Post-Christmas relaxation

Hope you had a nice Christmas and will have a good 2019.  Our day was very sunny, but very cold.  A good day to stay inside.  We had a relaxing Christmas day starting with brunch with Chris - bacon, apple French toast casserole (from our old B&B recipe), lots of chocolate, and a Dutch fruit cake that was, unfortunately, very dry.   Paul and I ate leftovers for dinner, which was easy and just fine.

Chris took some nice pictures of the "tree" he made for my New England Village which we've been collecting since he was a little guy.  My mom sent or two buildings a year until we had quite a few.  At some point, we added a brewery (in his teenage years) and a quilt shop to include both our interests.  I am thinking of making a quilted star for the top, but will wait til after Chris stains the whole thing a light maple.

Because the village now looks a little too roomy, I have been bidding on and buying a few more buildings on eBay this week.  A red covered bridge, a Victorian house, a toy shop, and another house are all going to be showing up this week.  eBay is fun and very addictive!

This week I've been working on the Bonnie Hunter mystery clues (I'm up to date), sewing a binding down one side at a time, and quilting the Nov. and Dec. sections of my Splendid Sampler quilt I started in July.  I like quilting each block differently to make it a true sampler, and mostly I'm using my walking foot.  I get too tense free motion quilting, and this is supposed to be a hobby!   Yesterday, I also tried several methods of stitching a fusible appliqued piece while quilting it.  I had to rip the first two partial tries out but had some success with a blind hem foot and a button hole stitch.  Today we're having freezing rain, so I intend to spend most of the day in the sewing room - not a bad place to be!

Christmas Eve!

Best wishes for a very Merry Christmas / Prettige Kerstfeest!  Today, after  Paul's post-surgery visit with the doctor, I'll be making a traditional French-Canadian tourtiere (meat pie) for dinner and a Dutch kersttulband for dessert.  The tulband is rich fruitcake that looks like a turban, but I'll use a bundt pan instead since that's the pan I have.  This will be my first try at this Dutch specialty.  I don't think we ever had one when I was growing up so it will be interesting to try.  

I have perfected the recipe for tourtiere over the years to approximate the pies I used to get from my former secretary, Mary.  She and her husband used to make them to sell every year, and after I requested a smaller size for me, they started making that size also.  After he passed away, the recipe was lost, so I tried a variety of spices before I got what I think is close to the original.

Tourtiere – French Canadian Meat Pie

A Barre classic, especially around the holidays.

Prepare a 2 pie crust and put the bottom crust into a pie pan.  I use refrigerated pie crusts and usually roll them out a little more before putting them into the pan.

In a skillet, break up 1 lb. ground pork (or a mix of beef and pork) and combine with:

            ½ c. water

            2/3 c. minced onion

            1 clove garlic, minced

            1 t. salt

            ½ t. thyme

            ¼ t. allspice

            ½ t. sage

            ¼ t. dry mustard

            ¼ t. ground cloves

            1/8 t. pepper

Bring all to a boil, reduce to medium low, and cook for about 25 min., stirring periodically.

Meanwhile, boil two small potatoes, skinned and chopped.   When cooked, mash and add to the meat.  There should be about a cup.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Place the meat mixture into the pie crust and top with the other layer of crust.  Crimp edges and cut a few slits in the top.   Beat an egg with 1 t. water to make an egg wash for the top of the pie.  At this point, you can freeze the whole thing, but defrost before baking.

Bake for about 45 min. or until crust is golden.  Serve with rolls and a salad.  

Christmas preparations

We assembled the Christmas tree Wednesday, and I decorated it yesterday.  It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas here!

I had a heck of a time taking a picture since it's right in front of the glass door.  Yesterday the glare from the sun on the snow outside washed it out, and this was taken this morning because it's raining and gloomy.  

Chris built two ladders hinged together at the top with shelves that come off for easy storage.  I cut white batting to fit the shelves and then set my Christmas village on it.   There are three shelves and a top shelf (12" x 12") which has my scary old Santa from the 1950s on it.   There's plenty of room for packages below on top of a piece of red fabric.  Next year I'll figure out a way to hide the cords along the back rails, but I just wanted to get the tree up and lit.  I will seek out a few more buildings for the Dept. 56 "New England Village," too.   Chris says this is "just" a prototype, but I like it.  He will stain the ladders a maple-ish color.

The stockings are hung, the Chex Mix has been made, and we have packages under the tree.  Bring on Christmas!  May yours be jolly and warm!

Favorite books of 2018

By my own count and that of goodreads.com, I didn't read as many books this year as last.  But I immersed myself in several of note.  Here's my list of favorites:

• Enchantress of numbers - Jennifer Chiaverini.  The life of Ada Byron who some felt should get credit for inventing the computer along with Charles Babbage.
• The watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley.   Confusing, engrossing Steampunk.
• The secret diary of Hendrik Groen, age 83 1/4 years old.  Groen is a nom de plume but his life in a government-run nursing home in N. Amsterdam is very funny as well as sad.
• Celine - Peter Heller.   Based on the author's mother, Celine is a 60+ private eye who finds lost people.  She and her steady, Maine native husband Pete set out to find a missing photographer who may have staged his own death.
• The aviator's wife - Melanie Benjamin.  Fictionalized biography of Anne Morrow Lindbergh with, I'm told, lots of mistakes and fiction.  Still, it's very involving and quite a contrast to Reeve Lindbergh's Two Lives which I thoroughly enjoyed, too.
• Tallgrass - Sandra Dallas.  This was a re-read for me and tells of life in and around the Amache Japanese Relocation Center outside Granada, CO, which we visited in the fall of 2017.  One of Dallas' best.
• Heart Spring Mountain - Robin MacArthur.  Finalist for the VT Book Award, poetically written, and very involving story of a daughter searching for her addict mother after a major hurricane.
• Lethal white - Robert Galbraith.  #4 in the Cormoran Strike series features Robin more than in the past in a long, complex story.  Excellent surprises throughout.
• Shell game - Sara Paretsky.  Equally complex and involving installment in the VI Warshawski series.
• The Kingdom of the blind - Louise Penny.  A completely different sort of story in the Armand Gamache series but just as fulfilling.  Penny's books are always well written and thoughtful, more about family and friendship than solving a mystery.
• The woman at the window - AJ Finn.  This was a commercial success so I didn't want to like it, but I was swept away from almost the first page.    It's creepy and sad, and I still am not sure who the villain really was!

