2020 Goals, WIP, and TBR

Hello to a new decade! 

I have a full schedule of book reviews coming these next few months and a long list of TBR galleys and books to read!

Right now I am reading the newly published Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, a lovely Goodreads win.

I am also reading biographies Fannie Lou Hamer by Maegan Parker Brooks and Frida in America by Celia Stahr, and Conversations with RBG by Jeffrey Rosen.  Also, Deeds Not Words, art quilts on women's suffrage from Schiffer Publications.

Just arrived in the mail is Country by Michael Hughes.

On my TBR galley shelves are:

• John Adams Under Fire by Dan Abrams
• Miss Austen by Gil Hornby
• The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi
• Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
• Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest by Ian Zach
• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
• Paris Never Leaves by Eileen Feldman
• American Follies by Norman Lock
• They Called it Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton
• Beyond the Horizon by Ella Carey

And, finally in the mail are LibraryThing wins is Inland by Tea Obreht.

My Christmas presents included Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion by Hillary Davidson.

And The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians by David M. Rubenstein.

My library book club finished up 2019 with A Gentleman in Moscow! This month we are reading Kirk W. Johnson's The Feather Thief and coming up this quarter are dynamite reads--Karen Dionne's The Marsh King's Daughter, Angie Kim's Miracle Creek, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. 

 I accepted a challenge to finally frame this needlepoint I made in 1973.

This year I am planning to continue to hone down my pile of quilt tops by getting them quilted, and to finish the tops I started, and to make the quilts I bought specific fabric for.

One of those incomplete projects is Love Entwined. I couldn't face the next border. 

Then there is Hospital Sketches and my Yellow Roses Sampler to finish! And the Thicket animals to quilt.

I also want to use stash fabrics. I'm not getting any younger and it's 'use it or lose it'! I love this Eastside Detroit find. I would like to take some of my vintage fabric stash and create something free and awesome along this line.

Our weekly quilt group had two weeks off for the holidays, then I missed a week. But look at what I got this week: a wonderful gal gave me these vintage fabrics, including some feedsacks and a Disney print of Alice and Wonderland!!!

 And on the 'free' table I found these books.

It's been a crazy winter here in Michigan with little snow. This snowman I made years ago is pleading, Let It SNOW.

But it's been cold enough that this squirrel seemed to be at the doorwall begging to be let in.

Our son's girlfriend's cat took over a basket and for Christmas I made her a pillow. Hazel the cat is pleased.

 And we gave our grandpuppy Ellie a Barkbox toy of a mug with squeaky marshmallows, which she took to bed.

The new news is that we will have another grandpuppy soon! Another puppy mill rescue from Safe Harbor, but this one a puppy!

WIP, TBR, & News

I have a head cold. My husband gave it to me for Valentine's Day. He felt bad so he bought me chocolate covered macaroons. 

It has been bitterly cold and snowy in Michigan.

painting by Joyce Gochenour, my mother

We have been enjoying the Detroit Symphony's American Panorama series and were lucky to have tickets to see two of the concerts live. I shared a remark on Facebook and was surprised to open their February newsletter to see it included at the top of the page!

POSTCARDS FROM THE STAGE

The DSO has made its mark in the month of February for the past several seasons with six extraordinary winter music festivals. Now halfway through American Panorama, it’s safe to say this festival has launched us on an incredible journey.

We watch the DSO concerts on Livestream, on our Comcast channel 900, plus they are available online. 

I am hand quilting the top I made from Carolyn Goins' book The Fiona Quilt Block.

The weekly quilt group I attend has a 'free table' where we share things we don't want. Fabric, patterns, books, trims--all kinds of goodies show up. The ladies are always showing off something they made with the free fabric they found on the table. A few weeks ago I picked up a piece of Marvel comic book heroes material and used it to make a bag.

 I lined it and added a deep pocket.

A surprise package came!  Fault Lines from W. W. Norton. The book shows how the American political divide began in 1974. This will be especially interesting to read as I am currently reading Camelot's End by Jon Ward about Ted Kennedy's challenge to President Carter, and how the Democratic party lost the presidency to Reagen.

I just finished The Gown by Jennifer Robson, a novel about the making of Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown. I won the book from Book Club Cookbook. My review is to come. Another book arrival, a Goodreads win, is That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron, whose Jane Austen mysteries I have enjoyed.

I am still waiting for my Goodreads win Unmarriageable, a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and the LibraryThing win Falter by Bill McKibbon.

For Valentines Day I bought myself Elizabeth McCracken's new novel Bowlaway. I just loved what I was reading in the reviews.

We bought a heated outdoor dog water bowl after watching squirrels eating ice. Once in a while, a bird will visit for a drink, too. But this little black squirrel comes all day long. He is the same critter who robbed our apple trees all summer long! We didn't mind, as the fruit last year was affected by the drought and was too small to use.

