Goals - Week 5

I did alright with last weeks goals, but not quite as good as I had hoped for.  We had a showing of the house mid-week, so that ate into a little time since one entire evening was spent cleaning the house.

Week 4 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) -- Completed
- Prepare backing material for eBay "Tumbler" quilt and load on quilt frame -- Partially Completed - not on frame yet
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Didn't even touch
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- Definitely did 4 hours of needlepoint.  I should have the next page done soon.


So for this coming week, I have some slightly different goals....

Week 5 Goals:
- Sew 4 16-patch blocks --
- Purchase backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" --
- Load eBay "Tumbler" quilt onto frame and play --
- Take Bernice (the Bernina sewing machine) to the sewing center to be cleaned/fixed --

I also finished a Jodi Picoult book this past week.  I posted about it here.  It was a good book, but came a little close to home.

I've started reading another Lynn Austin book called "Song of Redemption".  This one is a little more religious than I typically read, but it will probably be good.  If I keep at the pace I have been going, this book will be done in a week, too.

We're expecting to get more snow this week.  In the past few weeks, we've gotten about one storm a week, although we were spared last week.  The storms tend to hit on Wednesday and just cause the one day to be bad.  However, this next one is a monster storm.  We're supposed to start getting snow Tuesday morning and its not going to stop until Wednesday evening.  Tuesday, they're expecting us to get about 3-8" during the day, which will be interesting since my car hates snow.  I may have to leave work early Tuesday.  Then Wednesday, we're supposed to get up to 16" of snow.  If the forecast holds true, I will definitely have to work from home on Wednesday.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 5

I'm a little late in publishing my stash report...but better late than never.

I don't have any pictures right now since this is a really quick post.  I was able to finish up another set of blocks for my scrappy quilt and I also started quilting Purple Squared.  Both of these used up some more stash.  I used just over 0.4 yards for the scrappy quilt (I actually made 6 blocks this week) and I used about a yard for the back of Purple Squared (picture below is from when I finished the top last year).

Here's the numbers for this week:

Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         1.42 yards
Used Year to Date:      4.65 yards
Net Year to Date:        7.35 yards

Picture Perfect

It seems that I'm into a book reading trend right now.  I've finished 3 books in 3 weeks now....mainly because I'm reading during my lunchtime at work.  It helps me to get my mind off work for 45 minutes and to not be looking at the computer screen.

The most recent book I finished was called "Picture Perfect" by Jodi Picoult.  This was one of Jodi's earlier books in her career.  It didn't have quite the punch and drama twists that her newer books have, but it was still very good.  For some reason, which I'm not really sure why, this book seemed to hit closer to home than her books usually do.  If you've read any of Jodi's books, they always tug at the heart strings and usually make you think very differently about the way the world can work.

This particular book is about a relationship that seems like its perfect in every way to the public.  Its a story of a unknown anthropologist falling in love with a big movie star and becoming married.  Their relationship starts out really well, but then every once in a while, the husband shows a streak of anger and violence.  It starts with just a few shoves when he got angry, then the shoves turned to smacks and kicking.  The wife would make excuses and the husband would always apologize once he realized what he had done.

While I have never been in that type of situation (thank, God), I can imagine how a woman could easily get into that type of situation.  The wife loved her husband so much and knew that if she left him, she would cause him more pain and hurt, which she couldn't bring herself to do.  Only when another person got involved did she actually get the courage to leave. 

I'm not quite sure why this one seems to bother me a bit more than the others, but while it was a good read, it was also a little disturbing.  I guess its because I could potentially see myself in that type of situation and not having the courage to leave.  I know I never have to worry about being in that situation, which makes me grateful, but none the less, it was a slightly disturbing read.

Goals - Week 4

I didn't do nearly as well this past week as I had planned.  Mainly because life got busy and I ended up hurting my back last weekend.  Having a sore back doesn't help with your goals when your goals involve cutting large pieces of fabric.  Here's the goals from week 3:

Week 3 Goals:

- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) -- Completed
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" and load quilt on frame -- not even thought about
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 5+ hrs sewn.

I also ended up finishing the book I was reading by Lynn Austin.  In just over a week, I read the entire novel called "Hidden Places".  It was a quick read, but a good read.

