Holiday Books and Movies, Winter Fun (Quilting)

Last year, I didn't do much holiday reading, but this year I made a list and have been checking it frequently and really enjoying the change of pace.

The Christmas Guest, by Peter Swanson - this turned out to be a pretty good murder mystery by the author of Eight Perfect Murders, which I really enjoyed a few years ago. GoodReads describes the book thusly:

An American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family's Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village's grim history.

As with Eight Perfect Murders, this is a very clever story--not your typical whodunit and so twisted it defied belief, but I went along for the ride. It wasn't until the very end that the title morphed for me--very short story-esque

Speaking of short stories, I'm also reading a collection by Maeve Binchy (This Year It Will Be Different), which is perfect--each story is bite-sized and interesting, some more edgy than others, but the schmaltz is not thick and gooey. I'm about halfway through and reading one story a day. Kind of like an Advent calendar.

Open to other suggestions--I am not much into the Hallmark romance stories (I abandoned Christmas in London before I threw it across the room) but love things like Rosamunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice and Fanny Flagg's Redbird Christmas.

In other news...

I have also been indulging in some holiday movies. So far, we have logged re-watches of The Santa Clause, Elf, and Home Alone 1 and 2. All just fantastic. While You Were Sleeping is on the list, and I am considering finally watching Die Hard!

We also went to see Gladiator II, which was really good! I checked the historical accuracy meter, and it did reasonably well.  They filmed (well CGI'd) something that has fired my imagination for years. Namely, filling the Colosseum with water and then having ships (well, the crews) battle each other. Of course, in this universe, there were sharks added--I thought sharks needed salt water to survive, but what do I know? Anyway, it was great fun. Made me sad that I have never seen the original Gladiator. Must fix that. Now I want to rewatch the HBO Rome series.

And I saw Wicked. A bit long, and it was only part 1 of the stage version, but great fun and now the songs are stuck in my head.

I am super excited to see The Return, about Odysseus finally making it back to Ithaca after the Trojan War and finding the place in an uproar.

Quilting

It was 11 years in the making, but I finally finished my king-sized quilt. Actually, my husband (Jeff) and I pieced it 11 years ago, and then started quilting it. It is not easy to quilt that big a quilt--very heavy and cumbersome. We did basic quilting--stitch in the ditch, and there were lots and lots of ditches. We got about half done, and then it sat unfinished for about 5 years when I got the bug to finish it. I finished the quilting, but then it sat for another 5 years until last month when I finally bought the binding material and sat down and finished it. 

Jeff made the beautiful chest at the end of the quilt shortly after we finished piecing the quilt, using leftover blocks to decorate the top of the chest. 

Undaunted by my track record on the king quilt, I am embarking on another quilting project. This time I will be making a throw quilt, just 61" by 76", or 15 12-inch blocks arranged in a 3x5 layout. I am making blocks from the Underground Railroad Sampler, which is a very cool book that provides some historical context and speculation about each of the blocks featured. I have the reproduction-era fabric (4 cream backgrounds, 3 reds, 3 greens, 3 blues and a black) and have been practicing some of the trickier blocks with leftover scrap material from the finished king quilt.

Best wishes for a happy and safe holiday season filled with good books, good movies, good projects, and good times.