When we visited Biltmore last week, one of the most beautiful rooms was the library. We were told that George Vanderbilt was an avid reader and kept a journal (from the age of 12) of all the books he read and that the total was over 3000. I can't imagine how he read that many books because he didn't have audiobooks! I've kept a log of books I've read since 1996 and the total is 2055. Since I retired in 2010, I average about 110 books a year. I can't imagine how George read that many books in his life because he died at the age of 52.

There's never enough time for all the books!

This month I finished 9 books, which is pretty good given that I had about 10 vacation days in September. I had a record 3 DNF (did not finish) books but I didn't waste too much time with any of them before I called it quits.  Of the books I finished I'd say that Gods and Kings and Spirit Crossing were my favorites. A History of Private Life will be a tough read for 99% of people but I really enjoyed it.

​What good books have you read this month?

DNF 
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips - I think this is probably a good story but I didn't enjoy the telling of it. I gave it a couple of hours and then gave up.

River Horse by William Least heat-Moon - We met a really interesting guy in a pub in Maine and got to talking about books. He recommended this one so we thought it would be a good car listen for the ride home. It wasn't. It's about a cross country trip by river and it's really dull. 

​All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy - I think this is considered classic western and it received rave reviews. I just didn't hold my attention.
​

The Plinko Bounce 
By Martin Clark, Read by David Aaron Baker and Morgan Hallett

Andy Hughes has been a public defender for 16 years and the job is pretty boring and routine representing the poor souls of his small county. But then in 2020 he's assigned the case of Damien Bullins. Bullins has been charged with the murder of Alicia Benson, the wife of a wealthy businessman. Damien even admitted to the murder.

But a couple of mistakes by the investigators send the case on a different trajectory and Bullins might escape punishment.

I read my first Martin Clark book, The Legal Limit, because it's set in the area where I grew up, Henry and Patrick Counties in Virginia. Both books are legal thrillers and good stories. I'd take a star off of this one only because it has the pandemic theme running through it (social distancing and mask wearing) and, frankly, it doesn't age well. If I were an author that wrote all that into a book, I'd go back and edit it to remove those elements. In this book it's not a burdensome element but it's totally unnecessary to the story. If you happen to be an Audible member and want to try out this author many of his books are free for downloading.

A History of Private Life, Vol I: From pagan Rome to Byzantium, Edited by Philippe Aries and Georges Duby

OK, stick with me for a moment.  I like shopping in second hand bookshops and I tend to buy mostly non-fiction books. I prefer reading history and non-fiction in paper mode.

I picked up this book and another in the series for $2 each at a bookstore a few month ago. I had low expectations but thought I'd give it a try. At the time I didn't realize that this is one of a 5 book series. I bought books 1 and 2. A friend has book 3.

It's a surprisingly interesting book! It's about exactly what the title says: the private lives of citizens. It covers relationships, family structures, housing, spirituality and other aspects of the lives of individuals. I'm looking forward to starting volume II

Spirit Crossing
By William Kent Krueger, Read by David Chandler

This is #20 in the Cork O'Connor series and I think this series benefits from being read in order.

We started our drive home from Maine with the DNFed book mentioned above, River Horse. We quickly switched to this and it carried us until about 15 minutes before we pulled in the driveway.

Young Waaboo, Cork's grandson, stumbles upon a shallow grave while blueberry picking with the family. While there Waaboo speaks with the spirit of the girl. It's thought that she is a missing young Ojibwe woman but the state authorities are only interested in the missing daughter of a prominent politician. Cork works with the Tribal police to investigate the case and they discover that there might be a link to the missing white girl.

Meanwhile, Cork's daughter Annie has returned for her brother Stephen's wedding and has a secret of her own. Stephen and his fiance are involved in a pipeline protest on supposed sacred land. 

It's fast paced and contains a lot of native mysticism.

When We Were Enemies
By Emily Bleeker, Read By Carlotta Brentan and Eva Kaminsky

Had I looked at my reading history spreadsheet I would have seen that I read another Bleeker book and I didn't like it. This one was better but was still a struggle for me to get through. 

The basic storyline is interesting. In modern day, Elise Branson runs a successful PR firm (and should be smarter than her actions will prove). She is engaged and her wedding coincides with a documentary about her celebrity grandmother, Viviam Snow. Elise's wedding preparations, thanks to her narcissistic mothers' meddling, are now part of the documentary and Elise will be married in the chapel on the base where Vivan worked during WII.

The story goes back and forth in time to tell Vivian and Elise's stories with one particularly unbelievable parallel involving priests. 

This book is a lot better than When I'm Gone, which I hated. But I found both Elise and Vivian to be unbelievably naive given their life histories. It was too close to a romance novel for my tastes.

Gods and Kings
By Lynn Austin, Read By Suzanne Toren

​I can't remember where I heard about this book but I know it's been in my library for many months. This is the first book in a 5-book series, Chronicles of the Kings. The series is a retelling of Bible stories about the Kings following the death of King Soloman in 931 BC.