I can't say which was my favorite, but The woman at the window was the most surprising.  I guess I would have to choose Celine if I absolutely had to.  Heller's The dog stars was a favorite several years ago.

A mystery of yesteryear

Back in 2011-12, someone in my local guild organized a mystery quilt which turned out to be Bonnie Hunter's "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll."  I chose Christmas fabrics because I had a lot of them, and I like red and green together.  I mixed in non-holiday fabrics with the others, but as it progressed I really didn't like it.  Now I'm not sure if it was all the fiddly little pieces or the way it turned out.  The pieced border was the hardest part.  But now I get this quilt out every year at this time, and I like it.  That's my hope for this year's BH mystery, "Good Fortune," that I've been keeping up with.

Yesterday I finished the second clue which took me most of the day.  But what a feeling of accomplishment!  I bag up all of the finished pieces - last week's red and neutral four patches and this week's blue and neutral half-square triangles - and store them in a shoebox.  Hope I can say the same at this time next week.

A finish and a work in progress

I joined a placemat swap recently because it only involved making two placemats for someone by February.  My "secret sister' wanted them with a Christmas theme, and, since I love working with Christmas fabrics during the season, I finished them yesterday.  I'll pack them up and get them mailed so that she can enjoy them during this year's holidays rather than next year's.  But I won't share a photo in case she reads this blog! 

I am turning my attention back to quilting the red, white and blue Dutch quilt which was set aside while I finished a few other things over the last couple of weeks.  I still have to make one more November block for my Low Volume Sampler, but I guess I'll push it into December.  Here's what I have so far, incorporating Splendid Sampler, Moda Blockheads, orphans, and any other 6" blocks I might feel like making.

I will probably rearrange the blocks when I sash them before quilting to end up with five sections made for this year-long project.  The first blocks have incorporated pieces from a set of linen "dishtowels of the month" that my dear friend Yve gave me years ago.  They are a special memorial as she passed away suddenly last January.

Another snow day

My across the street neighbor, Winnie, took this photo of our neighborhood yesterday.  That's a little bit of our garage showing along with the 8-10" of heavy, wet snow we received.  This was the third major snowstorm we've had this season.  Or was it the fourth?  I have lost track!  Others posted photos of turkeys, foraging through the snow in their yards.   Maybe if the weather gets all this snow out of "its" system, "it" will leave December unscathed?  We can hope.

The snow kept us housebound but also warm and cozy.  Although I often make a special lunch like pancakes on a day like yesterday,  I wrapped Christmas presents and put together packages to mail instead.  I have six ready to go out but will only mail the two that need to go the farthest today.  One is for my sister Jacqueline in the Netherlands, and the other for my mom and sister Jenny in Colorado.   Having a small, far-flung family means getting most shopping done early, and now I have just a little more shopping for my two guys here at home.

I took a little time to water plants, search for a holiday table decoration for the Thursday night library staff appreciation dinner, and change our door quilt to the tree Paula made me last year.    I had made 17 key fobs for the library staff, so made and attached little "thank you" tags using the computer and a new rubber stamp.

Then I got busy quilting.  I had to unpick a couple seams on my latest Splendid Sampler block and then I started on some placemats for an exchange.  They aren't due at my secret sister's until February, but she asked for a Christmas theme, so I'm hoping to get them to her in time for the holiday.  Last year I put in a bid for a batch of fabric from another quilter's de-stashing, and quite a bit of it was Christmas-related.  While cutting out half square triangles, I again mentally thanked Wendy for her generosity.   I have some glitzy black fabric for the placemat backs and will rummage around for some dark green binding.

Holiday cooking

I'm going to try to cut back on holiday baking this year.  We don't need all those yummy extra calories, and I have plenty of quilting and reading to keep me occupied instead.   I do plan to make Karen G.'s ginger cookies because it wouldn't be Christmas without them.  And I hope to try making a Dutch "tulband," a bundt-shaped fruit cake.

But yesterday I couldn't resist making some Passion Pear Jam because our jam reserves seem to be running low and I wanted some for gift giving.

I do love the colors of home made jam as the jars are all lined up and cooling.  My former mother-in-law used to make this along with her world famous spiced pear, but I never asked her for the recipe.   Luckily, my Canadian quilting friend Karen H. had one to share.  Passion Pear has an orange, a lemon, some chopped maraschino cherries, and a can of crushed pineapple along with the pears, to give it that lovely color like marmalade.  I have Mom C.'s spiced pear recipe and made some last fall, but when I went into the cupboard to put this batch away, I noticed only one strawberry and one spiced pear in reserve.  Looks like I'd better make a little more jam after the holidays. 

Our mini-vacation

We returned from four nights in Washington, DC, yesterday afternoon and, while we were gone, it snowed quite a bit.  I suppose what's on the ground now will stay until spring, unfortunately.  We stayed in a B&B on Capitol Hill and could see the domes of the US Capitol and the Library of Congress from one of our windows.  It was a "basic" place - no frills with dormitory-type furniture and make-your-own-breakfast - but at least we had our own bathroom and the location was perfect, once we got oriented.  The first night, we wandered around looking for a restaurant and finally asked some cops for a suggestion.  The Union Pub turned out to be just what we needed - a crabcake sandwich, fries, and a nice glass of wine for me.

