The brown sweater

I can't remember when I started knitting this wool sweater - maybe February?  I had just finished a long, lacy scarf, and thought I'd tackle a bigger project:  a cardigan sweater.  When Chris was small, I knit us each sweaters to wear in the fall before we wore jackets.  I gave his cute little red sweater to friends and found the one I knit myself too hot.  The pattern for this year's sweater promised no sewing, and is knit in the round from the bottom up.  The soft wool and round needle came quickly from Hobbii in Denmark; I like its pinkish tint.

Everything was fine until I split for the armholes.  Many years ago my mother taught me to knit European style with one needle under my arm.  Round needles are hard for me to control, but I managed.  Still, when I got to the armholes, I did the front and back on straight needles.  The Kitchener stitch had me flummoxed so I sewed the shoulders and am now almost finished knitting the sleeves individually on straight needles.  They will have to be sewn in, but I can knit much faster with straight needles.

Before I sew the sleeves in, I'll knit the pockets on round needles.  And then comes the scary part:  zigzag stitching the center front, cutting it, and knitting the ribbing on both sides of the front and around the neck.  The end is in sight, though, and this has been a pretty relaxing project during The Pandemic.

More donuts

 I wish I could show you the dozen blueberry donuts I made this morning, but there are only four left and they are safely ensconced in a plastic bag for later.  I took two each to two sets of neighbors, Paul and I each ate one, and he took two to the librarians at the Vermont History Center.  He was doing some research there this morning.  I guess we'll need to take a few walks around when he gets back because of the influx of calories.  Having lost 30 lbs. since the beginning of the year, I am very careful these days.  And I have more to lose - don't most of us?  

The King Arthur recipe is so easy, and it's fun to use the donuts pans I received for Christmas.  Our blueberry bushes were super productive this year, so I will be able to make quite a few more during the year.  And did you know that there is a special non-melting confectioner's sugar?  I discovered it while roaming around King Arthur's website.  I also bought some boiled cider because I love apple cider donuts.   There's a cider mill about 45 minutes from here, but it's a long way to go for one donut.  So cider donuts will be my next flavor.  Maybe in a week or so.

One of my dieting strategies has been to stay upstairs and sew, rather than to be downstairs and snack.   Yesterday, I finished a little lattice quilt top made of some charm squares my Mom sent me last year and some that I got in a swap.

I made a similar quilt out of blues and greens a few years ago.  It's an easy pattern that I found in a magazine advertising piece.  Just 5" squares cut diagonally with a 1.5" strip sewn in.  Square up to 5" (using the Dear Jane ruler in my case).  Now the top is hanging in the closet, waiting to be quilted.  I'll have to think a bit about how I'm going to quilt it.  

Today I'm going to start working on another border for the Virtual Round Robin.  I have been circling it while it's laying on the bed and think I have an idea.  This month's round is supposed to be appliqued, but I may be going rogue this time.  We'll see!

Moving slowly ahead

Today's newspaper had an editorial that used some apt language to describe how many people are feeling these days - exhausted and exasperated.   "COVID fatigue" seems to pervade our lives, despite welcome little breaks in  routines.  I am tired of being restricted, careful, and living life on tenterhooks, waiting for the next bad thing to happen.  I'm tired of the incessant negative verbiage of our president who enjoys whipping up hate and anger among everyone he is supposed to be leading.  Divide and conquer?  What we need instead is reassurance, healing, comfort, caring.

As a result, every Thursday afternoon, passing motorists can see us in the middle of downtown making our opinions known with a growing group of citizens and some politicians.  It's been an interesting exercise, not only because some nasty language has been hurled at us ("pedophile" - really?), but also because support has been quietly growing.   I hope the honks and waves will continue to increase in the run up to early voting which begins Sept. 19. 

Otherwise, it's been a relatively normal week here with a little of everything - sewing, reading, knitting, cooking.  I made a bunch of nine patch blocks last week and sorted out the ones with fall colors to make a quick fall table runner.  It will join two other fall table runners at the flower/gift shop soon.  There is a nip of fall in the air most mornings.  Today's high will be a mere 63 degrees.  I wore long pants several days last week for the first time in months.

I worked with some red charm squares over the weekend to make a smallish (36" x 45") quilt top in a lattice pattern that I'll add 6" borders to today.  This little quilt will sit in the closet waiting to be quilted for a while.  The Virtual Round Robin is calling.  September's round will be applique, and I know that will take time.  I haven't settled on a design yet but have been reviewing photos online and on my phone for ideas.  In addition,  the end of the knitted cardigan is in sight as I'm mid-way down the second sleeve.  I will need to block both sleeves before sewing them into the sweater.  Maybe I'll finish in time to wear it  before it snows?

