Making progress, albeit slowly

 Quilting the floral Dresden plate quilt is coming along nicely so far.  Yesterday, I ran parallel lines around the center plate, and today I'll work on the half plates.  Sorry the quilting isn't visible in this photo.  

After taking the class on walking foot quilting with Beth Ann Williams, I feel a whole lot more confident and comfortable with what I'm doing.  I ran out of basting pins mid-way through on Sunday, but managed to buy up all the rest that Joann Fabrics had.  Where do the pins go?  I should have gotten some more flower-headed pins while I was at it, too, since my supply is dwindling.  

Anyway, as I work my way out from the center, the quilting should get easier.  I will continue going diagonally down the center of each piece of the plates and echoing the center half circles today.  I'll switch to black thread on top for the half circles.  Echo quilting those butterflies will be my next challenge.  Once I move on to the succeeding rounds, quilting should be easier.

Definitely November

Yesterday was as gloomy as a November day can get - chilly, too.  Robin, Marie and I headed to tiny West Topsham, VT, to play Quilt Bingo at Mary's house.  She is closing her online shop and wanted to get rid of all of the fabric she didn't want to keep for her own projects.  I'm curious to know where she keeps her longarm (if she still owns one) as her house didn't seem that big.  

At any rate, the attic where we played was quite cold, and after two hours, we were glad to go home, heavily laden with fabric and other goodies.  I bought a good part of a bolt which will make a couple of backs for $12, and Mary gave everyone three matching yards plus some more in winnings.  I wish I could say I didn't plan to buy any more fabric, but that's impossible!

Here's part of four tubs of fabric a friend from my genealogy group gave me last Sunday.  She has been cleaning her mother's house because her mother now lives in a nursing home.  At one time, the lady made lots of doll and other clothes, so quite a bit of the fabric in these tubs is unusable to me.  

I will take a little at a time to various quilt meetings this winter, and also to the ReStore.  There are silky and large pieces of lacey fabric as well as knits and corduroys.  If I sewed clothes, I would definitely be happier.  The tubs take up a lot of room in our dining room, but I'll chip away at them.  The fourth tub is in the garage because it's even bigger than these.

Sitting next to the tubs are some of the things I'll be taking to the state quilt guild meeting this coming Saturday.  There are two coffee makers and part of a coffee pot for a silent auction, as well as supplies and a quilt rack.   I will put some of the tub fabric into tote bags for giveaway also.  I doubt if I'll take anything for show and tell - all this stuff is enough.

Earlier this week, Paul and I went downtown to visit Marsha at her antique shop's new location.  From there we bought Paul some new boots and then looked at a new monument at Hope Cemetery.  At first, we thought it was a mausoleum, but there is no way that we could find to open it for more bodies.  

It's quite cute, as you can see from this photo of Paul on the porch.  The clapboards and windows are on all four sides.  But there are no birth/death dates of any of the family members.  Future generations will not be happy with that omission.

As you can see, it was a lovely day that day, but it seems that as soon as November came, so did the clouds.  I started quilting a bed-sized scrappy quilt on Friday, and it's just the right activity for these gloomy days.