Busier than busy

I am taking a slight break from working on the Friends of the Library's Light Up the Library logistics - pick ups, deliveries, press releases, and more.  After Dec. 5 I hope I will have some time to breathe.  I have some hand stitching to do on the Green Mountain Sunrise wallhanging binding and hanging sleeve.  I put one at the top and another at the bottom so that it can be weighted down with a dowel or piece of wood.  It will hang over a door and might catch a breeze.  I think I'll get it done in a week or so.

Yesterday I made a block of the month for the guild lottery and then one for myself to go with the others I've made the past couple of months.  It was designed by one of the guild members who traveled to China and saw interesting windows.

Because the lottery will be in Dec., we were to use green and red with a white background.  This year all the backgrounds will be white for unity, and each month's team decides what colors to use.  For the same block that I will keep, I am doing a rainbow of colors, starting with red and orange.  This month, therefore, my block will be in yellows.  I have a lot of medium yellow in my stash, but no real brights or pale yellows.   I settled for butterscotch and regular yellow.

I have been hand appliqueing a wallhanging for the last few months and finished it a week or so ago.  It now measures about 36" square.  Yesterday, I sandwiched it and started machine quilting.  I thought it might be a good stress reliever during this very busy season.  Because of its small size, I can sit down for a little while whenever I feel like it.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving, by the way.  Chris came for dinner, and we had a very nice time.  His car is still in the shop, so I drove him home.  Hope it gets fixed (at not too great a cost) very soon.  I talked with my Mom who was expecting my NJ brother and his family for the weekend, and I also talked to my WI brother who was going over to dine with friends.  I'm so glad we don't travel anywhere for these holidays.  As they say, "you can't get there from here" easily in the wilds of Vermont.

Already sick of holidays!

I'm just going to say it out loud:  I am rapidly getting tired of the hype surrounding Thanksgiving, and soon I will feel the same way about Christmas.   Who cares if we have the "perfect" holiday?  My in-box is full of recipes, ideas for decorating, even suggestions on dining table conversations.  Ugh!

Some folks have a lot of relatives nearby, but I imagine there are plenty of people like me who don't.   Most of my adult life has been spent "celebrating" major holidays with one or two other people, often a small boy who didn't care for most foods except fish sticks and hot dogs.  

When my brother Rob was single, he would drive up from New York City to spend holidays with us if his job didn't keep him home.   Other times, I shared a meal with a friend or two.  When Paul's mother was alive, we would have a houseful of family, and Paul's niece Amy always made the turkey and trimmings.  And my friend Cindy who used to be my nextdoor neighbor often joined us.  She now lives in California, and I still miss her and the pies she used to bring.  (They came from a local restaurant - delicious.)

The displays in the stores make me feel even Scroogier.  Lots of displays of stuffing and gravy, huge turkeys to be defrosted, and cranberries everywhere.   I don't generally make much food for three - Paul, son Chris and me.  But I do try to make something special for Thanksgiving.  This year's menu will include a pork loin roast wrapped in bacon.  Then potatoes, mashed or au gratin, and vegetables, peas most likely, although I'd love some red cabbage (not Chris' favorite although his palate has improved beyond fish sticks).  Maybe squash since I have three waiting in the garage.  For dessert?  Not sure yet.  But I am sure some email or other will spark an idea.  It needs to be lactose free for Chris, and there's a creamsicle pie I've been wanting to try, made with cool whip and orange jello.   Maybe I'll just run down to Cindy's old haunt and get an apple pie...

Phew!  I feel better now that I've got that off my chest.  Hope you are keeping your spirits up this holiday season.  You'll probably be hearing more groaning from me as Christmas rolls around.

Quilting and planning

The folks at the nursing home loved the picture of the top!  After I heard from them, I got busy and pieced a back for what I'm now calling Green Mountain Sunrise earlier in the week.  When the batting arrived Tuesday, I sandwiched it and started quilting.  Using my trusty Elna, I'm simply doing lines 1/2" from every seam (in theory - there are wobbles), and it's halfway done.

I'm using Guterman cotton variegated thread on the top and gray on the back which is a pieced floral and navy blue.  So far so good.  I'll take it to show and tell tomorrow at our monthly guild sew-in.  

When I look at the quilt at a distance, I see how apt the name is.  I like those pops of light here and there.

Besides this work in progress to show, tomorrow I'll try to finish appliqueing the pink and blue melons onto the string-pieced neutral background.  After I finish the applique, I will think about next steps - do I enlarge it with a string-pieced border or leave it as it is?  I'll show a picture when I get to that stage.

The other thing I hope to take to work on at guild tomorrow is a tote bag full of selvages.  I thought it would be smart of sort them by color, so I've also got a bag full of baggies to put them in.  During 2023, I hope to work with them and my strings (which also need sorting by color).

Finished top

Woohoo!  I finished this top yesterday.  It measures 48" x 57" and is designed to fit above a door at a nursing home.  The door leads to a courtyard garden and the board member was looking for something that would be reminiscent of Vermont's Green Mountains.  I hope this will fill the bill.  If not, I have offered an alternative quilt that's only 36" x 36" with similar colors and a bit of purple.  

I plan to quilt this myself, but not right away unless they want it ASAP.  I noticed they already have a curtain rod hanging for something.  When I do, I'll quilt it simply with straight lines vertically and then add a flanged binding in blue and green.  I love working with those two colors, and the pattern is Bonnie Hunter's free Scrappy Mountains Majesty.  My blue box is overflowing, so I'm thinking about a pieced back for this quilt.

While I wait for a reply, I will be putting together all the various blocks for Austen Jubilee, my take on this year's Quiltmaker mystery.  I am mixing up some of the blocks and adding a few "coping" strips to make it all fit.  I hope I have enough fabric to finish.  It's put together in sections which makes it somewhat easier to see what I'll be needing in the way of additional fabrics.