Yesterday, all regular activities were suspended when Paul's sisters and their husbands came for a visit.  We borrowed another table and two extra chairs from neighbors, and each couple brought their own lunch.  I brought out snacks and a cooler of drinks.  We chased the shade around the house, and it was good to be together.  The Connecticut contingent said they'd try to come again before the weather turns cold, or we can meet mid-way for an outdoor lunch somewhere.  

Hope you are finding ways to beat the "fatigue"! 

Donuts and quilts

Yesterday morning I made four scrappy trips blocks just to see how they look together, and I really like them.  As I told the group, one block isn't all that pretty, but four together, rearranged, looks great, and I think it will make a very nice quilt.

I used some left over jelly rolls and batting scraps for most of the blocks which go together quickly, especially when you're careful about pressing as Bonnie Hunter instructs.  I think I'm going to enjoy making the blocks for the swap and also a few more for myself.  The blocks measure 12" finished, so one could get a nice-sized scrappy quilt with not too many blocks.  So far 9 people have signed up for the swap.  If all make 2 blocks per person, we'll each have 18 different blocks plus any we make for ourselves.  What I like is that the resulting quilt looks so much more complicated than it really is.   And it looks like something a grandmother would have made, very cozy.

Today I tried my hand at baked donuts.  It was the first batch in the pans I received from Paul for Christmas, and they are easy to make and delicious!   As you can see, there are only four left out of my six donut half-batch.  We had to test them right away and found they would be great with a cup of coffee.  I would love to make apple cider donuts like they have at a cider mill south of Stowe, so I just ordered some cider concentrate for that.  But my next batch will probably be blueberry since we have quite a few from our bushes right now.  I'll make a dozen and give some away to our neighbors.

A new start

 It seems that whenever I finish a quilt, I almost immediately start a new one.  Yesterday my neighbor (he's definitely not a quilter!) was surprised to know I usually have about 10 quilts going at once.  And they are all on the "slow go," but they do get finished eventually.   I think I counted 16 finished so far this year, quite a record for me.

This year one of my local quilt guilds isn't meeting until at least January, if not later.  I volunteered to coordinate a block of the month raffle as well as a block swap for the year.  For the raffle, I will come up with a 6-9" block pattern and draw a name each month for people to mail their finished blocks to.   I thought I'd start with a nine patch for the first block and make the blocks a little more difficult each month.  People can also make a block to keep for a sampler.

For the block swap, I ran a poll first and a slight majority wanted to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World block.  It's 12" finished and is a nice stash buster because it's made with just six 16" x 2.5" strips.  I have a lot of leftover binding pieces that I cut up yesterday to get started.  I wanted to make a sample for people to see, and I noted that a single block isn't all that pretty.   I am learning that, with scrappy quilts, you need lots of variety and color to make them work.  

I hope people in the group (10-12 of us are making two blocks for each person) will persist through this swap.  They have all year to make their blocks and then we'll swap either in person or some other way in May.  This past June we all met in the classroom at our local quilt shop, all wearing masks, and swapped our blocks out.   It was good to see everyone, even though it was a very quick session.  We'll just have to wait and see, as with so many activities these days.

Rainbow Scrappy quilt finish

 

After a few weeks of machine quilting, I put the binding on my RSC20 quilt yesterday.   It finishes at 65" x 75", twin bed-sized.  I'll take a picture of it with the striped binding on the next time Chris comes by because it needs two sets of hands to hold it up.  I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I think it will be a colorful addition to any room.

I stitched the stars in the ditch diagonally and made spiraled squares in the squares in between the star blocks.  This makes the stars stand out a bit more.  I like quilts that are a little more puffy after quilting, and less quilting makes that happen.  I do need to wash it with color catchers and get all of the wash-away pen out, but I will take it to a laundromat and use a big washer for that.  My front loader just doesn't use enough water to keep the dyes from running back into the quilt.

Now I can move onto another project - what will it be?  I have some eye glass holders to finish and  a few more table runners to make for fall sales at the florist's downtown.  There are several  packs of charm squares just asking to be used for those.  But first I'll spend my usual morning in the booksale room at the library, sorting donations for a sale whenever it becomes safe.  After that, yoga, lunch, and a nap!

