Yesterday I listened to Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini. I love the characters in her books. I was wishing I was at quilt camp even though I was happy cross-stitching. It must have been the hand-sewing I was enjoying. I worked on the Mary Poppins pattern during most of the book, and today I worked on it again while listening to Joanne Fluke's Plum Pudding Murder. I have made mis-counts if that's what they are called. I consider they make my work personal, not necessarily wrong because I am choosing to leave them in the work. I corrected an error in one corner, but I am not being a perfectionist about this work. I'll see what it looks like when I'm done and decide what I think of it. I think it will be fine for my first big project in counted cross-stitch. God Bless You.

If you go to this website http://marypoppins-hu.blogspot.com/, you will see the Mary Poppins cross-stitch done beautifully by its designer. Also some pictures of what other stitch alongers have done. Its such a neat design. The wind and the umbrellas blowing across the scene just make it for me. The author is Hungarian, but she made the design in English as well.
I have gotton part of the border in and one little corner umbrella. I must be the slowest counted cross stitcher on the planet, but I think I want to frame this one after its done so it needs to look good.

No audio books today, but my bedtime story for the past few days has been a Veronica Black mystery that I am enjoying. I found her by doing a search for Catholic mystery writers. There don't seem to be many, but there are quite a few formerly-Catholic mystery writers. Too bad. I also enjoy certain regional mysteries, and when I did a search for Canadian writers, I found Louise Penny. Her Armand Gamache series is one of my favorites. My sister told me about Charles Todd (an American mother-son writing team), and I highly recommend their Ian Rutledge series. My sister worked in a library for many years, and she is a good source for me for well-written books. I don't enjoy gory awfulness, but what I think makes a good mystery are the characters, location, the 'life going on activities' while the case is being investigated, and even the food. For instance, I didn't know until I was reading Louise Penny that the Tim Horton coffee shops are Canadian in origin. The detectives are always picking up their coffees at a Tim Hortons on their way to the murder. It's that kind of detail that brings me into the book.
I've been meaning to do a search for mysteries set in Poland or by Polish writers. And if I find any, hopefully I'll be able to get the books.