Book Review: The Girl Before

The Girl Before by Rena Olsen... I liked the book; I had a hard time putting it down. I would give it 3.5 stars out of five. A young woman is taken into custody and interrogated about her life. To her, it's a complete mystery as to why she was taken and what they want to know from and about her. Gradually she begins to realize what her life has really meant. It's obvious she was embroiled in something sinister, yet she remained blissfully naïve and blind to most of it. It's amazing how indoctrination can shift a person's perception of the truth. I won't explain much about what this book is about other than what I've already said. Although the subject matter is tough, I think most adult readers would find it worth their while to spend a couple vacation days with their nose in this captivating book.

Finding Pieces, Making Quilts

Lately I have been trying to neaten up my sewing room. When I do this, I always find bits and pieces of projects that I started. I may have forgotten about them or just set them aside, and finding them is a joy of reuniting and being re-enthused.

I often don't make a lot of progress cleaning, because finding the pieces is so much fun. My creative juices start to flow, and I sit down to sew, even though the cleaning isn't done. Here are a few things on which I have made progress because of this method of "cleaning."

This started out as house blocks that I made for fun. Then I decided to make them into a neighborhood. Each house shares a little something with another house.. a chimney here is part of a door there, for example. It's a sharing neighborhood. I wasn't sure I wanted to keep it as a circle, but I'm glad I did. It's about 44-inches in diameter.

This one started out as a barn block that I made several years ago. The block pattern was being passed around the internet or maybe it was in my guild. I can't recall. Anyway, my barn with its barn quilt sat around for a long time until I finally made it into this. The improv-piecing to the left of the barn was something I picked up from the Free Table at my guild. Again, this was quite a while ago. Just today I decided they would look fine put together. After this is quilted, I think I will donate this quilt to the clinic which my guild supports with quilts for Baby Boxes.

Last month at my guild meeting I found a box of strips, mostly beige, on our Free Table. That came home with me, and I made this little purse. Then I made a pillow front. My small group met and worked on making pillows that close with a zipper. I couldn't get to the meeting because of FIL's illness and death, but I had already made the pillow front, so I finished it off my normal way, with overlapping flaps in the back. That method works fine for me.

I have more projects that I want to work on thanks to un-earthing pieces. I love this feeling of being enthused for sewing!

RIP, FIL

My father-in-law died on July 2 at age 97 years and five months. In June he fell and broke his hip, and he never fully recovered after that. In the end he decided to stop eating, and he died a few days later, with many children and grandchildren having been there to see him and say our goodbyes. He went on his own terms and peacefully, exactly as he wanted. One can't ask for any more than that. Now my mother-in-law must try to adjust to her new normal. They had been married 67 years, so this is a big task for her.

Here they are in January when we celebrated our family Christmas. I'm so glad I took this picture.

Rest in peace, H., knowing you left a legacy of your wonderful five children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. We shall carry on with love.