Blame Charlaine Harris

One of the reasons that I haven't had much to post lately is because I am completely addicted to the "Southern Vampire Series" written by Charlaine Harris. I can't put these books down and go through one every couple of weeks. What the heck! I'm getting close to the last book published and will have to wait another year to get the next installment.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily she has written about 3 other series that I'm sure will end up on my summer reading table. :-)

This Spring has brought a lot of mixed blessings to the Himsl Hunter household. We couldn't be happier with how beautiful the weather has been this year and being outside with Ronan is nothing short of inspiring. But the season started out sad for us with the unexpected and tragic death of my cousin, Jesse Himsl as well how difficult it has been for Blake to get a job in this economy. Winds of change are blowing here, and I'll be sure to update you all when I get it figured out myself. :-)

In the meantime, I am determined to find some balance and inspiration in the every day. I don't get in front of my sewing machine nearly as much as I would like and in fact spend most of my time daydreaming about doing so... I am still working on a wedding quilt (from last November, ahem) for my brother and his wife, and I'll highlight in photos later this week. I'm loving how it is turning out.

Inspiration for this week:

1) Amanda Soule - Whenever I am feeling creatively dry I look at Amanda's website and the raw desire to create like a kid hits me like a cartoon mallet.

2) Life Series on Discovery Channel - Nothing puts me in my place as a spec on this planet like the awesome documentary footage and storytelling of "Life". Blake and I have been watching this series with wide eyes and slacked jaws on our HDTV and I can't get enough of it. We even watch a couple of the episodes with Ronan and I love when he shouts at the screen to the animals.

How are you being inspired by every day life?

Review: M'Liss Rae Hawley's Scrappy Quilts

Book Review:
M'Liss Rae Hawley's Scrappy Quilts
C&T Publishing 2008

I'm new to quilting and new to a lot of the well known quilters out there.  I found out about M'Liss Rae Hawley when my mother bought a yard of her fabric at JoAnn's, it was a celtic knot fabric to go along with a nautical line that she designed.  Once I saw the fabric I noticed that she also has a number of quilting books.  I checked out "Scrappy Quilts" from the library and really loved it!  In the first chapter she talked about the basics of quilting and I was delightfully surprised to find two tips that would immediately change the way I put quilts together.  One about binding and one about sandwiching the quilt together & basting.  (that is still the hardest part for me!) 

The second thing that I liked about this book is that it featured fewer quilt patterns than the typical quilt book.  But the patterns that were featured are explained very well and then they show 3-4 other versions of the same quilt using different fabric styles and themes.  This is perfect for me.  When I see a pattern that I like it is so hard for me to picture it with different colors and especially hard to picture it with fabrics I already have in my stash. 

I recommend this book for beginners especially but I'm sure that even seasoned quilters would enjoy looking at the different varieties of quilts, and to find ways to reduce their scrap piles! 


A limited edition of this book is available on Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=W7OtgiJg5WcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=m%27liss+rae+hawley&cd=5#v=onepage&q=&f=false


P.S. She was super nice when giving me permission to use her photos for this post too!