The next morning featured wet, sloppy snow, making the charming brick sidewalks a little treacherous to walk on.  We went a few blocks to the Folger Shakespeare Library and had a wonderful tour.  No other tourists were there, so our docent, Sarah, took her time (2 hours!) to tell us about the Folgers and their collection.   The library owns 81 First Folios - amazing.  We saw the little theater, the reading room, and a Churchill-Shakespeare exhibit, too.   After lunch in a diner we reached by walking through a downpour, we rested a bit before dinner at Café Berlin with Paul's old friend Dave.  They met while working at a college library in Tennessee many years ago, and now Dave is preparing to retire from the DC Public Library.   We discovered the restaurant only 3 blocks from our B&B, almost across from the Union Pub that we had taken a circuitous route to/from the night before.

Friday morning, we headed down past the Capitol to the Newseum, which is quite an interesting place but also a magnet for school groups, busloads of them.  There were quite a few interesting journalism memorabilia, including remnants of the Berlin Wall.  The graffiti'd side was on the "free" side, while the plain side was on the Communist side and had been painted white to reveal anyone trying to climb/escape.  There was a "death tower" on display also, but I couldn't get a good picture.

The Newseum also has a piece of the Twin Towers, original copies of US newspapers with important headlines, Pulitzer and other prize winning photos, and lots of videos about the role of the press in important moments in US history, such as the Civil Rights movement.

After such bad weather Thurs., it was a lovely day to be outside, and my Fitbit registered over 11,000 steps Friday.

Saturday was equally pretty, and we took the subway over to Arena Stage near the Waterfront in the late morning for brunch followed by Anything Goes.  It was a fabulous production with excellent singing and dancing.  On the way home we couldn't resist stopping at Café Berlin for dinner again.  The taxi picked us up Sunday at 6:45 am for National Airport, and we were back home in the frozen north by 1 pm.   We were happy to have had time in the "big" city, but, despite the winter, there's no place like home!

Quilting after the election

I am so glad I had a big quilt to wrestle under my machine this week.  It offers time to reflect on the election and cool down after some annoying disappointments.  My friend, for whom I am again serving as campaign treasurer, lost his bid for Vermont House.   We weren't all that surprised since he was running against two incumbents.   I need to file his final campaign finance report later today, but it was a shoestring campaign, making it easy.  We took in and spent less than $1,000.  The good news is that two friends in the neighboring city won their elections.  Some other local election results were head-scratchers, though, so I'm glad to have other things to occupy my mind.

I've been working a little each day on the red, white and blue medallion quilt which is about 85" square.  After pin-basting on Sunday, it took a couple of days to anchor each border.  I did some straight stitching through a couple of the skinnier borders, and now I'm using my walking foot to echo some wavy lines I drew in the 18" center square.  It's looking good so far, but I take plenty of breaks to do things around the house or read.

Yesterday morning I went to my hand-sewing guild for a few hours and got some yoyos sewn onto charm squares for the state guild quilt.  Robin was cutting out more charms for the same project, and Bronwen was making nine patches and cutting fabric for a future project.  It is relaxing to sew and chat with these ladies.  After I got home, I continued knitting a dish cloth using "Scrubby" yarn.  I don't like the scratchy way it feels, so I'm not sure I will make any more.  I do like having an easy knitting project while watching TV.

We are heading to Washington, DC, for a few days Wednesday, just for a pre-winter getaway.  But Tuesday we're heading to Hanover, NH, for a consultation with a cardiologist for Paul, which means I need to get our stuff together for the trip Monday.  Today's chores will be laundry and some grocery shopping before I can get back to quilting.

Affairs of the Heart

Some years ago, I saw a luscious quilt called Affairs of the Heart by Ale Rossman.   It was incredibly tempting.   When I finally read the fine print, I realized that the blocks are all 8" and involve hand applique and my nemesis - embroidery.  I picked one and used wool for the applique.  I love the feel of wool and soft colors.

Then I screwed up my courage and started on the embroidery, using gold thread.  What a mess!  It was far too glitzy, so I took it out and used some gold cotton.  Ah!  much better.  But I knew I'd never make another, so the block just got shuffled around until it landed in the back of the closet.  When one of my guilds announced a UFO program, I dug it out, and yesterday I added a cotton border and did a little machine quilting.  Today I added some hand quilting (black on black - tough to see) and stitched the facing to the back.  Voila!

Progress!

Yesterday, I finished putting the last borders onto the red, white and blue medallion quilt I started working on last winter.  I had found an oversized "Goose in the Pond" block in red and white in my pizza box of leftover quilt blocks.  From there, I added borders, using fabric my Dutch sister sent me and some scraps in my stash.  At one point in the spring, I put it away because I knew it should be bigger but wasn't sure what to do next.  At the Vermont Quilt Festival this summer, I saw just the fabric I wanted for an appliqued border, and that's what I've been working on piecemeal ever since.  It has grown to about 84" x 84" and is ready to quilt.  That's what I hope to be doing over the next month or so.

But first!  I need to finish stitching a facing down on the back of an old wool appliqued UFO that also needs a little hand quilting.  It was an 8" square that I finished long ago.  I needed to do a little embroidery and, when I tried using gold metallic thread, it looked awful.  I took it all out and used plain gold cotton thread instead.  Much better.  A colorful border makes the final little hanging about 11".

My row robin bookshelf quilt returned home Saturday after a trip to Washington state, Australia (two stops there), London, North Carolina, and Florida.  These quilters did some amazing work!  I am anxious to put it together but will try to restrain myself until after I get the Goose in the Pond quilt done.  I did buy a tan "Quilters Linen" fabric (I love this Kaufmann line) for the outer shelving and sides of the bookcase.   It's going to be fun to look at.

Rain and gloom

This year's October weather seems much like past years' November that I hope we don't slip right into December weather after Halloween.  

We did manage to take a short walk in the forest with Suzanne this week when she came down to get her car serviced.  The sky was gloomy but what was left of the foliage was quite pretty.  We have had a little wet snow the last couple of days, too.  Rib-sticking meals have been the order of the day - chili, mashed potatoes, beets.

I've been chipping away at UFOs this week and have just one more border to finish appliqueing on the Goose in the Pond medallion I started last winter.  Actually, the center block is about 3 or 4 years old.  I cut all the strips for two plain outer borders as well as the binding, so I am looking forward to finishing soon.  

