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Celtic Coasts 2019 wrap-up

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3766400.jpgI joined the Celtic Coasts challenge for my 4th year and gave myself freedom without a goal. I decided to just see how many books I could read that fit the challenge parameters: an author born or residing in one of the three Celtic countries of Ireland, Scotland, & Wales, literature that takes place among these countries, or is connected to them strongly. Turns out I managed 21 books. Thanks to Carolyn for hosting!

  1. The Woman on the Orient Express, Lindsay Jayne Ashford
  2. An Unmarked Grave (Bess Crawford #4), Charles Todd
  3. Wildflower Hill, Kimberley Freeman
  4. The Stranger Diaries, Elly Griffiths
  5. Weeping on Wednesday (Lois Meade #3), Ann Purser
  6. A Forgotten Place (Bess Crawford #10), Charles Todd
  7. Maggie’s Door (Nory Ryan #2), Patricia Reilly Giff
  8. Hiss and Hers (Agatha Raisin #23), M.C. Beaton
  9. The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, Alexander McCall Smith
  10. Buried in a Bog (County Cork #1), Sheila Connolly
  11. The Scorpio Races, Maggie Stiefvater
  12. The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle #1),  Maggie Stiefvater
  13. The Dream Thieves (Raven Cycle #2),  Maggie Stiefvater
  14. Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Raven Cycle #3),  Maggie Stiefvater
  15. The Raven King (Raven Cycle #4),  Maggie Stiefvater
  16. Blood of an Englishman (Agatha Raisin #25), M.C. Beaton
  17. Scandal in Skibbereen (County Cork #2), Sheila Connelly
  18. The Celtic Riddle (Lara McClintoch #4), Lyn Hamilton
  19. Murphy’s Law (Molly Murphy #1), Rhys Bowen
  20. An Early Wake (County Cork #3), Sheila Connolly
  21. The Zig Zag Girl (Magic Men #1), Elly Griffith

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2020

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SoScrappy

I have followed Angela’s blog for several years and wondered about playing along but always got swallowed up by other projects. This year I am determined to create with more intention and make some projects I really want to make. I’m not getting any younger and need to accomplish some goals. So this is my year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! January is green and although she asked us to focus on the lights & brights, my blocks have all the greens.

These green string blocks are inspired by a quilt from Angela, the host of the RSC2020. I saw this a long time ago and have always wanted to make one. I started making a few last year as L&E’s and this is the year to finish it up. So I finished the necessary greens for my layout of the quilt I’m calling Diamond Strings. I have fallen in love with sewing string blocks!

Tumbling Strings is inspired by a selvage quilt I saw by Cathy and it’s my first tumbler quilt, so that’s fun. I’m alternating string tumblers with full scrap tumblers. Here are the two green rows.

I have been wanting to make some stairsteps blocks for a while & when I saw the layout by Julie I knew I had found my project. So thanks to her for the design inspiration. I will be making blocks in various colors for Rainbow Stairsteps this year. I love the faux Irish Chain effect of this layout.

These square-in-square blocks are from a kit I purchased long ago that has been lingering in my to-do bin. It’s Sun Print 2016 by Alison Glass. The kit came with the Alison Glass colored prints and I am using my own stash for the black on white backgrounds. The blocks are set in spectrum order so this challenge seemed a perfect motivation to get it out and do it. Here are January’s greens.

These crazy patch blocks will be cut into small blocks & used to create End of the Rainbow from Melissa Correy’s Irish Chain Quilts book. Also one of my long-time wish list quilts, so I’m digging into it a little at a time.

And finally, a kind of L&E, extra project. These checkerboard blocks will end up in a quilt someday. I need more greens and also lots of others, but I’m not stressing about getting this one done this year. I’m just throwing 4-patches in the machine & bordering them as I get done and when I get a pile, I’ll evaluate where I’m at & how many more I need to make in what colors.

So that’s green January. It took me two weeks to get these done, so now I have two more weeks of the month to work on other necessary projects before embarking on February’s color.

2020 Literary Escapes Challenge

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Goal: Read a book from each state

Hosted by Escape with Dollycas into a Good Book. I’ve done challenges similar to this in the past and almost had a nervous breakdown trying to finish at the end of the year. So I’m going to join the challenge but make my personal goal to get 25 of the 50 states in order to consciously get some variety in my locales without too much stress. If I get more, that will be a bonus, but I’ll be calling it when I achieve 25.

2019 Reading Statistics

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istock-books

Another reading year has come to an end and here’s the tally for the year. I got back to a more normal amount of books for me this year, despite all the things that happened. Part of that was due to lots of audio books while sewing & kindle books while exercising.

Books read: 161
Pages read: 55,269
Of the books read:
Non-fiction: 15
New-to-me authors: 44
Continuing series books: 105
Re-reads: 26
Audio-books: 78
Various book club reads: 8
Challenges completed: 8 of 8
Ongoing tally of Newbery winners: 81 of 98
5 star ratings by me: 31

2018: 122 books: 41,700 pages; 10 non-fiction; 25 new-to-me authors; 56 series; 23 re-reads; 52 audio-books; 9 of 9 challenges completed; 77 of 97 Newbery winners

[Read more…] about 2019 Reading Statistics

2019 Newbery Challenge wrap-up

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Picture

I had a great year with this challenge. Thanks to Julie of SmilingShelves for hosting. I joined at the lowest level: L’Engle: 15 – 29 points, and each book you read is worth points.

  • 3 points for a Newbery Medal Winner
  • 2 points for a Newbery Honor Book
  • 1 point for a Caldecott Book (Both Medal winners and Honor books are worth a point.)

I’ve done this challenge other years and made this same level, but this year I went up two levels and achieved the Avi: 45 – 59 points by reading a total of 47 points!

2-Wolf Hollow, Lauren Wolk
2-Three Times Lucky (Mo & Dale Mysteries #1), Sheila Turnage
3-The Crossover, Kwame Alexander
2-The Family Under the Bridge, Natalie Savage Carlson
2-Getting Near to Baby, Audrey Couloumbis
2-One Came Home, Amy Timberlake
2-Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds
3-M.C. Higgins, the Great, Virginia Hamilton
2-The Winter Room, Gary Paulsen
2-Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Eugene Yelchin
3-Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes
2-The Planet of Junior Brown, Virginia Hamilton
2-Doll Bones, Holly Black
2-Dogsong, Gary Paulsen
3-Hello, Universe, Erin Entrada Kelly
2-Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, Steve Sheinkin
2-Roller Girl, Victoria Jamieson
2-Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Beverly Cleary
2-Homesick: My Own Story, Jean Fritz
2-Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa, Francis Kalnay
3-I, Juan de Pareja, Elizabeth Barton de Trevino