Thankful-ness

 Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this holiday!  I am thankful for my family, especially Paul and Chris, and that my 103 year old Mom is still doing well and my sister Jenny takes such good care of her.  I'm also thankful to live in the beautiful, caring state of Vermont where people share and look out for each other.  It is a refuge from the meanspirited world we currently live in.  

Last year, my brother said Barre is a lot like Mayberry, that little southern town of the Andy Griffith show.  I wasn't offended as it is homey and sweet here a lot of the time - that's why I live here.  I've spent my days this week at the library helping to put up a huge holiday display on all three floors.  

In between greeting and helping donors, I've sat reading near the entrance.   I watched library users come by, including a large number of unhoused people, mostly young men.  They are respectful and quiet.  I can see the library is their refuge not only from the cold but also from their harsh reality.  I hope they have some place to go today and tomorrow when the library is closed.  I am thankful not to have their lives and that I can make the holidays a little brighter for so many people of different circumstances.   (The photo shows some of the Friends of the Library in 1984)

Small projects

The Friends of the Library's annual Light Up the Library display/raffle gets underway today with donors delivering items all week.  I enjoy meeting the donors and helping them set up, but of course it means hanging around the library all day.  I look forward to Thursday and Friday this week when the library is closed so I can get a few things done at home.

Last week I finished off the last of 21 mug rugs and started making some ornaments to give as gifts.

The ornaments are very similar to the coasters I made a few years ago - folded pieces crisscross in the middle.  This time, I used squares folded into triangles and then turned the edges Cathedral Windows-style.  The pattern came from Beth Ann Williams and can be enlarged to serve as mug rugs or potholders.  I have quite a bit of blue wintry fabric so decided to use that for these which will go to various friends and relatives.  I have four more waiting for quilting.

The last mug rug is for Paul's sister Pat.  A few years ago, she gave me a huge bag of her late husband's ties.  I made her an apron out of some of the best, and, while I was cutting them up, I removed all the tags.  I set some aside and then came across the tags the other day.  I know she'll enjoy that I've appliqued them to a Christmas mug rug.  Sewing them down, I was reminded of Jay and how dapper and fun he always was.

Yesterday I wrapped presents and put together some packages of Christmas gifts.  I'll mail the one to the Netherlands when I get a chance this week.  I noticed the USPS wants more specificity about contents on its customs forms but still gives a tiny amount of room for writing.    Once that's on the way, I'll get the others in the mail, too.  I realized that I have slowly but surely finished Christmas shopping.  Thank goodness!  Now I'll be able to spend most of my time between holidays sewing.

Table runner ready for sale

Last night we could hear sleet on the windows but the roads sound passable this morning, thank goodness.  We always wake up iin winter wondering what the driving will be like, but now that we are retired, we don't have to be anywhere most days, thank goodness.  When I lived in Syracuse, many years ago, I woke up with a stomachache thinking about my morning commute through traffic, but, somehow, after I moved to Vermont, that gradually diminished.  We don't get as much snow here and, if we have a big snow, it's usually much drier and fluffier.   The state keeps the roads in pretty good shape to attract tourists to ski areas.

This morning I have a few housekeeping things to take care of, but later I'll head down to the florist to switch out my Halloween table runners for Christmas ones.  I finished the French braid runner (sorry, forgot to take a photo) so I have two to deliver.  They packed away the patchwork Christmas stockings from last year so I'll check to see if they will put them out again.

Yesterday was raw and gloomy, so I put together the raffle blocks I won at the state guild meeting on Saturday.  I received 14 blocks and two "spares" in baggies.  The spares were from Liz who didn't have time to make the rail fence blocks but put the pieces in baggies.  I put those blocks together quite quickly, and the top went together fast, too, although two were too small (12" rather than 12.5") so I had to trim and fudge a bit.  

Snowflakes is now in the closet waiting its turn for quilting and, maybe, a border.  I don't think I'll give it to Bags of Love as it's a bit more glitzy than my usual donations.  It would make a nice winter tablecloth at 48" x 48".  Colors don't look good in this photo as it was too gloomy.  The lights are white, and most of the fabrics feature snowflakes.

Then I got out a little red and cream scrappy sampler quilt to sandwich and quilt with my walking foot.  I will continue that today and hope to finish the quilting.