My bookshelf row-by-row quilt returned yesterday after having been worked on by six quilters in Australia, London, Washington state, North Carolina, and Florida.  It looks fabulous!   I am still considering setting the "shelves" in two ranges with a wall above for a mini quilt.  That will probably necessitate making another "shelf" or two of books.  Row-by-row quilts tend to be 36" wide, but I'm thinking 72" or so would be more practical.  I need to figure out what the outside of the "shelves" will be made of.  Perhaps a "grunge" fabric will mimic antiqued wood?  The quilt shops are having a Halloween shopping event, so I might run down later today.  Saturday is the state quilt guild meeting, always a source of interesting ideas, and sometimes a source of interesting fabric, too.

UFO night at guild

Our local quilt guild met last night, and the topic was UnFinishedObjects.  As "homework," we were to locate all of the UFOs we had and then bring one that we would like to finish, one that we won't finish, and our oldest one.  Most of mine need hand work of some kind so are mostly small.  The oldest one is a white-on-white piece that I started hand quilting in the early 1990s.   The group at guild urged me to finish, so I will try to get back to it this winter.

The one I don't think I'll ever finish is the one I made in David Taylor's machine applique class.  I just don't need another little wallhanging, and I really didn't like using nylon thread.   Maybe I'll try making a fancy "frame" for it using some glitzy thread I bought at Ricky Tims' class.  Anita Shackleford, from whom I took a hand applique class, said that class projects rarely get finished, but that's OK.  She suggested we keep them as samples to refer back to.  I didn't finish the project from her class either, and I can't even find it.  :-)

My list of UFOs (which I keep on my phone) keeps growing even though I pride myself on finishing things.  Those with an * begin in the new year, and I hereby resolve to tackle at least a few of the long-term ones in the coming year:

• Red, white and blue medallion - working on applique for another border
• Splendid Samper - combining SS 1 and 2 with Moda Blockheads weekly
• Quilt guild block swap - make 32 12" blocks by May*
• Guild mystery quilt - finish cutting and do the October clue
• Double churn dash swap with online group - due 9/30/2019*
• Missouri Star block swap - blocks to return to me this fall
• Bookcase row by row with online group - to return to me this fall
• Hawaiian appliqued turtle (started in 2016?)
• Wool appliqued vase with flowers (started in 2017)
• Affairs of the heart block - embroidery and finish
• Selvage quilt - make a few more blocks and finish (an ongoing project)
• Recent applique class project (problem created by teaching!)
• Guild panel challenge*
• Bonnie Hunter 2018-19 mystery with online group*

There are also a couple of things I'd really like to start, but I'll leave that list for another time.  I should mention that two days ago I made 20 key fobs to give to the library staff for Christmas, and I'm feeling very smug about it.  The staff appreciation dinner will be sometime in November, and I'm already ready!  I bought the kits on etsy.com and cut scraps of fabric 2" x 10".  I ironed seam allowances and sewed them to the strips to the webbing using a jeans needle and my walking foot.  Then I hammered on the hardware.  Some of the hardware is a little crooked, but they looks great and only took a morning to make.  I enjoyed it so much, I might just order another set to work on before Christmas.

Just living

I rarely photograph my food even though I like to cook and to go out to eat.  Trying to lose weight, my restaurant food tends to be salad-based, and I haven't made an apple pie, loaf of bread, or anything else photo-worthy lately.  I did make a great turkey vegetable soup, roasted chicken, and chicken/biscuit dinner this week, though.  My jeans are a little loose - whoo hoo!  

It's been a quiet week here.  Chris and I drastically trimmed the lilac bush which had grown too tall to deadhead.  I also managed to deal with a mountain of laundry, taught an applique class to two students, ran some errands, and quilted the September Splendid Sampler 2 blocks.  Now I'm putting together the July, August, and September sections of the quilt which is a year-long project.   I do love making those 6" blocks.

Our quilt guild program Tuesday is going to be on tackling UFOs, so I've gathered a bunch of those to take along.  I noticed that almost all of them require some hand work or applique.  Maybe I should look into finishing some by machine?   I have a feeling there are more buried in the dresser in the guest room, too.

Before we left on our trip, I rearranged many of the quilts in storage by unfolding the newer ones and layering them on the guest bed.  I replaced the quilts on the rack in the living room with oldies that I ought to give away.  But to whom and how?   One in particular is only fit to be a dog bed, so maybe I'll cut it up and give the pieces to the Humane Society.  My Double Dutch sampler (appliqued, pieced, hand quilted, pre-2000) is hanging over the railing in the upstairs hall - "sick bay" - because it needs repair, a/k/a more hand work!

Teal mini swap

The best thing in our mail which was held at the P.O. during our vacation was a package from my Teal Mini Swap partner, Shelly in SC.  Each participant - and they came from the U.S. and Canada - received a small piece of fabric to incorporate into either a mug rug or mini quilt for a partner who was assigned.  Ten of the $15 we sent in went to ovarian cancer research, so it's a fun and useful swap.   It is amazing how well we are partnered, too.  I have a lot in common with both this year's and last year's partners who are so nice - but then, quilters are generally nice!

Here's the mini Shelly made me:

I love the puffin fabric she used as a border.   The fabric we both received is the teal print at the top left.  Both of us weren't enamored of it, but it ended up working fine in our minis.   It's clear we both love color.   How did she know that I have been trying to use more orange in my quilts lately?  Here's the string star mini I made Shelly:

Shelly's package also included several items she made herself:   some knitted dish cloths, a neat scrubby, and a tea caddy for my purse or travel.  This is a great way to meet quilters around the country as well as a way to contribute to a very good cause.  I hope to join in again next year.

