I finished another book, this week, Still Alice by Lisa Genova. This is a very mixed review for me. It is a novel, written by a Harvard professor. A neuroscientist told in the voice of a newly diagnosed, early onset Alzheimer’s patient. This book feels like something a doctor would prescribe to a family trying to cope with a, newly diagnosed, family member. It was a very unsettling look into how a patient and her family proceeds and tries to cope with this horrific disease. Fiction written by an author highly educated, in the field of biophychology, isn’t a fluffy novel. This book has a very clinical feel to it. Full of statistics and the answers to every question a newly diagnosed family might ask. I had a hard time believing this family liked each other even before the diagnosis, much less after.
I had a grandfather who died as an Alzheimer’s patient, though not the early onset form. It makes me curious how this compares to he and his wife’s experience. I hate that I wasn’t close to them, but because I wasn’t, I don’t know what it was like going through that.
During the reading of this book, every time I experienced the typical word on the tip of my tongue, couldn’t find my phone, wondered why I went into a room, it made me question whether this could be in my future…. Not a happy book. But not a happy diagnosis to be facing either.
I’m still reading Barefoot Sisters Southbound by Lucy and Susan Letcher.
It’s interesting. A little strange, hiking the mountains barefoot and all. Not in barefoot feeling shoes, but really and truly barefoot. They put shoes on to wear in camp, right. In some ways it makes me want to hike the Appalachian Trail. Parts of it anyway. I didn’t realize people actually do hike parts. Apparently there are hostels that haul hikers back and forth to the trail, into the laundromats, pizza parlors, grocery stores… I had no idea. Actually I’ve never given much thought to how you haul and cook food for over 2000 miles much less do laundry. I do know it is a dream of my brothers and after reading, I can see why. Letting go of technology and immersing yourself in nature, all the hikers you hook up with along the way, even in weeks of rain and injury there is just something about it. It’s interesting, I have to say.
And in my studio…
This is why I have been working so hard of making room for new fabric! Making lots of room for my arrangement, of a selection, of these luscious fabrics.
Aren’t they beautiful?!
Oakshott Colourshot Shot Cottons
I’ll be petting these for a while. It could be quite some time before you see a finished project using this fabric… Coming from being a Kona cotton user, these are a lot more fragile that I would have thought, more like a voile. Maybe that is what a shot cotton is? Yum!
I’m also working on finishing a quilt. I’m down to the binding, using leftover blocks and piecing together leftover binding strips to bind it in.
This is another hand quilted quilt for a donation.
Linking up:
and Freshly Pieced.
Come join the fun!
Sewfrench 
Have you ever read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods? A good read about a middle aged guy with an eye for nature decides to become a through hiker on the Appalachian Trail. My person goal is to ride my bike the whole length of the C+O Canal. Maybe….
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I have not, Lynn, but I will look for it, it sounds god and I bet I’ll like his writing style. Now biking? That would be sweet and, with time, much more doable!
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I am very envious of your shot cottons. They are beautiful. I can also recommend Bill Bryson’s Walk in the Wood… and his “Notes from a Small Island” which is his walking around Britain.
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Bill Bryson is a brilliant and entertaining writer. Highly recommend any of his books. Back to quilting…I have been reluctant to use the Shot Cottons as they do seem almost too fragile to me. On the other hand, they are so beautiful that I doubt I will be able to avoid them too much longer!
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Well, with all the recommendations I requested a Bryson book from my library! Thank you!
Hopefully someone, in the US, will start carrying these shot cottons where a person could try a fat quarter, or two, without getting sucked in to needing a whole new storage cabinet :O
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Totally jealous of your oodles of shot cottons…. I wouldn’t have guessed they’d be so fragile, though. I’ve come across the Robert Kaufmann ones and they seem to be close to a Kona weight (naturally) but not overly delicate. I know that “shot” is warp/weft colour related but maybe they’ve woven these ones a little looser. Hunh.
I still want to steal them. Fragile or no. 🙂
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Making me want to take a look at the other shot cottons before I get too wrapped up in what I hope to do with these. Just to set my mind at ease.
And yes, different threads in the warp and weft define a shot cotton, and maybe it’s the hand woven in India part that makes them seem fragile.
And you would have to show your face and my house to steal them. I double dog dare you 🙂
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Beautiful colors of fabrics. Mtetar
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Thank you, M!
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You’re Welcome. Mtetar
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Can see why you will be petting these for a while, they are irresistible! Highly recommend Bill Bryson too.
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I am on it! Thanks!
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