Flying geese

I thought that I would post a picture of the flying geese quilt in situ. It's been really nice to sleep under it. It drapes really nicely. 

The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke

This is my second book by Mohsin Hamid. It is the story of a young man from Pakistan who comes into contact with an American in a market place in Pakistan. The story is told entirely from the point of view of the young Pakistani man, and the story is basically a monologue of his life - his journey as a student and trainee in America and his gradual increase in fundamentalism. I suppose in some ways it is a clever way of challenging a westerner's view of fundamentalism, but I found the tone annoying. I realise that this is because of the narrative choice - but in reality who has a conversation that goes along the lines of "You enjoyed the chicken dish you say.... well let me tell you about..." Still, it was a quick read.

The first book that I read (and apparently didn't post on here) is Moth Smoke.

I enjoyed this book a lot more. Again, this story was set in Pakistan. It is the story of a young man who finds himself unemployed and in love with his best friend's wife. With no money coming in, this young man starts to sell drugs as a way into the wealthy people's life. He has always been on the outskirts of this lifestyle, and as his lack of money increases his bitterness regarding the difference between the hypocritical lifestyles of the rich and poor increase. Thankfully, this book did not use the annoying narrative style of a single voice.

Flying Geese Quilt

I've finally finished the flying geese quilt that I started so long ago. 

The fabric is the Manor House fabric range from Lewis and Irene. The plain fabric is from Pelenna Patchworks and I tried to find colours that would match the Lewis and Irene fabrics. I think over all the colours work and I'm quite pleased with it. 

I made a few mistakes when making this quilt. Not everything is lined up perfectly, normally this wouldn't bother me too much. It is hand made after all. What did bug me was that I decided to straightline quilt on the machine, and this accentuated where my lining up had gone wrong. Additionally I trimmed the fabric, wadding and backing before I started quilting. As the quilting happened,  the fabric puckered and so my squared off fabric was no longer squared. As a result once I had finished quilting I had to re-trim the quilt to square it up again. The quilt is still huge but not as big as it should have been. Fortunately I had designed the quilt with a white border around it so the border rather than the colourful fabric was sacrificed. 

The backing of the quilt is a king-sized flat sheet (colour chosen by hubby). It works really well and compliments the main colours of the quilt. I hand bound it using a lovely soft purple fabric, again which really compliments the colours in the quilt. 

Tender is the Night

This is my first reading of a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. I bought this whilst on babymoon in Florence. I had run out of reading material and as I needed all of my battery on my phone (for just in case scenarios) I couldn't risk carrying on with my e-book novel that has taken me ages to get through.... reading on my phone is simply not the same as reading a paperback!

Tender is the Night is the story of the Divers, an attractive American couple with money who have settled in a post first world war Europe. It is very much telling the story of money and its social and sexual attraction. The story is told in 2 parts, first from the point of view of Rosemary, a budding film star who is attracted to the glitz and glamour and apparently irresistible charm of Dick Diver. The second part of the novel is told from multiple characters' points of view, although mainly from Dick's perspective. The second part deals with the behind the scenes of the domestic life of the Divers, and reveals the problems that arose in their relationship even before they were an item.

It is an interesting book and I can see that when it was published it would have had quite an audience. I didn't really feel like I engaged with the characters at any depth. They weren't particularly well described and all seemed to be particularly shallow. Perhaps that was the author's deliberate point, but from the little bit of knowledge that I have about F Scott Fitzgerald, the Diver's lifestyle is very similar to his own. Perhaps this is why Dick Diver's character is the one that is most rounded...