This wasn't the best month for reading. I spent way too much time on YouTube and I some of my books were just slow to get going. But as I look through my list of 5 books that I finished this month, I can say that I really enjoyed 4 of them.

What good books have you read  this month? I'm looking forward to some good ready for August while we are on vacation. 

DNF - Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo - This is a very interesting story told in an uninteresting way. I know this is one of THE hot books right now but I found my mind wandering throughout the whole thing. I finally gave up.
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Just For The Summer
By Abby Jimenez, Read by a cast

I picked this up to listen to at the beach knowing it was chick lit. I didn't get to it at the beach so I  listened to it while quilting instead. I was pleasantly surprised by this one! I expected something like Emily Henry but it was much better. It's a cute love story but isn't silly and it deals with some serious issues for the characters.

Emma is a travel nurse. After a life in foster care between short stints with her mother, she find her comfort in living out of 2 suitcases. Her dating life is also transient.

Justin has just posted to a AITA Reddit thread about his most recent breakup. It seems that every girl he dates finds her true love after she breaks up with him. Most recently his latest girlfriend found her true love with his best friend. As revenge he adopted the ugliest dog he could find and named it after his best friend, Brad.

Emma and Justin start chatting through the Reddit thread and eventually agree to date for 6 weeks to break the curse. Of course you know how it ends but there are some really surprising twists along the way. I find Emily Herny books to be kind of silly. This one was much better.

The Wager
By David Grann, Read By Dion Graham

In 1741, a battered English ship washed up on a barren island near Patagonia. The Wager had left England in 1740 on a secret mission related to The War For Jenkin's Ear with Spain. In January of 1742 a ramshackle raft arrived on the coast of Brazil. These were some of the survivors of The Wager. Everyone else was presumed dead. But 6 months after that another pile of floating sticks arrived in Chile with 3 more survivors. The stories of their adventures are wild. How anyone survived is a miracle. 

This book isn't going to appeal to everyone. It's history. It's Naval history. That's a niche. But this is an amazing story that reads like a novel. How anyone survived is a miracle. This book had gotten a lot of press and awards and it's all deserved. I also recommend the audio version because the narrator's voice is perfect.

The Authenticity Project
By Clare Pooley, Read By Anna Cordell

Clare pooley writes charming stories about finding community wherever you are. She creates interesting and sympathetic characters and you root for each one.

Julian is 79 and a mostly retired artist. He believes that people aren't honest with themselves so he starts The Authenticity Project. He writes his own story in a green notebook and leaves it on a local cafe. There it's picked up by the cafe owner, Monica, who adds her own story. Over time the book finds it's way into many hands and the people who share their stories find their way to Monica's Cafe and into each other's lives.

​Very enjoyable.

The Friar and the Cipher
By Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

This was one of my sit-outside-and-read books, meaning that I read this one in paper. It's an older book and isn't available in audio. I picked it up from Thriftbooks for a few dollars and I'm glad I did.

The book is supposedly about a particular medieval manuscript, today knows as the Voynich manuscript. It's named for the man who rediscovered it in 1912 after hundreds of years hidden in a library. The manuscript is over 200 pages long and it full of drawings of plants, astrological diagrams and naked women doing tasks. It's completely indecipherable  and has been the focus of cryptologists ever since it's discovery. It is generally attributed to Roger Bacon, an astronomer and friar of the 13th Century. Roger Bacon is not related to Sir Francis Bacon, although the book explores parallels in their writings.

Roger Bacon was a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas and much of the book focuses on their contradicting philosophies of scientific enquiry. Amazon reviewer Clay Garner has a much better summary than I can writer:
"most of the writing is covering the contrast between two versions of scientific enquiry. One, drawn from Robert Grosseteste, (who believed the Bible is inspired from God and should be treated with more respect than even Aristotle) the bishop of Lincoln, through Roger Bacon is explained as a mathematical, inductive, empirical, experimental method. The second, drawn from Aristotle through Albert Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, is a deductive, verbal, logical, mental construct."

If you read The Woman Who Smashed Codes about Elizabeth Friedman and her husband, you be interested to know that they made a cameo in this book. They are among the countless people who have worked for decades unsuccessfully to try to decode the manuscript.

​It was an interesting book on a number of levels. For me, it was the explanation of the foundational philosophies and actions that created our modern educational and research systems.

The Book of Lost Names
By Kristin Harmel, Read By Madeline Maby

Eva Adams is an 85-year-old librarian in Florida and sees a photo of a book in a news article that brings back memories of her experiences in WWII. The photo is of The Book of Lost Names.

The book is a ancient religious text that was confiscated by the Nazis during the occupation of France. The book is particularly interesting because it seems to contain a code that no one has been able to break.

