Steadily working

Yesterday I finished knitting a little hat, got ready to bind the blue and white rail fence/snowflake quilt, and ignored the Holland quilt.  Working on the latter is quite intense and I just didn't feel up to that level of intensity.  It is a frustrating quilt because no matter how precisely I cut the pieces (all 1.5" wide), they don't always seem to go together evenly.  I took one section apart and added 1/4" in the middle of the row which helped considerably.  I'll try to get back to it today after grocery shopping and errands.  If not, there's always tomorrow.  And this is how UFOs are born!

On the other hand, I knit the little hat using leftover yarn in three days.  I'm waiting for new yarn for more hats to arrive from Knit Picks, and I also want to get some yarn to make a red Norwegian-style "Melt the ICE" resistance hat.  I bought the pattern through Ravelry, but it calls for circular needles which I hate to use.  So I'm going to have to adapt it to straight needles.  I'm sure that during WW II, some Norwegians used straight needles anyway.  

If I get a chance today I'll cut the binding for the snowflake quilt.  I was given some blue striped fabric that will be perfect for it, even if it is a poly blend.  Marie did her usual beautiful quilting job on that quilt, made from blocks I won in a raffle at the state quilt guild meeting this fall.

Yesterday we had a visit from a very nice representative from Budget Blinds.  He measured our north-facing front windows and the bathroom window for "waffle" shades which I hope will make those areas a little warmer.  It will be six weeks or more before they can be installed, and by that time it should be a little less chilly out.  Still, I am looking forward to a more "modern" look in both places.  

Four blossoms now

 

My amaryllis continues to amaze!  It now has four blossoms on one stalk with another ready to open and another stalk with three waiting to open.  I didn't do anything special but put them in a pot with potting soil.  I worried I was neglecting it by not watering often, but the tag said not more than once a week, and that's what I do for my other plants.  I had one years ago that only had one blossom, so this is just wonderful for me.

Today I'm baking and keeping as warm as possible.  It's six degrees (F) below zero right now and a big snowstorm is on the way.  I made chocolate chip cookies and blueberry bread.  That may be "it" for today although I'm not sure what's for dinner.  Maybe mac and cheese with salad?  I also did a couple of loads of laundry.  That's a whole lot more than I did yesterday which was mostly finish reading a book, The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan.  I enjoy books set in Scotland, and she does it so well.  Light but fun.

I was happy to receive a picture of a baby quilt I made out of "strings" yesterday.  And the baby, Murphy, looks very cute, too.   Guess she's a future ski bum because she lives out west.  She's Paul's sister Pat's first great granddaughter, about six months old.  The mom wanted a "neutral" quilt, and I just happened to have this on hand.  

Otherwise, I would have whined about making one from scratch.  I don't understand why young moms want "neutrals."  My niece in Holland, bless her heart, was very happy with the pink floral quilt I sent her as her new baby's room is pink.  Jules was born right before Christmas.

As for quilting, I'm working on the Holland quilt by Karen Abrahamovich.  I'm making the 32" x 32" size, but I'm not including the heart, "windmills," or "tulips," just the shape of the country.  I will turn that into the center of a medallion quilt and surround it by Dutch-themed, pieced blocks.  

It's another blue and white scrap quilt, and I'm all of a sudden sick of using blues!  This pattern size requires 1.5" strips which are a little tricky to work with and the positioning is a bit intense.  But I'm about a third of the way through, so it shouldn't take much longer (if I keep at it).

Two UFOs done!

 

Good morning!  It's actually warmish here by Vermont standards, in the 20s.  Apparently, we're going to have a little snow later.  I'm heading to the quilt shop to drop off another quilt to be long armed and to pick up one that's ready for trimming and binding.  Marie is a speed demon.  Sometimes I wish it took her longer, but I know she thinks hard about what she's going to do with a particular quilt and can't stand to wait before working on it.  

I did quilt this sampler myself, though, with my walking foot, and am pleased with the result.  The pattern is called "Optimism" by Aby Dolinger who ran a block of the month during 2025.  I only made 12 of the 16 blocks and then used cut offs from the blocks for the two borders.  

I love the red binding, and the back is soft, pieced cotton.  I'll be giving it to a neighbor who is moving to a nursing home as soon as bed is available.  She is younger than me, so it's a real tragedy.  Paul and her husband go out to lunch frequently as a sort of respite.  

And here is what I'm calling the "Orange and Black Sampler," which includes blocks of the month from my local guild.  I made blocks in the color prescribed for the lottery each month last year and then another for myself in the orange/black color way.  I used the polka dotted fabric for the back and added a solid(ish) black binding.  Quilter Marie was impressed by the border, which was just made of 4" blocks divided by a solid 1" strip.

