Weekly update: summer's end?, estate sale finds, and goal finished

It's Labor Day weekend already? Where has the summer gone? 

 xx In the  ravine on Sunday afternoon:  lobelia.

xx I went to two estate sales on Friday.  It turned out that I know the families of both from church.  I remember Judy talking at coffee hour about cleaning out her mother's  house which had been the family home for more than 60 years.  Mom didn't throw anything out and bought (and bought) from the TV shopping sites.  

My first-grade primer was the same as Judy's. (Her mom saved the entire series but I just bought this one.) 

There were many, many sheet sets.  I limited my purchase to the pillowcases for the novelty of two-cotton blend. [Also: a never-used commercial-weight press cloth (or PresKloth) that I may actually use.] 

A never-opened linen Christmas table cloth and a never-opened package of two cotton pillow ticks. I think that "Grant Maid" indicated they came from  Grant's .

This was fun -- "Sew a Skirt in 45 minutes."  The skirt shape was already cut and there are velcro fasteners to hold it together.  The original J.C. Penney paper bag had a (c) 1978. 

And, yes, I bought some quilting fabric.  (22-1/2 yards for $25.) 

In the studio:  the second of my two-part goals for the September One Monthly Goal. I made the scrappy slab blocks last year.   The blocks are 6.5" x 9.5" unfinished. The quilt is 54 x 63.   3-1/2 yards for the back and binding. 

I read two really good books this week.  

Carl Hiaasen writes another rollicking tale of inept crooks, wackos (in this case the POTUS, his wife, and various members of their entourage), and good-hearted folks caught in the middle. Oh, yes, and Burmese pythons.  It turns out there are better things to be than thin and rich.  It's very, very, very funny.  

It's a little disconcerting (but not in a bad way) to read a "historical" family story and realize that the "history" is all within my own lifetime. Ellie and Brick McGinty are people we know (maybe they are people we are related to). It's their story but it's also their daughter Sam's story.  She learns early that parents are not perfect but they are doing their best. Love. Forgiveness. And keeping on.
Two nuggets: Ellie says, "Grief is that monster that bangs at your door until you let it in and sit with it for a while. When you get bored with each other, the monster leaves." Sam: "How long does the monster stay?" Ellie: "That's not the question. It's how long does it take you to answer the door and let it in. That's where the pain is. You hae to open the door....The longer [you] wait, the longer the monster stands [the] way, blocking all the good trying to find [you]."

and:  Paull-with-two-els says, "Resentment will eat you alive while the people who hurt you do just fine."

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Linking up with Oh Scrap!        Monday Making      Design Wall Monday

P.S.  I recently learned that two of my college sorority chapter sisters passed away this summer -- 68 and 67.   I'd lost touch with them but reconnected in recent years through Facebook.  That news prompted many memories among our FB group.