Maria Antoni Sampler, Agatha Christie & Coloring

Hello below is how far along I am not with the Maria Antoni Sampler. My pace has slowed because I have been doing a LOT of reading and took a coloring class online. As you can see I am at the halfway point. I do hope to get it done before the sampler kit I ordered for the 400th anniversary of the May Flower comes in Sept. The ideas is to start stitching it the date the May Flower left England and finish on the date it arrives in the New World. But that is for another post!

Did you know that 2020 marks 100 years of Agatha Christie? Her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920. More information can be found at her official website

I found this out around June 25 and since then I have been reading her books in an attempt to get them all read in 2020. We will see how THAT goes. Many years ago I subscribed to the Bantam Books Agatha Christie Mystery Collection with the idea of reading them when I retired, so I have all her mystery books (plus a few others) and decided to give it a go. I am reading them in order to see if I can notice a change/development of her style. But honestly, I read for fun so I probably won't notice. So far I have not figured out any of the guilty parties, except for in a few of the short stories. Enjoying it tremendously. 

I have read these so far, having finished Thirteen for Dinner last night and now I am on to Murder on the Orient Express.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Secret Adversary

Murder on the Links

The Man in the Brown Suit

Poirot Investigates

The Secret of Chimneys

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Big Four

The Mystery of the Blue Train

The Seven Dials Mystery

Partners in Crime (SS)

The Mysterious Mr. Quin (SS)

The Murder at the Vicarage

Murder at Hazelmoor

Peril at End House

The Tuesday Club Murders (SS)

Thirteen at Dinner

I also decided I wanted to color better with colored pencils. I found this really good online class from Kit and Clowder. She has free classes, some great general information, and classes you pay for.  She is in Australia, so the price is not too bad after the conversion and I LOVE her accent. She is also very positive and encouraging and offers free consultations. She covers pencils and while she uses Prismacolors, she has charts for other brands. She also has Copic marker classes with conversion to other marker brands. 

The June/July class was called Brighten Your Day and her is my result. I used Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and Springhill Vellum Bristol Cover Digital - 67# and 147gsm. It fits in the manual feed of my printer without any trouble. You need to be able to print out the images to color.

That about covers it for now!!

Stay safe all.