Housekeeping

Books

Author: Marilynne Robinson

This initial review came from an older version of my website. No idea of the actual date but the file the review is contained in is dated 2012.

Initial Review: The title came to my attention through an Amazon newsletter. I’d never read the author so thought I would read her first book as a test. The book won a couple of awards, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. I enjoyed the book even though it may be considered a bit dark. I wasn’t certain until the very end whether or not things were going to “turn out okay”, but they did – sort of.

I don’t have much to add to this review. This time through I found the story less intriguing (I really didn’t remember it from the last reading) but the language used was beautiful and I’ll keep it on my shelf for that reason.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Forrest

Quilting
from Little Handfuls of Scraps by Edyta Sitar

This was my October project for sewing with Stacia and Deloise. We decided to take two days for sewing this month and it took me most of two days to get the job done.

This wall hanging is one of the larger ones in the book, finishing at approximately 14.5″ by 21.5″ with 159 pieces.

Cat Napper

Quilting
Pattern from Sallietomato.com

My friend Gail has three cats. One day as we were cleaning off a surface we came across a pattern that she had purchased and we decided to make together.

This is why I thought Louie would like his “tunnel”

On a trip to Calgary I noticed that Louie liked to hide under this footstool. Madison loved to get down on the floor and visit him in his hiding place.

What looked like a relatively simple pattern took us almost a month of Thursday’s to complete. I was able to purchase the cat fabric from Gail’s stash, as well as several of the layers of padding that the pattern called for.

As a bonus I was able to ship the completed project to Calgary on one of Canada Post’s free shipping Tuesdays.

I’m told Louie is happy with his gift.

Blanket for Taylor

Knit & Crochet

I was thrilled when Taylor asked me to make her a new blanket. I was afraid I was done with blankies until I had a great grandchild.

Taylor picked out the yarn and the colours and I placed an order with Michael’s. I used the huge needles (25mm) as tests using smaller needles didn’t work so well. Because a pattern doesn’t show up with such chunky yarn I knit using a plain garter stitch.

Before I ran out of yarn my arms, wrists and hands couldn’t handle the weight any longer so she got a smaller bonus blanket from the remaining yarn.