Colorado memories

Our week in Colorado went by much too quickly, and now we are back to "life" - grocery shopping, mail, laundry, to-do lists.   But we had a fine time with Mom and Jenny - a ballet honoring the Harlem Jazz Age, a visit to a Dutch artist's studio, a Vietnamese lunch with the Indo-Dutch group, and a trip to Leadville, the highest municipality (over 10,000 feet) in the USA.  We took a tour of  the Matchless Mine shack where poor Baby Doe Tabor spent her impoverished last 36 years, and we stopped at the public library which had an extensive local history collection.  Lunch was super there - delicious grilled cheese, tomato and bacon.  In fact, we ate too well the entire week, and now it's back to watching our intake again.  :-)


We also visited the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden where there were two outstanding exhibits - one of Russian quilts and the other some amazing thread painted pieces by Jill Kertula.  There were quite a few Russian quilts using traditional American patterns like Trip Around the World.  The fabrics were muted even though they used a lot of red.  Many of the appliqued quilts showed scenes from folk tales, but any words were not translated, unfortunately.

I'm sorry I didn't get any photo of the Kertula quilts - they were outstanding - but a couple of Russian ones caught my eye.  The logs in the log cabin quilt finished at less than 1/2" and many of the centers were grass green satiny fabric.   It ends up looking like an oriental rug.

The appliqued quilt was pieced first and then appliqued with butterflies, yo yo flowers, etc.  I think the background was mostly hand pieced, too.

 There was a fun display of Matryoska dolls, including one featuring the Washington Redskins football team and another featuring heroes of the Soviet Union, with Lenin being the smallest.

The gift shop in the new museum location has grown considerably, and pretty soon they'll outgrow the space.  I didn't buy anything, but I admired the Laurel Burch scarves and t-shirts, and Mom got greeting cards and fun socks.  In fact, I didn't buy any souvenirs at all.  We were too busy to shop!

We love to go to the movies when visiting Mom because there are two multi-plexes nearby.  We saw BlackKKlansman, a Spike Lee film about a black cop infiltrating the KKK in Colorado Springs in the 1970s, and Crazy Rich Asians, a very lightweight romantic comedy with great music - familiar pop songs sung in Chinese.

Honkin' n wavin'

Our local Democratic Committee held a "honk n wave" yesterday afternoon for various candidates.  It was a perfect fall day to stand on a corner with a sign and wave at passing motorists at a major intersection in town.   I'm helping my friend Guy as campaign treasurer again this year.  He's running for the state legislature, and lost by a narrow margin in 2014.   We're going low budget and low key this time around, and we did have fun yesterday - lots of honks and waves (including a whole school bus of kids), only one raised middle finger, and some adorable dogs in cars!

Teal mini swap

Shelly, my swap partner in this year's Teal Mini Swap, a benefit for ovarian cancer research, posted a thank you photo of the mini I made her so I feel safe in posting a photo today.   Each person received a small piece of teal fabric that we were to incorporate in our mini - it's the one with the wavy white section peeking out here and there.  I wish I had had time to applique something, but I felt somehow compelled to make a string star this year.  

I cut some light paper into 3" strips and then added "strings" of various teal fabrics from my stash along with the wavy teal we received.  I cut these on a 45 degree angle as we did for a Stack n Whack Lemoyne Star.  I removed the paper (ugh!) and sewed the diamonds together.  I was happy to find a good use for the slim outside border fabric which I have been hoarding.  

I'm so glad Shelly likes it.  I also enclosed a small teal shopping bag, a pieced key fob, and a teal fat quarter.  I hope to make more of those key fobs later this fall, but perhaps not all pieced as Shelly's was.  I bought some kits with hardware on etsy.com and plan to start working on them when we get back from Colorado next week.

Our guild had its first meeting of the "year" (which runs Sept.-June) last week, and we broke out into monthly teams to plan our programs.  Our March team will be "going green," so we'll focus on reusing and recycling.  I'm responsible for planning the block of the month for March and am already thinking of a string block, perhaps made with selvages.  I'll be testing it out later this year.  

The guild will also have a block swap and a mystery quilt this year.  For the swap, we're to make 30 blocks of any style using bright traditional cottons on a white-ish background.  We can vary the blocks but I think I'm going to make 15 string blocks and 15 Dresden Plates (there are 15 people participating).   I was hoping to use stash for the mystery quilt, but I just don't have enough of anything but the neutral for what will end up as a throw.  I headed over to Joann Fabrics Sunday at got some rather traditional prints for that.  I have not liked any of the mystery quilts I've made so far, but hope springs eternal!

Free as a Bird

This week's Splendid Sampler 2 block is entitled "Free As a Bird," and I finished it (except for a bead eye and embroidered legs/feet) today.  The blocks come out on Thursdays and it always takes me a day or two to pick my fabrics.  I may add a button for the center of the little flower.

It was full of lots of fussy little pieces.  Those leaves were a bit fiddly, but my trusty round toothpick helped me roll the points under smoothly.  What will I do if I lose it?  I can't remember which restaurant it came from...

We've had some busy days and this week the busy-ness continues with a library board meeting, a Democrats meeting, leading a nature walk, yoga, picking up a quilt at Dee's shop,volunteering at the Vermont Historical Society, and serving as my friend Guy's campaign treasurer again as he runs for state House again.  But at least that will end in early November after I file the final report.  More immediately, my brother and his wife are coming Saturday and leaving sometime Sunday.  So, whenever I can, I'll be cleaning and straightening in advance of their visit.

But after today's library board meeting, my term will officially be over.  I'll do the last minutes, and then go back to being "just" a Friend.  Phew!  It is hard, being a trustee.  Then on Friday, will be my next to last volunteering morning, as the personnel is being shuffled to have Diane work at the reception desk rather than in her other office.  She will handle visitors in the place of volunteers some of whom are admittedly aging and not as sharp as in the past.  So I will be "free as a bird" myself in a few weeks with less of a schedule.  I'm trying not to fill it immediately, too, so that I'll have more time to work on UFOs and to travel.  We'll see how that goes!