Wine tasting and other fun

Good Monday afternoon!  I spent the morning finishing quilting a twin-sized quilt that I started quilting about 10 days ago.  I got the borders on and now I need to add the binding.  But I'll do that tomorrow.   I just finished reading a good mystery that I started a few days ago, too, and I ordered the next book in the series featuring Lord and Lady Hetheridge, although in Ice Blue they aren't married yet.  In fact, they have just met and worked together on a homicide.  The author, Emma James, has a great way of moving the story along, talking about class differences (between Tony and Kate), and adding some reality to the story.

We had a fun weekend, beginning with croquet in the backyard with neighbors.   After the game, which Paul won for the umpteenth time, we set up our chairs in the shade and enjoyed wine and conversation, socially distanced.   Saturday was uneventful, but we did watch a good movie in the evening, Where'd You Go, Bernadette?  I loved the book, and Paul didn't look too excited when I told him that.  But he enjoyed it, too.  The movie was in some ways better than the book, and I thought the art in the closing credits was wonderful.  This was a sharp and welcome contrast to the movie Spenser which we had seen a few days earlier.  In that, the main character was in a fist fight every 15 minutes or so.  Paul's cup of tea!

Sunday we went with four friends to a wine tasting about three miles from home.   We had "won" the wine tasting and six bottles of wine at the library's winter banquet/auction.  It was the last social event any of us attended before the "Stay Home" order.  Paul and Fred had been bidding against each other all night for this, so we invited Fred and a guest to come along with us and two neighbors.  Chris Neddo, a dairy farmer-turned vintner, was very nice and offered an interesting variety of wines to taste.  See that award he received last year for his dry white "Crescent" wine?  That's one I took home.  He won my support by saying he was happy to support the library by offering the wine package, and he invited us back later in the fall to try his berry wines.  

Tonight we're having a movie night out in the back yard with our neighbors - Duck Soup with the Marx Brothers.  Our neighbor, Manny, has a projector and screen, and I have a computer and external speaker.  We have popcorn in individual bags and everyone is to bring a chair and drink.  So I hope it will be a success.  Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the plumber to come and unstop the kitchen sink.  Taking the good with the bad!

"Sisters" Quilt Along

Do I need another project?  Well, I guess I do since I've been making blocks for the Sisters Quilt Along created by Aby Dolinger whose blog I enjoy reading.  This block of the month features a 12" block and a 6" block in the same design, and since my blue box is overflowing, I decided to make my blocks in scrappy blues on cream.  This QAL began in January, so I was way behind at the beginning of the week.  Here are some of the blocks I made for previous months.

Today I worked on the August blocks.  They were complex, but do-able, and Aby offered an easier alternative for the smaller block.  So I made both smaller blocks.  :-)

This week I plan to make the blocks for January and February, and then I can sit tight until September.  I actually like this way of working on a block of the month, jumping in and doing most of the blocks at once.  It's a great way to use up scraps, and I like making differently sized blocks for a quilt.

A super day

My birthday always sneaks up on me, although I do look forward to it every year.  Yesterday, I slept late (til 6 am!), dilly dallied around, opened a bunch of cards and packages.  I love the fat quarters I received from my online quilting group - purple batiks!

These should go well with the swap blocks I'll be receiving by the end of September.  Everyone participating in the swap is making 6" blocks of their choice in the color(s) of the receiver's choice.  So I asked for purples on the cream background everyone will be using.  I thought I might use plain squares in between the pieced blocks in order to make the resulting quilt a little bigger.  We'll see.

I received some wonderful gifts also.  Mom and Jenny sent things they picked up at the Rocky Mountain Quit Museum gift shop, including two charm packs that I'll have fun using.  Mom sent an intriguing scarf that I had to ask her how to tie.  It turns out that it's a flowy vest to dress up a plain outfit... for whenever I need something dressy... after COVID?

Paul, who always knows what I like, gave me a gift certificate to A Quilters Garden, knowing I would use it immediately.  After our usual morning walk, I hit the road for my annual birthday spree.  Paula carefully tackled my stack of purchases - maybe 25 yards' worth of backgrounds, sashings, and fun fabrics, along with a quilt batt - and applied the birthday discount to those not already on sale at 1/3 off.  It pays to get older there where my discount this year was 36% (half my age)!

Once home, I sorted out the reds that I like to prewash and put away most of the rest before working on a few quilt blocks for the "Sisters Quilt Along."  It's a block of the month program that features a 12" and a similar 6" block each month.  I have only been working on my blocks for a couple of weeks, so I'm playing catch up, which is fine with me.  I really like quilts with different sized blocks, and these are a bit challenging.  Great for getting my mind off the rather upsetting time we are living in.

Paul got Chinese take out for dinner, Chris joined us, and it was a great end to a perfect birthday for this quilter.