NetGalley success!

My first NetGalley approval! Like the lottery, it helps to actually request titles.

Kensington Publisher's approved my request to read/review Feel the Burn by G.A. Aiken. I can't wait, I love this series!!!

Ok, off to class.

Latest read: Devoted in Death

Restarting my blog. Again, we'll see how long this lasts. My book reviews aren't going to be your traditional reviews. You can find a book synopsis and regular reviews everywhere. For now, the constants will be how many nights it took for me to read the book (always depends on how tired I am) and sexual violence (because I really don't like that in books)

 

Devoted in death / J.D. Robb.

Read: October 9, 2015.

I always like to save Eve and Roarke for a Friday or Saturday night. I KNOW I'm going to read it in one sitting so a day to sleep in is a must. In the 41st full length installment of J.D. Robb's In Death series Eve Dallas and her crew are on the hunt for a spree killing couple who have made their blood-soaked way up to New York City and set up shop. Can they locate them before they kill their latest victims?

Review

Nights to read: 1
Favorite parts: As always, my favorite parts involved Dallas' interactions with her friends and colleagues.

• Feeney and his magic coat.
• The chocolate thief
• Roarke's reaction to Eve bringing an unknown cop home without warning him in advance.

Sexual violence:

• Dallas has her usual reminiscences about her past. I tend to skim over that part so I can't really tell you how detailed that gets.
• The bad guys kidnap and drug a male victim and make him rape their female victim. The parts that dealt with this weren't very graphic. At this point the female victim had endured days of torture so the male victim was more emotionally scarred by this than she was.

Recent Read: Alien Collective

Alien Collective by Gini Koch is the 9th in Koch's Alien series. Jeff and Kitty are still dealing with the wilds of DC politics. More anti-alien enemies are rearing their ugly heads and, to make matters even worse, Jeff has been asked to run for Vice-President. Chaos continues to reign as mysterious forces help and hinder their efforts to make it safely to the White House.

Just so you know, this series is one of my must buys. They are always fast paced and hard to put down. Kitty is a kick-ass heroine with a soft-spot for underdogs and an ever increasing circle of friends (9 books worth). There are a lot of characters and back story to keep up with so I would definitely recommend starting with book one.

Series reading order:

And you can buy your own poof at Gini's Web Site!

1. Touched by an Alien
2. Alien Tango
3. Alien in the Family
4. Alien Proliferation
5. Alien Diplomacy
6. Alien vs. Alien
7. Alien in the House
8. Alien Research
9. Alien Collective (2014)

book reviews coming

I may be starting a new addition to this blog. Book reviews! I discovered a new web site/service at ALA that I'm going to try out called netgalley.com I think I need to do book reviews and stuff to get more galleys so ...

In a way, I'm glad to do it here and not on goodreads or amazon where you know the authors are on their reading reviews.

I'm still in Las Vegas for ALA. Time to head downstairs for free happy hour.

another sporadic post

I've been working on the Block of the Month for Devine Quilters today. Apparently I'm on a modern quilt block kick this year.

I based my block on a quilt block in this book:

Tula Pink's City Sampler Quilts: 100 modern quilt blocks / by Tula Pink. If you click on the title it will take you to Amazon.

All the blocks in this book finish at 6.5 inches (.5 = seam allowance), but I promised everyone in the guild to stick to 12.5 inch blocks this year. Time to get out the graph paper! I made both to show folks at guild.

So here's a picture of the two blocks together:

Not to bad. The OCD part of me wants another row with the light print to close in the white. but I'll refrain *grin*

Note - yes I will be a good librarian and give credit to this book for being the basis of my pattern.

What Happens at Quilt Camp... (shh... ends up on my blog)

Last weekend I was at the One Loose Thread Quilt camp at St. Christopher on Seabrook Island. This weekend I'm sitting on my couch with a heating pad to my back. Not sure what I did, but I sooo wish I was at Quilt Camp. 

What does one do at Quilt Camp, you ask?

Some of us quilt (not sure who was doing this, but they were cute)

Some of us display our quilts and garner a lot of oohs and aahs and praise (This was Sally's)

Some of us spend time watching a certain South Carolina football team play, along with a crowd of rodents:

GO GAMECOCKS!

For those who wanted a less sedentary Quilt Camp, we offer: 

SOLO DANCING

GROUP DANCING - led by our illustrious dance leader Jane

For the more extreme exercisers out there, we offer planking contests

For the outdoor types we had deer spotting contests, squirrel spotting contests, and beautiful walks on the beach:

 

I guess I'm officially a quilter?

Mom and I went on a trip up to Pickens last weekend to see a Fiber Arts show at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History. Lots of familiar names, and not just the two we've seen at recent guild meetings.

On the way back we stopped in Easley for lunch. Of course, they lured Mom in with the antique stores. I have a feeling the cafe we ate at could've been a bar and we still would have eaten there because it was between two antique stores.

Antique store 1 I didn't look around in too much. They had a no bag policy and I wasn't stuffing my camera bag in their little lockers. Before I got caught I did spot a toy for Mom to look at. Sure enough, it came home with us. Meet Josephina, a 1948 Featherweight. A really good price and Mom did get it working. It just needs a good tune up.

Next, it was my turn to get in trouble (not THAT much, though). There's a reason I've been trying to stay out of antique stores for YEARS now. The 2nd antique store did not have a bag policy so I could roam at will. On the second floor I found this quilt I ended up buying. I have no background, but I like the fabric in some of the blocks. I have no idea what I'll do with it, either.

The sashing is definitely put on by machine. The button hole stitching around the petals was done by hand, but the petals have also been stitched on with a machine. Some look like they were stitched on before the button holing and some after. In a few places, the button hole stitches are missing or coming apart..

Want to see the blocks?

row 1 block 1

row 3 block1

row 3 block 3. This is the fabric I like the best.

row 3 block 4

row 4 block 1

row 4 block 2, my favorite fabric again

row 3 block 2

row 3 block 1

row 2 block 4

row 2 block 3

row 1 block 2

row 2 block 2

row 2 block 1

row 1 block 1

row 1 block 4

row 1 block 3

So that's my "new" quilt. Like I said, not sure what I'll do with it but it's mine.