Holiday stuff

 I wrapped what I hope is my last package for Christmas this morning.  Almost everything is sitting on the treadmill which we rarely use - it looks like a sleigh!  As soon as we get our Christmas village "tree" up, some of the items will move there, and the rest will go to the library for the staff appreciation lunch.

My last quilted Christmas gift of the year is this table runner from McCall's Quick and Easy Quilts, designed by Aby Dolinger.  It's made with various scraps and the outer border was from a fat quarter on the guild "free" table.  The back is a red fabric with dogs in Santa hats, very appropriate for the recipients, our dog-loving next door neighbors.  

Yesterday was a Sew Day due to snow, strong winds, and chilly temperatures.  Today we have a beautiful blue sky, but it was six degrees when we woke up.  This calls for indoor activities today:  working on Christmas letters, perhaps balancing my check book, and some hand applique.  

Favorite books of 2021

It's Christmas letter time again, and I'll be busy with that this coming week, having already mailed ten letters across "the Pond."  I enjoy receiving holiday letters and hope the people who receive ours aren't too bored by them.  We really don't do a lot of exciting things during the year, but it is nice to touch base with old friends nonetheless.  

This year's missive includes a list of our favorite books since Paul has been reading up a storm on his new Kindle Paperwhite.  He started downloading from the library's website, and it seems he's read almost every biography they have.  I often use Book Bub to find free or reduced priced mysteries and other lighter reading, but I also spend the full price for books I just have to read as soon as they come out.

Here are some  of our favorites of 2021:

·       American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst – Jeffrey Toobin (Paul)

·       American Prometheus:  The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer – Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin (P)

·       Clark and Division – Naomi Hirahara (Marianne)

·       Grandma Gatewood’s Walk:  The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail – Ben Montgomery (M)

·       The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny (M)

·       Mike Nichols:  A Life – Mark Harris (P)

·       State of Terror – Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny (both!)

I read the latest books in various series by authors such as Aaron Eskens, Paula McLain, Susan Elia McNeal, Charles Todd, Elly Griffiths, Jacqueline Winspear, and Spencer Quinn.  All were up to "standards," very enjoyable.  The Keeper of Lost Things, by Ruth Hogan, wasn't a mystery but stands out as well worth reading with its quirky characters.  It seems everyone is writing stories about bookstores lately, and my favorite in this sub-genre was Midnight in the Bright Ideas Bookstore, by Matthew J. Sullivan.  I hope my favorite authors, Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling's adult pseudonym) and Kelley Armstrong, will come up with gripping new stories in 2022 that feature my favorite characters, Cormoran Strike and Casey Duncan. 

Gift giving

I may be unusual in that I really enjoy the gift giving part of the holidays.  I pick up gifts for particular people all year long, and if I see something that more than one person might like, I pick up at least one and sometimes more for later.  I keep part of a drawer in my sewing room for just that purpose.   It's actually quite efficient because I can just pull something out, wrap it, and give it away at the proper time.  Somewhere in Sept. or Oct., I sit down and make a list of Christmas possibilities and purchases which I try to keep year after year.  One year when I didn't do this, I got my Mom the same book for Christmas and her birthday, so I now keep each year's lists on my phone to try to avoid that.

I know some people don't like to come up with ideas for gifts, but I find it a pleasant challenge.   My brother said once that I give the best gifts, and I guess that's because I do put some thought into it.  Upon receiving a gift from me one year, a friend complained that she "thought we weren't exchanging gifts this year."  I didn't expect anything in return for gifts I give; the gift giving is part of the holiday fun for me.   And some people are harder to shop/make for than others, that's for sure.

My family especially enjoys receiving books from me since they know that buying books for the libraries I've worked in has been one of the best things about being a librarian for me.   I still read book reviews although not as religiously as I used to.  I'm afraid Amazon receives the bulk of my family gift giving budget because our tiny local bookshop just doesn't have what I want when I want it.  

