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: Books, Quilts, Insurrection, Health

Nine days into the new year. There is nothing 'normal' about this January.

Insurrection and violence. Highest number of Covid deaths in one day. Bitter cold but no snow here. 

We were watching Congress on television and had got to Arizona and were about to turn it off when the camera switched to the scene outside the Capitol. We watched for hours. We did not eat dinner that night, our appetite gone. The only reason I got to sleep was because I spent an hour in the quilt room and had a happy book to read before bedtime.

We were thrilled to receive a letter from our health provider about signing up to be called for a Covid vaccination. It will take some weeks, but still! By spring perhaps we will return to a store and feel more comfortable visiting family, with masks, but actually visiting.

We have had our car for two years now, and have reached 6,000 miles! We took it out for a spin yesterday, going nowhere, hoping the battery won't die this winter. As did our son's truck battery. (He works from home.) It's been so cold, I have not gone for a walk. Perhaps today, as the sun is shining and that will trick me into thinking it is warmer than the 30 degrees the thermometer reads.

The quilters Zoom and try to show off our work, holding it up to the computer camera. I am hand quilting still, but have finished my machine quilted project which is ready for binding. And I started--finally--the Michigan Lighthouse quilt. I bought the first Aunt Mary's pattern almost twenty years ago!!!

I have twelve blocks fused. Next, I need to ink in details and then machine applique the raw edges.

Books in the mail include At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman from Algonquin Books. 

And The Great Indoors by Emily Anthes, a Goodreads win.

New to my NetGalley shelf is 

• The 12 Lives of Alfred Hitchcock by Edward White.

Along with my books for review, I am reading Barack Obama's book A Promised Land, a Christmas present. And just before bed, Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle. I had heard people talking about as a favorite book and picked up a 1948 edition at a library book sale. 

Reading a fun, happy, book before sleep really helps! I have been reading Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature by Angus Fletcher which talks about the impact of literature on the chemical stimulus in the brain. And in The Great Indoors, I just read the chapter about the importance of hospital patients seeing nature as part of their healing.

Literature, creativity, nature. It's all so important during these stressful times.

My brother lives on a canal to a lake and the deer have been bedding in his yard outside his family room window. The also eat his plants and the bird feed scattered by the birds, squirrels, raccoons and other critters who feed there.

Recently, my brother was at the Elk Park in Gaylord, MI. 

And, walking at Kensington Metro Park, he and his girlfriend encountered Sandhill Crane and a hungry Titmouse.

My brother built a covered bridge over his cabin's tiny stream. A very scenic sight in winter! Here, the grass is just beginning to lose it's green and we have not had enough snow to actually shovel. Yet.

Stay safe.

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: Finishing Quilts, TBR, Beautiful Nature

Maybe it's the feel of mortality breathing down my neck, but I am focused on finishing all those 'UFOs' in my sewing room--Unfinished Objects, for the uninitiated.

Finishing The Great Gatsby quilt was major. I started it years ago! I hand quilted it.

The blocks are taken from 1924 advertisements and represent scenes from the book.

I was lucky to snag  fabrics from the Great Gatsby fabrics line.

 My sewing room is a creative mess of works in progress.

I am putting together Row by Row blocks from years ago. Quilt shops designed and sold these rows for quilters to collect. These are all Michigan lake scenes.

I am also working on a pattern I bought when I was first quilting! The Mountain Mist Water Lilies pattern! Lots of repetitious hand applique. I love it. There are eight blocks like those below. Then borders of lily pads and flowers!

Books in the mail include the Book Club Cookbook win The Second Home by Christina Clancy, pictured with a completed Row.

And three fantastic art quilt books from Schiffer Publishing! Look for the reviews in the coming weeks.

New galleys on my shelf include:

• Maniac: The Bath School Murder and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer by Harold Schechter, which occured in Michigan
• The View from Abroad: The Story of John and Abigail Adams in Europe by Jeanne E. Abrams
• Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig

I have been coloring in my birthday books.

Sunny goes to 'day camp' three days a week. She loves playing with the dogs. Since my son and his partner are both working from home, it's hard for her to understand they have to ignore her demands to play during working hours.

I enjoy the beauty I see around me. The hawk circling on the updraft above the houses. The flowers I see on my walks. The painted clouds of sunset.

 Even the weeds in the grass are beautiful.

My brother went to Tawas Point a few weekends ago and reported record high lake levels. The year my family spent a week there lake levels were at a record low!

Note the lighthouse in the background.

Here are flowers my brother has seen on his walks in the woods.

And, here is my brother. His birthday is coming in a few weeks. 

Stay safe, out there. Find your bliss in this broken world.