Growing the Rhododendron Trail Quilt!

I finally tied this eye spy quilt (and another one, no picture) after a long time of it hanging out waiting.  

I have been growing R Trail by a row or two each day.  I am now on the other half row three!  So three giant rows to go, then on to borders.  If you are doing this beast, how is it coming along?  

I won this beautiful book from a booktuber (MsReadsAlot) and I happily passed on my cheap paperback copy on to Jay.  This one is so fancy!  It has beautiful full color pictures inside too.  Years ago, I read a story a night aloud to Kathy but we eventually stopped. No idea where, but may have to start that up again with this copy!

These were the rest of my advent calendar gifts.  My favorite was the Jane Eyre Christmas ornament.  The books are always nice too!

 

Three Quilt Finishes, a Clue and some Reading!

Pine Tree Point made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge made its way to Arizona to Melissa who quilted it (and the B2 quilt) in a jif and mailed it back to me!  I love how both quilts came out.  This one is for my daughter and her hubby.  It is quilted with stars.  Linking up!

We got our little tree up last weekend and so far the cats and Hazel are leaving it be.

I managed to get clue 3 done for R Trail.  Pretty happy with it so far.  Clue four is out and I just made one test block which turned out great, but no energy to cut all the parts for it...we have over a week for this clue though so no worries.

I finally finished up my Mourning Crosses quilt with my Dad's shirt pieces.  I made three others for family and just never got to mine.  Luckily I quilt better now than I did then, so this one has baptist fans all over it.

I stuffed and sewed up both Hazel's H is for Happy pillows for her baby dolls, but tucked one away before getting a picture.

My book secret Santa sent me this book and I have read the first couple stories.  Strange!

Here is the BQ2 quilt I made for Rachel and Bryan.  It is quilted with flames.  They will love it!

Had a doctor's appointment for bloodwork (they are testing me for Lyme) on Thursday so since Kathy took the day off to use up her PTO, we stopped at a Goodwill nearby.  I found these books, yay!

Finished this one this morning.  I enjoyed it, but will not plan to read the sequel.  

This was the latest Once Upon a Book Club selection.  I did not really like it.  It is about a cop shooting a black boy and tried to get to you see both sides I guess.  Just too close to home and not at all "entertaining" though an important topic.  I cancelled my membership since it is expensive and I mostly resell the boxes after (though several have not sold).  I am still getting the Halloween box (shipping issues) and the special Christmas box that I ordered, but after that will only get a few here and there or used.

I listened to this book and really enjoyed it!  
 Hazel is signing and saying words like crazy now!  She is starting to put two together.  Her latest signs were TIGER, STAR, COW...she also is waving at me for attention which is super cute!

Books, Games, and Pine Tree Point is a Flimsy!

I got a surprise package the other day!  You may remember I ordered a second blind date with a book from Book_Bestie's Etsy shop.  Well, it was lost in the mail so when I contacted her she immediately sent me a new book.  Weeks later the lost one arrived.  So I get a bonus Blind date!  I DNF'ed the replacement book "Wolf Hall" as it just was not doing it for me by the half way point.  Excited to try the original second one!

I did the Booktube spin #1 and so my chosen book was Jurassic Park.  I love the movie but had never read the book.  Lots of good dinosaur info and it is a bit different from the movie.  I enjoyed it.

Read this one about the plague from 200 ish years ago.  Sounds worse than current times.  At least dead folks are not piling up in the streets.

I got another book box and read this one too.  It was good.  I thought it was going in one direction but it did not.

Currently reading and listening to "Wives and Daughters" which I really am enjoying.  I am so happy to find another classic author I like.  Taking my time and savoring this one, and I already ordered another one by Gaskell.  

I decided to type up all the books I have on my Nook, Kindle, Audible, Chirp and shelf to see what all I had and how many.  My total was 578!  I was shocked.  So since I want all the books and cannot afford all the books (still waiting on disability) I am trying to commit myself to getting through some of those on the TBR this year.  I decided that the booktube readalongs and such can help me pick from the list.  Might make it more fun.  If I do not care for a book, I am going to DNF it and put it on another shelf electronically or get rid of it if a physical book.  I had an empty journal type book so I am going to add and subtract books as I go.  LOL, I ordered a copy of a book about reading your TBR someone wrote which I happened to see on Booktube right after I made this decision.  Luckily I am finding these books on abebooks or ebay, etc.  Not paying full price.

We watched Hazel at her house last weekend while they car shopped for a larger car.  They picked out a Forester I think it was and will get it in January (along with their long ordered couch!).  After they came home we played Cobra Paw.  Hazel really enjoyed rolling the dice for us!  Next we played Bucket of Doom and halfway through Hazel was ready for bed.  Not long after that, I was too!  She is still learning signs like crazy (OPEN, GORILLA, BEANS, CEREAL, ORANGE and so many more).  So fun to see her ask me to open her pouch of fruits/veges, the gate, etc.  She understands the concept clearly!  

I spent some of last weekend working on the borders for Pine Tree Point.

Got out the strings. I pulled all the neutrals from my mixed bag and added them to the neutral bag.  I sewed and sewed.  Thought I needed far more than I did!

I trimmed them to size and then sewed them to strips and removed the paper on Thursday.

And added them to the top!  This flimsy is done. I need to choose a backing and get it longarmed. I would like to give it to Hannah for Christmas if we can swing it.  Linking up with SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  What a fun year of trees I had sewing along with her and all the participants.  I need to pick a block for next year!

Bonnie's Quiltville Mystery this year is Rhododendron Trail and the first cutting and sewing clue comes out next Friday on her blog.  The paint chips are her colors.

I am pretty sure the flowers and paint chips will be my colors. I have not pulled fabric yet.  

