Reading list #5 2018

1.  The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd for book club it was as good the second time
2. Nowhere to Run by C.J. Box  book #10 of the series 
3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold very good book, one of those books you really should 
4. read before watching the movie. I probably won’t watch the movie.
5. An Island Villa by Lily Graham about finding ancestors and family secrets
6. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman about competition, rivalry, growing up, loyalty, small towns, leaving home, parenting, family, etc..etc...oh and hockey in Beartown.
7. Murder in Aix by Susan Kiernan Lewis it was a free book takes place in southern France
8. Informing the News by Thomas E. Patterson non fiction published in 2013 for book club very interesting on how journalism has changed over the decades from long descriptions in the newspaper to radio to television to cable to tweets and blogs. 
9. From a Paris Balcony by Ella Cary the same character from her pervious book about finding  her family history and love.
10. Denim and Diamonds by Debbie McComber 
11. Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgen 
12. The Chilbury Ladies Chior by Jennifer Ryan set near Dover England during WWII how the women are managing with the men off to war.
13. Cold Wind by C.J. Box book #11
14. Home going by Yaa Gyasi for book club starts on the gold coast of Africa one sister is sold to slavers the other sister marries a British officer and stays in Africa.  The story goes back and forth through 8 generations of the descendants of the two sisters.
15. Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia Macneal fiction WW II England 
16. Force of Nature  by C.J. Box book # 12 more murder and mayhem in Wyoming 
17. Mistletoe at Moonglow by Deborah Garner as sweet and sappy as a hallmark movie and short
18. The Christmas Basket by Debbie Macomber more Christmas fluff
19. Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan the story is set at Christmas time but the story could have happened anytime of the year the story line was kinda sad.
20. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

On one of the snowy days I treated myself to watching the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas about Charles Dickens writing the story A Christmas Carol then I read the book just for fun now I should watch the movie again.  Dan Stevens is in it from the early seasons of Downton Abbey and Christopher Plummer.
Starting a new list with the Happy New Year.  --Ann--

Snow Day

 Fresh snow here! and I did what any sensible person should do stay home and knit or read or quilt and drink coffee so I finished these socks of scrap yarn.  --Ann--

td da da done

 Usually I put the baby quilts in the mail and let the post man deliver them but these special friends were home to visit great grandma with the new baby, 3 months old, and I got to give them the quilt and hold the baby.  He is a doll.  --Ann--

kids and quilts

 My kids and second son's fiancé got Christmas quilts for Christmas.  You can just see second son's knee.  I really should be more like my mother and pose people for photos but I remember rolling my eyes so often when she would but those are good photos.
A Merry Christmas was had by all.  --Ann--

Believe

BELIEVE
Merry Christmas
--Ann--

 Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o're the sky............
--Ann--

Twas just nights before Christmas

................and the stockings were knitted..........with a couple extra pairs to spare
Merry Christmas to all  --Ann--

On a quest

I was on a quest over the weekend to find the little smocked Christmas scene.  It was in a box the movers packed with a bunch of odd stuff.  Who would have thought to look there??  Earlier in the week I was on a quest to find the pine cone wreath that my Grandmother made 40 some years ago  I had new silk flowers and ribbon put on a few years ago then we moved a couple times and I didn't have a good place to display it so it stayed in the box.  Now it is on the inside of the front door and I like it there.  I hadn't seen the cross stitches that my mother did either from way back, the top is the original pattern the second she modified because I had two little boys who are all grown up now.  I did the smocked piece and gave it to my mother but I got it back when she passed a few years ago DD will get it eventually.  Sweet memories of the matriarchs.  --Ann--

deja vu again

These bright fabrics are so much fun for baby quilts this is the third time I have made this pattern, log cabin blocks with diamonds or triangles instead of squares.  I just machine quilted in the center of each strip using a ruler to keep the lines fairly straight sometimes I waver.  No baby is going to cry of that. --Ann--

Time out for quilting

 A little progress on this quilt during the move.  Sometimes I just need a few minutes of normal life when everything else is a mess and DD wanted to deliver it thanksgiving weekend.  I put her to work making the label.  She can run a computer the sewing machine has a computer all she had to do was punch in the letters and numbers for the name and birthdate then hold the fabric steady and let the machine do the rest. I finished the binding.  Her college roommate loved the quilt made with fabrics that DD picked out when she was a little girl and the baby is adorable.  --Ann--

