Weekly update: class reunion, quilt show, a finish, and reading

 The Glenbrook North High School Class of 1970 had not-quite a reunion on Saturday evening.  Early in 2020 we began planning.    Committee members (of which I'm one) tracked down classmates to get phone numbers and email addresses.  We created a Facebook group and used an online class reunion site to try to reach everyone we could.   In July, 2020, we realized that the pandemic wasn't going to be over by October so we cancelled the event. We began 2021 with the hope we could pull off a "Fifty Plus One" reunion for October, 2021.   Evites went out and reservations were made.  But people were hesitant -- the pandemic still hasn't gone away, we're senior citizens (a vulnerable group). We cancelled the big weekend (wine tasting, golf, school tour, and the dinner party).  Some had made travel plans and others were confident of their vaccinations.  So, we had a mini-dry-run-reunion this Saturday.  There were 26 classmates (if my photo count is correct) and 10 spouses. The weather was mild and we enjoyed drinks and heavy hors d'oeuvres outside.              [I am on the left in the second row.]

This was either brilliant or incredibly foolish -- no masks, hugs, and close proximity.   We are going to reboot the big event for next summer -- outdoors -- "The Class of 70 turns 70." 

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There were many beautiful quilts on display at the Village Quilters biennial show.  Irene and I went on Friday afternoon.  

(I have info about each quilt and the maker's name if you are interested.)

Three quilts from a workshop with Weeks Ringle.  (I really like this idea for "can't cut this" fabrics.)

From a improv workshop with Cindy Grisdela. 

There was a Quilts of Valor presentation during the show, but not when we were there.  QOV had an section of the exhibit (no photos, sorry) and a booth. They had donated fabric not suitable for QOV--put a contribution in the jar and take some. And I did! 

QOV goodies at the top.  A little stash enhancement at the bottom. 

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In the studio: 

I can boast of a finish for the month!  I made the flimsy earlier this year.  

The back uses a batik tablecloth and part of a batik sarong.   They were thrift shop or rummage sale finds. I am convinced that people buy these as souvenirs, or receive the as gifts, and never use them.

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This week's reading: 

Fox came to visit Catherine Raven's rural Montana cabin every afternoon. Raven, a biologist, knew better than to make him a pet. Her observations of his behavior -- hunting, denning, playing, and raising four kits with his mate -- are interspersed with her memoir (park ranger to grad student to professor). The story seems to zig and zag, rather like the movements of a fox. It is not sentimental but neither is it hard-edged.

A hand-written list with the titles of eight books flutters from a shelf in a branch library near London. Teenaged library assistant Aleisha  finds the list.  (She's not much of a reader; she's only taken the summer job to get out of the house and away from her severely depressed mother.)    Mukesh Patel, an 80-year-old widower, is tentatively venturing out of his house.  (His late wife was a great reader and patron of that library).  Perhaps if he finds a good book he'll have something to talk about with his bookworm granddaughter. He asks Aleisha for a recommendation and she helps him check out the first book on the list: To Kill a Mockingbird.  She realizes she should read it, too, so they can both talk about it. 

That leads to Rebecca, The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Beloved, and A Suitable Boy -- certainly an eclectic assortment. Mukesh and Aleisha pick up on different threads in each book. In their weekly conversations they get to know one another and so it is that Mukesh and his family (his three daughters and Priya) can help Aleisha and her family through a devastating time.

"Priya was reading a book he knew all about. He knew the world Priya was in right now. There was something magical in that--in sharing a world you have loved, allowing someone to see it through the same pair of spectacles you saw it through yourself." (281)

"Please try to remember that books aren't always an escape; sometimes books teach us thigs. They *show* us the world; they don't hide it." (319)

"She thought about the journey the books had taken her on, the places they had transported her to...Through the reading list's characters she'd experienced injustice...guild...terror and unease....resilience...the power of hope, faith, and community...." (361)

 This is a lovely, moving tribute to the power of books to transform lives.

# # # # # #  Linking up with Design Wall Monday Monday Making Oh Scrap!     P.S.  Virginia creeper at Sand Pond on Sunday afternoon.