A couple of finishes and some frustration

Thursday I picked up two quilts made of miscellaneous blocks from Marie, the long arm quilter.  Both will go to "Bags of Love," which puts together bags with toiletries, a book, a stuffed animal, a quilt, and more for kids going into foster care.  I bound both quilts over the weekend and feel so good to have two UFOs done.   I'll get them back to Marie this week or next, I hope.

The first quilt is made of orphan blocks that didn't really go with any other orphans in my growing pizza box.  I liked the setting I found on a pattern that I've had for a long time.

The second quilt is mostly made of blocks of the month I made in 2023 in my various guilds.  The two tulips were leftover from another quilt.

This was the first time using the walking foot on my little Brother, and, while noisy, it did a fine job.  I do miss the smoothness of the Elna's dual feed foot, but the end result is a binding on.  I always machine sew both sides of the binding on charity quilts and those going to children so that they wear well.

With those quilts out of the way, I sandwiched the first three rows of Dear Jane and started quilting it.  That should keep me busy most of the week.   I want to take my time working on each individual block with the walking foot.  I am definitely missing the large harp on the Elna, though.

My Fly with Me pattern arrived in the mail over the weekend.  I bought it because I was intrigued by its various sizes and shapes of flying geese.   I thought it would make a nice scrap quilt.  When I opened it, I was dismayed to find no foundation sheets or templates.  These all needed to be acquired by scanning a QR code which I did with my phone.  How to get the resulting information onto my computer in order to print the pattern pieces led to an afternoon's frustration.  

After I wrote to the designer in Germany and got no response, I wrote to the shop owner who sold me the pattern, Phyllis.  She had the same problem and also got no reply from the designer.  Now I don't feel so dumb, but neither of us can still use the pattern.  What a boondoggle!   

Phyllis says she is no longer going to stock any Zen Chic patterns without assurance that the pieces are included with the pattern, and she very kindly refunded my money.  She removed it from her website, too.  I started drafting the pattern with graph paper, but the blocks are all 12" and my graph paper is only 8.5" wide.   So I am making my pattern 6" square.  I could have done this to begin with but don't feel good about simply copying a design seen online.   Getting to know Phyllis was a good thing to come out of this.  I needed more backing fabric for Dear Jane, so I bought it online at Phyllis' shop.   She's very speedy at filling orders, and my fabric is already on its way.

Lottery blocks

Over the weekend, having finished Row F of Dear Jane, I decided to sash the rows together in groups of three.  I'll quilt each set of three when my Elna returns home and, eventually, put the sections together.  I suppose that will happen sometime in 2025!

Realizing that the local guild meeting is tomorrow,  I knuckled down yesterday and made the block of the month for March.  Some lucky person (hope it's not me!) will receive all the blocks that people bring in.  

I do like green and blue together so I made one for myself and one for the lottery.   I have all the Christmas blocks I won in the January lottery to put together, so I really don't want to win these.

This wasn't as easy to make as it looked at first, so this one with a few corners cut off is staying here.  The semi-perfect one will go to guild.

This morning I made the lottery block for the May state guild meeting.   It always makes me feel good to be ahead rather than catching up at the last minute.  I like this block, too, for its springy look.  Again, I made one for the lottery and one for me.  I'll have a nice batch of blocks for a sampler or a few table runners by June at this rate.

After finishing these blocks, I went back to sashing Dear Jane.  I'm cutting the charcoal gray sashing a little wider than Jane's 1" because I want the individual blocks to show up more.  I'm also using lighter gray cornerstones to make the sections line up more precisely.  This is a challenge of quilt-as-you-go.

That was all the sewing I did today.  Now I'm baking rolls and making vegetable soup for dinner.  It's perfect for the gloomy, rainy day we're having.

Tulip Star

 

Before Paul's brother Jim arrived on Sunday, I made most of this month's Barn Star Quilt block.  After Jim left, I finished it while doing laundry.  Houseguests are nice, but I always feel I have to get the sheets and towels washed right away.  

I enjoyed making this 16" block which went together fairly easily.  I am thinking of making four blocks in various colors - red, blue, purple, yellow, with green "leaves" - for a baby quilt.  Our friend Karen has a new granddaughter, born on the day of the eclipse.  I am dying to know what her parents named her.  I'll find out soon enough, I guess.   Paul suggested "Aurora," a pretty name.

It's been a rather slow week as we recuperated from the excitement of the eclipse and Jim's visit.  On Tuesday morning we took him to the Wayside for breakfast, which is something many "natives" of the area get nostalgic about.   The restaurant has been in business since 1918 and has extremely reasonable prices.  Always busy, it serves old fashioned food like pot roast, liver and onions, and grapenuts pudding, as well as great breakfasts, burgers, and more.   Jim was anxious to get a lobster roll the last time he was here, but we couldn't find one until after he had left.  This time, we took him to a different restaurant on Sunday night, and he pronounced the lobster roll great.  It was a short visit, mostly to see the eclipse, but the two brothers seemed to have fun together.

I started putting sashing between my Dear Jane blocks and have a few more rows to go.  Today I won't do any sewing, but tomorrow I hope to get to the guild's block of the month and the state guild's raffle block.  We have a couple of busy weeks ahead with meetings and doctor's visits, but I hope to squeeze some hand sewing in, too.  I have hexies ready for one block in the Green Tea and Sweet Beans (or is it the other way around?) quilt and "just" have to sew them all together before piecing a few more blocks.  This afternoon we are off to the library to see a locally made movie.  Friends loved it, so I hope we do.

What a day!

The eclipse and our party turned out just great.  Folks started arriving around 2, many bearing cookies and other goodies.  We all ate a little and took a little outside.  Most brought lawn chairs, and we had extras, too, so everyone could sit, put on glasses, and watch the sun and moon perform their miracle.  (This photo was taken by Anna, the daughter of a friend).