"Lifestyle changes"

I have been making a conscious effort to eat less and walk more as part of my "lifestyle change" regimen.  The P.A. used this gentle way of telling me to lose weight and lower my cholesterol which has always been OK until recently.   It's especially difficult when one goes out to eat, as we did last night, but I did pretty well.  First of all, I did a little walking, first in the mall and later from the Old Labor Hall to the restaurant and back, a good half mile, for dinner with Paul and Fred.   I chose a falafel burger, with salad rather than fries on the side or pizza.  Absolutely no dessert and, thankfully, no wine (the house variety costs $10 at this particular place).    Eating at home is easier to control.  Tonight I'll make a pork tenderloin with vegetables.

Our Tuesday morning walk went up to Barclay Quarry and back, over 7,000 steps, and everyone seemed o enjoy it.  It has been very humid and last night's rains made the forest quite steamy.    Here's some  ragweed  I noticed near Barclay Quarry this morning.

As Suzy says, for an ugly flower, it sure causes trouble for some people.   Some mistake goldenrod for ragweed, but that isn't usually allergenic.   In fact, goldenrod looks really nice in bouquets with asters at this time of year.

Even though I don't like to have a schedule, I will miss the Tuesday morning walks when they're over at the end of September.   Our little group of "regulars" is nice, and I enjoy introducing newcomers to the trails.

Appliique etc.

Dee asked me to teach another beginning hand quilting class at her shop in October.  It's just days after we get back from Colorado, so I thought I'd better start getting things together.  Yesterday I made a flannel board to attach samples of different methods of applique to.  I decided another Lafayette's Orange Peel might be fun to work on this winter, but in scrappy colors.  So my samples are all melon shapes.  I'll try and take a photo soon.

I usually start by having people practice the applique stitch using melon shapes created with the "used dryer sheet" method.  I don't really like this method because I can never get a sharp point with it, but designer Lori Holt uses it, as does a member of one of my guilds.   I need to buy a little more unbleached muslin to make a few more squares for the class, which is sure to be small but fun.

After they get the hang of the stitch, I move on to the class project, involving stems, leaves, and circles, mostly using the freezer paper method.   I used this design in 2016 for a class and then finished it for Cindy to hang in her newly painted room.   I made one last year which is now a pillow, so guess I'll make another along with this year's class.

This week I made four 6" basket blocks and then cut out four borders for the red, white, and blue medallion quilt I started last winter.   It was the biggest UFO in my closet and I thought it time to get back to work on it.  The background fabric for this border is a blue and white-ish stripe, so the flowers are red on a navy blue vine, and the leaves will be various scraps of blue.   I stitched the vine down by machine, but I'm doing the flowers and leaves by hand.  Because the weather got a little cooler, I worked on two of the borders quite a bit this week.  It's really relaxing.

I also put the August low volume blocks together today and started quilting this section of my year-long Splendid Sampler/Moda Blockheads quilt.  All this activity is good because it keeps me from snacking.  My cholesterol has gotten a bit high, so I'm taking the "life-style changes" (the P.A.'s gentle term for diet and exercise) route to avoid medication.  I walked about a mile and a half in the forest today, and we'll be having salmon and salad for dinner.   I hope to get more walks in if/when the weather cools.

Antelope Canyon is finished

Yesterday was a lovely day - temperatures in the 70s with low humidity, the way summer in Vermont should be!  Paul was taking some photos so I got into the act also.

This quilt, Antelope Canyon, designed by Laurie Shifrin, has been finished for a while but it was just too hot and muggy out to take a good photo.  I still want to take a picture of the whole quilt, but that will require two people to hold it up.  Next time Chris comes over and the sun shines, we'll get a full photo.  Meanwhile, here it is, hanging over my neighbor's deck railing.

This quilt used two jelly rolls (I took a few pieces out because I didn't like the colors) and several yards each of two different blacks that I cut into 2.5" and 1.5" strips - a very tedious process!  I don't usually follow patterns, but I'm glad I did on this one because I really like the result.  The photo shows the pattern much better than holding the quilt in person.  On a bed it should really look good.  Marie quilted it with her longarm in a modern, flying triangles overall design.  

Summer picnics

This was our weekend of picnics, both at the Barre Town Rec Fields shelter.  It's lovely up there with a wide view of the mountains.  Friday night was the annual Greater Barre Democrats fundraiser, which is usually a calm but fun affair.  This year, we had several new members, and many of the "top of the ticket" candidates came, too.

That made about 50 people, including Gubernatorial candidate Hallquist, State Treasurer Pearce (who lives in Barre), and Lieutenant Governor Zuckerman.  Each spoke briefly (thank goodness), as did our local candidates for state House and Senate.   Chip grilled burgers and hotdogs, everyone else brought good food, Jeanne organized a small auction, and there was plenty of socializing and rallying.  Hope we can keep up the momentum into the fall.

Sunday at noon our neighborhood picnic was catered, much to everyone's delight - no cooking!  Jockey Hollow made delicious chicken and mostaccioli - Barre's favorite meal - along with salads and chocolate cake.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect - mid-70s, sunny, breezy.  It was a nice time to get together with folks we don't see all the time and meet some of our newer residents.

Teal mini swap

Last year, at the recommendation of a friend who used to organize the Parkinsons Quilt Project, I participated  in the Teal Mini Swap for the first time.  This is a fun program in support of ovarian cancer research.  A quilter in Massachusetts pairs each person with another quilter, sends us each a small piece of teal fabric to use in a mug rug or mini quilt, and sends some of our $15 contribution to a very worthy cause.

It's fun to get to know another quilter and also quite a challenge to incorporate a snippet of teal into a small project.  Here is last year's mini with some of the other little gifts I enclosed for Valorie in WA.  I managed to get the teal all the way around the star which was quite a feat.

Valorie used her snippet as one of the "geese" in a small hanging for me, which I now am using as a tabletopper in my guest room.  I love it!  What's funny is that I was going to make the same pattern but chose to do the star at the last minute.  Great minds think alike!

This year, I'm also making a star but a little differently, for my partner, Shelly in SC.  I spent yesterday finishing it but will wait to mail it until September because she's going on vacation.  I'll take a photo before mailing (if the sun ever comes out) and will show it after she receives it.