Week 4 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) --
- Prepare backing material for eBay "Tumbler" quilt and load on quilt frame --
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 

I've also started another book.  Now I'm reading "Picture Perfect" by Jodi Piccoult.  I generally like her books, but this one is a little harder to read than normal.  I think its one of her early books, so maybe that's why.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 4

No pictures this week.  I was only able to squeeze in a little bit of sewing this week.  The evenings were pretty hectic and I was really only able to sew part of Saturday afternoon.  However, I did make 5 more blocks for my scrappy quilt.  I also cut some more small pieces of fabric to add to the variety of fabrics in the scrappy quilt.

So my numbers are still improving:

Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         0.35 yards
Used Year to Date:      3.23 yards
Net Year to Date:        8.77 yards

How did everyone else do?

Goals - Week 3

I did alright this past week on my goals.  I didn't get as many 16-patch blocks done as I had wanted to, but I was close.

Week 2 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) -- completed 3 16-patch blocks, and 2 more are almost done.
- Add border #3 to "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Completed!
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 6+ hours completed. 


In fact, I was so good with "Starry Night" that I actually finished another page of the pattern.

The portion with the scattered stitches is page 16.  So I now have 15 full pages complete.  I think there's 2 more full pages on the row I'm working on along with a partial page on the far right.  The bottom row of pages are only about 60% full, so the bottom row should go faster.  At this rate though, I'm finishing 1 page per month, which means I still won't be done until October!

I also finished reading the 3rd book of the "Inheritance" series.  The book is called "Brisingr".  I'm always surprised at how well written these books are and the fact that the writer is only in his early 20s.  I think I read somewhere that he wrote the first book, "Eragon", when he was only 16 or 17.  It seems to be taking a long time for the 4th book to be finished up, but I'm sure it will be well worth it.

Week 3 Goals:

- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) --
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" and load quilt on frame --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 3 hrs sewn as of 1/19

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 3

I made more good progress this week on Shine on Bayou Cane and the scrap quilt.  Both of these meant that I used more fabric this week - yay! ;-)

I actually finished the top for Shine on Bayou Cane.  Its not quilted yet, but the top itself is done. 

 

So I used some fabric for the last border on Shine on Bayou Cane and I also used some fabric this week making blocks for my scrappy quilt.  Here are the blocks so far:

Here's the numbers for this week:
Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         1.53 yards
Used Year to Date:      2.88 yards
Net Year to Date:        9.12 yards

So far so good...just need to keep using the fabric! :-)

EBay Quilt Top

I've always had trouble taking one of my own quilt tops and testing out new quilting techniques on it.  There's something about putting all the effort into a top and then potentially messing it up because of bad quilting.  However, there's only one way to get better at quilting...and that's to do it.  So instead of using one of my own quilt tops, I purchased a 53x54 quilt top off eBay.  With shipping, I paid less than $15 for the top shown below.

 

It looks like a cute and fun quilt top.  I can add borders to it to make it a little bigger, but I could just leave it alone at 53x54.  I may add a 6" border to it (of possibly 2 border to add up to 6 or 8") to make it about 60x60.  I can use stash for both the border and the backing (yeah for stash busting) and since I didn't put a lot of time into making this myself, I'm hoping I'll have an easier time trying out something different for the quilt top.  Time will tell.... ;-)

Goals - Week 2

I think I did fairly well at completing my goals from last week.  Here's a recap and what I accomplished:

Week 1 Goals:
- Sew 56 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (avg. 8 per day) -- Completed sewing 96 squares together.
- Piece border #2 for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Completed and sewn onto the quilt.
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- Definitely completed 4 hours, probably a little more.

I also finished reading the 2nd book in the "Inheritance" series by Christopher Paolini.  The first book was "Eragon" (which was made into a horrible movie) and the second book was "Eldest".  They are thick books, but are fun and quick reads.  I definitely recommend reading the series.


So the goals for this coming week are pretty similar to last week.

Week 2 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) --
- Add border #3 to "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 3.5 hrs as of 12-JAN

Hopefully I'll be able to complete these this week, but considering I won't be able to play hooky with Jury Duty, I may not get as many 2.5" squares sewn as I would like.  However, its still better than having to sit on a jury that was for an attempted murder case.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 2

This week was a good week for stash busting.  I used a little over 1 yard of fabric for the borders on Judy's Shine on Bayou Cane pattern from her book Weekend Quilts.  I really liked the quilt when she did it as a Quilt-for-an-Hour project, so I decided to do that one first when I got her book.  I'm saving some pictures until I get the top completed.

