The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Author: James McBride

A great book about the struggles the African Americans and Jewish people had in small-town Pottstown, PA during the 1930’s. There are so many wonderful characters in the book and any one of them might have been the focus of the story. As it happens, all the characters take a central role in uncovering the mystery of a skeleton found at the bottom of a well in 1972.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

A tough job

Sunday, December 10, 2023

It was a tough job but one that needed to be done. With all my packages ready for the mail, and most of them already send and/or delivered, it was time to start the cleanup in my sewing area.

My cutting table was littered with bits of fabric (not only Christmas ones), bits of wrapping paper, bits of ribbon – you get the idea. Pretty much anything I had used while finishing my projects and wrapping them had some remnant left on the cutting table.

My sewing table was in the same condition. Threads of all colours, sewing machine feet, bobbins of different colours with varying amounts of thread on them. There were pins and clips and even some of the ribbons made their way across to the surface.

My quilting machine was bogged down in projects that I want to do right away. I turned over a quilt top to Community Quilts but when I was looking at a photo I realized I had a block turned the wrong way. I dug it out of the Community Quilt cupboard at the last Guild meeting and I hope to have it fixed and back in the bin by the next meeting. I still have my Jelly Roll Race top to add borders to and, for some mad reason, I brought home a sandwich from the last Community Quilt weekend to quilt. I have another donation quilt that I’ve decided needs some borders before donating, and I don’t want to forget the placemats that need to be quilted – a Guild challenge from 2022.

I managed to get everything tidy enough that I was able to do the vacuuming this morning. The hallway and the room across the hall will have to wait another day for their turn.

I saved the toughest job of all for this afternoon. I have a library book that is due back on Tuesday so I need to sit down and finish it. I tried that yesterday afternoon but after reading just a chapter I had a little nap!

Skipped a day and now I’m behind

Thursday, December 7, 2023

After pushing myself to get everything in the mail yesterday Pat convinced me I should take the rest of the day for R&R. It didn’t take much convincing. So after my appointment and post office trip in the morning I decided to start tackling some of the clean up required before starting my Christmas decorating. First up was a pile of 200+ CDs that came out of the two players when we were getting rid of the one that didn’t work. I thought I’d do a few at a time but Pat was helping and we managed all of them. We had to go through several boxes of empty CD cases to find the right ones for the CDs that we took out of the old player. I’m not sure it was what either of us had in mind regarding an R&R day but at least it is done.

I had lunch out today with the group from the Book Circle. I said I would go, then thought I’d just go long enough to get my book signed, but before the morning was over I’d decided to go and stay for lunch. They are a nice group and we have always had good conversations and discussions on a variety of topics. It was my anti-social behaviour that made me not want to bother but I’m glad I went and stayed. There is talk of another meet-up at the bowling alley for a game and lunch; one of the group works for the brewing company that owns the alley.

I had the rest of my Christmas projects underway with the expectation that they would be done by the time my last delivery was made. It wasn’t supposed to even ship until the 12th, but it arrived today. I have all the fabrics cut for the projects and they won’t take long to put together but I hate that “I’m behind” feeling.

I’m off to a Guild meeting tonight.

Remembrance Day

I bought this kit at the Saskatoon Quilt Guild’s quilt show several years ago. I had seen the poppy fabric when someone from our Guild was using it; when I saw the fabric used in a kit I had to have it.

I’m not sure why it took so long to quilt; it had sat finished and sandwiched for a long time. It became one of my first quilting projects after treatment and it went very well. I used the same pattern for some placemats so I already know the quilting pattern I will use.

In my mind I had put some Christmas fabric on the back so it could be reversible but the fabric I picked wasn’t the best. With black binding it doesn’t look as Christmassy as I would have like so it probably will only be used for the month of November.

As I didn’t get this finished before Remembrance Day this year it now hangs in my sewing room hiding some bins of scraps.