Peach Melba jam

I love peaches, and I try to freeze some and use them in various other ways while in season.  This morning, I made raspberry-peach jam.  The little jars are to use as gifts while the pint ones are for Paul to put on his toast in the mornings.  I don't eat it as often, but I do love it on fresh, homemade bread.

I have a stash of small jars of strawberry-rhubarb jam also, and plan to make some potholders to go with the jams.  There are 13 or 14 people on the staff so one case of small jars isn't enough.  Every year the Friends of the Library and board of trustees hold a holiday party for the library staff, and I like to give each staff member a little something.  The rest of the jams will go to friends and neighbors, and it makes me feel good, getting a jump on the holidays.

I have been plugging away at a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser) and am anxious to finish.  Growing up, the Little House books were my favorite, and I have a complete set that I treasure.  This biography won the Pulitzer Prize a few years ago and is very extensive.  It also covers the life of Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who is supposed to have encouraged her mother's writing.  Or was she the ghostwriter?  I still don't know yet, but I am finding not much to like about Rose so far.  I'm anxious to finish because the new Louise Penny book is waiting in the queue.

Flying geese

In June, I took a class in curved flying geese at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  I don't like to follow patterns or buy specialty rulers, but I was intrigued by the wonky curves.  Today I finished putting the little (43" x 43") top in fall colors together.  It has a modern feel about it, so I don't think I'll add any borders, but will bind it in the grayish brown.  The big question is... how to quilt it?

I like using the mini curve ruler.  This particular pattern involved a lot of chopping off to achieve the shapes, but I can use the ruler to make a traditional Drunkard's Path.  Will give that a try soon.

Rocky Mtn. Quilt Museum

Over our vacation in Golden, Colorado, we made our usual pilgrimage to the RMQM, which has moved several times since it was founded.  It's now in a better space for exhibits, but I miss its downtown location.  The gift shop is very nice, and there is room for two exhibits at once.  I loved the display of miniature quilts.  What workmanship, all by the same woman!

I would love to make each of these - 12" square or thereabouts.

The quilts in the main room were all on the theme of "Evolution," although in some cases I really didn't understand how the quilts fit with that theme.  Still, here are my favorites.

This last one reads "Don't let people you despise live rent-free in your head."  Words to live by!

August 24 already!

We have had a really nice summer, despite our gripes about warm and humid weather.   What a surprise to find that school starts on Monday.

We've been pretty busy and just got back from a week in Colorado, visiting Mom and Jenny.  My brothers Rob (NJ) and Axel (WI) were also there as we celebrated summer birthdays, including Axel's 65th.  We went to a very interesting exhibit about Leonardo da Vinci at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Leonardo kept many notebooks of drawings and ideas for gadgets large and small.  Some engineers made scale models of some of them - a bicycle, a couple of airplanes, an odometer, bridges, tanks, etc.  Fascinating exhibits, along with a room devoted to the Mona Lisa and an area that reviewed The Last Supper.

We ate well, including birthday desserts, rode the train downtown for lunch, went to the movies (Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood - bloody so not my favorite), and went to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.  More on that tomorrow when I get the photos uploaded.

Table runners

A few years ago, I made a very cute table runner with 4" free-form trees.  A friend bought it at a craft show, and I was thinking of borrowing it back so I could see how I made it.  But I found the pattern and decided to make the trees 8" this time.  They are really quite easy, so I made two to sell.  One will go down to the local florist's shop and the other on my etsy shop.  I particularly like this table runner which I quilted in an all-over wave and backed in polka dots.  I will probably make another Christmas table runner (stars?) to take down to the florist's, but it will have to wait until we return from Colorado.

Meanwhile, I'm back working on the piece I started in the class I took in June.  I don't really like to buy specialty rulers, but the Quick Curve Ruler seemed a bit more useful than some.  I can cut curvy leaves and Drunkard's Path pieces with it.   The class was a half day one, so we only made and put together four of the flying geese, which will be horizontal.  I have a huge stack of pieces to sew, but I find they go fairly easily with my 1/4" piecing foot.  They get cut a few times, once to square up and once to look wonky.  Below is a photo from the book.  I'm using fall colors with brown rectangles for mine.

In between sewing, I'm doing laundry and babysitting my sourdough culture which I refreshed twice yesterday and have added to this morning.  If all goes well, I'll bake a loaf of bread later today.  

Logo block

I finished up the state quilt guild logo block this morning.  I like the way it looks even though the "mountains" are a little smaller than the original.  It measures 12.5" now, and the original is about 16."

I had a heck of a time designing them and finally ended up making the top half of a basket block.  The fabric was three pieces of hand-dyed Ricky Tims fabric, with the lighter one a mix of pastels.  I did a little selective cutting there.  Now, what should I do next?  I haven't a clue, so will keep looking at it on my design wall until inspiration hits.

Bring on the cookies!

I have looked at a lot of cookie jars over the years but didn't find one that suited me until I checked Ebay recently.  This arrived just the other day and has found a nice spot on our counter.

It isn't airtight, but will work fine with plastic bags holding the cookies.  In fact, I have a container of Dutch cookies from the Dutch Deli in there right now.  

I've been busy with this and that in the sewing room but just haven't had a chance to take any pictures lately.  Yesterday and today, I worked on a block that is the logo for the state quilt guild.  I am hoping to encourage a challenge centered around it for the guild in 2020 and thought I ought to give duplicating it a try.  It was designed in 1984.  I found a paper pieced center on Quilters Cache - it's called Vermont 2, but the Delectable Mountains border had me really stumped.

Here's the banner that we hang on the podium at meetings.  It has four colors - green, brown, beige, and cream.  I don't like brown, so I substituted purple for brown in the center and the "mountains."  The fabric around the mountains is aqua.  Will take a picture tomorrow when I get all the pieces together.  

Blueberry time

I made my annual blueberry pie yesterday, and Paul declared it the best ever.  In searching for the photo, I noticed I have one saved from last year, too.  So maybe he's right?  

Sunday was a lovely day for berry picking.  We drove to Karen's house where Chris had recently weed whacked the back yard so that people can get to the berry patch.  These are mature bushes full of berries.  With more sun now, they will probably ripen faster.  There were a lot of giant hogweed (a/k/a giant cow parsley) plants to contend with, so we were careful while picking.   

Karen broke her leg while visiting the Netherlands a few weeks ago, so she is pretty much homebound.  We were glad to pick some for her and for us, leaving the rest for more of her friends and neighbors.  I had brought a lunch of quiche, zucchini bread, and watermelon, and we had a great time catching up.   

Honeycomb top almost finished

It's been really hot and humid lately so I've either been reading in front of the fan or sewing with the AC on.  The honeycomb quilt top is almost finished.  It just needs a thin border around the piano keys border, and then I'll set it aside for a while.  I have the binding all ready to go whenever I get around to quilting it.  The size is about 55" x 60", so a nice throw.  I like the way it turned out.

Now there are two smaller quilts waiting to be quilted, a large quilt to be bound, and two table runners to be bound.  But I want to get busy and make a tote bag for Diane who will be retiring from her job at the historical society at the end of the month.  She has been a good "boss" to us volunteers.

Meanwhile, my birthday came and went, and it was a nice day.  I opened all the fat quarters from my international swap group, and put them aside with some other blues and beiges for a future quilt.  I'm thinking of Jen Kingwell's "Long Time Gone," but we'll wait and see!

My sister Jenny gave me an adorable soft sculpture.  I hope you can see the three batik stuffed birds sitting on a real branch.

The table cloth sort of hides it.  But I love it and plan to take it to my September guild meeting for show and tell.  I will move it around the house until I settle on a spot.