I also used up some 2.5" squares this week (actually, a total of 80 of them) to start making 8" blocks for a scrappy quilt.  My goal had been to use 56 of them this week (so it would be 1/4 yard), but I was able to get a bit of sewing done on Wednesday when I was released from Jury Duty and again yesterday.  I hope I can keep it up and I'll blow through the 12 yards in no time. ;-)

 

Stash Report

Used this Week:           1.35 yards
Used Year to Date:       1.35 yards
Added this Week:        0.0 yards
Added Year to Date:   12.0 yards
Net Used for 2011:     -10.09 yards

Goals - Week 1

Since I fell off the wagon a bit last year in respect to a lot of things, I'm going to try to keep weekly goals on here...and see how well I do.  The goals will be simple and do-able things that I think I can actually accomplish in a week.  Sometimes breaking things down into smaller pieces makes it easier to accomplish the tasks.


Week 1 Goals:
- Sew 56 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (avg. 8 per day) -- 16 completed on 1/5
- Piece border #2 for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- ~50% complete on 1/5
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 2.5 hrs complete on 1/6

I think I can accomplish those goals.  If I do more than what's on the list, I'll update it next week with what was actually accomplished.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 1

The past few years, Judy Laquidara has had a stash-busting effort going on that she posts on her blog, Patchwork Times.  Last year, I started out really well with reporting my efforts on using the fabric I have versus buying new fabric.  Then things got hectic and I fell off the wagon.   Not so much with buying fabric, but with reporting.

Overall, I did pretty well last year.  The only fabric I bought (with the exception of one fat quarter sampler -- yikes 6 yards worth at the end of the year)  was for specific quilts for new babies.  I used up some of the fabric I had bought the previous year, which definitely helped with my numbers and kept me in the positive (stash used) for the majority of the year.

I'm hoping that in 2011, I'll be a little better at this and posting in general.  The last 4 months of 2010 I just totally fell off the wagon when it came to blogging.  Maybe with the start of the new year, things will go a little better from a blogging perspective.

So while my report is a few hours early (Saturday evening vs Sunday morning) here's the totals for week 1.  This includes some fabric I received for Christmas, so I'm already starting in the hole a little.

The fabric I received were fat quarter samplers from Connecting Threads:

Flower Basket Sampler

Dark Solid Samplers

Stash Report

Used this Week:           0.0 yards
Used Year to Date:       0.0 yards
Added this Week:       12.0 yards
Added Year to Date:   12.0 yards
Net Used for 2011:     -12.0 yards

Since I got the Go! Cutter just before Christmas (present to myself courtesy of an award at work), I plan on cutting up some stash in the upcoming weeks to get it ready for using.  I'm hoping the Go! will really help with cutting the excess fabric into usable bits and it will be a lot faster than hand-cutting it! ;-)

Happy Quilting!
Sarah

Merry Christmas...to me

A few weeks ago, I received an award at work for a project that I completed earlier this year.  The project reduced our programming time on our components at our production facility by 50% and improved our drawing quality (I removed approximately 60% of the dimensions from a single type of drawing and we produced thousands of these drawings every year).  After I received the award, I was able to transfer the amount to Amazon gift cards, so I bought myself a Christmas present....an Accuquilt Go! Cutter.

I haven't had a chance to take it out of the box yet, but I can't wait to try it out.  Other quilters have said they love it and it speeds up their cutting time AND makes their quilts better since there is less variation in the piece parts of the quilt.  Along with the cutter shown above, I was able to purchase some extra dies.  I bought the 2.5" strip die, tumbler die, apple core die, and a die with multiple sized stars on it.  The cutter also came with some dies, 2.5" square, some half-square triangle dies and a 4.5" square die.

I'm pretty psyched about trying it out, although I probably won't be able to open it up until after Christmas.  I have to work through Wednesday morning this week and then I'll have to prepare for Christmas since we are hosting Rich's family at our house for Christmas day, then traveling to my parents to spend a few days with them for Christmas.

