featured exhibits are log cabins and miniatures by Amy Pabst.

I was completely blown away by Amy Pabst's quilts! This one, called Sari Not Sari, is 31" x 36.5" and has 31,308 pieces!! I took a lot of (poor) photos that you can see in the gallery below but you can see more photos and listen to an interview with Amy on the VQM Website. Look soon though because the exhibit comes down this weekend. There's a photo with my finger in it. I didn't touch the quilt but wanted to give some perspective in the size.

I got these 2 quilts quilted Sunday but just got them trimmed yesterday. My Mom made this one and it has an interesting history. This started as a UFO quilt top made by my Great-Grandmother. It was a very odd size and some of the piecing was a little wonky. I think it had all been hand pieced and we couldn't come up with a good home for it the size it was. Mom took it all apart, even little piece. The sashing is some fabric that was leftover from a previous veterans quilt backing. How's that for recycling? I think my Great-Grandmother would be impressed!
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I do not know who made this quilt but I think it's really cool.
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It took me a minute, but I eventually figured out that this is the block. It's 4 squares by 3 squares and the squares are 4" finished.
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I also got this top together. I now have 3 of my own veterans quilts ready for quilting. But that's not happening today. Mom and I are off to Harrisonburg to meet up with Mary Quilts and her sister and Mom. We will also get to visit the Virginia Quilt Museum in their new location. It should be a fun day.

I think this is the best crochet project I've ever made. A close second is the Lost Souls Shawl that I made for my friend. Lost Souls stressed me a little but this one was a joy to make from the first stitch. I think that the crochet pattern is really beautiful and it has the look of knit stitches. The stitch is the waistcoat stitch and it was a new one to me. The way it's made looks very much like a knit stitch but it's thicker, of course, due to the nature of crochet.

​The pattern is the Enchanted Crochet Poncho by Brianna K Designs. the pattern is made with a bulky yarn so I had to make some adjustments to make it with a DK weight yarn. I made more neckline rows to get the neckline size I needed and then used the instructions for an extra large size to add more stitches right at the beginning. That worked out perfectly. After a couple of rows of shells, it's easy to keep up with the pattern. I had to do 3 more sets of full shells (2 pattern repeats for each big shell) for my version to get it to the length. 

The yarn I used is Mirason USUN and it's 92% cotton and 8% polyamide. I really like this yarn a lot. I don't think it's actually made anymore but there are some yarn stores online that have a little in stock. I used an I hook.
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I just love the look if this pattern. Brianna has also developed a tote bag pattern using this same stitch pattern.

I don't know if or when I might wear this. I don't really go out to social events very often. But if I get a chance, I'll have it ready! This photo will give you an idea of the length on my short frame. It's doesn't look great with a t-shirt, that's for sure.
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If you have stayed with the post this long, here's your reward. Mama Bluebird is sitting on a clutch of 6 eggs this year.

The Oak Moth quilt is done! I really enjoyed this one. It's a pattern by Pen + Paper Patterns. It's very well written and easy to follow. I used this project to make a dent in my stash of vintage and reproduction feedsacks.
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I used more of the vintage fabrics for the back. 
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I don't have a recipient for this quilt yet but I did wash and dry it to get it soft, cuddly and ready for delivery. It was also good to test the fabrics to make sure the old fabrics would hold up to washing! Everything did well and there was no bleeding.
​If you want to see more close up photos, check out the page dedicated to the Oak Moth Quilt.

This weekend I also finished the crochet poncho and it's being blocked as I write this. But that's not all! I got 2 veterans quilts quilted but ran out of steam before I could get them trimmed. All these projects will be shared later.

If you have been following along with me for a while, you might remember that I make some sort of gift for my family beach trip every year. I've made tied dyed beach towels, beach tote bags, placemat sets and other things that I don't even remember. This year I've decided to make personalized etched glasses. My friend gave me a bottle of etching cream months ago that I've never used. I just needed to create some masks with my Cricut and give it a try. I picked up a couple of cheap glasses from Dollar Tree and played with it yesterday. I did 3 designs to test the ideas and to also test the etching time. After you put the mask on the glass you spread the cream over the etching area you just wait a few minutes, remove the excess cream, wash it off and remove the mask. It couldn't be easier. I tested 3 etching times, left to right, 5, 7 and 10 minutes. There really isn't much difference so I'll probably go with 10 minutes.

I've ordered the glasses that I want and they will be in soon. I might start cutting the masks this weekend for the 14 glasses that I need to make.
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In other news, I finished the poncho yesterday! I need to block it and then I'll share more information and photos. You can see that I have a lot of yarn leftover so I'm searching for a nice scarf pattern that I can make. I'm a little sad to see this project done. It was so much fun to work on. I started in in Tucson in January so it didn't take long at all.

​This weekend I will get Oak Moth bound and get 2 veterans quilts loaded and started on the longarm.

It's so nice to get out of the house to sew. There aren't a lot of distractions and I can just sit and sew. In the last 2 days I got this top together. I have another kit in this pattern so that's what I'll be sewing in May. Now I have 4 veterans quilt tops ready for quilt, 2 are my own. I've got a little over 4 weeks to get them done.
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In April I got all the blocks made for this quilt and brought it home to do the sashing. That's one of my goals for the weekend. I will also get the binding on the Oak Moth quilt.

But first, today I'm going to finish the crochet poncho! Then I'm going to practice etching glass.