I still have a lot of the polka dotted fabric (which shows up as gray) left for future backs as I bought almost a full bolt from a friend who was closing her shop.  I think I paid $8 for the bolt!  I am planning to make another quilt this year using a black background and bright colors, so I have already decided what to use for the back!

Both pictures were taken at the guild meeting Tuesday night.  In winter, it's hard for me to take outdoor photos because they involve Paul holding the quilt on the porch and me standing in snow with my phone.  We are too wimpy for that these days!  But, at guild, we are lucky that one of the members always takes photos to post on Facebook for people who missed the meeting.

Blooming despite the cold

 

It was 3 degrees when we got up this morning.  We are hoping for at least the teens later on.  Meanwhile, indoors, it's cozy with this lovely amaryllis popping in its full splendor!  There are now two blossoms on one stalk and another on that stalk waiting its turn.  Then there's a second stalk not revealing itself yet.  What a thrill when they bloom!  I hear it can be summered over and rebloom.  We'll see about that.

I went to quilt guild last night.  It had been snowing lightly but stopped as I drove downtown.  It's been very cold so the snow is light and dry - not windshield scraping necessary.  I showed the two quilts I have finished, and Marie told me that the quilt she was quilting is also ready for pick up.  I'll drop it off tomorrow and bring her another one.  

That will complete my four finished UFOs for the month!   I'll post photos of the two quilts I showed at guild when they are posted on Facebook.  I find it difficult to take photos of finished quilts in winter.  It's often gloomy out, and I have to stand in the snow while Paul holds the quilt up.  Ugh!

I have Dear Jane left to work on but think I'll do something else for a while.  Karen Abrahamovich's "Holland" is on my list.  After visiting Polly, I am armed with a whole lot of dark blue fabric to use for the country.  A 16" x 16" quilt requires 1" strips, so I think I will work on a 36" x 36" one, requiring 1.5" strips.  Karen's instructions look pretty clear, so I hope to get to it today, before and after yoga.

Red, white and blue fabrics anyone?

I've seen a lot of ads for fabric to "celebrate" our country's 250th anniversary, but I won't be buying any.  The state historical society is planning a special exhibit, and public libraries are planning a host of programs in honor of this special occasion.  

I just can't work up any enthusiasm for this right now.  Our country is in deep trouble under our current regime, and it doesn't seem to get any better.   

We've had leaders I didn't agree with in the past.  "Reagonomics" did quite a bit to hurt the needy, and George W. Bush was a weak and ignorant leader during the aftermath of 9/11.  But our current president is a bully, uncaring and greedy. The New York Times estimates he has earned $1.4 billion dollars in just this year alone through his dealings with thugs and cronies.  He could be using these funds to make life more bearable for the people he calls "losers."  He could spend a whole lot less detaining, deporting, and killing innocent citizens and would-be citizens.   The focus should be on making life better for American citizens, not roaming all over the world showing how "tough" we can be.  Optics are useless in today's world.

I have a red, white, and blue quilt on the guest bed these days, but it includes Dutch fabrics, reminding me of my Dutch roots.  The flag of the Netherlands is also red, white and blue, but the national color is orange.  The Dutch cheer "Oranje Boven" (Orange on top) for sports teams.  I was happy to learn that some Dutch military have already been deployed to keep Greenland from the clutches of our avaricious  "leader."

Friday already

 Here we are at the end of the week and I have not finished quilting the Optimism sampler.  I got side tracked with other things as usual.  Yesterday morning I made some oatmeal cookies to give to Chris for his birthday.  It was a recipe I've used many times and which Larry Brown, former printer extraordinaire downtown, called "the best" he'd ever had.  Somehow I left out a crucial ingredient - 2 cups of flour! - resulted in a soggy mess.  I tried to correct them for the next batches but they still weren't up to par.  Still, Chris was happy to receive them.  We took him and a friend to lunch which was nice.  

Afterwards, I got engrossed in a great book, The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, and read steadily all afternoon.  Thank goodness my Kindle didn't run out of power which often happens if I'm enjoying a book.  It seems to like to run out just when I reach the final denouement.  

This book is told through letters by a 70-something retired lawyer and mother who has been writing letters all her life, including to someone who is, as yet, not identified, to whom she never mails.  Epistolary novels like this and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are one of my favorite genres.  "Everyone" seems to be reading this novel, and I can see why.  There's not a lot happening, but somehow you just want to see what does.

