Quilts Patriotic and Presidential Book Review

Quilts Patriotic and Presidential is the perfect addition to your library.  With this being an election year, even more so.
If you love history, if you love quilting, or both, you will really enjoy reading and looking through this book.

Inside you will find more than 330 images of quilts made for the Presidents of the United States....every president starting with George Washington all the way to Barack Obama.

Before you get to the Presidents you will find a section called "What a History! What a People!"  This section has presidential related quilts, excerpts from newspapers and magazines about the quilt and quilt makers, and lots of images.

For each president you find a brief history.  For example, did you know that William Henry Harrison was the first president to die in office?  He was only president for 31 days.  After giving his 2 hour inaugural address on a cold day, he caught pneumonia.
There are quilt related comments from newspapers of the times.

Also featured for each president is a newly made quilt.  These quilts are 24 inches square and are all made by quilt historians and enthusiasts affiliated with the American Quilt Study Group.  This also includes information from the quilt maker with some history as to why they chose the materials or design.

Close up photos of blocks with details, photos throughout history, the history itself, and the quilts themselves make this the perfect book to add to your own library.

If my children were not all grown now and I was still homeschooling, I would have loved to have added this book to our study of United States history!

The author, Sue Reich, began her love of quilting as a child with her grandmother at her farmhouse in Pennsylvania.  She expanded her interests to the historical documentation of Connecticut's quilts.  She became a certified AQS appraiser and a NQA trained quilt judge.  She lectures nationally on quilt history topics.  She is a nationally recognized author of 7 quilt history books and travels to share her quilt research and knowledge.

Again, this is truly a book for history buffs, quilters, and quilt lovers.  Highly recommended!  I showed the book to lots of my quilting friends and none of them wanted to put it down.  They wanted to keep reading, learning, and looking at all of the images.




Disclosure: I rec'd a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions are my own. Post contains affiliate links.

Frugal Friday With Marsha--Income Tax Refund Time

For those of you like us who receive a refund, I'm sure it's an exciting time for you to get that chunk of money, but what do you do with it?

We usually pretty much blow it (which isn't necessarily frugal).  We treat ourselves to eating out a couple of times as well as a good stock up shopping trip to Aldi.
Then we buy something we want, but really don't need.  One year hubby bought a smoker.  One year we bought a porch swing and a patio set.  Some years ago we used it to buy a swimming pool for the back yard.

This past year hubby and I have taken on loans we shouldn't have. I hope a hard lesson learned on getting things that we didn't need--for example, new windows for the front of the house.   So, this year we are using our refund to catch the bills up to date.   Let's hope that hubby and I can KEEP the bills paid once they are paid up to date.  I will say wish us luck!

I have downloaded an ebook by Dave Ramsey and will send the file to my husband to read.  With that said, he will actually have to take the time to read it and implement the information to start working ourselves out of the debt hole we have dug.

What I would like to do from here on out for these Friday posts is to share different things we have done throughout each week that are frugal.  The motivation of knowing that I am going to be posting to you all will make me more mind conscience of what we are doing each week.  This will help us, and hopefully also give some of you some ideas of how to save and live a frugal life.

I will start this week with how I am saving money for something that I want.  The something that I want is to be able to attend the local quilt retreats.  I know this is a want and not a need to go to these.  But, at the same time, it is a need.  A need for me to get away from the chaos of our house....a need to be out socializing with others who share the same interests as me.....a need for the dedicated time to just sit and work on projects.
After each retreat I start my savings jar again.  I save all of my change.  I also save $1 from every check I might get or every time I get some babysitting money.  It works for me.  They are local in town retreats so cost from $50 to $65 to attend.
Each October I work a couple of days at the quilt shop for the shop hop.  That pays $50 of their fall retreat.

I will stop babbling now and prepare a notepad to take notes all week of what I want to share with you.  Until then, have a frugal week!

I will leave you with a link to Dave Ramsey's site for those interested in checking out what he has to offer.  I didn't pay for the ebook I downloaded, and if I can find where I was able to get it free, I will be sure to share it.  If you know where to find it free, please share it in the comments section.
http://www.daveramsey.com/home/

WIP Wednesday--Linky Suggestions Please

First off let me ask if any of you know of any WIP Wednesday linkies out there.
Freshlypieced is stopping them after 5 years.  I can understand, but the linkies are my motivation to get things done so that I have things to share.  
I tried to do a search and didn't come up with anything.  Maybe there aren't any other WIP Wednesday linkies for crafts?

Anyway, I did get some work done this week.

The color is brown with the soscrappy blog this month. (See button below).
I looked through and had more browns in the 2 1/4 in squares and found more than I thought I would.  (I also pulled out all the brown related hexagons, but they aren't in the picture)

I pulled the hexagon flower table runner out and worked on it some more.  I won't get it out this week again but hopefully the following week I will actually get it finished.

I only have until the 21st to finish this pink 4 patch for quilt guild.  The representatives from the various agencies will be at our meeting to collect our quilt donations.  I worked on it at sewing group at church yesterday and now will get it finished at home. (Hopefully tomorrow)

UFO's:

Rectangle quilt
challenge wall hanging
Hexagon quilt
Emerald Island Fusique table runner
Five and Dime quilt
Brown half square triangle table runner
3 sets of doll blanket, pillows and rug--plus more to sell
Hexagon flower table runner
Wall hanging for quilt guild
yo-yo's that need to be made into projects
black and white rail fence quilt
Arkansas Crossroads scrap quilt
T-shirt latchhook rug
Rainbow colored locker hook rug
T-shirt toothbrush rug
Charming Stars quilt

2016 finishes:
Child's pink 4 patch quilt

I am linking up with the following blogs: