Covid-19 Life: Books, Quilts, Gratitude

I finally have the Gingiber Thicket animal quilt finished! I bound it off today and it is in the washer. I machine quilted it, the largest quilt I have tackled so far.

I finished the fusible applique for all fourteen Michigan lighthouse blocks. Instead of finishing the edges with a satin stitch I am outlining everything in black thread. Because I hate machine work and am lazy and thought I would try something different. It gives a different effect.

Rebel Girl is going to be my new project! It’s so much fun!

And I am finishing hand quilting Hospital Sketches.

We are approaching February 2, which will mark one year since my family last gathered together as a whole. We celebrated my husband's birthday at a local Japanese restaurant. Restrictions have once again leveled off Covid cases in Michigan. I know a few people who have been vaccinated, but like many thousands, the schedule is full into February and we wait for opening to be vaccinated.

So, it is more of the same life we have lived since March 11, 2020. Zoom and Facebook and instant messaging and the rare meetings, mostly outdoors, with a family member.

Gus the cat has been enjoying the days when Sunny and Ellie are at doggie day care. Gus has her people all to himself. Of course, they are working from home and I understand there is much walking across keyboards going on.

Our heated water dish is visited by Blue Jay and Cardinals and scads of squirrels of all colors. We have had little snow here, but it stays cold.

A number of books have arrived in the mail!

The Genome Odyssey by Euan Angus Ashley is from Bookish First.

Publisher's Weekly had a Grab-a-Galley giveaway, and the publisher sent me Blind Spots: Why Students Fail and the Science that Can Save Them by Kimberly Nix Berens.

The Book Club Cook Book sent me Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten.

St. Martin's Press sent me The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town by Brian Alexander through NetGalley.  It is about a Bryan, OH town, where I used to take my sewing machine to be serviced when we lived near the Michigan-Ohio border.

I obtained Empowered Embroider through NetGalley.

I am still working on the same quilt projects. I had to stop hand quilting after I smashed my quilting finger. I have fourteen lighthouse blocks fused down and am adding machine work.

I feel great relief and gratitude for so many things.

First, for the peaceful transfer of power to a new president.

Second, knowing that in the next few months the Covid vaccine will become more available and we will be vaccinated.

Third, that our loved ones have remained safe over this long year.

Fourth, for the work I have in book reviewing which gives me meaning in isolation.

Fifth, for connections through social media and Zoom that keep me in communication with the world.

Sixth, for the creative outlet I have in quilting.

And last of all, for all those who read my blog and reviews and comment and share.

Stay safe. Find your bliss. 

Covid-19 Life: Quilts, Books, FurGrankids, and Christmas

With Covid-19 cases at record highs, we remain in social isolation. We miss seeing our family, but we keep busy. As Jane Austen stated in Emma, "Ah! There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."

Jane Austen Witty & Wise coloring book from Dover Press

I discovered that DMC has free patterns on its website! I found these mushroom embroidery patterns that I knew would go great with the 1970's vintage fabric I had in my stash that has mushrooms on it. Another quilt top for the pile to be quilted.

I started this Row by Row quilt in 2014 but when it came to machine quilting it on my previous sewing machine, I was not pleased. I  finally finished it with my new Bernina 540 QE .

The blocks are from Michigan quilt shops near Houghton Lake and West Branch.

I am finally hand quilting the Hospital Sketches quilt from the Barbara Brackman quilt-along.

And I am machine quilting the Gingiber Thicket animals quilt.

From BookishFirst, Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen arrived yesterday and I have already read three of the stories. The writing is wonderful and the stories so revealing about daily life in China.

To come is Better Luck Next Time by Julia Clairborn Johnson, a LibraryThing Early Readers giveaway. I won The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, & La France from Words & Peace blog. 

We miss Ellie, Sunny, and Gus but the kids keep us posted on Facebook. Kitten Gus, all of 7 pounds now, loves Sunny and sleeps in her crate. Ellie got jealous and tried to take over Sunny's bed but was not amused when Sunny tried to fit in with her!

Ellie returned to her own crate, Gus joined Sunny, and all was well in the house.

The kids sent us an early Christmas present--a huge selection of Simpson & Vail teas, orange marmalade, and tea cookies! We were nearly out, so this was a real hit. Most of our favorites are included, including Literary Teas Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and Beatrix Potter. Also, the new National Park teas.

I brewed a cup of the Shenandoah National Park tea and had drunk half of it before I noticed it was a bright blueberry color! It has blue pea flowers (and lemon and ginger) which I learned is an ancient tea with many health benefits.

We have our tree up and some Christmas quilts on the wall. 

Our ornaments have stories, hand crafted by family members, or ourselves, and gifts from parishioners or coworkers over the years, or representing our interests. 

Even Sunny is getting into the spirit, sporting a velvet and fur and bell trimmed collar! I hope you are able to get into the holiday spirit. 

Covid-19 Life: Nature in the 'Burbs, Books TBR

The leaves are all down, except for a black willow at the end of our street. It is time to notice other things on our walks. Like squirrel nests! 

The city park is filled with oak trees which feed the squirrels. 

We have the Eastern Grey Squirrels and Fox Squirrels I remember from growing up, but now there are more black squirrels than any other.

I researched why they have appeared in Michigan and discovered that they had been introduced intentionally! Their color helps to protect them during the cold winters and so they have thrived. 

According to Wikipedia, the black morphs had nearly disappeared when John Harvey Kellogg decided to repopulate Battle Creek, MI, with the black Eastern Gray Squirrel in 1915. In 1958 and 1962, the black morphs were trapped at the Kellogg Biological Station and released on the Michigan State University campus! They were also reintroduced at Kent State University in Ohio.

Where there are squirrels and bunnies and chippies (and yes, skunk, opossum, raccoon, rats, and mice, too) there will be raptors. Our city is filled with all of these creatures.

Today we saw this hawk circling our street.

I have seen a hawk sitting in a tree, watching a squirrel. The squirrel was distraught, wanting to go into its nest but he knew the hawk was there. He ran up and down the lower trunk while the hawk flew from branch to branch. Lucky for the would-be prey, the hawk grew bored and flew to other feeding grounds.

A number of winters ago there was a hawk on our roof holding a frozen rate. Last summer I saw the peregrine falcon winging overhead.

On a community Facebook page I mentioned seeing raptors in the city and one person was aghast. She thought 'velociraptor' not hawks!

Telephone lines and fences and houses and garages block our view from the house, but the sunsets and sunrises are easier to see now the leaves are down.

I have so many 'win' books that have not arrived! Instead, I received a book that was a total surprise! Jane Smiley's new novel Perestroika in Paris sounds like a charming read!

To come is The Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping-Chen, stories from China, from BookishFirst. And new on my NetGalley shelf is Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli.

I will soon have another quilt top completed, I started a small embroidery project, and am toying with doing some painting.

There is plenty to keep me busy as we self-isolate. Michigan and our county has seen escapating Covid-19 cases.

Over 329,00 cases and 8,875 deaths in Michigan.

Over 40,000 cases in Oakland County and 1,310 deaths.

Our city has 260 cases and 18 deaths total, 217.03 positive cases per 10,000 people.

Sadly, I now can say I know someone with Covid, along with knowing many people who has a family member that became ill, and several people who lost loved ones. 

Stay safe, out there. Use a mask. Stay home. Better to miss one Thanksgiving than to lose a family member.

Covid-19 Life: Jitters, TBR shelf, The Fur-grandkids

It's been a tense few days in our home as it has been across America. Our local and state candidates all won reelection, but there is that long wait for the presidential winner to be announced. Our two-mile square town had an amazing turnout in all the precincts, including ours.

We sent a few dollars to candidates across the country, and got some nice thank yous, including this postcard from Mark Kelly!

The weather in Southeast Michigan has warmed up to 70 degrees! The quilter met in the park in the morning when it was in the lower 50s out, so we were bundled up.

I struggled to find some basic supplies. I tried every local grocery store and the drug store. Finally I found them at Target and within hours was there for a pick-up.

I have only been doing drive up pick up. I have not been inside a store since our quick trip into CVS early summer. Everyone wore masks as mandated by our county, and the social distancing marks were on the floor. Still, I was nervous while I waited for my bags, trying to find a place out of the way.

When this pandemic is over, it will take me a long time to get used to being around crowds.

I was thrilled to get the ARC Life Among the Terranauts from Caitlin Horrocks, whose novel The Vexations I loved. Horrocks was our son's writing professor at Grand Valley State University!

Another ARC on my TBR pile is The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington from Algonquin Books. I love all the books I have read from Algonquin. But read this blurb and you'll see what attracted me:

“The Fortunate Ones feels like a fresh and remarkably sure-footed take on The Great Gatsby, examining the complex costs of attempting to transcend or exchange your given class for a more gilded one. Tarkington’s understanding of the human heart and mind is deep, wise, and uncommonly empathetic. As a novelist, he is the real deal. I can’t wait to see this story reach a wide audience, and to see what he does next.” —Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

Other ARCs I am waiting for include:

• The next American Novel by Norman Locks coming from Bellevue Literary Press, Tooth of the Covenant. I have read four books in this series.
• From LibraryThing, All that We Carried by Erin Bartels, a Michigan author whose previous books I have reviewed

New on my NetGalley shelf 

• The Bookseller of Florence:The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance by Ross King

This month the library book club is reading The Bear by Anthony Krivak--and he is going to Zoom meet with us! We are so excited!

I read the novel as an ARC and revisited it for another library book club so it will be my third time to delve into this novel.

I have been noodling around in the quilt room. I layered a quilt for machine quilting. I played with some things but lost interest. I plan on layering the Hospital Sketches quilt top for hand quilting this winter. I have fabric for new quilts. I can't bring myself to work in the basement quilt room as long as the sun is shining. Those gloomy, Michigan winter days are coming too soon and I can hole away and sew then.

With Covid rampaging throughout the country, and in our small town, we are self-isolating. Except...tomorrow it will be over 70 degrees and we will visit our son and his girl and the fur-grandkids while we can sit outdoors with masks.

Gus the kitten and Sunny, who is a year old, have bonded very quickly. They both like to play. Ellie loves to chase with dogs, but hasn't figured out what to do with a kitten.

When Gus took over Sunny's bed she wasn't sure what to do. She decided just to join him. Now they are snuggle buddies.

Stay safe out there. 

Covid-19 Life, TBR, Autumn Colors

With Covid cases rising, we continue to social isolate and order pickup and delivery. My last haircut was in late February. It's getting long!

Six of the quilters are still braving meeting outdoors in the park. It was 50 degrees out, we were bundled up, wearing masks, and had a great visit.

Karen's Monkey Wrench quilt

The rest of the quilters meet through Zoom. 

As does the Clawson library book club. Next month we will read The Bear by Andrew Krivak, who is to join our Zoom meeting!

I am perfecting my Zooming skills. 

Last week, I Zoomed with the Troy library book club. They read Song of Achilles and Zoomed with author Madeline Miller. She also discussed her novel Circe. 

And in previous weeks, I Zoomed to hear Francesca Wade talk about her book Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars and with three historical fiction writers who wrote about composers, including Barbara Quick who wrote Vivaldi's Virgins.  

New books on my shelf include The Memory Collectors by Kim Neville, from Atria Books.

Other books new to my shelf include

• Nowhere Like This Place:Tales from a Nuclear Childhood by Marilyn Carr, a memoir
• The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman, about King Edward VIII  
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

And soon to come for an Algonquin blog tour,

• Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standford

We are enjoying watching the original and hilarious The Good Place and saw the new Rebecca from Netflix, a very interesting and competent interpretation of Daphne Du Maurier's classic gothic novel.

Our only travels are to the doctors. Luckily, there is a lot to see in our two-mile square suburban neighborhood. Like this Blue Jay that perched on the edge of the sliding patio door as it endeavored to get to some insect hiding between the doors.

And the Canada Geese who decided to take a walk down our street.

And the Halloween decorations.

Like much of America, we have been busy fixing up the house and finishing projects. Besides painting a bedroom and ordering a new kitchen table, we bought bookshelves for our TBR books and a sideboard for under the kitchen windows.

Many of my TBR books are from the library sales, but also from my brother and ones I ordered.

This week, my husband dug a hole in the garden and we buried the ashes of our four Shiba Inu dogs. Kili was our first Shiba, adopted when our son was five years old. She lived over 16 years. Next came Suki, a seven-year-old puppy mill breeder who needed a lot of TLC to make her a 'real dog'. Suki's first friend was Kara, a nine-year veteran puppy mill breeder. He taught Suki how to play and snuggle. Sadly, Kara was only with us ten months. He already had kidney failure when he came to us. So, we brought home Kamikaze, another puppy mill rescue. Kaze thought the world was hers and loved freedom and her home. She and Suki bonded as they aged, and when they lost their eyesight they aided each other in every day tasks--like finding the water bowl and going in and out doors.

Now they are all together in their forever home near the Pink Drift Roses, marked by a lovely Shiba Inu statue.

Our fur babies forever home

The roses are still blooming since we have not had a killing frost yet here.

Every day on my walk I find a beautiful tree to photograph and share on Facebook and Instagram. Here are some.

We voted. We got our flu shots. We are staying safe. I hope you are, too. It's going to be a challenging fall without normalcy, the pandemic impacting our cherished Halloween, Thanksgiving, Advent, Hanukkah, Christmas, and other family and community traditions.