Here I Am! Still Sewing!

I know I have not posted much lately, other than a few book reviews. Well, I have been busy sewing, and will show you below some of my projects.

In this first bunch you may recognize some duplicates. These are tops I made in the past (and may have shown here) but other people machine quilted and bound them (or I may have bound a few of them). It is so helpful to have a team of people who provide options to help start or finish our projects! It takes a village to get this volume of quilts made, finished, and sent around the world. I still have a small pile of quilted but not yet bound quilts. I plan to concentrate on bindings at our next gathering of quilting friends. (Then I will have more photos to share.)

Here are some that I have made and finished, or they are hoping to be done soon. The first one is for baptism at church; the others are for either Quilts Beyond Borders or Wrap a Smile:

These are my most recent GE Designs blocks for her Stroll in Paris mystery. If you are doing the same project, you can see how far behind I am! This is block #2, and tomorrow she will reveal block #6! I better get busy on these. If I fall hopelessly behind I will feel...hopeless.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I love sewing on a Sunday afternoon, but tomorrow I will have Bonus Grandson visiting, so not much sewing will happen. Luckily I have six other days in the week to do whatever I want.

Book Review: Two Books

When I Was White by Sarah Valentine

In this memoir, Valentine describes growing up in her white, suburban family in the Pittsburgh area. It isn't until she is 27 that her mother tells her that the father who raised her is not her biological father and that her biological father was African-American. Valentine knew she had been viewed as "different" while growing up, but race was never discussed in her family. She has never put her "different-ness" into words for herself. It comes as a shock to her, though it explains her ponderings about herself, to realize that she is of mixed race.

In America where race has always been such a big thing, the fact that her family never discussed it was a huge disservice to Valentine, depriving her of the opportunity to fully understand herself and her heritage. In fact, the most they ever seem to say about race is to forbid her from dating anyone who is not white.

For many years, Valentine works on self-realization and searching for the identity of her biological father. Her family could have spared her so many years of angst.


Mr. g: A Novel About Creation by Alan Lightman

Mr.g lives in the Void with his Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva. He is bored, so decides to create a universe. First he makes times, then space, then matter. Then he makes a chair for his aunt. As solar systems and galaxies begin to form, he is delighted and intrigued with what he has created. It's a whimsical/scientific/philosophical look at creation. After some of the planets are populated, a satan-like being questions Mr. g about humans' free will and encourages Mr. g not to interfere. Mr. g is saddened by suffering so struggles a bit with that option.

The book includes a lot of scientific processes and philosophical questions that we have all pondered such as: what is life? Why are we here? Why is there suffering? What is space? How can we begin to imagine the great emptiness and void?

It could have been interesting and humorous and fun, but instead it plodded along and was not something I wanted to spend my time reading. I only finished it because it was for a book club. None of us particularly liked it, though we understood its presentation of our unanswerable questions.

This time you get a non-book-related photo. It's my great-niece in Nebraska, sporting her Minnesota Vikings shirt and resting on the quilt I made for her. Adorable, yes?

The Children

When I make quilts for kids, I picture this in my mind:


two girls in Guatemala:

a boy in ? (I think Guatemala, but I'm not sure):

a boy in a Jordan refugee camp for Syrians:

This is why I continue to make quilts for kids.

Wrap a Smile

Quilts Beyond Borders

Sunshine Quilt Guild (online)

Join me?

A Soft Quilt

I made this very easy quilt top, thinking I might donate it to one of the programs I support. The fabric is so cute that I decided I would like to give it to my Bonus Grandson. I had it quilted by a professional, using minky on the back.

Here is a close-up of the fabric.

Once it was quilted, it was so puffy and soft. Then, with minky on the back, it's even softer. It's a very comforting little quilt. I hope Bonus will like it. I'm not sure when I will give it to him; it's very warm, so I might wait until winter.

I finally got the binding attached yesterday. It's finally done!

RSC September Blocks

This month's color is purple. I had fun with these, because I don't play with purple very often. I should make a point of using more purple in my future.

Click here to see lots of other beautiful scrap blocks people have made.

In other project news, I found out about a shelter for men.. they need some large-ish quilts, and ugly is the specific request. I have heard that in the homeless world, ugly stuff has less chance of being stolen. So.. purposely making a couple ugly quilt tops was sort of fun, and used up some yardage of ugly fabrics. These run approximately 55" x 75". My cousin will quilt these for me on her new long arm machine.

