Weekly update: hints of spring, multiple projects, and reading

March began with a flurry of activities.  On Wednesday we got our first Covid vaccine shots at CTCA, the hospital in Zion. It was quick and we had no side effects. The second shot is scheduled for March 31.  

On Saturday evening we went to the first indoor concert in exactly a year. (The last time was March 7, 2020.)  Only 50 people were in attendance with ample social distancing. The Lake County Symphony Orchestra featured a percussionist (marimba and vibraphone) and a brass quintet.   

Spring is in the air with lots of sunshine and mild temperatures. . It was great to get out walking again. 

 Illinois Beach State Park, Saturday:  don't be fooled by the sand-covered pack ice. It's not safe to walk on!  You can see the undercutting. 

Sunday:  There was ice on the ponds at Van Patten Woods.  (VPW is about seven miles west of the lakefront.) 

# # # # # # # # # #

My Myers-Briggs typology is ESFJ.  Among the characteristics is a need for closure.  Too many projects in the works is unsettling.  And that's just what I have in the studio right now.

But first, a finish:   16 framed four-patches in green for the March RSC.  

On one end of the design wall:   8" batik sawtooth stars. Just because.  I'm going to make 30 and then figure out how to set them. 

On the other end of the design wall:  a new spare parts quilt. 

 I don't have any more room on the design wall for the other new project.  Nine Patch Square Dance by Sherri McConnell  is the new quilt-along from American Patchwork & Quilting. My idea is a sunny flower garden.  I thought I might use different colors for the nine-patches and rails, but I think that a variety of yellows and greens will work better. 

The blocks are 9".  Here is the link to the pattern, though experienced quilters can figure this out at a glance.

Oh, and this is floating around too. (I had to take it off the design wall for the sawtooth stars.)  The units are made out of leftovers from Grassy Creek. 

# # # # # # # # #

Linking up with Oh Scrap!  Scrap Happy Saturday  Monday Making     Design Wall Monday

I listened to Holy Ghost by John Sandford. Eric Conger's narration captures the off-beat, not-quite-snarky approach detective Virgil Flowers brings to the job.   

I just loved this story about women who have found themselves at unexpected turning points in their lives.   Eve has lost her job as an executive at a manufacturing company.  Sally has decided to leave her suburban life (with husband and house).  They are strangers to one another when they meet on the canal towpath near London. They encounter  Anastasia, a fiercely independent elderly woman who must go into hospital for cancer treatment -- but what do do about her narrowboat?  Eve and Sally volunteer to take the boat north for its annual overhaul. Anastasia can stay in Eve's now-vacant flat during her treatment.  All these decisions are out of character and yet for everyone concerned they are just right.  Over the course of the next six weeks Eve and Sally learn how to pilot a narrowboat along British canals. They meet Anastasia's friends.  And, importantly, they learn that they can reinvent themselves.   

Yes, the boat-journey-to-a-new-life metaphor has been used a lot.  But Anne Youngson's characters are endearing.  She uses turns of phrase that make the reader smile and nod, yes, that's so true.  

(And, P.S., I learned a lot about narrowboats and canals.)