Thanks for the compliments. That quilt really is not that hard to make. You sew strips together for part of it and then use templates to cut out the quarter circles and the circles are large enough that even the curves are not difficult to sew. I popped back on here in case some of you are interested in making blocks from the book The Farmer's Wife. Many of these are simple traditional blocks and give you a chance to try some new blocks if you have not made these before. There is a group working on this together. The information is being posted at http://barristersblock.blogspot.com/ I signed up to participate! Maybe some of our Birthday Block Exchange people who are not too tied up with other things might enjoy it, too. The blogger will be posting information for three blocks at a time and is planning to do that twice a month. I will be posting pictures of my completed blocks at my blog http://arkangelsquilting.blogspot.com/ so come to visit! So far today I made two of them and hope to have all six completed by the end of the day. Jeanne

Hmmm... for the sake of tossing out ideas... For some reason I've been in the mood to go back and read some of our Southern writers. I know Faulkner has been mentioned here before. Others I've been wanting to revisit include Eudora Welty and Robert Penn Warren. In fact, the new movie version of All the King's Men with Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet comes out in Sept. It might be fun to read it before it comes out. For something fun and frothy, I haven't read anything by Thorne Smith. Thought it might be fun to give him a try, but don't know how available his books are these days.

SPOILERS! What struck me in re-reading this after many years is that as a teenager I thought Jean Brodie was wonderful and Sandy was rotten; as an adult, I see JB as manipulative and dangerous, though also pitiful and self-deluded, and Sandy as the clear thinker -- though I have to admit I'm still not overly-fond of Sandy (perhaps it's those little piggy eyes that were noted over and over again). The other aspect of the story that stood out to me this time (and I'm repeating myself from the other thread that includes TPOMJB) was that when Sandy rebelled against Brodie, the usual youth and adult roles were reversed. In my experience of books and movies, the youth are usually more freedom-seeking, sexually active, risk-taking and outside-the-box thinkers while the adult characters are usually more traditional, possibly religious, and socially conservative. To reverse the roles made the book much more interesting. The authority figure was the libertine, the child in her charge was the traditionalist. IMO Brodie was definitely trying to live through "her" girls, and make the girls over in her own image. My strong impression was that she was very sure of herself and truly believed her POV was perfectly right and would benefit the girls. I don't think she was manipulating them just for the sake of manipulating them. Only Sandy seemed to be aware of the scope and danger of JB's influence. The others seemed to safely drift away into adulthood, for the most part unharmed by her influence. Dido, I agree the letters were a riot. Very true to girls that age and very unintentionally funny. The men in the book seemed rather vacant and easily led, particularly the music teacher. The art teacher had his own selfish idea of what was morally acceptable, as he was cheating on his wife without qualm. Not very likable, either of them. I've never seen the movie, so I had no image of Jean Brodie in my mind. I must confess that when I think of Maggie Smith, I think of Professor McGonagall! I'll have to see if I can rent it.

At long last. I'll try not to write too much as most of you have probably sent your books back to the library or have become hazy about the plot. My copy started with 'Camera' which was just as well as I think 'Eye' would have been difficult to start with and put me off continuing. BTW my 'picture' at 'Eye' . . the odd pair of eyes . . . is taken from a del Cossa picture of St Lucy who's eyes were gouged out when she was put to death. I checked out the various friezes mentioned in the book and available to down-load. Not easy to get clear images but at least I felt I had a better idea of the various characters del Cossa had painted. Did anyone notice there is quite a bit about the detail of St Francis Ferrer in the 'Camera' section, as George studies the painting in the National Gallery but little mention of it by del Cossa in 'Eye'? I had no trouble in accepting the 1960's pre-theme and didn't read anything too special in it. It provided a period in which Smith based Carol (the mother) who is quite hippy-ish in her way of life/outlook. Nor did the lack of speech marks and odd words scattered about . . . once I had got used to them. In fact it forced me to be more alert to the various 'conversations' in case I missed something. The 'Camera' setting of Cambridge is where Smith lives and presumably mixes among the intelligentsia so I suppose it isn't surprising that George is much brighter than the average teenager. The hospital, Addenbrookes, where G's Mother dies and where G cycles round part of the lay-out of the gene and photos the double helix, are all there in real life. I wonder if this part of 'Camera' is telling us about the 'twist' in history (as the DNA spiral is depicted) when G says "What if the received notions of history were deceptive." As to the characters. I felt very sorry for both Georgia and Henry (who at first I though much younger than he actually was . . more of a toddler). Their Father seemed a distant rather ineffectual figure and G is left to look after the boy/cook the meals etc. although Smith doesn't make a big thing of it. And what was it about the damp patch on the wall in her bedroom? Did it have some significance that I've missed? The Mother, for me, seems quite a believable 'her-own-woman' sort of character. How many people would just up and take the children away to Italy for a few days? She shows guts and obviously is happy to put two fingers up at authority, in true hippy style. She tries to make George think at an adult level, which perhaps leaves G more vulnerable after her death. Helena, another very bright girl, comes in and out of G's life too briefly. I feel, if Camera had been a story on its own H could have played a greater part/been developed more. Mrs Rock? Did anyone mention her? Is her name meant to imply some sort of security for G; she seems to have no one else rooting for her? I liked the way she answers a question with a question or repeats back the same sentence. I have a friend, something of a Social Worker who does that same thing; it can drive you mad. Lisa Goliard? Obviously someone who Carol was attached to in the past, but so little information is given about her and why does G thinks she was/is a spy? Is she maybe the link between the now and then? George sees her in the National Gallery and apparently follows her to her house . . or so del Cossa 'says'. Very confusing. I cannot think that the second part (for me) of 'Eye' is meant to be written by George and Helena, they wouldn't have had either the skill or knowledge of mid-fifteenth century Italy. Why has del Cossa been taken forward in time? No idea, unless it is just because of the length of time G spends staring at the St Francis picture, as though he has been temporarily resurrected. I couldn't see the point of making del Cossa a female, nor the mention by some here about pornography; I hardly noticed it, (although the male review writers in the papers did!) I was more annoyed by del Cossa' using the word cause instead of 'because' on almost every page. Finally I think 'tomatoes' was just an error. I also noticed 'breeches' which I don't think were worn back then; still to be invented! So, I've still written too much but must say it made me think outside my comfort zone, but I don't think I would read this type of book again too soon. Rather too clever for everyday comfort. Final thought; all the way through reading this in my mind's background I kept 'hearing' I am a Camera