Therapy

 Our retreat weekend has been cancelled.  I'm still processing that.  Our group is down to six.  One chose a different activity for the weekend, and two have injuries that are severe enough they couldn't even think of going. We are all at the age where a sneeze could make us fall out of our chairs and break a hip and that's too close to the truth!  We are all devastated to miss this very anticipated time together.

Now, I fully realize there are far worse things happening in the world and within our blogging community right now so having to cancel a retreat seems like small potatoes.  And it is.  But that doesn't mean it isn't disappointing.  

So this morning I went out for some book therapy. 

Have you read the Thursday Murder Club books?  You haven't???  Oh, my. Do.  This is Richard Osmun's newest, it just came out last week and is NOT a TMC book but I don't care.  I'm hooked.

Yes, I still buy picture books.  At my age. But since I am reading to first graders now, I choose even more carefully than ever.  I have to love the art, love the story, love the concept, love the telling, and especially love the author's work.  This one is new to me but it ticked all the boxes so it came home with me. 

I am an author follower.  When I go to used book sales I look for authors hoping to find some of their earlier work because if I really like them I already own their recent work. 

I just finished this a night ago.  It was really quite good, and I say that like I'm surprised, but I bought it because it's been getting good reviews from everywhere - that's important.  It came recommended by a small bookstore owner - that's important.  And when I am in an independent bookstore I ALWAYS buy something but I didn't know this author, so I was taking a chance. This is a mystery set in the Adirondack mountains at a summer camp for rich kids, owned by rich people.  One day the camp owner's daughter disappears from camp. But the thing is, 14 years earlier her brother also disappeared from the same camp.   And so it begins.  

Now, this one was on my library list.  I took it with me when we were on our trip to the Upper Peninsula thinking it would be a good light read.  And it is.  But underneath there was more to it than the occasional giggle. 

   Lauren returns home from a hen party to find her husband Michael waiting for her.  But she isn't married.  She hasn't got a clue who this Michael is but clearly, he is her husband.  The apartment is decorated with their wedding photos, decorated in a style she doesn't recognize, the refrigerator filled with food she isn't familiar with. She discreetly asks her sister and her neighbors about him and finds out he is indeed her husband and is she feeling alright?   He goes up into the attic to change a lightbulb and down comes a completely different husband.  Behind her the apartment decor, photos, food, clothes....it's all changed in this marriage.  She is, of course, trying to figure this new one out.  Her family all recognizes these husbands.

    As an experiment, she sends him back up into the attic and down comes the third different husband. And there are more.  Many, many more.

    What's fun and funny is the description of these guys. Their weirdness can be taken care of with a trip to the attic so the attic becomes convenient for dealing with large and small weirdness.  And so it goes.  I kept wondering how there could be so many weird guys out there and ARE they all strange and what's normal and to whom? And I kept side glancing at PH and telling him he really was quite normal - to me.  And then I started staring at the people on the street and wondering how weird THOSE guys might be. I was hooked.  And I kept wondering how she was going to get herself out of this mess.  

    Yes, it was funny sometimes, but the underlying theme was far different.  

This is usually the first book I read to the first graders every year.  It sets the tone.  It's funny, shocking and they can see themselves in trying to deal with patience. There is nothing wrong with this one!

Betty Bunny doesn't even know what chocolate cake is till she tastes it and then is obsessed with it. 

    We question:  patience, what it is to 'be a handful', which Betty certainly is, the No Thank You Bite (you have to at least take one bite before you can say 'no thank you.') 

There are a few Betty Bunny books and they all deal with something any child or adult can relate to. This one is self control.  Betty fills the shopping cart at the toy store with everything, even though her mother said she can have ONE new toy.  But she wants it all.  And of course, when they leave the store with nothing there is the temper tantrum.  The kids always relate to Betty Bunny, and again, there are many talking points. 

OK, that's my book therapy, my salve for missing our quilt weekend.  Sigh.

Felt Book

 My felt book has interested some people and so I'm going to do a little show and tell.  People use felt to hold their pieces and shapes but it was the netting between on each page that was different.