On other good notes, Rich and I went for a nice walk at our property on Saturday.  The river in the back of the property was mostly frozen over, but there were areas where the water was flowing freely.  Since the ground was pretty solid from the cold weather we've had, we even found our way through the "swampy" area to get back to the front of our property.  It was really pretty out there and it was so quiet and relaxing.  Hearing the water flow was amazing and that's all you could hear...no vehicles...no kids/people.  We also saw lots of animal tracks.  There were rabbits, chipmunks/mice, deer, a fox or something like that and turkey tracks.  We think we may have seen coyote tracks, too, but we're not sure.

On Sunday, we did some Christmas shopping in the morning and were back at the house by lunchtime.  At about 2:30, we got a call that someone wanted to see the house....at 3:30!  So it was a mad scramble to clean up the house in less than an hour.  We did as much as we could (put things away, cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned the bathrooms, swept the floor), but we didn't get the carpets vacuumed or cleaned the showers.  The real estate agent apologized for the short notice and we explained the few areas we didn't clean (there were a few dishes in the sink because the dishwasher had just been run a little while before that).  They didn't mind at all since we were so accommodating and letting them see the house on short notice.  Ultimately, they liked the house (as the agent thought they would) and they are comparing it to a similar type house in Clifton Park.  They are a little concerned about the taxes, but they are weighing it with the higher cost of a similar house in Clifton Park.  Hopefully it will turn out well for us. :-)

Time.....

This year has absolutely flown by!  How did it get to be the middle of December???

I'm sorry to say that I haven't been very good at posting on here.  I'm not sure if its a case where I've just been lazy or that I've felt like I have had nothing worthwhile to say.  Maybe its a little bit of both.

Rich and I have been fairly busy the past few weeks trying to get ready for the holidays.  Work always seems to get crazy this time of year because: 1) manufacturing wants to ship by the end of the year, 2) performance appraisals are due, 3) funding gets determined for next year and for programs that don't have funding next year, we have to finish everything this year.  On top of the work stuff, there's all the preparation for the Holidays.

Christmas shopping is not one of my fortes and, to be honest, I'm kind of sick of it.  I don't like all the commercialization of Christmas these days and just about everyone in my family can buy whatever they want or need, so it makes it difficult to find the good gift.

I think lately its just been a case where I feel truly overwhelmed by life.  While sometimes it doesn't seem like we have much going on, somehow I always feel harried and rushed.  I haven't had time to just relax and not worry about things.  Even our trip to the Bahamas was stress-leaden.

Our first flight out of Albany to Charlotte was delayed in Albany due to a fuel leak.  So the 50 minute layover we originally had dwindled down to less than 5 minutes.  We had to run through the Charlotte airport and got to the next gate just as they were loading our zone.  Then on that flight, I was lucky enough to be sitting next to a kid who sounded like he was trying to hack up a lung.  We finally got to the Bahamas and picked a "short" line at customs.  Well, it was definitely a poor choice.  Every single person in front of us was going to the Bahamas on a work visa and there were problems with all of them.  So it took us 1.5 hours to get through immigration.

Our actual stay at the Sandals resort was pretty good.  We expected the food to be a little better than what it was, but the view and beach were perfect.  Several nights we had trouble finding someplace to eat because only certain restaurants would be open and some you had to have reservations and they were booked solid.  We didn't even end up eating at the French-styled restaurant because Rich ended up getting sick.  We think he had some bad veal, but it kind of made the end of the trip not much fun.  Most of the last full day we were there was spent in our room and not down at the beach.  Then because he wasn't feeling well, the entire trip home was very stressful.

At this point, I've been stressed out for so long that my entire body hurts.  Yesterday, I got to the point where I could barely move my head because my neck was so tense.  I just can't wait for my vacation to start next week.  Maybe I'll actually be able to relax over the holidays, although it won't happen until at least after Christmas day, since we're hosting Rich's family at our house for Christmas.

Anyway - enough griping....  Eventually I might get some more pictures on here, but I think for the time being, this may be a venting tool again.  :-(

Long time.....

So much for posting on a regular basis... :-(  As typical, work and life got a little screwy so here it is the end of November and its the first time I'm posting in about a month!

Things have been VERY busy at work the past few weeks.  Additionally, Rich and I went on vacation last week, so we spent a lot of extra time at work to make sure we didn't get too far behind when coming back from vacation.

