Moving Along . . .

I've been messing around with flowers tonight--I prepped some applique pieces for the baskets and I thought I'd show you.

As far as the design process goes, I took a cue from the floral fabric with the black background that I showed you the other day, and drew a few flowers in keeping with that feel.

I cut the pieces out of freezer paper and laid them out in position on the basket; then I started selecting fabrics for each piece, ironing the fabric to the paper, and basting each piece. I might move the pieces around a bit, but maybe not. Still, at this point these pieces are just roughly positioned.

So far, my plan is to use the same flower designs for each basket but move the flowers into different positions and use different fabrics. I might add another couple flowers to the mix as I go.

Enough of that though. Last week I mentioned going to bed with a good book and someone asked what I was reading. Around this time of the year, when there's a lot to do, I like to read "light" books--books that are entertaining enough but not so much so that I can't put them down to do the things that need to be done. Last week I was reading a Nora Roberts book called Tribute; this week I'm reading a Jonathan Kellerman book called True Detectives. Both are nice books but probably aren't something I'll be thinking about a month from now.

What have you read lately that you can recommend? Now that the holidays are nearly over, I'm ready to pick up something more attention-grabbing. And I really need to update the reading section in my sidebar, but I just haven't been enthusiastic about anything I've read lately. So what's new and good?