I'll be honest, I don't know the Bible but the reviews say that the stories are true to the writing. Austen has the luxury of making some rather bare bones stories in a rich novel with complex and interesting characters. In this novel, King Azah of Judah has aligned with eh Assyrians and instituted polytheism. His son, Hezekiah, is still a believer in monotheism.  

It's not "religious" in the way you would think. It just a re-telling of a Bible story. It read more like Follet's historical fiction novels. The characters are really well developed and the story kept me interested. At the beginning it was a little challenging to keep track of the unfamiliar names but it didn't take too long to settle in and know all the characters.

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
By Naida Hashimi, Read By Read By Gin Hammond

TLDR: If you are a woman born in the West, be very grateful.

Kabul 2007: Rahaima and her sisters cannot go to school and there are no boy in the house. Their father is addicted to opium so Rahima must follow the custom of bacha posh that allows her to dress and be treated as a boy until she is mature. 

100 years earlier, her Great-Grandmother Shekiba followed the same custom when she was orphaned.

It's an interesting book but it moves at a bit of a slow pace. The crux of it is that nothing much has changed in Afghanistan in 100 years. It still really sucks to be born a woman there.

You'll Never Find Me
By Allison Brennan, Read By Hillary Huber

This is the first (and, so far, only) book in the Angelhart Investigations series. Margot Angelhart is a private investigator who is estranged from her family PI firm since her father went to jail. She's working a cheating husband case when things take a twist and her brother shows up on one of her scenes. Her case seems to be connected to a case of corporate espionage.

It's an easy listen but has one annoying feature. Almost ever scene includes some sort of background. It might be a story from childhood, a broken love affair, bits about the family rift, or some mundane memory about a house. 

I've looked back in my reading log and I've read Brennan twice before and, it seems, that I'm not really a fan of her work. It definitely has a audience and I'd say it's people who like their mystery books one step beyond a cozy mystery. If you like easy mysteries where nothing is too brutal, this is for you.

The Man in the Brown Suit
By Agatha Christie, Read By Gabrielle deCuir, John Lee

For out trip to Asheville we decided to listen to an Agatha Christie mystery during our ride. It got us to Asheville and within an hour home. It was perfect. You really can't beat Agatha Christie for a good mystery. I've only read one other Christie novel but I really should read more.

In this one, Anne Beddington is recently orphaned  and move to London to live with her late father's solicitor. While waiting for the Tube she witnesses a man fall off the platform onto the rails and dies. A man in a brown suit pretends to be a doctor and declares him dead. The police declare it as an accidental death.

Anne isn't so sure and starts investigating on her own and finds herself involved in a risky situation involving stolen diamonds.

I'm going to hang out with my friend at the river for a couple of days but I did get this top sewn together before I left. I'll be back Monday and will probably get this quilted next week.

​Have a great weekend!

Well, that was a VERY quick trip. We planned three nights (two full days) but had to leave a day early due to the storm. I'm so glad we decided to leave a day early! It involved 4 hours of driving in the rain but if we would have stayed we would be stranded there now without power. I just hope that my cousin and my friend, Carole, are doing OK.
Let's start with the last event before we came home!
​

I got to meet Carole from My Carolina Home Blog! We had planned to meet at the Asheville Quilt Show Thursday morning but the quilt show was canceled for that day. (Now it's been totally canceled.) She then suggested a local coffee shop but that was closed too! There was a covered eating area outside so we sat there for about a half hour and had a nice visit. Carole is just as nice as I knew she would be! It was such a treat to finally meet her.
​

She surprised me with this! There may be a few of you who don't know that I collect vulture art. It's a long story about how that started but suffice it to say that I appreciate the critical work that they do to keep my environment clean. This will definitely hang in a prominent place in my sewing room! You can see how she made it here.

After that we loaded into the car for a rainy ride home. It rained all the way to the Virginia border but that was nothing compared to what everyone had to deal with in the path of Helene. I'm waiting to hear from my cousin in Asheville and Carole. 
​

That was my third trip to Biltmore and this view is all you need to see to know why George Vanderbilt fell in love with Asheville. The property is still owned and managed by the family. The tour is excellent and the grounds are beautiful.
​

It's famous for the Christmas tours. I've been at Christmas before and we got a sneak peek of the decorations for this year. Decorations were done in the basement and in progress on the second floor. 
​

In the gardens they were busy planting 5000 Mums along with hundreds of cabbages and pansies.
​

We also went to the Chihuly exhibit in another building on the grounds. It was smaller than what I've seen in other locations but still beautiful. 
​

Here are a few more photos from the Chihuly exhibit.
​

and finished the Fab Farm quilt top this weekend. I really just don't love doing sashing and borders so I always procrastinate finishing a quilt. It was time to buckle down and get this one done. I absolutely love the quilt and now I need to think about dyeing a quilt back.
​

