Finished a thing

 Today was a better day despite being one of my longer (and less-rewarding, given that my all-online class is today) day than yesterday.

I am caught up for now - no grading to do until the end of the week, no exams next week, so it's just teaching and maybe getting a start on the soil-sorting (maybe Thursday? depending on if my mom needs my assistance*)

(*The first university my dad was a full timer at kept her on his retiree insurance for this past year, now she has to go on the Medicare supplemental market herself. She doesn't use the internet so after waiting near the phone for 7 (!) hours yesterday with no success, I told her that if she didn't have success before Thursday afternoon, to call me, *I* will go to the site and type in her information. If it weren't pandemic times probably there's someone there who could help, but....2020. And anyway, if I can do this for her I will.)

I also finished the current quilt top Sunday afternoon:

I'm quite happy with it - the colors look even better together than I thought they would. A couple of close ups of the main fabrics:

Hidden unicorns!

(If I remember correctly, this is a Tula Pink fabric. I think I have some in a different colorway; maybe I find it when I get this quilted and use it for the binding)

And castles!

(This was from JoAnn's and I don't have the selvedge any more so I don't know if it was one of theirs or another brand).

The sashing-type fabric was a Grunge fabric - it and the unicorns were bought at the close-out of Kaleidoscope Quilts when the original owner was retiring. I think that was the beginning of February of this year? It seems longer ago.

The backing - I'm not gonna go grab it to photograph now - is sort of a cosmos or astronomical pattern with colors very like the castle fabric, so it will go well.

I think I may just wait and take this to Lulu and Hazel rather than trying to message or call Sue and see if she's got any space (I bet she does not, I bet lots of people are taking their pandemic piecing in to get it done for Christmas gifts). Also I saw one of their new patterns is sort of a spiral pattern (not exactly a Celtic spiral, but similar enough) and I like the idea of that for this quilt. 

I also bought myself some books off of Etsy:

(Yes, I know my desk is a mess).

I had wanted to replace the Dinner for Two cookbook - my mother had had two copies and gave me one, and I used it hard for 20+ years (I think I had it back when I lived in Ann Arbor, the first time I was on my own). A few weeks ago I dropped it and the covers split off and some of the pages came out and while I can kind of rubberband it together, I wanted to try to find a new copy, I knew there had to be lots out there. And I found this set of four on Etsy for less than $20. I also had the "Good and Easy" one but I can always put it away "for good" in case my copy gets wrecked.

The other two, I not only don't have, I'd never seen before, so it will be fun to look through them. I love vintage cookbooks and I admit there's a tiny part of me that longs to be the (idealized version of) a 1950s/60s housewife, where everything seems so *ordained* and your children come home from school and hug you and tell you they love you and your husband praises your cooking after dinner and YES I know it usually didn't actually work like that but we all have our fantasies and mine is sometimes having a little family of my own to take care of* and having them appreciate me and me appreciating what THEY do. 

(*Yes, by this point in my life, I'd probably be close to being a grandmother, if not one already. But that carries its own set of idealized delights)

Another fun thing about Dinner for Two is that Charlie Harper - he of the stylized bird prints - illustrated it. (And Andy Warhol illustrated Amy Vanderbilt's Cookbook, another vintage cookbook I have). The brownie recipe my mom ALWAYS made when my brother and I were growing up was from Dinner for Two, and there are some other good "small batch" things.

And also it's just the IDEA of things you could cook; I find my creativity is at a lower ebb these days and it helps to see recipes and go "oh, I want to make that." I should probably start making more detailed lists, ESPECIALLY if we are going to have to consider restricting our movements more again this winter as disease spreads....at least Pruett's seems to do (for a cost) drive-up and pick-up if things get too bad. 

Another reason I love older books:

"Best wishes to Gingie and Arlo, love, Naomi Rue"

Who were Gingie and Arlo? Was this a wedding present (or part of a present)? Who was Naomi Rue and what was her relationship to Gingie and Arlo? I'll never know (most likely), but it's nice to imagine these books had a whole history before I got them.