Book Review: All the Living

All the Living by C.E. Morgan

The writing in this book is beautiful. This is funny to me, because the first time I tried reading it, I hated the writing! I thought the author was "trying too hard" with excessive use of metaphors and similes. I put it down for a couple of weeks, and the second time I tried, I loved it and got hooked right in. This time I felt the writing was wonderful. I love good writing such as this great verb choice: the sun raged through the windows.

The author has a deep understanding of human emotions and relationships, covering everything: loss, love, marriage, daily living, faith, death, communication. Superb. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because I was frustrated with the main characters' failed attempts at communicating and with truth being hidden/covered up. OTOH, this is what humanity does to ourselves and to each other, so I think I will change my rating from 4 to 5 stars of a possible 5.

Book Review: Sugarcane Academy

Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember by Michael Tisserand

This is a story about a school that is created by parents and teachers, for kids who had been evacuated at the time of Hurricane Katrina. The perspective of the kids and their experiences was one of the best parts of the book. The poor children were so frightened, and this is the first book I've seen which features their stories. The other best part of the book was the great teachers who knew how to help the kids talk through their fears, express themselves through art, and respect their stories. They helped guide the kids back to safety by being a comforting, understanding presence at a time when they needed this stability.

August RSC Blocks

I finally got my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks made. The blues I used are not that different from the earlier blue month, so I made only three. Click here to see beautiful blocks made by others.

Podcast/Book Review: Nobody's Property

Nobody's Property, Living on the Remains of a Life in California by Emily Kathleen Cooke


When I started listening to this book, I thought it was a series on a podcast -- a story told consecutively as research is done. Turns out it was a book presented via podcast. It can also be purchased (free, I think?) as an e-book or an audio book from Scribl dot com.

The author's aunt died when the author was two. The author grew up living in the shadow of the deceased aunt. Who was she? How, exactly, did she die? How can I keep myself safe so that the same fate does not befall me?

The aunt, Jenny, age 18, had moved to Germany in the fall of 1971 to attend a small college. In November she decided to take a weekend break and hitch hike to other locations. She went missing; six months later her body was discovered in a wooded area. They were never able to determine a cause of death because of (a) decomposition of the body and (b) it was in 1972, so DNA and other technologies were not available to help solve mysteries.

I found the storyline interesting; the author comes to some interesting conclusions about how the family story of Aunt Jenny affected her own life. However, I am sorry to say that I found this book to be boring. Instead of reading her research verbatim, I felt that it would have been more interesting had she rewritten it in story form. It was interesting enough to keep me occupied while doing some sewing, but as a book it left me dissatisfied. To warrant more than two stars out of five, this book would need some major editing.

Do You Listen to Podcasts?

I am a newcomer to podcasts. I finally figured out how to easily access them. I got an app from the App Store (in my phone it is the Google Play Store). I installed Castbox, which was free, and I started listening. I love listening to them while I sew. It's much like listening to an audio book, but shorter episodes rather than chapters.

My daughter told me about Terrible, Thanks for Asking. I started with that one. It is produced here in Minnesota. It was started by a young woman whose husband got brain cancer, then they had a baby, then he died. All the stories are fascinating (and terrible). The people who suffered these crises have survived, often with drastically changed lives and scars, but also with healing and triumph. It helps other people understand their trauma and how we can help by listening and reacting more humanely.

From there I found more and more. My favorites are from CBC: Canadian Broadcasting Company. They do a great job on their podcasts, and there are no ads (except for maybe one just before the podcast begins). CBC has a long list of podcasts; these are my current CBC favorites:

Someone Knows Something (cold cases, or long-running open cases that remain unsolved)
This one led me to Uncover - another one dealing with unsolved or cold cases. And then I found Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo. Very fascinating part of history when both Canada and the USA were taking Indian kids from their homes and placing them in white families for adoption.

The Secret Life of Canada (The two hosts are wonderful; both are women of color and their perspectives on history include all of the real history, not just what started when white people arrived in North America.. it's so refreshing to hear the actual true history, and their rapport is great.)

Love Me (This is weird, but I have listened to many episodes and I currently can't remember any of them. I must have enjoyed them, because I listened to so many.)

Here is a list of the 25 Best Podcasts in 2018. I'm posting it here for your use and also so I can remember what to visit when I'm ready for new ones. Once you start listening to a few podcasts, you will be referred to many others, and they become endless! Also, podcasts, like TV shows, have seasons. Now that it's fall, many of them will be returning after a summer break and offering new material. I look forward to that!