I don't spend a lot, and I especially like to make a lot of my Christmas gifts.  In Dutch we call these gifts "aardigheitjes," pleasant little things.   This year, the library staff will be receiving bowl cozies and a jar of soup mix (I found a great set of recipes online for various bean soups and more).   Other years I've made mug rugs, pot holders, key fobs, and other little things for them.  

I always give the letter carrier and the cleaning ladies something - it's often candy but sometimes something handmade, too.   Handmade items also go to my son's friend and his father, who are alone at Christmas now that his mother has passed away, and to some of our neighbors.  This is a somewhat close-knit, older neighborhood where we help and watch out for each other.   More "aardigheitjes," mostly handmade or consumable, are on tap for them.  Most people here are trying to downsize, and some hate to cook.  I just happen to enjoy making rolls, donuts, and breads, and love receiving cookies!

Holidays

 

The last two packages went in the mail yesterday, and now I can work on our Christmas letters.  I always mail the international ones first and even have a bunch of stamps ready to go.

I think I'm finished shopping for the guys, too, although I'll probably pick up some stocking stuffers here and there in the next few weeks.  Our Thanksgiving dinner is planned  - a small ham and all the "trimmings" (whatever those really are).  An apple pie made by the Presbyterian Church ladies is waiting for us in the freezer.  

Holiday gift sewing is all finished, too.  The basket is for some neighbors and will have candy and some homemade rolls in it.  The pattern came from McCall's Quick Quilts; untie the ribbons to store it flat.  The binding was the worst part of this little project.  I finished a table runner for another set of neighbors and hope to get a picture today.  It's been so gloomy lately - it's November, after all - that photo taking can be unreliable.

This promises to be a calmer week than last when I had meetings, Paul got his booster shot and needed to go to the optician to fix broken glasses, and there were quite a few other errands.  Today I'll have a pedicure with my friend Debb and hope to stop by the library to see all the Christmas trees being set up by various community groups.  It's a "Light Up the Library" fundraiser that we hope will become an annual event.  

Where does the week go?

Sunday, we woke up to a dusting of snow - what a reality check!  The rest of the week included snow flurries and showers, but today it's supposed to be sunny all morning.  November is not my favorite month - too gloomy!  It's been a busy week, with meetings and commitments, but I managed to get Christmas packages mailed, some projects finished, and more.

The quilt for Ken, my brother's friend, is finished and ready for mailing.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  Marie quilted it with a boxy modern all-over pattern, and I like the gray "grunge" in the setting.  The blocks were part of a quilt along called "Options," by Aby Dolinger.  This will be my final package to be mailed this season - now on to the Christmas letters/cards, with the international ones going in the mail first.

An electrician came Wednesday to install some outdoor lights on either side of our garage door.  We've been discussing this for the last ten years, so when our neighbors decided to have some installed, we got the same kind and used the same electrician.  The box says the LED lights should last 46 years. - wow!  I doubt if we'll be living here when the bulbs burn out, but we're really pleased with the way they turned out.

It has been almost two years since we saw our friends Bill and Diane who only live about 2 miles away.  The pandemic and various health issues have gotten in the way.  We were glad to host them for lunch on Tuesday and catch up a little bit.  I made a quiche and crudites; Diane brought sorbet and cider.  We hope to do it again sooner now that we are all vaccinated and well-quarantined.  

I finished a little fabric basket and am working on a table runner.  Both are for neighbors, so I have time.  I also swapped out the Halloween items I had for sale at the local florist/gift shop.  Now there are Christmas stockings and table runners on display there.  I also freshened up my etsy shop offerings with new items and better photos.  And there's more!   I'll post again soon.

