Banyan Moon for the Literary Sewing Circle

If you're a reader who is also a maker, you might be interested in joining on the latest round of the Literary Sewing Circle that I run over on my sewing blog! We read a book together and then make something inspired by our read.

This fall our read is Banyan Moon by Thao Thai, a novel covering 3 generations of Vietnamese women living in Florida. The Literary Sewing Circle runs for 5 weeks, plus 2 extra weeks to get your project done,  and anyone can join in. 

Full details are over at Following the Thread now.

The Blue Castle & The Literary Sewing Circle: A Readalong/Sewalong

As some of my readers know, I also love to sew, and as part of my sewing, I keep another blog, Following the Thread. But since I can't split the two things I love most, I also talk about books there, and run a sewing book club twice yearly. The fall round of the Literary Sewing Circle has just begun, and this time I'm featuring a classic that I just shared here recently, Lucy Maud Montgomery's The Blue Castle. 

If you are also a reader and a maker, you are welcome to join in on the fun. No official signup required, just read the book, and make something inspired by your reading. You can also follow along with the weekly blog posts for book talk and inspiration, and find us on IG -- look for #LiterarySewingCircle 

The Literary Sewing Circle, 2019

It's that time again! Over on my other blog, the first Literary Sewing Circle of 2019 is happening. The group read this time around is The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan (who also happens to be pretty good with a sewing machine). 

As always, anyone interested in reading along and making something inspired by your reading is welcome to join in. There's already an intro post, inspiration post, and an author interview posted. If you want to read along, please do -- you can also discuss it via Goodreads if you prefer. 

And there are even some sponsor offers this year! Check it out, and you'll now know why I haven't had as much time to post book reviews here in the past couple of weeks ;)

Another Challenge: the Literary Sewing Circle

Some of you may remember, I also run another blog focused on my sewing life, Following the Thread.

But of course I can't stay away from books even in my sewing life! I run a bookclub/sewalong over there called The Literary Sewing Circle & we are just starting the Summer Edition of the circle. The idea is to read a book in common, share our book thoughts, and then create something inspired by your reading -- sew, quilt, embroider -- any textile art is fine! If you are a textile maker, feel free to join us - all the details on how to join in are here. 

It's really low-key, and you could read this book for the #CanBookChallenge at the same time!

The Literary Sewing Circle

Over at my other blog, Following the Thread, the newest round of The Literary Sewing Circle has begun! This is an online bookclub in which we read and discuss a book together, then make a project inspired by the book. 

While sewing is the main focus of this project, anyone who sews, knits, crochets, embroiders or otherwise makes some kind of textile craft is welcome to join in. As long as you can say where your inspiration came from in your reading, the sky is the limit!

Our current book is Cassie Stocks' Dance, Gladys, Dance. This book is on the longlist for Canada Reads right now, and has been featured right here on this blog before. 

If you want to join in, just comment on the Literary Sewing Circle blog post, and you can read and sew along at your own pace. And you can also count this title toward your Canadian Book Challenge, if you are participating in that reading challenge as well!

Hope you see some of you over there...

The Literary Sewing Circle

If you're wondering why it's been kind of quiet over here for the last few weeks it's because I've been busy getting another reading challenge going... this time a readalong & sewalong at my other, sewing, blog. 

If you are a reader who also loves textiles -- sewing, knitting, quilting, embroidering and so forth -- and I know there are a few of you! -- then you are welcome to join in on the Literary Sewing Circle. All the info and the reading schedule can be found in this launch post. 

The most important detail is the title of our first group read!

If you're also reading along for the RIP Challenge, this would be a great book to pick! It is spooky but not terrifying, and has some fantastic imagery to inspire you.

If you want to hear more about this project, I'm also thrilled to be able to tell you that I was a first-time guest on a podcast! The wonderful sewing podcast The Clothes Making Mavens was interested enough to have some bookish sewing chat this week. Check it out if you are into sewing -- it's very sewing oriented although we are talking books. 

Happy Fall and Happy Creating!