I know I'm an old person and am a late arrival to podcasts. Are any of you late-comers like me? Mine all are non-music podcasts so far. I'm kind of into documentary/history/true crime/story-telling podcasts. They feed my soul much like books do.

So -- podcasts -- do you listen? Do you have some favorites? Please share what you listen to. One can never have too many podcasts.

A Bit of Travel

I was lucky to join some friends for a short quilting expedition in Bayfield, Wisconsin. What a pretty little town, right on the south shore of Lake Superior. I got a lot of sewing done, and one day a few of us went for a swim in Lake Superior. If you don't know already, Lake Superior is huge and very deep, and is known for being too cold for swimming. However, this little beach was at a small bay, so the water had the opportunity to warm up a bit more than the huge lake does. "A bit" is the operative phrase here. It was still QUITE COLD and hard to get in, but once in - Wow! - it was so refreshing! It was truly a highlight of my summer!

After about 24 hours at home, I turned around and left again, this time headed to my sister's lake home for a time there with the three sisters. I took along some sewing and got a whole quilt top made. We had fun relaxing and shopping in the little nearby town and swimming once, because it warmed up to 70 deg. F, so we decided it was warm enough to swim. That was another fun and refreshing swim.

I can feel that my summer is complete, because I have now gone swimming in three different bodies of water: a lovely big lake in my old home town (haven't lived there since 1970); Lake Superior; the lake where my sister's lake home is. We all grew up there, the cabin having been established by our parents in 1964. So it is the lake of my heart.

Anyway, I love to swim in lakes, much preferable to pools in my opinion, because of how I grew up around lakes. This is why I say my summer is not complete unless I get a chance to swim in some lakes.

Here is the top I made while visiting with my sisters. I took a zillion pictures of it, just to test out different places and see how it looked. I'm only sharing a few of them with you (feel lucky; I have lots more - LOL).

Book Reviews: Two Books

Because I Was a Girl: True Stories for Girls of all Ages edited by Melissa de la Cruz

Stories by girls and women born in various decades, from the 1920s to the 2000s. All of them are about persevering against obstacles put in place because they were girls/women. The stories are very inspiring. I loved all of them. I am going to donate this book to a school library so that more girls can be inspired by the examples of grit and determination by our foremothers and our peers.


And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

This wonderful book is about extended family members. As the stories unfold over generations, you see how they are all looped together via obvious or tenuous family ties. Very interesting twists and turns affect people's lives in complicated ways. The book is very moving. Hosseini is a great writer!

And More Sewing

two quilt tops I made for Quilts Beyond Borders .. both from Lotto blocks and orphan blocks

Two quilts I made for Wrap a Smile. They were quilted by CM. Thank you, CM.

More Sewing

It has been a low-key summer so far, with minimal travel and excitement. So I have been spending long hours in the sewing room, and reading.

Here's a bit more sewing I have completed:

Oops, this one isn't actually completed. I was testing setting options, so this is just the blocks up on my design wall. If you look back at this post, you see the same pattern done in all blues, in a straight setting. This time I experimented with color placement, with the reds emphasizing those triangle shapes, and an alternating direction of the blocks. Which way do you like better?

Did I post these earlier? These are the June blocks from the Gudrun Erla "Stroll in Paris" mystery. I have not yet completed the July blocks. I better get on that. August arrives in just a few days, and with it another block pattern.

I quilted these and packed them up for shipping to Quilts Beyond Borders.

A friend quilted this one, I finished it off and sent it to Quilts Beyond Borders.

I guess that's all for now. Time to go back to sewing and complete more projects. Today is a gorgeous day, so I have turned off the a.c. and opened the windows. The lovely breeze will be pleasant through my window as I sew.

Book Review: Hole in My Life

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos

A young adult book, this was a quick and interesting read. In this memoir Gantos tells of his foolish mistakes made as a young man, leading to time spent in prison. I felt sad for him, as I can remember making decisions just as impulsively and with lack of forethought at the same young age. Executive reasoning just is not yet well enough developed. Gantos seems almost oblivious to the fact that using (experimenting with?) drugs could lead him down a bad road. It's too bad he didn't snap out of that stage in time. He grows and learns about himself while in prison, and his life eventually leads him to becoming a writer of children's books (and this young adult memoir). His intelligence and interest in books came to his rescue, to the literary world's benefit.

pictures of a few Little Free Libraries