Aside from that, it's been rather humid lately so everyone is moving slowly.  I pieced one block yesterday for the Low Volume sampler and have another prepared for applique today.  I delivered my Ohio Star block swap quilt to Marie for long arming Thursday and hope that doesn't come back too soon although the binding is all ready to go.  This week, I hope to start on a scrappy appliqued border for the red, white, and blue medallion quilt that's been hanging in the closet for several months.

Blueberry pie

I haven't been all that productive lately, but today I did make a blueberry pie.  Half of the berries
came from our own bushes, and the other from a local farm.  The latter were nice and big; ours are small and sweet.  I think the lack of rain is the cause for the size and maybe even the sweetness.  I have a few bags of berries and one large one of peaches in the freezer.  They are so good in the depths of winter!

Our humid spell seems to have broken, and this morning it was in the 40s.  We are sure to have more hot days, but cooler mornings are a harbinger of fall, everybody's favorite season around here.

I finished sewing the binding down on the Antelope Canyon quilt and aired it out on the porch yesterday.  The backing fabric had a strong odor, but now it smells like clean laundry.  I need to take a photo;  I'm waiting for Chris to visit so Paul and he can hold it out straight.  My order of backing fabric arrived, and when my order of batting comes, I'll be able to take the Ohio Star block swap quilt to Marie for long arming.  Oh, joy - another binding in the near future!

This week I made a few more Splendid Sampler blocks for my Low Volume quilt.  One is paper pieced, and, while I hate taking those little bits of paper out, I love the way it looks so much that I have another paper pieced block ready to go.  If I like it, I'll make one for my partner in the Teal Mini Swap.  This will be my second year participating in this fund raiser for ovarian cancer research.  I met a very nice quilter from Washington state last year and am curious who this year's partner will be.  We have six weeks or so to make and send either a mug rug or a small quilted piece.

It's humid

We seem to be stuck under a cloud of humidity lately.  I haven't had the energy I normally do.  Yesterday I wondered if I ought to have my thyroid checked out.  I have a "getting to know you" appointment with my new doctor later this month (they keep retiring!) and maybe I should ask about this?  But then everyone I've talked to lately is complaining about feeling a bit sluggish.

Last night it rained quite a bit, and today it seems a little more bearable.  I actually did a few things around the house - laundry, making a dry rub for some country-style ribs, and making potato salad.

Then I sat down to work on my Low Volume at 70 Sampler.  I have made four August blocks so far, put together the 12 July blocks, and now it's time to quilt the July section.  I am using a 1" beige print sashing between the blocks and will separate the months with slightly wider strips of the same print.  The back of each section will be one of the many Indonesian fabrics I have accumulated.   A pieced back will be nice for this project which is to reflect my last 70 years, which started in Indonesia, after all.  I may mix in some tea-dyed muslin here and there.  I'm quilting this one in sections which should make it easier with my Elna.

I found a batik just the right size for the July section, so I started quilting that this morning.  I am running out of the cream Aurifil thread I use most of the time, so I got out a spool of Craftsy 50 wt. beige thread that came free with fabric I ordered.  That's on the top, and the Aurifil is in the bobbin.  I like the Craftsy thread so far.  It runs through the machine smoothly, is soft, and looks good.  I had been a bit skeptical because someone gave me a spool of Connecting Threads thread that seemed too thick and stiff.

My Antelope Canyon quilt came back from the long arm quilter over a week ago, and I have gotten one side of the binding down sewn to the back by hand.   Lately, I have sewn almost all of my bindings by machine.  I sew it to the back and then topstitch on the front, mitering as I go around.  This quilt's edges were a bit uneven - perhaps because the jelly rolls I used weren't exactly true - so I had to sew the binding to the front first.  There's a project I haven't touched since the humidity started.  Maybe tomorrow?

Turning 70

Yesterday was my birthday and, like Paul and so many friends from high school and beyond, I turned 70.  It seems like just yesterday I was turning 21.  How did the time fly so fast?  I've had plenty of ups and downs, done plenty of interesting and dumb things, and seen a lot of places.  I started yesterday opening up some cards and lovely gifts from Paul, my mom, my sister Jenny, and various family members.

One gift I look forward to every year is a package of fat quarters - quilting fabric - from the online friendship swap group I belong to.  The ladies live in Australia, Canada, England, and all over the US.  We state our preferences and gather others' fat quarters late in December, and then mail them to one willing person who sends them out all year as our birthdays arrive.  This year I must have asked for reds, purples, and black/white prints - it's been so long that I'd forgotten - and I love what came!

Interestingly enough, around mid-day, after our Tuesday morning walk in the town forest, a lovely bouquet arrived from Mom and Jenny.  It contained deep purple gladiolas and carnations, red roses and alstroemeria, and white baby's breath.   Beautiful!

The evening was capped with dinner at the Royal Orchid Thai Restaurant with Paul and son Chris. The crab Rangoon (which really contains crab meat), chicken and basil stir fry, and fried banana with coconut ice cream were just delicious.   Chris gave me a gift certificate to Joann Fabrics which, as Paul says, I visit every Sunday.  I just happen to need some muslin...

And the fun continues this morning when I meet Cindy for breakfast at the Wayside, a Central Vermont landmark and featured in the book Road Food.  I can almost smell the French toast and bacon now.

Pillows

I've been mining my "orphan block" pizza box lately and making pillows out of the larger blocks.  I don't have much use for table runners, and everyone in my family has received at least one.  These are going into my etsy shop and, if they don't sell, guess what people are getting for Christmas? 

Speaking of which, I decided to add my Christmas things back into the shop as people seem to be thinking about the holidays already.  Amazing!

The first was a class sample from a hand applique class I taught some years ago.  The three below were blocks that didn't get into a Barbara Brackman Civil War block of the month quilt. 

And the last pillow is a modern rose based on Karen Eckmeier's rose pattern.  And there are more, but I need to find pillow forms for them first.