With the quilt top done I could put up the veterans quilt blocks on the design wall. This is going to be a fine veterans quilt but, I have to admit that it's not one of my best quilts. There's not enough value difference in some of the blocks. Once it's quilted with some stars and ribbons, it will be improved. I'll look at the arrangement for a couple of days. I won't be sewing again until the weekend, after Mom and I get back from our little adventure.
​

The truth about my weekend is that I was more interested in crochet than sewing. After finishing the blue blanket I needed to start a new blanket. I have way too much yarn, all of it purchased on sale, so I have a lot of options. I decided to do this pink yarn because I already had a pattern picked out. I made this blanket 3 years ago with the same yarn in blue. It's a pretty and easy pattern, perfect for watching TV. During Saturday football I got this started.
​

During Sunday football I worked on the hat yarn that I pulled out a couple of weeks ago. These are made from 6 weight yarn and I had enough for 3 hats. This is the pattern that I used with an L hook. It only takes about an hour to make one of these hats but I won't buy 6 weight yarn again but these will be toasty warm for someone.
​

Next I will work on emptying this bin of 5 weight yarn. The pattern is basically the same, just written for 5 weight yarn. I think I might get 8 - 10 hats from this bin.

Today I might have time to put the veterans quilt together. We leave for Asheville Tuesday so if I don't post tomorrow, I will not post again until Saturday.

I finished my big blanket! This is a charity blanket and finished about 48" x 58". I really like how it turned out and it did a fine job of using up a good chunk of yarn.

​I've made this pattern twice before here and here.
​

If you are looking for a quick gift or donation blanket, this one is awesome. Once you get going you can almost crochet without looking at your stitches. It goes very fast.

Now to find my next blanket project.

I really enjoy my monthly sewing days with my quilt club. Spending 2 days sewing with friends with no other distractions is so much fun.
This will be my next veterans quilt. It has 20 blocks and I got all of the blocks made. Once I get Fab Farm off the wall, I'll get these blocks on the wall and sew the top together.
​

I had time left over to start the next quilt. I made this once several years ago and I really loved it. When I have hand dyed scraps left over from a project I tend to cut them into shapes using my GO cutter. I finally had enough 4" HST triangles to make another one.

I need 180 4" blocks for this quilt. I got 80 blocks sewn together and the rest are paired and ready tos ew next month.
​
Today I'm visiting with friends so I probably won't get any sewing done. I'll have Saturday, Sunday and Monday to get the 2 quilt tops done and then Mom, my cousin and I leave for Asheville Tuesday. We're going to visit our other cousin and I'm going to get to meet Carole!

Yesterday was a sewing day with my quilt club. I made good progress on a new veterans quilt and left without taking a photo. I might get the top done today.

Meanwhile, the past couple of evenings I've been cutting fabric and grosgrain ribbon for surgery drain bags. I didn't plan a specific number, I just cut some unloved fabrics until the fabrics were gone and ended up with 130. I've got turquoise, black and gray ribbon for the straps.

I will not make all of these in one session. I'll work on them when I'm between other sewing projects over the next several months. The charity is always asking for these so I know they will be happy to get them whenever I get them done. This is the pattern that I use, except that I replace the straps with an adjustable ribbon. But I expect that there are lots of other free patterns around the web. It's a great project to use up some unloved fabric because I'm sure they get tossed as soon as the patient has their drain removed. I expect they get pretty nasty from repeated use in the shower but I'm also sure that the recipients appreciate them. 

Yesterday I had the first of 3 training classes for working the voting precinct. Yesterday's class was about working the early voting center. I still have a class on opening and closing the precinct poll book (the database of registered voters) and a class on security and situational awareness. You would be shocked at the number of forms and audit steps that we go through in a voting precinct.

Back in the sewing room, Fab Farm is now in two halves. I have to add that center sashing and the border and it will be all together!
​

Progress on Fab Farm is probably stalled until Friday because today and tomorrow are sewing days with my quilt club. That's where I work on my veterans quilts and I'll start this one today.
​

Yesterday Mom and I had to get up really early for a routine test for her. All went well and by the afternoon I was in the sewing room. I got all of the horizontal sashing done between the blocks.

​Today I have my Officer of Elections training. We have new poll books this year so that should be interesting.  I'll get back to this when I get home in the afternoon.

It's so good to be quilting veterans quilts again. This one was made by Glenda (Mom) from batik fabrics that she inherited from a friend. 
​

If I remember correctly, this one was made by Sharon.
​

Both of these are quilted with the Square Spiral pantograph that was first published in 2002! It's still one of my favorites. 

I'm making an attempt to use up my stash of variegated threads. I don't use them on my personal quilts anymore but they are still perfectly good threads. I used the pink on the quilt I posted Saturday and the green/purple on these 2 quilts. I'm happy to report that there's not enough green/purple thread left to quilt another quilt! I'll use the rest of the cone for basting quilts.
What in the world every prompted me to buy that thread?
One more cone emptied. About 500 to go. Maybe not 500, but it feels that way.
​

Yesterday was football day so I got my crochet on.
​

I even had a few minutes to start cutting sashing for Fab Farm and started sewing. This should come together this week since the trip we planned was canceled.
​