Paul, his brother Jim, and I wore our special Barre eclipse t-shirts, and I gave one to our friend Diane for leading us in You Are My Sunshine... not once but twice.  

As we were sitting there, commenting on how quickly totality seemed to approach, I thought I couldn't think of a nicer group of people to experience this once-in-a-lifetime event with.  We have awfully nice neighbors!

Right before totality, we could hear dogs barking, the street lights came on as the air around us dimmed, and the wind picked up.  It got downright chilly.  Over to our northwest, the distinctive Camel's Hump (mountain) was surrounded by sunset/sunrise.  I wish I had taken a picture.  We see it all the time, but never like that.  As totality arrived, we all cheered, and we could hear other small groups in the neighborhood doing the same.  Diane said to look for a flash of light around the corona - she called it a "diamond ring."  She pointed out Saturn (or Jupiter?) and Venus which were not visible until totality.

As totality passed, we slowly went inside to warm up and get a little more to eat.  Some people stayed outside until the sky was perfectly normal.  I went inside and enjoyed talking with people I hadn't had a chance to chat with before.  After everyone left and I did some cleaning up, there were plenty of goodies to munch on, so that was our dinner - hummus, veggies, fruit, crackers, cheese, cookies.  A perfect end to a perfect day!

Row F and more

I finished Row F of Dear Jane yesterday, and what a challenging row it was!  I hope Row G is easier, but first I'm planning to work on a few other things.  A big snowstorm is coming later today, so there will be plenty of time to sew tomorrow.  We hope it doesn't start until later this afternoon so that the "Senior Day" program at the library about the 1927 flood will still go on.

Here's Row F...  There was quite a lot of paper piecing here, some fusible applique, and even some hand applique.  Like Jane, I had to make a few blocks a little larger or straighter with added background strips.  

I decided to add the charcoal grunge sashing between the blocks, so I'll start with Row F and go back and sash the other rows.  It shouldn't take me long because I've been carefully measuring each block as I go.  I'll double check before stitching, though.

My plan is to quilt this in sections when my Elna comes home, so I'll leave the rows sashed but not attached for a while.  I've been keeping the blocks clipped together by rows in a large envelope, and once they're sashed, they can hang on a hanger in the closet.  

I made a delicious loaf of maple oat bread over the weekend and will most likely make another tomorrow.  It has a touch of whole wheat flour and some cinnamon, making it extra yummy.   I also made some granola because Paul's brother Jim seems to eat cereal for breakfast, and he's arriving Sunday.  

In between sewing and cooking, I started reading The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett who wrote a favorite of mine some years ago, World of Wonders, about the Amazon.  I'm reading a large print edition which is really easy on the eyes, but so far isn't as good as some of Patchett's earlier books.  My hold for the e-book of The Guest List by Lucy Foley came up from the library, so I've had to switch to reading that for a while.  It's very soap-operaish with unlikeable characters, so I'm not sure if I'll finish even if it did win "best mystery" on Goodreads in 2020.

As I write this, we are having a lovely red sky, a harbinger of things to come. The weather folk say it should go on for several days - rain, snow, sleet, wind, and everything else.  Yesterday, in advance of the storm, I started shopping for things we'll need for our Eclipse watch party Monday afternoon.  I'll do some more over the weekend.   We've invited neighbors and good friends and are hoping for sun and melting snow so we can go in the backyard to watch.   Mainly round foods are on the menu:  moon pies, black and white cookies, fruit with yogurt dip, Diane's lemon squares, round chips and salsa, punch, wine, soda.  Should be fun!

Just puttering along

I decided to devote my machine sewing time to Dear Jane this week, so I got right onto Row F.  So far, seven blocks are done, and I forgot that I had already done F-6, so now I have two.  I'll pick the one I like best and put the other one on the back or use it in a mug rug.   

One of the blocks (F-8) had 30 pieces - for a 4.5" block!  It's paper pieced which means I used about twice the fabric a pieced block would take.  This photo is from the website HobbyStash where one can find paper piecing patterns for most of the blocks.  Mine is a bright teal green on a black and white background.

There are three more blocks to go, one of which is hand appliqued.  It feels odd to be doing fusible applique on some of the blocks, but that is really more accurate this time around.   F-13 has fairly large pieces that I can handle.  I'll post a photo of the whole role when done.

I also started cutting out sashing this week.  I have several yards of charcoal grunge for this quilt and will put a few of the rows together now.  I want to machine quilt it myself in sections when my Elna returns (I'm hoping it can be repaired - it is frozen at the moment and seems hopeless.).  Meanwhile, the new Brother is working fine, especially with paper piecing.  

Today being Easter, we have plans to meet Chris and a friend at the Asian Gourmet for lunch.  We started doing this last Easter and really enjoyed ourselves.  It's a new tradition but fun.   This morning we'll go around town and hang posters for the April library booksale.  I drive while Paul posts.  Happy Easter!

Last round robin

 

Due to yesterday's snow (we got about 12"), I made good headway on Renee's round robin, and today I finished.  I was initially dismayed because I don't really like brown, but this turned out pretty nice.  I hope she likes it.  At about 44" square, it could be a big wallhanging.  If she wants to add another border, it will be a nice lap quilt.  It's so big that I couldn't really get a good picture, but I hope this gives some idea of how it looks.  The scrappy Jacob's Ladder blocks I added are 6" finished.

I enjoy doing these round robins because they challenge my creativity.  It's fun to work with someone else's color and style choices, too.  I have never made a blue and brown quilt and probably never will.   

There are quite a few newbies in the guild, and I hope we can persuade some to try joining a round robin next year. Our group this year had six members, two of whom I didn't know, so it has been fun getting acquainted through their fabric.