Our son's rescue dog Ellie has made huge progress in the last ten weeks. She sits to be harnessed and to get her coat on. She lets him know when she wants out or in or a pet. Ellie loves to romp in the deep snow!

I am scheduled for cataract surgery next week but fear it won't happen unless I have a quick and complete recovery from my cold! I will have both eyes taken care of and will get a lens that corrects my astigmatism while I am at it. Hopefully, I will only need glasses to read!

Knowing there were be several weeks when I won't have the best vision I have been cleaning up my NetGalley shelf and resisting adding new books until my surgeries are over.

I am reading Stephen Rowley's The Editor, historical fiction about a writer whose editor was Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

Books on my shelf include:

• The Life and Death of Aida: A Border Story by Aaron Bobrow-Strain
• A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father by David Maraniss whose Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story I have read
• The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith whose The Last Painting of Sara DeVos I have read

There are a few other publisher-sent NetGalley books which I may also get to. 

Today a dozen fat Robins visited the yard! They settled in the little ornamental pear tree to pluck the small fruit from last year. Then off they flew. Spring will come!

Birthday, Buying Spree & News

For my birthday our son filled dad's jukebox with 45s that I had owned when I was a teen. The jukebox is in the basement and too heavy to remove so we are going to embrace it. Our son had read my blog post about The Music I Grew Up With as a guide to what records to buy.

My dad bought this 1970s Seeburg Firestar from a local biker bar

Our son also made me dinner and gave me a collection of loose teas. So far they are very good!

My brother gave me a gift certificate to Monk's Bread and I got this great box of bread, biscotti, and preserves. They are made by Trappist Monks in Genesee, NY.

We can add more records to the jukebox so on Sunday after visiting the Clawson farmer's market I ran down to the Royal Oak flea market where I found hundreds of 45 records to choose from! I came home with:
Chicago-Does Anyone Really Know What Time It s
Dionne Warwick-PIromises, Promises and also Say a Little Prayer
Frank & Nancy Sinatra-Something Stupid
Barry McGuire-Eve of Destruction.
Marvin Gaye -Mercy, Mercy and also Ain't no Mountain High Enough
Bob Dylan-Spanish is the Loving Tongue
The Association-Windy

And I picked up other treasures.

My husband always talked about Rootie Kazootie and the Pineapple Pies which he loved as a boy in the 1950s. He asked for a pineapple pie, and his mom made him one. For over forty years he has asked me to make a pineapple pie. I think I did--once--perhaps it is time to make another. After revisiting this book, I am sure he will be dreaming of them again.

I had not read Robert Pinksky so picked up this 2011 volume of his poetry. A quilting friend was a relative and had met him at family gatherings when she was young.

I added a few pieces to my huge sheet music collection. I couldn't resist My Wife's Gone to the Country Hurrah! Hurrah! with Irving Berlin as one of the writers.

And I picked up some old pops songs and this adorable cover of Polly Wolly Doodle, a song our infant son loved me to sing to him.

The farm market is filled with goodies this time of year. Wonderful local corn, green and wax beans, sweet peppers, and beets came home with us. Also peaches and nectarines and heirloom tomatoes.

My husband baked bread yesterday, his favorite oatmeal. I made bread with apples from our apple trees!

I placed my first order to Penzy's Spices, lured by the excellent freebies. I bought a four-jar set of spices to make salad dressings and also lemon pepper (without salt) that uses real lemon peel. I got free shallots and cinnamon sugar, and some sample bay leaves, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks were thrown in too!

I  entered a coloring contest for National Coloringbook Day sponsored by Dover Publications. I won these coloring books!

Last week I took this quilt to show and tell in my weekly group. Remembrance of Things Past was made for a quilt guild challenge at Capital City Quilt Guild in Lansing, Michigan many years ago. The center is appliqued with colored pencil details. The fabrics, image scans, and embellishments all have some memories or ambiance of memories.

Remembrance of Things Past by Nancy A. Bekofske

detail of Remembrance of Things Past by Nancy A. Bekofske

In the photo below you can see the patch for Lawrence Tech where my grandfather Lynne O. Ramer taught mathematics; my brother later graduated from Lawrence Tech. Also, the SSX-1 submarine patch from my uncle Dave Ramer who worked on the sub in the 1960s.

detail of Remembrance of Things Past by Nancy A. Bekofske

My uncle Dave Ramer

my grandmother Evelyn Greenwood Ramer on the SSX-1

my grandfather Lynne O. Ramer on the SSX-1

I have pinback buttons on the quilt including Give Earth a Chance from the first Earth Day and an ERA button; also a scanned photo of our dog Kili (photo above) and a childhood hair ribbon, a mushroom pin I gave Mom. Note the scanned photo of Niagara Falls.

I am working on many projects, as usual: hand quilting my Peter Pan Story Book quilt, finishing my challenge quilt, and working on making hexies.

 It is hard to believe that September is quickly coming! Where did the summer go?