Distracted by knitting

Some days, I just want to sit and knit instead of read or sew.  I made a few hats, scarves, and fingerless mitts this year and gave them to Bags of Love which puts together bags of necessities for children in foster care.  Their response was so positive that I started to work on a few more items.  I found a leftover skein of a soft acrylic yarn called "Bloom" and made a hat.  It will be sweet on a little girl.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had been knitting a sweater for myself and really found it tedious.  Paul was shocked to see me unknitting almost an entire skein of light blue acrylic blend, but I just couldn't stand working on the difficult pattern any more.  I knew it would take years to finish, if ever! 

That same day, I started on a much easier scarf which I have been happily knitting on for the last week.  It's coming along great and is a nice thing to work on while watching TV.  The pattern is a lacy rib from a book of patterns.  It has just enough variation to keep me going, and it looks pretty on both sides.

I have been sewing a little bit, too.  I made four Christmassy pineapple blocks for my RSC box and have also been working on a small quilt using yoyos and scraps.  Our guild has a yard square challenge going on this year, and I plan to make something reversible.   I have plenty of time to figure this out since we won't be revealing til spring.

My Christmas package for the Netherlands is all ready to mail - I use M&Ms for packing and my Dutch sister uses Indonesian chips in return.  I'll take it to the post office tomorrow and also get a small box to mail to Cindy in California.  It's great to get this going early - almost like finishing a UFO!

More yoyos and the RSC

I still have a bunch of yoyos appliqued to black and white squares hanging around, after distributing quite a few at the state quilt guild meeting two weeks ago and making a small quilt for our president.  I had been considering arranging a few to resemble balloons with embroidered strings, but after I laid them out, they still looked like squares with yoyos attached.  I think they'll need to be cut into differently sized shapes in order to work together.

I still have a bag of 72 black and white squares with yoyos to turn into half of a small quilt.  Soni and Jan are making the other half.  That's a project I've set aside for a snowy day when I feel like sewing something mindlessly while watching the weather.  We have quite a few of those in January and February, cozy days when we don't go anywhere and have pancakes for lunch.

Meanwhile, I made a nine patch of some 5" yoyo squares and bordered it with various 2.5" scrappy squares.  Now the little quilt is 24.5" wide, and I'm at a bit of an impasse.  I think I'll add a small strip of bright blue as shown, followed by some scrappy log cabin blocks for the next border.   Adding more color always makes a scrappy quilt look better.

Meanwhile, I'm make some more pineapple blocks, this time out of my many Christmas scraps.   The 6" pineapples are a two-year RSC project, and I've been thinking of making a house-themed quilt for another RSC 22 project.  I have collected several patterns for house quilts and hope to combine variously sized blocks into one quilt made throughout the coming year.  

"State of Terror"

I tried to get a picture of the cover art for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny's new book, State of Terror, but every website wouldn't let me steal it.  The link will have to do.  But the book itself is amazing!  I tried to stretch out my reading so I could savor it, as I do all of Louise Penny's books, but the story just kept me going to the end.  Paul read it in two days, but he reads a lot faster than me.  I get "distracted" by laundry, cooking, errands, quilting, knitting!  

The story centers around, Ellen Adams, the new US Secretary of State who takes over after the previous incompetent President is defeated.  She isn't wild about the new, liberal President and wonders why he appointed her.  Just weeks into the new regime, three buses are blown up in London, Paris, and Frankfurt, killing all the passengers and people in the area.  No group takes responsibility yet it has all the signs of international terrorism.  What's next?  The scene shifts among Ellen, her reporter son, her media director daughter, and the terrorists.  

Louise Penny's voice is very prominent in the writing style, so the suspense is as creepy as ever, building to an inevitable climax.  The characters are all very human although it is difficult, until the very end, to know who the good guys really are.  The former president, Eric Dunn (known to the press as Eric the Dumb), even makes a few appearances.  While the thriller genre is a bit of a departure for Penny, there are some bonus insider hints of  Inspector Gamache and the people of Three Pines, too.  It is a fast moving read, thought-provoking and highly recommended.  Best book of the year?