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.