Eva has never told her family about her involvement in the resistance during the war and the actions she took to make identity documents to protect Jewish children. This all happened after her father was taken to Auschwitz. She and her mother avoided being picked up and escaped to Southern France where her artistic talents were put to great use.

After seeing the book, she feels she must go to Germany to see the book and explain what it is.

This book is compared to The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. They are both about women in WWII and, as far as I'm concerned, that's where the similarity ends. This story is a love story told during WWII and out heroine is really crappy at keeping secrets. Also her mother is supremely annoying. Her behavior is unfathomable.  I finished the book but I didn't love it.

I finished off July by quilting 2 more veterans quilts. I only have 2 left to get done before we leave for vacation. I don't remember who made this one but I remember it being presented at show-and-tell. She received the fabrics in the center of the stars as a donation. 
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It's thanks to Peg for bringing me 2 quilt tops so that I could pair them with tops that I had so that I can get all 4 done. Peg made this log cabin and I was able to pair both of these quilts with a blue back.
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I quilted these using the new patriotic pantograph that I bought. It's a good one and quilts up really quickly.

I made some postcards a few weeks ago but I had to wait to share them until Mom got her birthday card. This is the first postcard that I made on the Cricut and I made 2 of them, one for Mom and one for my friend, Cheryl. I painted the fabric with Tsukineko inks. I've had the inks for ages and I don't use them often, But occasionally they are perfect for a project. I added a little stitching in metallic thread.
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I made 2 of these cards for 2 of my brothers. "Shell" was a "thing" on vacation. You know how something silly takes hold and takes over and becomes the theme of the event. Passing around a shell and using "shell" in a phrase or sentence was started by my oldest brother and his wife. It seem appropriate to continue the theme for my brothers' birthdays.
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These last 2 were for friends who weren't feeling well. The one on the right went really well and the vinyl fused down great. the one on the left was more difficult. The base is just too textured but I eventually got it stuck. I hope it held up through the mail!
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It's been 2 weeks since I posted a crochet update and I've made a little progress. The orange marker is where I was at the last update. Now I can see how the stripes are going to look. 
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The baby blanket is moving along too. Can you see the red marker about 5" from the top? That's where I was the last time. 

I just don't make much progress in the summer but it's going to pick up a bit because football season is about to start. I'll have lots of crochet time then. One thing is for sure, I'll probably be taking both of these to Maine because neither will be done in the next 2 weeks.
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How about something that isn't potholders today!  I finished quilting two veterans quilts. I can't say equivocally, but I'd bet a lot of money that this was made by Betsy.
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This one was made by Glenda (Mom). She pulled out every orphan block that she had and put them together in this fun quilt. 

I thought that these would be the last quilts that I quilted before vacation. I only have two tops left but I can't quilt them together. One needs a gray back and one, blue. Yesterday I got an email from peg and she has two tops ready. From the description it sounds like one will work with a gray back and one with blue. I'll be able to quilt 4 more quilts before vacation! There are more potholders coming too.

Yesterday I jumped in to screen the tea towel gifts. I centered the design by marking the towels with lines using washable markers. I matched them up to marks that I put in the sides of the screen frame. You can see that I didn't apply the design centered on the frame. I'll see how well I did in a couple of days.
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I dyed the 4 tea towels along with some shirts. 
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I planned to finish quilting both veterans quilts but I only got through one. I overdid it with my weights in my morning exercise and my shoulder wasn't interested in quilting very long. I'll finish this today.
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There was plenty of time left for the last 6 potholders! I think these are my favorites. This give me a total of 47 but I'm thinking of making a few more. I have some time before we leave for vacation and I don't really want to start anything else.  It doesn't matter how many I make, it's always good to have a gift stash.
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I looked out the front door before dinner and saw that two of the deer have made themselves very comfortable in the front yard.

Today I'll wash out the dyed things, finish the second veterans quilt and maybe plan some tea towels to take to Maine as gifts.

Yesterday I got all of my energy back and was ready to get on with chores and projects. I started the day with laundry and that reminded me that we needed to clear the dryer vent tube. In our house the dryer is almost in the middle of the house and the tube has a couple of angles in it. Periodically we have to disconnect it and blow it out with the leaf blower. It's kind of fun. But this time we discovered the dryer itself was blocked. We unplugged it, pulled it out, removed two back panels and removed a phenomenal amount of lint! I think I could have jam packed a quart jar full of lint. It was a big mess but the dryer works much better now and it didn't cost any money. We've had some expenses pile up lately with a new water heater, new TV and new vacuum cleaner so I really didn't want to buy a new dryer.

