Angie's Quilts n Bks n Life

Just finished a Home of the Brave quilt.  If you have never heard of them, visit http://www.quiltersmuse.com/donald_beld_interview_June_2006.htm and learn about Don, the originator of the project, and his quilting.  The top I just finished is at the quilter's, so when it comes back I'll post a photo.

With that said, I'm now reading An Introduction to the History of Christianity - from the Early Church to the Enlightenment by George Herring.  I'm not far into it, but already I am taken by his approach - he is exploring how Christianity has shaped and been shaped in its turn by the secular world.  I've read several histories of the Christian religion in trying to get a handle on how it grew and what happened at the beginning after Christ.  One was from a historian's perspective and that really created a lot of questions, but made it more real because he tied in so many things mentioned in the Bible with actual events from that period.  Then I read three by Edward Bauman:  An Introduction to the Old Testament (2 vols) and An Introduction to the New Testament.  I highly recommend those to anyone who wants to know the "heart of the matter" without all the scholarly facts that some writers populate their books with on a topic.  It's like they can't help themselves and they want to tell you all the information and their opinion, and the main idea gets lost.  Mr. Herring's book is like Mr. Bauman's.   So far he hasn't covered Christianity in complete detail, but does cover events in chronological order.  I look forward to reading more. 

Some other books I have read and up for new readers can be found at:  http://tinyurl.com/yw88a9

May the Lord be with you, today and always.

I love books! But I do do other things and one of these is quilting.  Here's my latest effort.  This is called Spring Blossoms and the pattern was designed by Shelly Swanland.  It uses her machine cathedral window technique.  It went together pretty easily - she has wonderful directions.  Quilting is very soothing to me and when I have something that is worrying or stress related, I go quilt and feel the tension fall away.  I have other books on quilting that you might be interested in.  You can find them at:  http://tinyurl.com/2zqk7r 

Hello, again.  I didn't mean to let so much time go by between posts, but as they say: "Life got in the way." Went to The Griffith Observatory in LA.  Wow is all I can say.  I had been there about 38 years ago and thought how wonderful it was then - a little small, but interesting.  Then we went earlier this month.  Now you have to get tickets, reserve the bus to get you up there and pay admission to the show (most of which you can do online), but it is worth it.  It is the most visited planaterium in the World!  The remodeled planaterium is much bigger - and this blew me away - they lifted the entire concrete building with pneumatic lifts all the way up so that they could dig a basement.  We're talking about tons and tons of building!  Go if you have a chance or are in LA - well worth a trip.

Book-wise, I just finished a very interesting book entitled THE LAST SHOT: THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF THE CSS SHENANDOAH AND THE TRUE CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR by Lynn Schooler. "

Do you know where the last shot of the Civil War was fired and when?  Well, it wasn't Virginia.  Would you believe the Arctic?  And it was June 22, 1865 - two months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox.  Captain James Waddell, commanding the CSS Shenandoah, captured, incurred no casualties, removed all crew and passengers before sinking or burning almost 40 whaling ships, then arranged safe passage for prisoners.  He went on to lead the best of the Union warships on a chase that circled the world to his escape to England. 

What was behind his campaign?  He had been given order to destroy a major source of the Union's economic strength - the New England whaling fleet.  In doing his duty, Captain Waddell changed the face of shipping.  His relentless attack on the whaling vessals led to 715 American vessals being transferred to the neutral British flag to avoid capture, and helped ensure the dominance of international shipping by England until World War II. 

This was a fascinating book as many history books are.  And speaking of ships and circumnavigation check out The World Encompassed - a book on the voyage of Sir Francis Drake when he circumnavigated the world in 1577 with 5 ships and 164 men to make history - another interesting read about the impact of ships on history.

I hope all is right in your world.  What are you reading now?  I'd sure like to know.