Friday, April 20, 2007

Challenge, Garden, Books

After visiting Connie at Simply Quilted where she mentioned the 365 Challenge, I decided to check it out further. So...off to Leanne's House where she has lots of examples and a tutorial. I seriously doubt that I could manage anything like this, but what a neat idea! Will give some thought about what alterations could be made to make it more possibly in my realm of ability.

The garden is coming alive. I'm surprised at what is coming up where...as usual. Some things I didn't even plant last year, but have shown up anyway.



















I finally joined Bookmooch today,registered 22 books, and had 7 "mooched" within about an hour. I have all of them in their bubble envelopes and ready to mail tomorrow. All of those boxes of books that I donated to Centenary College's Book Sale...I could use you now. If you aren't familiar with Bookmooch, you receive points for books you give away and can use the points to mooch books from someone else. I've mooched 2 -- Half Broken Things by Morag Joss and The Millionth Circle by Jean Shinoda Bolen. I'll be adding a few more books later, but recently completed another book purge, so don't have that many that I'm willing to part with right now. My inventory, the 15 that are left, is here.

12 comments:

  1. jen - thanks for the info on bookmooch, although I confess I have a hard time parting with books. your garden is gorgeous! take care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kimy - I have a hard time parting with many of my books, but I love the idea of exchanging books I'll never read again for books I want. The library doesn't have all of them and Amazon gets expensive. :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. The 365 Challenge is daunting. This would be a quilt of monumetal proportions! Even 52 squares would be huge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rian - The shapes to be pieced are only 4 1/2" wide, but the length varies. The finished size would be 64" by 93" without borders. Really big!

    ReplyDelete
  5. yes, thank goodness for libraries - I regularly sing praises about our local library system - rated one of the best in the country -living in a city with an incredible public library system has helped me get control of my 'book problem' - but I admit amazon still does alright by me for there are some books I seem just have to have be near me even if they're only read once.... totally irrational but there is such comfort in books.

    ReplyDelete
  6. was glad to see you posting and also "out and about" commenting elsewhere. Can't help laughing that you have things (like queen anne's lace) that I won't be seeing until August. But at least it's green here and things are definitely growing ...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jen, Your creativity comes out in so many ways...I can just see you doing a book/poetry quilt with your writings, quotes, a piece at a time, and stitched into whatever size pleases you. Doesn't have to be a cookie cutter quilt like everyone else! :)
    What a wonderful idea Bookmooch is. I once had a nice library of my books and it was a painful experience to downsize to a very small collection of my favorites of favorites but I chose to do that. Now I buy carefully, knowing that I have only so much space for storage of those I choose to own and keep. How wonderful it would be to have a real library in the house with a reading chair and fireplace...but my quilting demands my time, attention, and space, so I chose...alas, one cannot have it all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ACey - :) I am watching that particular bloom carefully as it is the most developed--the first Queen Ann's Lace of the year. Yours don't bloom until August? Gosh, I guess your cool weather plants must last so much longer than ours. Not a bad trade-off, eh?

    Connie - I'm still having trouble getting myself organized and finishing all the projects I've started and abandoned, but I love the idea of this quilt. One thing that really struck me were the comments on Leanne's blog by young women who were pregnant or had a very young child and want to preserve a record of that special year.

    ReplyDelete
  9. kimy - I do love my library (as I frequently mention on my book blog) and am lucky to have such a good one. You are right, some books just have to be immediately available...it is an emotional thing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. how fun! blog entries onto quilts!!!! love it! you could do your gardening entries or your book entries!

    i peeked at bookmooch and found myself getting lost in time searching for books so i had to force myself to close the window as i have to be leaving in 20 minutes. will have to check it out later.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love the journal idea but think it would be more fun with an active household. Mine would have too many blocks of "Sat and sewed today"!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Karoda - I do think it is a great idea and will check on those who are going for it.

    I got 8 books mailed yesterday and have to find books that I want to receive now. It may be a bit time-consuming!

    Debra - I know! Mine would have such boring entries- unless I decided to alter it and go in a different direction as Karoda suggests. But I do think young people who have such busy lives would treasure a quilt like this...if they had time to make it!

    ReplyDelete

Good to hear from you!