Life continues at a new address

We have moved into a 20 something year old house in a development that is mostly retired people.
 I thought by bringing things over to the new house one car load at a time I would place everything where I wanted it and just continue life as normal............WRONG!  I brought things over starting with the non essentials and placed them where I thought they should go and now I am moving everything to fit in the essentials.  I really need to get rid of more stuff,  I thought I would break lots of dishes on the granite countertops in the old house but I didn't.  I did learn to appreciate that nothing shows on the granite; coffee rings, coffee grounds, pepper specks, toast crumbs, water spots etc. These are almost white formica which shows everything and then some.  I am forever wiping the countertops.  Before I could make my coffee enjoy it.  Now I need to tidy up before I sit. The kitchen is also set up ass backward to what I am used to.  The only thing in the same orientation is the drawer with the potholders which is to the left of the stove.  Everything else is in a different place.  The work space and sink are to the right of the stove with the disposal on the left side of the sink. Thinking back I believe I have had to make that adjustment with every move,  I just had more cupboards, counter space and newer appliances than this move.  The chore of relearning everyday things.  I understand how my little dog must have felt with every move and the door hinges were on the wrong side for her to got out. Its cute when its happening to someone else.
I still don’t know what switch turns on which light.  The tree has been in place since the day we moved in but not decorated until after Thanksgiving,  Christmas quilts are on the walls and beds.
The really great thing with this move is I lost 5 pounds.  One day I did over 14,000 steps and barely went outside.  I've been too busy organizing things to snack.  Between the Sanford Profile weight loss program and a fitness app I put on my phone I've been eating the right things.  No more salty sweet junk in the house.  I wish I had learned how fast extra carbs, mostly breads, stick to your body when I was in my 30's.  My new mantra is and this is probably from the fitness app "nothing tastes as good as the feeling of skinny"  I love it when there is room to breath in my jeans and there are fewer rolls under my sweaters.  --Ann--

buttons

 I had a bad case of monkey brain last week.  Too many things to do and not knowing where to start.  We are moving this week, on Thursday the movers are going to move our furniture to the new house so I have been moving stuff the past week and lots more to move this week.  I started moving some of the dishes and picked up a glass jar that had yogurt in it and thought should I keep this or put it in the recycle.  It is the perfect little jar for buttons so rather than sorting and tossing more of my stuff I sorted my buttons into the little jars by color.  Sometimes I just need to accomplish one little thing to feel like I accomplished something.  I found these really old fabric covered buttons I think they were on a coat my mother had in college. They were stitched to the garment through the cloth that pokes through the hole in the back of the metal part.
I'm moving my sewing room closet today.  I sure hope I can concentrate and not find trivial things to organize but I really like having my stuff organized.  --Ann--

Walking

I never pass up the opportunity to crunch through leaves when I go for a walk.  I used every ounce of restrain walking past one very impressive pile of leaves.  I would have had to deviate far off the path to jump in the pile.  I can just see the report in the paper 60 some year old woman caught jumping and scattering a pile of leaves, home owner called in a complaint of malicious mischief.  I'm so mature some days.  The sound brings back memories.  We didn't have many trees on the farm when I was growing up, the trees were as young as I was but we would frequently go the the state parks near us.  Mom would pack a picnic and Sunday afternoon we would crunch through the leaves and we would pick the bits out of our socks all the way home.  I have seen a few people raking leaves and only one child jumping in them the rest are  using their baggers on the mower or the leaf blower in reverse vacuuming clean their grass.
Some of the leaves stained the sidewalk on a wet day but it fades so quickly.  --Ann--

Go Vote

I pass this little door when I walk some days depending on which path I take.  I wonder who lives there, a faerie? a rabbit? a squirrel? an elf? I didn't smell cookies baking.  Or maybe there is a lift for a wise old owl to get to the top of the tree. Yesterday I was brave and knocked but no one answered, they must have thought I was a politician asking for their vote.
Go Vote!!!
--Ann--

socks

I always have two pair of socks in progress, one where I drink my coffee in the morning and afternoon and one in my sewing room so I can knit a few rows while I'm deciding what to do next with whatever I am quilting. --Ann--

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!  --Ann--

Gansey progress

I'm ready for sleeves.  Its nice to know how it fits as I go so I can rip accordingly.  So far so good except I may redo the neck with just a couple rows of garter stitch.  It feels too much like a turtle neck for me.  I wish the stitches showed up better in the photo.  The patterns are just simple knit purl combinations of zig zags, checks, diamonds, diagonals and stripes.  Easy peasy so far.  Pick up the stitches for the sleeves tonight.
The days keep getting a little cooler --Ann--

ta da da top done

 I was so excited to finished the borders on this over the weekend.  I bought the narrow diagonal plaid  for the backing and thought is would be good for the border but a wide chunk of it was too much, too busy for the border but a narrow strip works.  Again I was down to what do I have enough of for the squaring strips and the outside border.  So sadly I am out of so many of these prints.  Some were from designer lines that were meant to be connector fabrics that would connect other lines of fabric in a quilt.  The little tiny prints, the orange with the dots and the turquoise with the little spirals and dots and the 2 tone stripes and the red with the dots are a few of those fabrics.  They provide a place for the eye to rest from the larger busy prints.
Now to decide how to quilt it.  --Ann--

Kaleidoscope

 I always have to play with these blocks after they are all assembled just for the kaleidoscope effect.  I see possibilities where the outside segments could be assembled to look like cubes with the right combination of lights and darks.  Some arrangements look like clutter.

 I am back to the original plan with a straight grain on the outside of the hexagon.  Straight grains just make things lay flat with no ruffled edges.
We had a week and a half of glorious sunshine and long walks.  Now the gray skies have returned and I found my way back to my sewing room.  --Ann--