Olympic Fever Here!

I love the Olympics and DH, who watches every sport imaginable, doesn't!  He's just contrary, what can I say!  I love it for the personal stories.  And NBC does a great job of covering it!!

I have a quilt that I'm hand quilting - and I work on it during the Olympics at least a couple times a week.  Not the best plan!  But I'm also working in the sweat shop - err - sewing room during the day.  I'm trying to get caught up from taking all that time out when DH was recovering.  The sewing room is piled high with projects all yelling "Pick me!" It's distracting!!

• I want to finish binding my Intl Miniature Exchange.  And finish the one for me!  Yes - I'm making two!
• I'm getting a guild blocks Log Cabin QOV top and back ready to be quilted by a local longarmer.  
• Getting the Breast Cancer Raffle Quilt top and back ready for it's quilter! I must have been high on M&Ms when I volunteered for that!
• 3 Fabric post cards exchanges needing to get done.
• Baby quilt with leftover log cabins ... for City Baby Shower!
• The hand quilted project - on it's 2nd year mainly sitting on the side!
• and the list goes on!

We finally got to have "Christmas" with the Portland group.  It snowed and we were asked to please not delay Christmas again (blaming us for the snow!)

A good friend sent an 'engineering' set for Mr M.  He wasted no time to get electrifying with Gus-Gus, the German Shepherd supervising.

Another good friend here in Brookings was cleaning out her "teacher" supplies and I scored a box of books for the GKs!  They were all so excited. But here's a picture of the little guys looking them over.

Here's what else has been happening:

Mod Squad met for the beginning of our second year.  We're not sticking with one book this year.  Each member will present an assignment from any book, theme, color or embellishment.  January's assignment was "Identity" from the 12 x 12 book.  It was touching and inspiring to see our entries.  Easy to guess - we know each other pretty well.

I go to Crescent City Pool two times a week for water aerobics (during a 'usual' week).  Last time I was there, I stopped by Safeway and this is what happened to their landscaping at the entrance! I don't believe it was planned this way!

It was awesome!  Have you ever tried to stack rocks?  Definitely tricky!

And we've had some wonderful sunsets.

February? Already??

The rainy days seem so long - how on earth does the month speed by??

Today I hung a show of last year's Mod Squad projects  in the library display cases.  And it's fabulous!

To recap ... I met Deborah Boschert in Houston 2016 and bought her book Art Quilt Collage.  Brought it home and talked a few friends into forming a group to study the layout designs.  Each month one of us led the discussion on the new design that we all made before the next meeting.  We gently critiqued each piece and tried to guess who made it.  That was harder than we expected!!

I started it off in February - with a 'Design to Quilt' exercise of "Line".  We each picked from precut magazine pictures and ads to look at the elements within.  It was eye opening to notice there was purple in the yellow beak of the Toucan!

The next two months were Landscape and Grid, easy choices.  Everyone is familiar with landscapes in photos or art.  And of course, quilting blocks are the ultimate grid for us!

One of my favorites was "Magic Threes"  M - the leader that day - brought Oreo cookies - 3 parts!!

We went on to One Amazing Line; Symmetry; Modular and others.  P and I were lucky enough to go to #CraftNapa in January and take a class with Deborah.

The library cases are enormous!  61 x 38 x 20!!  and there are TWO of them!

So let's talk about my favorite books last year!  I'm a library girl so most of these I'm sure you can find in your lovely local library.  I do have some books on Kindle, but still enjoy actually holding a book and turning the pages.

Funny story - my DH buys the new Stephen King book for me every year.  I devour it and then pass it onto my son who is also a big fan.  This year, I started reading his latest in bed and the next morning my shoulder was killing me.  Oh NO!  Can it be true that I no longer can handle reading Stephen King??  Not the content - the weight!!??  So next year, even though it goes against the grain, DH will buy it on kindle for me!!!

Breakthrough Series by Michael Grumley  Fascinating Science Fiction in the 'near future'

A Spool of Blue Thread by Ann Tyler  Who does family and ordinary life better??

The Old Man by Thomas Perry   I loved his Jane Whitefield series.  I hope to see more with this character too.

The Girl Before by JP Delaney  Who wouldn't want an opportunity to live in a quirky house in the middle of the city? But you might think twice after reading this!

The Chemist by Stephanie Meyer  Better known now for the Twilight Vampires, I really love her 'other' books.  The Host was an all time favorite of mine.

The Shark Club by Ann Kidd Taylor  An oceanographer revisits home even though she feels more at home with sharks!

The 37th Hour by Jodi Compton  Has her husband disappeared or is she losing her mind?

Piano Tide by Kathleen Dean Moore  I really couldn't put this book down.  Even though it is placed in Alaska - it was so-o Oregonian!!

Mr Penumbra's Twenty-Four Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan  I got caught away from home without a book !!  Gasp!  So I borrowed this one from my DDIL. So glad I did!

I also dived back into Faye Kellerman's Rina series.  I had a few to catch up with.

I love that I keep track of the books I read.  When I'm bored and between great books, I can look back and see what authors I loved back when.  THEN I can go look them up and see if I've missed anything new.  Try it - you'll like it!!!