Heritage Days

Friday and Saturday are our annual Heritage Days here in Barre.  The Friends of the Library will be holding its annual book sale on the lawn both days, and there's lots of preparation behind the scenes:  sorting books, boxing them up, lugging them around to store and then outside on Thurs., supervising the tent (tomorrow morning at 7:30 am!), setting up tables (Thurs. at 10 am), and more.  During the sale, it's the calm before the storm.  It does get busy at times with shoppers, but the clean up can be a pretty exhausting time because of all that's gone before.  Can't wait til it's all over!

Heritage Days are fun, though, since people are all downtown and one tends to bump into them, literally.  I see a lot of people at the book sale that I never see otherwise during the year, including some former B&B guests who come back for class reunions.  The street food, the live music, and old fashioned fun do make it a nice time for everyone.  I usually spend Saturday's parade at the book sale, getting ready for clean up, but we can usually see it from there anyway.  This year, the "heritage stage" will be after the parade, indoors at the airconditioned Barre Opera House.  What a treat to hear traditional folk music there in honor of a dear friend who passed away a few years ago.  If we have any energy left, we'll surely go.

In a slump

What do you do when you've temporarily lost your quilting mojo?  It may be the heat and humidity, but maybe it's that, having just finished a good-sized quilt top, I need a break.  In any event, I am not feeling all that productive lately.  Yesterday I sat in front of the fan and read a mystery most of the day.  It was good.  Then we went out to dinner with Paul's sister and her husband... at the local bowling alley where the crab cakes were good but the fries soggy.  Still, the company was fun and the AC was on.

I have been shuffling the contents of my pizza box of "orphans."  These are blocks that didn't fit into a quilt, that were made to test a pattern, or that I didn't like so much.  Some are made of Civil War fabrics; other from selvages; and even a few "modern" ones.  They just don't go together at all, and  adding a neutral sashing won't help.  What to do, if anything?  Table runners?  Tote bags?  Little wallhangings?  For gifts or to sell on etsy?

Here's what I decided.  I need to practice my machine quilting, both walking foot and free motion.  I have a new book with FMQ ideas that I'd like to play with.   I got a few blocks out and will sandwich them today.  Stay tuned!

Works in Progress

I made a few blocks last week as part of my year-long "Low Volume at 70" project.  I'm making 6" blocks for each month.  Some are Moda's "Blockheads" blocks, and some are Pat Sloan's "Splendid Sampler" vols. 1 and 2 blocks.  Some will most likely be whatever I feel like making, and I'm using shirtings and other low volume backgrounds. 

It will be scrappy and I hope to quilt each month as I finish.  The big decision now is the color for the sashing - navy?   There's also a block to denote the month I made the other blocks.  It's from a set of machine embroidered dish towels I got from Yve long ago.  She thought they'd be fun in a quilt, and, now that she has passed on, I will remember her whenever I see them.

I've finished putting together 25 of the Ohio Star swap blocks I received in my local guild.  Only seven people participated, I think, and we were each to make 3 blocks.  But somehow I ended up with 26, due to someone's generosity.  I'm not sure why some people chose to make duplicates, but I have worked them in. 

I decided that the universal color for the cornerstones should be scrappy green, and I bought some more green to make a wide, pieced border.   You can see some of the border pieces stacked up near the top left.  I'm basing it on Deb Tucker's Oak Ridge Stars border, but because her blocks are 16" and mine are 12", I've had to make some adjustments.   The center now measures about 60" x 60", and the finished quilt should be about 80" x 80".   I just can't seem to make a rectangular quilt.

The heat wave has broken!

We had a lot of wind and some heavy downpours yesterday, and today is a gorgeous one, with low humidity and in the 70s.  What a relief after six days of heat and humidity.  We took some friends along for a walk up the Grand Lookout Trail by the town forest.  We wanted to check out a new sculpture in an abandoned quarry building.   The granite columns are older, but the bust of Vulcan was recently made to go along with the annual "Rockfire" event held last weekend.  It fits the site perfectly.

From the top of the Grand Lookout, one can see all of downtown and the mountains to the west and northeast.   We could also look down to where they are loading huge chunks of grout (waste granite) onto railroad cars.  During the week we've been hearing 5 or 6 trains a day coming down from the quarries and going through downtown.  Paul suggested that with climate change, municipalities are building higher, stronger breakwaters with the stone.

We're melting!

This is day 4 of a heat wave, and we have all had it.  Generally, the weather people say we're having a heat wave when we have 3 days of over 90 degree temperatures.  This one is set to leave us some time Friday.  What a time for our refrigerator to misbehave!  The repair guy is scheduled for this afternoon, but the fridge has been acting strangely for about two weeks:  the freezer is working tell well, no matter what the setting, and the refrigerator is not working all that well.  We have been buying blocks of ice to keep things cool in the fridge.  But since it's been hot, we've been eating dinner out more, just to get cool for a while.  Today I hope we can actually eat at home, albeit using the grill.  Fingers crossed.

Last week, my mother and sister Jenny were here, and we had a very nice visit.  Mom turned 96 while here, so I invited friends and neighbors for an afternoon tea with cake.   Later, we had a family

dinner out at a nice restaurant.  On other days, we went shopping, out for soft ice cream (Vermonters call them "creemies" and maple is a favorite flavor), walked around the neighborhood, or just sat and talked.  I've been doing our genealogy, so I had questions about various ancestors that only Mom can answer.  We are always reminded, when with her, that she has an enormous cache of information and interesting stories to tell.  Jenny is looking into having a video interview made soon.

We are so glad they came and so glad they left before the heat wave hit.  While they were here, we had perfect weather with temperatures in the 60s and 70s and beautiful blue skies, with just a little rain.   Living in Colorado for so long, neither of them was used to the humidity, but it didn't really get serious until now.  I have air conditioning in my sewing room, so I've been making a few 6" blocks for a new quilt made up of "Blockheads 2" and "The Splendid Sampler 2" blocks.  I'm cutting up the "kitchen towel of the month" set that I got years ago from Yve into 6" blocks as well.  It will be a nice memento of her and of my 71st year.  All the backgrounds of this scrappy quilt will be low volume prints and shirtings, so I'm tentatively calling it "Low Volume at 70."