The netting isn't easy to see but it does help hold things in place on the page. I'm still thinking on this one so not everything is here. I'm thinking wreath with the fruits she loves but so far it's not exciting me.

I peeled back the netting so you can see.  I think the point of it is that the pieces stick just to the right hand page and so when you open or turn the page the pieces stay on the right hand page.

I load up everything I think I'm going to need as I think through a block - since I'm not going to be home with my stash.

This book measures 19.5 long by about 9.5 wide.  This is the middle.  What Friend Marilyn did was layer a piece of felt, then a piece of netting, felt, netting, four times.   Stitch it in place down the middle for a seam. It's really simple, you have eight pages and with the netting separating it all stays put. 

Brain work

 I am exhausted with thinking.  I am on a personal time crunch to get Elizabeth's BA quilt under control and it's happening from dogged determination. But the Thinking Bed is covered in fabrics, bits of cut acrylic applique pieces, photos of the planned squares, fabric auditions, my felt book that holds each page in place with finished and unfinished square plans - it's all part of the process and it's ok, but I'm exhausted.  My brain is tired. 

The weather has been hot by September standards, thankfully it is NOT humid right now, but just plain hot.  So, the planning and cutting is taking place on the front porch table under an umbrella.  Now, some of you would say, "then move inside!"  But this IS September,  this IS Michigan and these warm temperatures aren't going to last so I am taking advantage of it, even if it means carting my supplies in and out of the house.  And keeping the ice water flowing. We will all be locked inside soon enough.

I am trying to get several of the squares prepped for retreat next week.  Each retreat I usually take just one thing to work on and really dig in.  Usually it's something that needs to be quilted but this time I'm taking this BA project.  I have five blocks prepped, fabrics chosen, applique pieces mostly cut, the photos folded in for guidance. I certainly won't finish five blocks but I can dream.  Wish me luck I get at least two done.

 I keep each block in this felt book Friend Marily made for me several years ago.  It's simple.  Inexpensive felt and netting so each project has a page to lay pieces on the felt but the netting lays over the top to hold everything in place.  Sew down the middle for a seam and voila! I use this thing CONSTANTLY.  

Now to sit with my threads and choose what I'm going to take.  I pack minimally when I go to retreat because I don't take a machine.  I take a basket or tote with my hand project and my light and a chair. Yes, we have been taking our own chairs because our old behinds can't tolerate sitting in a folding chair for 4 days.  

On Tuesdays I go to the elementary school the granddaughters went to and read to a class of first graders.  When the girls were there I followed them through to the grade they were in each year. But when they left I didn't want to stop.  Their first grade teacher didn't want me to stop either so each week I go in, read two books and get hugs from the littles.  I started yesterday with this new group.

For those of you who are grandmas and read to littles when they visit, I'll post what I've read each week.  Being first graders they want funny books, nothing TOO serious but I like to mix things up with thinkers once in awhile. I have hundreds of picture books here at home so can usually just choose from my shelves. 

Here's what I read yesterday:

Every first day of school can be apprehensive to the littles.  Whether it's kindergarten or any year.  New teacher, new classroom, different classmates, new classroom rules, new lessons.  But what does the actual school building think?  Especially this school because it's brand new and has no idea what's about to happen and whether it will like it. 

Coincidentally, yesterday was the first day for show and tell in the classroom I was in so this one was fun.  Sometimes something seems like a good idea but isn't.

 

To Glue or Not to Glue

 Do you glue?  I don't glue.  I don't use fusible anything, I don't iron on anything that binds or sticks one piece of fabric to another.  I know a lot of you, probably most of you glue. Or fuse. I don't like the way fused fabric feels and I don't like the idea of dried glue on my stuff. 

I pin.  It's not that I'm trying to make work for myself nor am I so stubborn I won't learn new techniques, if that were the case I'd be using old cereal boxes cut up into my applique shapes.  But I have a thing about glue on fabric. So I don't glue my applique pieces onto paper nor onto fabric to hold them in place.  Since I don't machine applique glueing isn't going to make much difference to me.  I can understand in the machine applique process that glueing the fabric means not stopping for pins.  It takes a lot of time to pin. This future wreath shape for Elizabeth's BA of course was being tried on for size and when I've decided it's right I'll take it all off and iron that fabric clean straight and then pin again.  But it's a gorgeous day outside and I can do it on the porch while enjoying the day.