I was happy to get back to the potholders and I finished these 8. I have 41 finished and 6 more cut out but I could see myself making more. They are just a good project for my current mindspace and I'm using up a good bit of fabric. For the lining and pockets I can use some fabrics that really aren't great for any other projects.
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I did do some other things too. I had 2 veterans quilts ready for quilting so I got them loaded.

I got the bobbins wound, tension set and a couple of rows quilted. I'll be back on this today.
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Then just before dinner I got an idea for a gift. We're visiting some friends in Beaufort, SC in September and she refers to the place as Skeeter Haven. I decided that I could screen print some tea towels for them (her). I'm going to work on these today too. I think I'm going to use Dye Magnet so I can print before I dye and the image will come out during the dye process.
The Cricut is so much fun for this kind of project. It took me just a few minutes to find that cute mosquito in the library and then add the text.

I don't have to go anywhere so I should be able to get on with all of my projects.

Yesterday was a total recovery day. I was tired! It was a good day to just hang out in my quiet sewing room. I had started these potholders (4 of each fabric) last week and I finished them off yesterday. The ditsy flower print is fabric left over from a quilt back. The other is a sunprint that I created specifically for potholders. 
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This stencil and the chalk pad have really helped. I could quilt these with any variety of "patterns" but the straight lines are easiest....and they are potholder, afterall.
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The chalk lines don't rub off easily but they will as people use them. 
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I got 8 more quilted and pinned and ready to stitch around.

Today I think I'll try to load a couple of veterans quilts. I don't have many to be quilted but I want to get them done before we leave for Maine.

I didn't post this weekend but I have a good excuse. I was exhausted! Chris and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Ella. She was delightful. Saturday (after I had a nap) we were talking about how much we missed her. We took her to her Grandmother's house (also my brother's house) Saturday where we also had an 85h birthday party for my Mom. My cousin came in from Asheville, NC and we got to see one of my nieces for the first time in over 5 years. It was a wonderful afternoon.

This post is about the last items that Ella and I made. She used every available minute and we were cutting out things up until she had to pack to leave. Here are the last 3 tshirts that we made. She wore the "dance" shirt to the party. Her little brother loved his new shirts.
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The special project that we worked on thursday night was a pajama set for Mom for her birthday. It was kind of a last minutes thing so we went to WalMart to buy some pajama bottoms and she designed this shirt as a top. She designed this herself on the Cricut. I think she will be getting one for Christmas!

The big news is that we actually finished the blanket! It's not perfect by any means. I think when working with kids that it's important to accept finished over perfect. It's disheartening to have to frog stitching so I just made repairs as we went along. She really loves it and I have a great photo of her rolled up in it but I don't share kid's photos on the web so I'll keep that one to myself.

It's made with Lion Brand Off The Hook yarn and we used all of 7 skeins. This is a great yarn for kids and people who want to make things fast. It made a really squishy soft blanket but I hope to never use this yarn again.
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We had time left Friday night so we learned how to use the pen and how to cut paper and then she wanted a zipper bag for her backpack. So I got to teach her a little sewing. She mostly liked the knee lift and had it up and down about 100 times! 
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We even added a little tassel to the zipper. We got up Saturday and had an hour or so to kill so we cut some things that she can iron to future shirts. 

Yesterday I actually got to see Ella again. Her parents were planning to tile their backsplash and I offered my wet saw. Then I offered to help. I did most of the cutting while they installed the tile. I was a long day but we got it done! Today I'm exhausted and very grateful that I don't have to grout it. It's going to be a day of cleaning up the sewing room and shopping for a new TV. I might get some more potholders done.

I can't even describe how much fun I'm having with Ella. She is the NICEST kid. We went to the store for snacks yesterday and she pointed out some pretzels that she loves. I told her to get them. She then spent several minutes making sure I knew how much they cost and that she really didn't need them. 
Very sweet.
We started out day with her making me get up! When I came downstairs she was already working on her blanket. But we stopped that and got right to making a couple of shirts. I try to break up the blanket sessions so she doesn't get fatigued with it. The blue shirt is for her brother.
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Next we made shirts for their schools. Eli plays football and his jersey number is 7. They both have their school initials on the front and names on the back.
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through a few session, we have gotten this far on the blanket. It will be 8 blocks tall and we are through 5. We have 2.5 balls to get through today and that's doable. There are lots of mistakes in this blanket but we did a fine job of correcting or covering them up. She's really happy with it so far.

Last night we did a special project. She wanted to make a birthday gift for my Mom. I'll get a photo this weekend. We wrapped it up before I remembered to wrap it. She designed it herself in the Cricut and did a great job. I think Santa already has something on his list for December!

​Today we have 2 more shirts to do, some cookies to make and one special blanket to finish!