Finally finished pillow

It's a rainy day today which I don't really mind as the gardens need it. As long as I can get my errands and groceries done without getting too wet.
Yesterday, I finally quilted my pillow top, straight lines only, and sewed it up into a cover. I ended up having to use a slip stitch closure as opposed to a Velcro one. The only fabric I could find was in my box of recycled linens that I pick up at the second hand stores. I managed to find a piece of mossy green linen from a skirt just big enough to fit the back.

It makes me very happy when I walk into the room!
I haven't quite finished my bright green coffee table yet. I had an issue with some defective paint which the store replaced for me and I think I just need one final coat on the top now.
I've been wanting to pass on my summer reading as well. I just finished a book last week that totally absorbed me called The Kitchen House. The story centres around the female slaves on a pre Americain civil war plantation and a seven year old orphan brought home by a sea captain. It is well written, every word holding my attention and I hated it to end.
The next book that I started and am 3/4 of the way through, equally as compelling, is Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. I have read all of her books and was looking forward to this latest one. The story is captivating and her prose is beautiful. Sometimes, I have to retread a sentence because it evokes such beauty. It is the story of a butterfly migration and the possible effects of global warming on it, but the characters and family life that is woven into it is so real, at times sad, funny and just plain joyful. One recognizes ones own personal moments in her descriptions.

These are both the kind of books that I find and read in between all the other stuff. The kind that make me want to stay up and keep reading but at the same time slow down and savour. The kind that I live inside and reluctantly let go of the characters.