Katie over at katiemaytoo quilts posts about books each week.  I like that.  I don't feel so alone out here in bookland.  Many of the books she has read I have, too.  Today she posted a book about Shakespeare and coincidentally, I am within an hour of finishing this one.

I don't read a lot of Jodi Picoult.  I did read a couple but moved on.  This one was offered to me as a review copy and I thought I'd give it a chance since it's about Shakespeare and the popular controversy over whether he really did write those plays.   Whether it's true or not, I kept thinking while reading that it puts us in mind of the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.  True or not it sure is a conversation.  

I listened to a podcast Jodi Picoult did with Charlie Gibson and his daughter Kate.  They have a great podcast called The Bookcase ( The Book Case Podcast - ABC Audio )  - if you listen to podcasts and if you read, give this a go.  I get into a lot of trouble with it.  I write down just about all of the titles as TBRs (To Be Read.)  Well, after listening to this podcast I remembered I had the book loaded on my iPad and started it.  It is truly thought provoking, and obviously controversial but given the facts in the podcast, hard to set aside as nonsense.  I advise you strongly to get in the mood and listen to the podcast before reading the book. It's like a pep rally.  

We're back!

 PH and I are home from our trip to the Upper Peninsula.  I've showed you the map from previous trips and explained a bit about what the trip is about, but a refresher, it's the one thing he still does after retirement.  It's kind of his retirement project and only lasts a week.  I go along to keep him company and feed him snacks in the car.  We drove 1,500 miles in the week.  That's a lot but we circle half of the Upper Peninsula and it's a beautiful drive so it works.  

I am not a good passenger.  I get bored.  But I discovered I CAN do some hand stitch work while riding.  This has come as a surprise because all of my life I have been carsick if I try to do anything but look straight ahead. So this is a pleasant surprise.  I can get some tedious things accomplished.  Like making hexies, or yo-yos or knitting or whatever.  This is my work station, a pillow on my lap and thread in the handle of the car door, pieces and parts on the console and bits in my little lap container. It's not ideal but I don't take big projects.

 Still can't read but we listen to audio books.  This trip it was Erik Larsen's Demon of Unrest, his new book, and it was very good.  The second was A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva.  I tend to download books PH might like. Both were good car books. 

Here are the ornaments I am making for the kids this year and worked on while riding.  I cut the scrap fabric, made the hexies then made the wreaths by sewing the hexies back to back,  but they aren't done.  I'm going to stitch between the hexies to create a little pocket and stuff just a bit of polyfil to give them a little pudgie look then stitch them shut.  The most work is done.

This snow gauge is always fun to see.  No, the snowfall total isn't how high the snow is on the ground, though is can be close to that.  There is meltage and fresh snowfalls.  Last year saw the least amount of snowfall in the history of measuring it.  That arrow shows I think about 134 inches.  The U.P was hurting last winter from no snow.  At Christmas you could still see grass poking through the little they had. It's quite devastating to their economy because it's just snowmobile heaven up there.  The snow brings people from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan to run the trails.  One account told PH that they could fill their motel every single night in the summer and not make what they do in winter.  

One of the things we do on the way home, on our last night there, is go pick the wild apples from the Garden Peninsula, a jut of land that juts out into the bay.  I don't know what varieties they are, I have an identifying app on my phone but the thing says the same variety for all of the apples, no matter how different they are so to me, it's not helpful.  I made an apple pie from them one year but usually I just cook them down for applesauce.  Because there are so many different varieties it's very, very good sauce! I just cook the apples, I don't season, spice or sugar them.

