On Wednesdays I go to my two volunteer jobs so don’t have a lot of time for sewing. Yesterday I had even less because it was book club and I had to finish reading the book. This month’s book was Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. This is the book upon which the PBS series Call the Midwife was based.
It was a great book and an easy read. It was arranged in stories about people the author knew while she worked as a midwife in London’s East End slums during the 1950’s. The stories were funny, sad and poignant. It is amazing how times have changed regarding childbirth. At that time the midwife delivered most babies at home then made follow-up visits 2-3 times a day for a couple of weeks while the mother stayed in bed “recuperating.” This book, though, showed how hard most of these mothers’ lives were. Money was very tight and living conditions were often deplorable but they still welcomed their babies as if they had no worries. It was inspirational to see the love in these families despite hard times.
After finishing this book, I’ll be reading the other two in the series, Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse and Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End. Season 2 of the PBS series starts March 31 so set your DVR’s!
It really helps to have my sewing machine set up in the dining room so I can work if I just have a few minutes to spare. I managed to finish Block 6 of Applique Affair with odd bits of time yesterday.
The blocks are all fused down and I’m just stitching around them now. I used to finish these with a blanket stitch in black thread but now I use a little zigzag stitch in colors to match the applique. The blanket stitch was good for more primitive style applique but I think the zigzag looks better for this more “formal” style blocks. Block 6 is now finished—only 19 more to go!
Very pretty blocks! I recently finished hand applique on a project with birds and the first has quite a long beak -oops, lol.