April Round Up

So much going on in April. Property and pet care has kept me very busy and away from the sewing machine for quilting projects. Nothing like the productivity of last April. 

Holidays - swimming in the cold, heated and spa, Armidale, Dorrigo and Coffs Harbour

Quilt Top - Polaroid 9 Patch. Blocks made by Quilt Club Australia Bee #1 members plus a couple of generous other bees - Waverlee and Christie.

Blocks - Dr Seuss, garden fence, party drinks, snip it good and retro clock.

Chooks - moulting, coming into lay, going off lay, convalescing and growing up.

Injuries - double bumble foot, nail injury and swelling.

Reptiles - tree snake, water dragons.

Harvest - limes, pecans, macadamias, lemons, avocados and leeks.

Books - It's been a good month for reading. You can read my reviews on Goodreads. Wombat Stew Book club - Mao's Last Dancer

March 2013 Round Up

It's been a month for runners.

I finally finished my double sided Tall Boy runner and I retro-fitted my Dresser runner to be double sided.

I managed 2 out of the 3 blocks for the month of March.

New to Me - Raising Seeds

Books

You can read my review of this book at Goodreads.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Without my online Wombat Stew Book Club I would NEVER have bought a copy of this book. The blurb on the back would have warned me away for sure. I must admit that I really struggled to read it from the first realisation that missing speech marks, first person narrative and little back grounding of the situation was part of the style.

What was it that irked me so much about it as I persevered into the middle of the book? Possibly the fact that Offred seemed to accept her plight without challenging the system she was oppressed by. I like my heroines to have a strong will and a plan. Offred had none. She was at the mercy of her circumstance. I wanted to reach into the pages and give her a good slap.

I have to say that I could not predict where the narrative was going even after some back grounding was revealed in later chapters. That was a good thing. I did not predict the ending either. And the surprise historical note at the end saved the book for me.

Overall I am glad that I read this book. Totally out of my comfort zone but very thought provoking. And for a book penned back in the 80s there we some surprising parallels to real historical events since.

View all my reviews

Sew Retro Give Away

As some of you may know I am part of an online Australian paper piecing group called Wombat Stew. There are seven of us who take it in turns to choose a  theme for our month and then we ask one another to come up with a paper pieced block on that theme.

Alyce chose Japanese cuisine
Jane chose houses
Lara chose teapots
Kristy chose sewing (you can join her BoM sew along for these patterns)
and Marieka chose retro kitchen 
Gemma is yet to choose in April

March is my month and I have chosen Mid Century furniture and architecture. I am excited to see what the girls will come up with. 

Bookclub

But recently we introduced the idea of a Wombat Stew Book Club. To encourage us to expand our reading menu and then have the bonus of discussing the book of the month. Not all the wombats are joining in.

This month the book is called 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Attwood. It is fiction and classed as a Utopia/Dystopia. After reading the blurb on the back cover, I said to my lovely local bookstore lady "I would never choose to read this kind of book." And I am finding it very heavy going. The writing style is very different to anything I have read before and the content is very jarring.

I am more of a non-fiction kind of girl - biographies and history are my faves. Just visit my booklist on Goodreads to find out.

The Give Away

On Offer:  Win the very funky Sew Retro paper pieced bundle of patterns from Quiet Play. These will be sent as a PDF file via email.

Your Entry:  Suggest a good book title for our Book Club in the comments section below.


Who Can Enter: This give away is open to both Australian and International readers. You must have an email address to be contacted on IF you are a NO-REPLY blogger.

Finishes: Friday 15th March 9am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time).
Competition now closed

The Winner: Mr Random will choose one of YOU and I will announce the winner on Sunday 17th March during my Sunday Stash post.