My trophy this year was this gin and tonic.  Isn't it beautiful?   On our second to last night we stopped at this beautiful little place right on the shore of Lake Superior in the little village of Eagle River.  You need to make a paid reservation early in the morning to get in but we were there at 3 in the afternoon and took the chance.  They had two seats at the bar and we took them.  We had a wonderful meal, but this was the star of my show.  The aromatics in this drink were rosemary, thyme, star anise,  a dried orange and lime, the marigold and violas and a slice of fresh lime.  Let me tell you, I held it with both hands and just smelled it.  I told the bar tender I didn't want to drink it, it was too pretty.  "Drink it!  I can make another one for you!"  I know they say you eat with your eyes first, then your nose and this sure proved that right.  Every sip was an experience.

So, we are home, I am revived and rejuvenated and started working on Elizabeth's BA again last night.  The square I'm doing now is giving me angst so I want to do an easy one next.  Plus plan and cut for taking this project to retreat in a couple of weeks. 

 

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley

Celebrate, go ahead. Grab a copy of the newest Flavia deLuce book, find a corner and settle in for a treat.

Flavia is a smart, savvy, independent thinking young girl (when we are introduced to her in the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, she is eleven years old. ) She is a child, she is a girl, she is smart, she is independent and Alan Bradley celebrates all of that. God bless him.

I celebrate her. As we read these stories we can only compare Flavia’s early 1950s childhood with the life our children lead now. We could read of Flavia’s adventures and think they just can’t be real, that children just don’t have this kind of life. Well, no, not anymore but I certainly had the freedom to hop on my bicycle and leave home and think for myself during the day. I didn’t solve murder mysteries, but I solved my own daily dilemas.

We devoured Nancy Drew books when we were young, when we were just barely older than Flavia’s 11 years. We knew we couldn’t do what she did, with her freedom in her sporty roadster, but we believed we could when we read those books. I can’t remember parents being ‘concerned’ that their child was reading a mystery book and discouraging us from doing so. Nancy was our ‘smart girl.’ She inspired us.

And now, we have Flavia. Dear smart, clever, independent, book loving, science infused Flavia. Flavia’s expertise is chemistry. The girl is a wonder, more at home in her uncle’s antiquated laboratory than anywhere else. The murders she solves are crimes of poison. And this new book is no exception.

Flavia is excited by this murder, so to speak, because the culprit is a poison mushroom. She has always wanted to solve a poison mushroom mystery and this one is particularly important because Mrs. Mullet, the long time family cook, is accused of killing Major Greyleigh, the local former hangman, who died after eating poisoned mushrooms for breakfast, a breakfast which Mrs. Mullet cooked for him. It’s not looking good for Mrs. Mullet. Flavia knows for certain Mrs. Mullet would never be capable of killing anyone but circumstantial evidence points directly to her. Flavia is off and running to clear the family cook’s name. Flavia’s mode of transportation isn’t a sportscar, it’s her bicycle, Gladys.

Flavia is used to working alone, for the most part. Dogger, a close confidant of her late father is now the adult in her life, but she is also now learning to deal with her cousin, Undine, who now lives with Flavia and her sisters. Flavia is used to her freedom and not used to having Undine pop up here and there but Undine is showing promise so is tolerated.

I celebrate Flavia for many reasons. The books are great fun, mysteries of a different genre. Flavia is a young girl. We need to be celebrating smart young girls in adult situations as role models for our young girls. We should be handing these books to every early teen girl we know urging parents to do the same. But the books are shelved in the adult sections of bookstores and libraries, there is no cross shelving where they might catch the eye of anyone looking for a good read starring smart girls. We all read Nancy Drew but who does now? We need to celebrate and encourage Flavia deLuce to our girls. We need to celebrate smart. And while you are at it, just plain enjoy her for yourself.

Chookshed Number Seven

 Pictureless! But I have so many to share!  We are traveling in the Upper Peninsula and I don’t know how to post a photo but did figure out how to get this far so…success!  

My Chookshed Challenge number seven is now irrelevant as I concentrate on the Baltimore Album for Elizabeth but does it count if I have seven blocks done? They are sitting home waiting for me to return. While we drive I am making the annual Christmas ornaments for the kids. Hexies. Easy to do while riding. But still can’t post a photo.