almost

I almost sewed some quilty stuff this week...

The AQS show was nearby this week, so I went with my mom.  Some friends who live close invited me on a road trip with them to see it, but I ended up going with my mom instead.  I don't do a lot with her (she's as busy as I am), so it was a good chance to spend some quality time together.

I bought one kit...

My sister-in-law had scoped out this Halloween fabric previously (she loves the holiday) and when I saw the peachy pink and lavendar, I couldn't help but fall in love, too.  We both bought the same kit and it will make the Calabash quilt.

(Maybe I'll make something different, but we'll see...the pattern is pretty simple, but sometimes that is best, despite my apparent love of complex tiny pieces.)

I debated opening and pressing the fabrics when I got home, but I was tired.  And then I worked the next day.  And then we had a bonfire and weenie roast for family the next day.  And then the hubby had a fantasy football draft that I had to help with the next day.  And now it's today and I have a headache, so I think a nap is in order.

Since my last post, other than Monday (when I did sew a little), I've worked both days.  So I haven't had much time to myself.  Some weeks are just like that.

I did squeeze in some catnip mats...

They don't look like much and don't have catnip inside yet, but they're pretty fabric at least!

I have been reading in the down time...first up was a finish that I was nearly through last Monday:

When selecting books from the vast array of used titles on table after table after table at sales, I read the blurb on the back to see if it sounds interesting.  This one alludes to being historical fiction, 500 years ago in Paris, king and queen and witch hunting.

Well.

Turns out it's a romance.  I mean, maybe the cover should have clued me in?  And some books categorized as romance aren't all that romantic or steamy.  This one?  It's got some steamy parts.  Not as a courtesan, as one might expect from the title, though.  It's between the two main characters who are stubborn and foolish.

Turns out it also has a lot more witch stuff than I expected.  That definitely helped balance the rash decisions and romance part and was something I enjoyed learning (if I can trust this author that things are somewhat accurately represented).

Big perk is that there are a number of animals involved and not one dies or is misused.  I hate when books do that.  If it's fiction, you don't HAVE to kill the animal.  More often than not you don't even have to include the animal, so please don't go killing it just for the sake of drama.  (I know they're not real, but I actually THREW AWAY a book because too many animals had unnecessarily died early on.  I quit reading and apologized to the trees that had sacrificed their lives for this as I threw it in the trash.)

Anyways, this is part of a series (book 2), but I didn't feel like I was missing anything.  The characters were well developed and loose ends tied up enough at the end to feel like an actual end to the book.  (I do have book 3, but until its number gets chosen, it won't be read - it wasn't that compelling of a story to keep reading.)

3.25 stars because of all the foolish nonsense the characters go through instead of just solving the problem.

And then there was this:

Ugh.

Apparently there are about four more previous books from this author with Frank as the main character.  So maybe I'm missing something, but I did not like this book at all.

The blurb says it's four short stories set in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.  So I'm expecting survivor stories.  Or tragedies.  Something along the lines of more-recent-historical-fiction.  But really, the hurricane plays little role in three of the stories and is just the "bad guy" in the fourth.

There were a lot of name-dropping-type comments in the book that I didn't even have a clue to understand.  It made me feel dumb.  And annoyed.

2 stars.  I will not be seeking out any more books by this author.  "Frank" seems like a jerk, and there are enough of those in real life, so I don't really feel a strong urge to seek out fictional ones.

Sorry it wasn't much of an interesting week.  I'm truly hoping this week will be better, but with the headache today and work the next two days, who knows where I'll be a week from now?

Happy quilting anyways!

Katie