Last night we watched the movie The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which is based on another book I enjoyed a few years ago.  Even Paul enjoyed the movie about an elderly man who decides to walk across England in an effort to keep a friend alive when she falls ill with cancer.  The woman who plays his wife is well known and recognizable as Mrs, Crawley in Downton Abbey.

I have a doctor's appointment this morning (if the roads look driveable - so far they look a bit slippery), and then there will be some grocery shopping perhaps.  I'll get back to quilting and look forward to reading more.  Happy weekend!

Christmas is over

We took down the Christmas village "tree" yesterday, as well as the wreaths outside.  They are all again stored in the basement closet under the stairs.  All of our Christmas cookies are gone, but we still have quite a bit of candy left that I'm eating just a little of daily.  I have a doctor's appointment Friday when she'll measure my A1C - after that, the sky may be the limit (or not depending on what she finds).  

Yesterday the temperature climbed to 52 so a lot of snow and ice melted.  We even took a walk around the neighborhood for the first time in weeks.  But we had snow overnight so it's back to winter driving and walking conditions.  Our January thaw appears to be over.  I hope it's OK to drive tomorrow morning so I can rejoin the aerobic walking group.  

Today I'll do a little housekeeping and then get back to quilting the Optimism sampler.  It's going to be a fairly free week, so I may even get it done if I work on it steadily.  It's fun to do each block in a sampler just a little differently.  The black and orange quilt is back from the longarm quilter, so I'll have two quilts to bind by machine soon.

Finishing stuff!

Thursday I drove over to the quilt shop to pick up the black/orange throw Marie had quilted and to give her the blue and white snowflake rail fence throw to quilt.  I love the way the black/orange sampler turned out and will put a black binding on it soon.  I have one more top to take to Marie whenever the back arrives from Connecting Threads.  It's the blue and white speckled Triple Barn Star top that ended up being 72" x 72".  It's waiting in the closet for its back.

I got last year's block of the month Optimism top out of the closet and decided to make two borders for the sides so that it would end up about twin sized.  This was a pattern designed by Aby Dolinger whose BOMs I've followed for the last several years.  Her instructions are always spot on, and, being a sampler maven, I've enjoyed them.  

The question for me last week was whether or not to participate in Aby's 2026 BOM, and I guess not because I couldn't get up the energy to gather the fabric even though I have a very nice background all set aside.  I have too many other quilts I'd like to work on this year.  I'll use that background in one of them.

I made the two borders for Optimism and then pieced a back.  I bought another batt Thursday and started quilted that sampler myself.  Before I got to that, I made a couple of blue Traffic Jam blocks (a Pat Sloan pattern) using my box of 2" squares and cutting a few more blue squares.  This will be another monthly project for me this year.  I need to reduce my collection of blues and greens in particular.  I will most likely use a thin neutral to sash the blocks when I get sick of making them this year.

Besides finishing sandwiching, pin basting, and quilting today, I'll spend a little time with Louise Penny's latest mystery, The Black Wolf. "Everyone" else has finished it and I'm still about 1/3 of the way through.   Louise sure knows how to build suspense, though!   

I also have to write up the Friends of the Library meeting minutes and do a few other little things online.  The sun is shining but it's quite icy out, so I doubt if I'll get a chance to take a walk.   And then there are still a few Christmas decorations I need to take down...

Happy New Year!

I'm looking forward to a year with less conflict and stress.  If our national leader can't supply that, I will try to do as much as I can to bring peace to our home.  As a naturalized citizen (since age 3!), I am a bit worried about crossing the border into and out of Canada this summer, but that's far ahead.  I can think of worse places to be than Ontario!  My word for the year is "Explore," as we are planning quite a bit more travel than in 2025.

Yesterday I finished making blue log cabin blocks and put them away with the red blocks in an empty (yes!) project box until February rolls around.  I don't know if I'll stick to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all year, but I'm starting out that way.

I moved on to work on the Triple Barn Star quilt in blues.  I have some speckly fabric for the background and then chose coordinating prints and solids.  I ended up cutting all the fabric I need, which is something I rarely do when starting a quilt.  My usual method is to cut as I go, but this appears to be a medallion starting in the middle.  The pattern is designed for layer cakes which I almost never buy, but I did use quite a bit of stash.  And I still can't close my blue tub!  I have plans for more blue quilts later in the year, though.

Today I'll do some housekeeping and get ready for our open house this afternoon.  I'm anxious to put the charcuterie board together, and I have lots of cookies to set out as well.  The ice for the punch is ready to go.  Hope you have a fun First Footing (a Scottish tradition bringing good luck) planned, too!