A Tote Bag, Emma, and a Book Recommendation, Too!

I completed this tote on Tuesday. It's a pattern called "The Sebago Tote," from Aunties Two. Many local quilt shops carry their line of patterns, but if interested and unable to find them, then click on Aunties Two, and you will be taken to their website.

Here's Miss Emma looking relaxed and lovely after returning from the groomer. This time she had blue stick-on gems on her ear tips and a pretty red, white, and blue scarf.  :-)

During the summer, I pass many hours in the evening reading on my sunporch. Most books that I have been reading lately have been pleasant enough, but not very memorable. I do have a book which I would like to recommend, Christina Baker Kline's A Piece of the World.  This fictional work explores the life of Christina Olsen, the woman depicted in Andrew Wyeth's painting Christina's World. In this novel, Kline, the author of Orphan  Train, creates a backdrop for the painting, and a powerful portrayal of the hardships endured by Christina and her family and their harsh, limited existence on the family homestead. It's a depiction of a time and place on the Maine coast which will stay with you.

When I was a teacher, I used to purchase large posters of pieces of art and display them on my bulletin boards. My eighth graders would then be asked to write either a poem or a story about the people in the painting which they selected. Wyeth's Christina's World was often chosen and the stories/poems created were always interesting.

Kline's haunting portrayal of Christina Olsen's world will definitely stay with the reader though I'm not sure Wyeth would have approved as it somewhat removes the mystery from his piece; still the work is fiction and as such may be read as a story separate from the iconic painting. I urge you to read it as I know you will find it memorable, too.