Quilt and books

I cannot believe I can actually say in these days of packing and chaos that I finished the quilt I found in the back of the closet!  This was the one I took to the place we can rent a Sweet 16 machine and do-it-yourself.  Well, don't ever let me go near one of those things again, Friends Marilyn and Jan.  What a mess.  After a couple of evenings of picking out the machine stitching I used a variegated blue perle cotton and big 1/4 inch stitches and uneven spacing and quilted it by hand. 

 This is the back.  So the whole thing is bright and will make a nice beach quilt. It's certainly nothing special so I tried something new for me. I figured I had nothing to lose.

 Rounded corners!  And it worked like a charm!  I didn't even cut the binding on the bias. I cut it the stretchy way and those corners rounded like they were meant to be.  This was, I believe, the only piece of orange fabric in my stash.  I don't do orange.  Or teal. 
Now for sure all quilting is packed and off to storage.  From now till we move I will spend my decompression time reading.



This week's books at school:

 You think you know what would happen if an elephant sneezed and you'd probably be right.  The stripes off the zebra, the hair off the bear, the snakes tied in knots, etc. This rhyming story is very funny at the end.  An unexpected ( for kids )cure for sneezes for sure. 

 I love it when I pull a book out of my tote and Adelaide says, "Oh, I love this one, Grandma!" And she does love the Mysterious Tadpole.  A birthday gift from Scotland turns out not to be a tadpole at all but a cheeseburger chomping Loch Ness Monster.  And with him comes all the problems of a pet that big.  Does the family send him back?

 For the second graders I chose Penny House.  Mr. D. wakes to his 100th birthday and you only turn 100 once!  So he decides to make some changes.  He is a collector and his collections have come to the point of owning HIM (hmm....I was seeing a message in there for me as I pack and pack and pack.)  So, during his birthday week he lets go of boxes, hats, license plates and books.  But then he opens a forgotten closet and discovers his penny collection.  One of the little girls in the class said the book sounded like a true story and I told her I DID have to double check carefully to make sure it wasn't. 

I love this story.  I love these illustrations.  Doesn't Albert look a little like a cardinal?  Albert is reluctant to leave his apartment until the conditions outside are perfect.  The weather.  The noise. Traffic.  They are all a little scary and he is reluctant to take that first step.  There is always an excuse not to leave his nest.  Then one day while checking the weather a pair of cardinals begin to build a nest in his outstretched hand.  And while inconvenient, Albert allows it.  As the eggs mature and then the baby birds, Albert learns a lot about being brave and taking that first step.