Book Bag for Book Group

The women's group at our church has a book group: The Garden of Readin' it is called.  The cute play on biblical words is apropos for a church group of readers.  I go when I can and go when I think I may like the book selection well enough to read it.  Being an English teacher for so many years where reading is directed by the courses and the kids taught, I balk at acquiescing to others selecting my book choice.  I think I need to get over myself on this one.  I just read an article listing things to do to keep one's mind active and going to book group, a gathering of people talking about what they read, is mentioned.  It is not just reading that keeps those gray cells firing, it is the conversation and discussion that creates productive mental energy for us aging boomers.  

So I read The Orchid House, this month's selection.  I rated it two stars ("it was okay") out of five ("it was amazing") on Goodreads.   Billed as historical fiction, which I generally enjoy, it read to me more like a shallow romance novel. Maybe I still need to get over my English teacher self. I will be curious to hear what other people thought of it.  

Remember that fabric I was learning to quilt in the last post?  I used it to make this book bag.  I actually bought the fabric and pattern as part of a kit from Connecting Threads.  Quilting the fabric took three times as long as sewing up the bag.  It was fun to learn something new, and I used the leftover quilted fabric to make a few small zipper bags and a pouch.  Somethings also new-to- me to make, stretching my mind in yet another way.