Beth Ferrier’s Blog

We are coming down to the wire on my next applique book. I’ll be approving the final layout in the next few days and then it’s off to the printer! (And, I’ll be able to start showing you what I’ve been working on for the last year, finally!)

But before all that, I need testimonials from students for the back of the book. So, if you have something nice to say about my classes or my first applique book, or me (I’m blushing here, to be fishing for compliments), please leave a comment or email me at beth at applewd.com.  Thanks!

Where have I been? Um, here. Sitting quietly mostly, thinking. On the rare days when the sun is out you can find me working in the garden. Otherwise, it’s just puttering around the house.

I must admit to a new addiction. Kent gave me an MP3 player last Christmas, which I pretty much ignored until about a month ago. It started out slowly, as these things do. First it was podcasts. Talk of quilters, knitters and food filled my ears while I folded laundry or pulled weeds.

And then, an audio book. My daughter in law suggested the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series, so I downloaded the first book. Downloaded the entire book in just a few minutes. Practically instantly, right there on my computer. Oh, my, this is almost as good as my own private book mobile! I can “read” and do chores all at the same time! No more guilt about ignoring my responsiblities while my nose is stuck in a book.

Next it was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I read it when it first came out a million years ago, and introduced it to my boys when they became teenagers. To say that they loved it would be an understatement. So, with a quick teaching trip to Chicago on the calendar I downloaded book one and two in the series. I felt that I really needed to be reminded what all the fuss was about. It was a lovely distraction when the fellow next me reeked of alcohol (and consumed two more mixed drinks on the 45 minute flight) and spearment gum (as if that would cover the smell of booze).

After that is was Atlas Shrugged, all sixty-three hours! Ayn Rand’s book has been one of my lifetime favorites. I was introduced to her in high school. I read Atlas Shrugged again in my mid thirties. Considering all that is going on in this country right now, I’ve been needing a dose of self-determination.

Somewhere in the middle of Atlas Shrugged it became clear that instead of listening while working I was looking for work that would let me listen. My garden has never looked better.

And then I listened to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Absolutely charming and delightful book. Hard to imagine that a story about the German occupation of the Channel islands during WWII could be described so frivolously, but it was so lovingly told. Highly recommended!

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See is up next. I read her first two books, Snowflower and the Secret fan, and Peony in Love and thoroughly loved them.

I’ve learned that if I fall asleep listening my dreams tend to have a narrator. I find that I feel a little sad when I finish listening because there is nothing to put on the bookshelf. I’ve learned that I shouldn’t listen to a book read with an obvious accent on the way to a teaching gig. The Sookie book reader had a beautiful southern lilt, which took me three days to get out of my voice.

So, that’s where I’ve been, to Louisiana, the end of the Universe, New York and Colorado, Guernsey and next to Japan. There was also that little detour to Trenton, NJ to keep up with Stephanie Plum, but that was a real book. What a busy summer vacation!