Just where did we go????  The BAHAMAS!  :-) 

We had a great time, despite getting sick the last day from the food.  The beach was absolutely fabulous and the drinks were plentiful.  You could pretty much get anything to drink (including alcohol based drinks) from 11am until 3am.  You could get yourself into a LOT of trouble.  The food wasn't great, despite the place being all-inclusive.  However, the convenience of having food and drink right there pretty much whenever you wanted it was good.  We spent pretty much every day from 9:30am until 5pm on the beach or in the ocean.  We made sure to use plenty of sunblock and sit under the umbrellas so we only got a little burned.  If I actually tanned instead of burned, I'd have a great tan...but I have fair skin that only wants to burn.

I'll have some pictures posted soon from the trip (mostly just pictures of the beach).  I also have some pictures of some quilty projects that I've been working on.

Books - The Hunger Games

Earlier this month, I finished a book called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Let me just say...this is a FANTASTIC book!

The story is based upon a futuristic world where there is a central Capital that acts as the governing body for 13 Districts.  At one point in time, the Districts rebelled against the Capital and fought amongst themselves for various resources.  As a means to end the fighting, the Capital took control and obliterated one of the districts...District 13.  This was to prove a point to the remaining districts that the Capital was powerful and if they didn't do what the Capital said they, too, would be destroyed.

In order to "remind" the districts of the pointless fighting the Capital devised The Hunger Games.  The whole point of the Hunger Games is for children from each district to be placed in an arena and fight to the death.  The last one standing wins the Games for that year.  Each year, the remaining 12 Districts would hold a reaping to select a single boy and a single girl from each district to participate in The Hunger Games.  The names are selected from a bin where everyone in a certain age range are required to put their names in at least once.  If your family was poor and didn't have enough to eat, you could put your name in more times in exchange for additional food/goods. 

In this particular story, the focus is on a young girl name Katniss.  Her father was killed in a mining accident has she has been illegally hunting with her friend, Gale, in order to provide food for Gale's family and for Katniss's mother and younger sister, Prim.  Katniss has done everything she possibly can to provide for her family and has tried to keep her younger sister's name out of the reaping selection.  In this fateful year, even though Katniss' name has been placed in the reaping multiple times, her younger sister, who's name is entered just once, was selected.  Katniss did what an older sister does, and willingly took Prim's place in the reaping.

So now, Katniss is off to the Capital to join the other Tributes to fight to the death in the arena.  She and her fellow Tribute from District 12, Peeta, don't know quite what to make of the Games.  They know they are going to their deaths and yet they are unwilling to just give up and let the other Tributes, or the Capital, win.

This is truly an excellent book and its EXTREMELY hard to put down once you start reading it.  I highly recommend picking it up from your local bookstore or library and setting aside a weekend to read it. ;-)

The Albatross Lives :-(

We were all geared up for getting the contracts signed for selling the house....then got a call from the person who was going to buy the house.  Not only did he find out Friday that his pension would be cut by 20%, but he also found out that his cancer was back.  :-(  We felt awful for the guy.

Obviously, they will not be buying the house, unless some other miracle comes along.  They were worried that they were "messing" things up for us by not buying the house.  We assured them that they were not messing anything up and all they should be concerned about is getting healthy.  Hopefully the cancer will be treatable and isn't an aggressive form of cancer.

So.....anyone interested in a house? ;-)

It's Happening.....!

After the abysmal attempts to sell our house with real estate agents, Rich and I put the house up for sale ourselves.  A few weeks ago we got a call that someone was interested in the house.  We did a showing for that person, and they came back with an offer.  We weren't happen with the offer, so we countered and they said they had to think about it.  On Wednesday, they called us back and gave us a better offer...

AND WE ACCEPTED!

So we are closing the deal on the house on October 21st.  A little too soon for us to move out you think?  :-)  The new owners are going to rent us the house until May of next year, which is when our new home is supposed to be done.

We won't have to move out of our current house at all before moving into the next house, which is WAY more convenient.  All in all, we're pretty darn lucky.  The people came up a bit in price, not quite as much as we would have liked, but with the ability to rent the house until our new house is built....it was too good to pass up.

Keep your fingers crossed that all the final paperwork goes through properly. :-)

Weekend & Tea

Last week was a very busy week for us.  On Monday and Tuesday nights, we met one of my co-workers up at our lot to give him some wood.  We thought he was just going to cut the wood that was already in the pile and take that away, but instead he wanted to help us drop a few trees and cut them up (in exchange for the wood).  So we were up there cutting trees until 7:30 at night. 