Kathy is not planning to do it this year.  She stopped on Frolic and since we moved has not sewn much at all so she wants to finish that one before doing another.  If she did do it, she would maybe do the strawberries' colors.

 Are you doing the mystery?  What colors did you pick?  Such a fun time of year to be sewing!

Reading, Tree Sewing and Hazel Turns One!

Hazel turned one last month.  She has been walking and signing and even talking a bit for the past few months.  Really so much fun!  She kept this little hat on for quite a long time during her party too.

I decided to do a blind date with a book.  I found Julia on Etsy (BookBestie) and ordered my first date.  Here is the lovely package I received.  Almost too pretty to open!

The book was "Song of Achilles" which was on my radar to read.  It was a good story and my date was successful!

So I decided I wanted a second date and ordered another one.  Plus I realized I should have ordered a Gramala bookmark!  So I ordered up a second date.

This time I got "Wolf Hall" which is also on my radar and one I had not read!  I added it to my growing TBR to get to soon.  Super amazed that I did not get a book I had already read either time as I have read a lot.  I had a coupon for five dollars off that tipped me over into getting another one of these.  I also ordered a few more of the bookmarks (2 dollars each) for my best friend, my mom and Kathy.  They are cool and super sturdy.

Found energy one day to pull books off my shelf and dust and rearrange.  I ran out of ooomph before the bottom shelf which are kids books, buts still happy with it.  I put the books that were my grandparents or my Dad's on the top shelf.  They were previously in my living room.

Hazel is currently napping, but earlier today she played for almost forty minutes in the beans!  She is finally not trying to eat them (or the play-doh) which is nice!

I sewed yesterday and the day before for the first time in forever!  I was behind on my trees and am now all caught up.  Here is the lime version.

Here is the orange version.  BJ called me up out of the blue yesterday and so we facetimed and I was able to get these blocks done!  I have a total of ten blocks and realized that nine would complete this quilt so will play with layout and see what happens.

I have read all of these books since my last blog post.  Am suddenly reading a book every few days.  I am not done with "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" yet as I am reading two chapters of it every day and it is really long.  Also about half way through the CFS book as that is read in bites too.  The rest though are done.  Booktube helped me discover Elizabeth Gaskell and I read a few Victorian novels for Victober.  I enjoyed the N.K. Jemisin series and T.J Klune's whimsical books."Still Life with Rice" was a memoir about a Korean grandmother and I really enjoyed it.

Just got and finished "The Night She Disappeared" in my Once Upon a Book Club Box.  It was a page turner and I really enjoyed it even though the ending was a bit on the unbelievable side.

I have also been listening to audiobooks.  I get even more read this way!

 Hazel loves the bench Bumpa made her for her birthday.  Her mom plans to paint it or whitewash it.

I did some online subbing for ASU this past month too.  Learned how to teach on Zoom and do some online activities though Zoom.  Unfortunately my fatigue level went way up and I needed to sleep so much more.  It just was not sustainable which is too bad because I could have continued with it.  I am okay to sub here and there but ongoing cannot be done at this time. I was also asked to do online grading for ASL, but the position was twenty hours a week and I just cannot manage that.  It stinks because my disability is not yet approved and we could use the money from me working at least some, but I am not well enough to do much.  Too bad I cannot get an editing job because reading does not tire me near as much as interpreting or teaching!  

What are you reading?  Sewing?

Happy Fall!

It has been a month since I blogged and all I sewed since them was the aqua Rainbow Scrap Challenge block!  I am linking up behind schedule and better see what the next color is!  I did not see it posted yet but Angela has a sick kiddo and is a teacher, so no worries if she is behind schedule.  I may have missed it too so will check back.  Only four months left to go!

I read another book box and really enjoyed it.  I should really cancel this but I really LOVE them.  I resell almost all of them so I try to look at it as a small rental fee!

My Mom and Dad have been in Wisconsin this summer and they finally managed to have good enough health to get to Milwaukee a few weeks ago.  Hannah and Hazel joined us at the Sunflower farm and we took lots of pictures.  We were there for close to two hours and it was hotter than expected that day.  I really enjoyed it, but took about a week to recover from the heat and the walk/standing time which was a new record for me.  Hannah picked us each raspberries while I fed Hazel lunch in the car.  

Here is a better four generation photo.  So nice to have us all together.  Hazel took to her Nini and Papa after a bit of warming up!  She talks to them several times a week on FB with me but seeing them in person for the first time made them real.

Hazel signs about ten signs now---not sure this video will work, but it is her signing BOOK.  She loves books!  If you ask her to sign the various signs she knows she can actually do many of them (we discovered this last week) and it is so cute that she can communicate!  She also says Mama, Dada, Lala (for Gramala) and Bumpa as well as baba (bottle or milk) and up to be picked up.  She understands far more of course and I am really enjoying getting time with her every week.  I nap when she naps and we do alright.

In other news we had to put Lombardi down a few weeks ago.  He was an old guy and got a fast growing cancer.  Her was so good with Hazel and we really miss him.  Coincidently, my parents dog Kachina died a few days prior to that.  She too will be missed and I am glad we got to see her when we visited earlier this summer.  

I am planning to make Hazel and "H" is for Happy quilt which is a Bonnie Hunter pattern for her babydolls.  Her birthday is a few weeks away and I finally started cutting the fabric from my strips today.  Kathy is making her a two step stepstool for her bathroom (Hannah and Jeremy bought a new house and moved and sold their old house too).  Getting her a few other things that we will keep here for her.  I have spent much of the last few months watching Montessori at Home videos ( I LOVE the Hapa Family) on youtube.  I have set up our toys that way here and Hazel is already starting to pick up toys and with direction, put them on the shelf when done.  We introduced her to play-doh and dried beans sensory fun this week.  I have to sit right with her and redirect if she tries to eat any of it!