Another Grandbaby Quilt

Had DD1's baby shower this past weekend, so I can now write about, and show pictures of, the quilt I created for my fourth grandbaby.  And this one is pink!  Yes, the girl/boy grandchild count is about to be tied up at two each.  :)  

I am one excited grandma!  DH is thrilled too, although now they definitely won't be using the baby name he thought up for this child who is due to arrive during deer season: Buck Hunter.  LOL.  Will have to save that idea for future grandson.

DD1 and Honorary Son are keeping mum as to what her name will be, so I guess we're going to have to wait another 6-8 weeks for her to get here before we find out what we'll be calling her. 

Like the quilts I made for DS1 & K2's kids, I wanted this one to have a variety of fabrics that had significance.  However, I wanted to patterning the be different for this next group (assuming DD1 will have more kids in the future), so I made what I thought was a slight, easy change.

This one has stars alternating with unpieced "solid" blocks.  Stars are not that difficult to sew, and they add some visual interest.  However, sewing thirty-one 6" stars and getting them all nice and square and not cutting points off, well, that was not so easy.  Also getting such little pieces of fabric for the points and not losing the print of the fabrics, well, also not so easy.  In the future I will be more mindful of the size of the prints in the stars. Smaller is better. Non-directional would be a good idea too.

Overall, though, I am pleased with how this quilt turned out.  DD1 loves it, and that's what's more important.

I see stars!

birds on the backing, and butterflies too

hand sewing the binding to the backing

(took four hours!)

Six Months In

 It has been six months (tomorrow) since DH began working at home, about 10 days ahead of the Governor's orders that closed down the state.  Six months later, a lot of industry is back up and running, but not all of it. Large businesses, they're doing okay. 

Truthfully, there hasn't been much easing of restrictions over the summer.  Michiganders still can't go wherever and whenever with whomever they want.  Restaurants are still at 50% capacity, or less--if they are even open.    Small businesses, no.  They're not okay. Many, many small businesses have not reopened, because they just can't make a profit at such restricted capacity, and some have closed down for good.

DH has, occasionally, gone into work for a morning, or an afternoon, rarely a full day, when certain program issues arise that just cannot be done without actually laying hands on. But there has been no job-related travel.  He was told, earlier this month, that his company does not plan to go back to normal in-person operations until next year.  Next year in the summer.  More than 12 months after initially sending their engineers home to work remotely.  Our temporary at home office set up for him is going to need some revamping to make it that long; a better chair and a second, larger monitor for his computer are two things we're going to have to get ahold of somehow.

We made it--whew! just barely, our savings and tax refund and stimulus checks depleted--through the months of him working full time on only 80% of his pay.  Just recently, full pay was reinstated, although that held back 20% is still yet to be reimbursed.  With careful attention to expenditures, and using a lot of our reserves, we have been able to make 100% of our normal payments to the mortgage, truck loan, etc, so have not had any harm to our credit rating.  What a blessing; there are many not so fortunate. (And some, despite making more in unemployment than they ever did on the job, who still have managed to not meet their obligations, but that's a whole different rant that I won't get into. It's a passionate topic with this lady who adjusted to live on 20% less while watching others live on sometimes 100% more!)

It hasn't been all bad.  In fact, overall, DH has done more at home this summer than I think he'd accomplished in the last 3 years combined.  His job is now more often the 40-50 hours a week a salaried person expects than the 60-70+ hours a week it had been for several years running.  He's more relaxed, and taking an interest again in home improvement projects we'd talked about years ago.  It's so nice to get caught up on maintenance things and we even have been working on a big project the last several weeks.  That project will get it's own blog post once it's finished, hopefully yet this month.

I'll be brutally honest and say that at the beginning of March, when he and I took our 4 day getaway, things were not well between us.  He was exhausted with work.  I was exhausted with trying to do both my household and his household stuff, for years, plus my own work.  We wanted to be on the same team, we knew we were on the same team, but it really felt like we weren't on the same team, or the same planet, at all.  Six months later, we're a good team.  We're a functional team, and a team with good rapport.  

So, I guess, a pandemic is sort of what our marriage needed.

Yarn Along: September

 I am (finally) joining Ginny for this month's Yarn Along. Lots going on at this little place here, but again, not much knitting.  Perhaps later in the month as the garden winds down. . .

Sock #2 of the Ephemeral Stream socks is coming along.  I am through the heel gusset and onto the foot.  Not long now; perhaps in the coming week I will be grafting the toe and finishing this pair of socks.

If I can keep myself from casting on another project right away--I have three in mind and yarn on hand for all of them--I will complete my Hue Shift Afghan once the sock is done. I think I managed to knit one complete square on the afghan in the past month.  

While my knitting languished, lately my reading has picked up. Mainly because I can read a few minutes while eating my breakfast or lunch, but I can't very well knit and eat.  Anyway, I was able to get five books read in a month!

After the Storm by Linda Castillo, another of her Kate Burkholder novels and another absorbing read.

Fudge and Jury by Ellie Alexander, a quick reading mystery.

Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good, by Jan Karon, a large Mitford novel.

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier, fairly quick read.

The Body in Griffith Park by Jennifer Kincheloe, one that I enjoyed very much and plan to seek out more from this author.

Currently I am about a third of the way through The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow.  It's interesting but I'm not super caught up in the storyline. Maybe that will change as I read further.

Since the libraries here in Michigan are, as far as I know, still closed to patrons actually entering the building and browsing the bookshelves, my local library has started a neat service.  It's called a Grab Bag, and you fill out a short questionnaire about the sorts of things you are interested in, then the librarians chose 5 books from what's on hand at that branch to make up a bag of books for you to read.  The Chevalier, Kincheloe, and Threnow books are from my first Grab Bag.  I'd have to say, so far, the librarians did a really good job of picking some books for me! Included in my five, but not yet read are also a book on making quilts with (fabric) jelly rolls and another mystery.