true addiction

Okay, I must be a true addict because even when I don't plan to quilt, I still quilt in one way or another. I didn't plan on doing any sewing last night, but I did. Okay, I didn't actually put fabric into the machine and sew last night, but I did some pinning so that I could do some sewing this morning. How's that?

I found out a couple of weeks ago that Sydney missed the part of language arts classes where they taught her to sound out words. She has a huge vocabulary and uses words appropriately. But, she couldn't take the letters on a page and turn them into a word. I found that out when her teacher this year had us track not only how long she read each day, but how many pages she covered. I found that she could read almost a hundred pages in a half hour. Uh-oh, something's wrong there. She's not a speed reader. Turns out she couldn't answer questions about what she'd read. So, I tried reading the same book as her. I'd read it and then she'd read it and she had to summarize what she'd read to pick out what was important. Couldn't do that either. So, now she reads aloud to me while I sew, or knit, or cook. I'm teaching her to sound out the words and the big reward was the other night when we finished the first book, which she said she'd read in 4th grade, and said it was a really good book this time. And, I have to agree. Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech was a good book. It's about twin orphans that get adopted by a really nice couple, so it was particularly applicable to our family...except the couple in the book were much nicer than Rob and I. We started our next book last night and it's set in Africa and has lots of names of people and things that are native to the region. And, with little prompting, she was able to sound out those words, too. So, now, I have my own little book on tape that I can listen to while I work. I just have to get through the complaining about having to read every night. :-(

All I worked on was putting together the strip sets for my 25 patch blocks for my irish chain. I really enjoy the leader/ender idea. It's like making two quilts at the same time, only one of them goes really slowly. I guess I could have tried doing it while I was paper piecing that Indian Orange Peel, but that seemed to get in the way more than it accomplished. Speaking of the Orange Peel, my mentor and I are getting together in a couple of weeks to work on the layout, so I'll be able to get moving on that one again. I really need to finish this apple theme quilt before then because I know I'm not going to want to stop assembling all those curved seams long enough to finish it later. And, I can't afford to stop, because that usually leads to a UFO and I don't want to be rushed to finish it so that I can enter it in shows in late winter. Plus, if it sits too long, I'll get out or practice quilting apples and leaves and blossoms. There's lots to say about quilting the same shape over and over and over. You get really good at it and I don't want to have to start the learning curve over again.

Okay, that's enough of me rattling on. Hope you guys are all having a great week. Take care and we'll see ya' round the net. Lane