Friday, May 20, 2011

The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book

The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book by Barbara W. Ellis is a book I have been looking at this week. There are several parts that are general in nature at the beginning-how to prepare your garden spot and composting are two of them. There is a question and answer section about specific vegetables. At the end of the book, she has suggestions of how many plants you need per person for each kind of vegetable. This is a book that would be helpful to beginning gardeners like me, but seasoned gardeners may also learn something from it. I found it at the library and may have to renew it so I can keep it an additional three weeks.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

birthday quilt

This is my recently completed quilt. It is for my friend's birthday, which is today.I used my sister's Juki TL-98Q to quilt it and I might just have to buy a machine like it. I didn't have any puckers til I got to the binding. The stitches are very even, and I didn't have to do any stitch ripping. The only problem was that the quilting went so well I didn't take any breaks and my back hurt like crazy for several days because of it.

Friday, May 13, 2011

a dozen quilts

Above is a picture of my current quilt collection.
1. my bull's eye quilt
2. soft and snuggly
3. sunflower quilt
4. quilt of hearts
5. red, white and blue
6. my first quilt
7. fall looking quilt
8. red, white and blue quilt from my sister
9. farm quilt
10. tumbling towers
11. blue and yellow sampler quilt
12. the quilt my grandma gave me

Clicking on any of the highlighted names of the quilts will show you a bigger picture of the quilt.

Ten of the twelve I made. I actually use all of them in the winter when one of my sisters comes over to spend the night with her family. Many are used as play things when my nieces and nephews come over for Camp Clair.

My favorites are soft and snuggly, quilt of hearts, and the red, white and blue quilt I made. I do like them all, except the fall looking quilt. It is probably going on the giveaway pile once I complete my next quilt. Which are your favorites?

Monday, May 2, 2011

This Plus That

This Plus That: Life's Little Equations is Amy Krouse Rosenthal's newest book. It doesn't tell a story as much as write things as equations. The pictures are great, and my students enjoyed the format of the book. Some of the equations made me smile and it made me think my students and I should try to make up some of our own equations like Rosenthal did. The pictures by Corace are great, too. Though I still like her book Little Pea the best of all her books, this is definitely worth reading and rereading.