Working on holiday items

It is so satisfying to work on smaller projects!  I tend to "work large," as my friend Susie says.  Bed- or throw-sized quilts seem to dominate my productivity.  After I finished the recent sampler, I resolved to work on a few things that got finished sooner.   Hence, I made Blue Ocean and then got out my Christmas fabrics.

I started with a draw string bag for a guild challenge.  Each person brought a fat quarter and then drew a different one from a bag.  We have a month to make something using most, if not all, of that piece of fabric with only one additional fabric as an accent.  (Sorry this photo makes it look a bit droopy - I'll stuff it with some tissue paper before I take it to guild)  I received this gray leaf fabric which I like but not as the sole fabric in anything.  I decided to make a reversible gift bag with a Christmas lining that could be used as the outside.  I needed it big enough to hold a book and sweater that I'm giving my Colorado sister for Christmas.  She loves using cloth bags instead of wrapping paper.

Next, I made a very cute pillowcase for my Dutch great nephew Daley who is now two.   I used the "burrito" method to make this with French fold seams.  It was easy, so I might make a few more to give as gifts.  I'm not sure if Daley is using a "big boy" bed yet, but, if not, this can be for next Christmas.   He is growing like a weed, and I enjoy the little video clips my sister sends me from the Netherlands.  I hope to get a package ready to send her in the next couple of weeks.  I am sending smaller gifts this year as the price of international mail has gone through the roof.

I finished off some mug rugs, leaving me 13 to give members of the Friends of the Library for all their help over the years.  I hope that's enough but may make a few more before our November meeting just in case.

And finally, I'm working on a French braid table runner using a pattern I got from Beth Ann Williams.  Hers used fall batiks, but mine uses 2.5" strips of various Christmas fabrics.  I have lots that were given to me by someone who isn't sewing anymore.  Beth Ann divides her into piles of dark, medium, and light, but I went with red, green, and light.  That method helps mix them up so that no color dominates.  Making one of the three strips takes about half an hour of easy sewing.  

Blue Ocean

 The sun finally appeared, just for a little while, allowing me a chance to take a picture of Blue Ocean.

I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.  As you can see, I quilted a simple horizontal/vertical grid, and it measures about 40" square.  I'll give it to Bags of Love after I take it to Show and Tell at guild later this month.   I've been cleaning my sewing room diligently but still have not found the Blue Onion pattern this is based on.  Still, I really enjoyed making it improvisationally.  That was quite freeing and went quickly.  My box of blue fabrics is still overflowing so I will be making at least one more blue quilt as soon as I finish working on some holiday projects.

Up too early

Do you like Daylight Savings Time?  I really do because it's lighter longer in winter.  Now it will be dark by 5 pm - ugh!  I tried to head off the change by setting the kitchen clocks - stove and microwave - before going to bed last night.   I expected my watch, cell phone, computer, and Alexa all to change on their own.  But no!  My watch wasn't synched to change with the cell phone by itself.  I woke up at what is now 3:30 am, made a cup of coffee, and noticed the actual time.

I guess this is good as I have plenty of things to keep me busy.  Besides coordinating the Light Up the Library event, I am putting together a genealogy series for January-February at the library, shopping and sewing for Christmas, sifting through and organizing the state quilt guild's history files, knitting myself a sweater, changing dentists, and who knows what else?  Still, I will probably fritter away the hour I've gained by looking at quilts online!

It looks like it will be another gloomy day today, so I will probably spend some time sewing, knitting, and reading a book I started yesterday,  I finished the lengthy mystery for this week's book group meeting - it was a doozy,  The group seems to enjoy big books, and The Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariane Franklin was agony until half-way through when it got very exciting.  It's set in the year 1171 and Franklin seemed to want the reader to know that she knows all about what went on in the Middle Ages.   I was glad to read it on Kindle so that I could easily get definitions of some of the words.  Today I'm glad to read the seventh book in a cozy mystery series I enjoy - The Secret, Book, and Scone Society by Ellery Adams.  It will be a "palate cleanser" before I start the new Louise Penny mystery.

In the sewing room, I'm putting together a sampler with 15" blocks.  I have three rows of four blocks sashed and now need to put those rows together and work on a border.  I initially wanted to make all 20 blocks in the "Optimism" pattern designed by Aby Dolinger, but "life" got in the way.  The result will be a nice throw for a child going into foster care via Bags of Love.