Then on Friday night, we met my manager up at the lot for more wood.  He heats his entire house with wood, so he's up for "free" wood whenever he can get it.  So we were up there again until 7:30 at night.  Then Saturday morning, Rich and his dad went to the lot to cut down some trees and my co-worker AND manager went there, too, to get wood.  They dropped a tree that we weren't sure how to drop, so at least that's down on the ground now. 

As for me....on Saturday, instead of working on the lot, I had to do laundry and a bunch of errands because I'm traveling this week.  I also met a great friend for tea on Saturday.  We had a great time.  We didn't spend as much time there as last time, but we were still there for 2 hours and had a bunch to talk about.

This week, I'm down near NYC for a training class for work.  I'm hoping it will be good, but its a little nerve-wracking.  Its not that the class will be hard....its just that I don't really like traveling.  I like being home....plain and simple.  I'm sure the week will go by quickly and then I'll be happy to be home again.

Another bit of good news.....we ended the contract with our real estate agent earlier this month and put the house up for sale by ourselves.  We got a cheap "burner" phone at Walmart so that we didn't have to put our personal phone number up on the sign.  We had 15 flyers taken in the past week or so, and this morning we actually got a call!  Someone wants to come see the house tomorrow.  Rich will show the house since I'm not home, but we're pretty excited.  These people are retired and they have family in our area.  Plus, they don't need to sell their house in order to buy our house....so no waiting! :-)

Anyway - I think I'm going to get ready for bed and read for a while.  There's not much else to do here.  Too bad I didn't think to bring some sewing with me to at least work on tonight.

Books - "A Woman's Place" by Lynn Austin

Earlier this summer, I read a fantastic book by Lynn Austin.  I've really gotten hooked on her books lately.  While I'm not usually one to read Christian novels, Ms. Austin's writing has a great balance between telling the story and mixing in Christian principles without being "preachy".  Here's the write-up for "A Woman's Place" from Amazon:

In an engrossing read, three-time Christy Award–winner Austin explores the lives of four women in smalltown Michigan during WWII. The unlikely quartet of heroines—a mouthy Italian, a farm girl desperate to go to college, a spinster schoolteacher who's inherited a fortune, and a bored housewife—meet and become fast friends when they take Rosie the Riveter jobs at a local factory. On one level, the novel is simply about the bonds that form among the principals, recalling Whitney Otto's How to Make an American Quilt and Lynne Hinton's Friendship Cake. But the subtext, as the title suggests, is about gender roles. Can and should women defy their husbands? What does the Bible say about wifely obedience? Such questions present themselves urgently to each of the four protagonists (and, one imagines, to many of Austin's female evangelical readers). Austin sprinkles some lovely images throughout—a newborn's fingernails "like drops of candle wax"—and a humorous depiction of inadvertently tipsy church ladies will have readers in stitches. All in all, Austin offers a very enjoyable journey to an earlier wartime America.
The entire storyline revolved around 4 women during WWII.  As most people are aware, during WWII the majority of the US male population was sent to the front lines to fight, which left a huge hole in the US production environment.  With all the men gone (and women not typically working outside the home), there were very few people left to work in the factories to make the supplies that the men on the front lines needed.  The women of America stepped up to the plate and joined into industries that were always male dominated.  The four women depicted in the novel have their own individual problems and worries at taking a job outside their home.  It was definitely a good book to read.

I think part of the reason I was really drawn to this novel is the fact that even though we're 60+ years after WWII, we still have women fighting for our rights to work in a male dominated world.  While women are definitely prevalent in the working society, there are still certain professions where there are very few of us.  Engineering is definitely one of those fields.

Throughout college, I was one of maybe 2 females in my upper-level classes of 30 people.  I learned to live in a male-oriented world, which has had its own affects on me.  Even now as I hold a very good engineering position, I am the only female in our group of engineers and drafters.  We have two females in our global sites, but I am the only female based here in the US.  While most of the time it doesn't really bother me, there are times when I feel like the odd person out simply because everyone else is male.  It does make things a little more "challenging".

All I can say is for the mothers out there with young daughters....encourage them to get into math and science.  Teach them that just because an industry is mainly male doesn't mean that they can't do it!  Set the foundation right when they are in grade school and middle school and they will do well in today's society.