Where is spring?

 Tuesday morning, I'd planned to go to Burlington for lunch and a little shopping with Pauline before dropping Harriet's Journey off at the Champlain Valley Quilt Show.   As they say, "the best laid plans..."  We awoke to a few inches of sloppy, wet snow, and I arranged to deliver the quilt a few hours earlier than planned so I could drive home in the light.

By the time I hit the road, snow had turned to rain, making for wet travel and a good deal of fog around here.  Still, I made it just fine for a nice lunch with Pauline, after which I drove over a bit early to the church hall to deliver the quilt.  I'd planned to read in the parking lot, but a lady drove in not long after I arrived.  She turned out to be Mary, who I was to meet, so I helped her unload and set up before being her in-take guinea pig.  The roads were clear and the sun was out by the time I headed for home.   

I arrived home with 45 minutes to relax before heading down to our local guild meeting.  The program was "First and Last," a major show and tell.  We were to bring our first quilts or those that inspired us, as well as our most recent.  "Spooky" brought a recently acquired antique that I would like to use as inspiration for a new quilt sometime soon.  I love appliqueing melon pieces and have never seen them arranged this way before.  The soft colors are just up my alley.

I'll see the show Sunday afternoon before picking my quilt up at 5 pm.  It's exciting to go to a show in person after all these years of virtual-only activity.  Unfortunately, the Vermont Quilt Festival won't be happening until 2023, so this show will be "it" for me this year.

Happy Easter

 It looks like it's going to be a lovely Good Friday today.  The sun was out at 6 am and the grass has been greening up quickly.  Soon it will be time to mow, and our tulips and daffodils will bloom.  I always have a sense of relief when that happens, generally very quickly, each year.  Here's what I expect, based on this photo from 2020.

We are planning to grill on Easter - hamburgers, potato salad, cole slaw, and ice cream are on the menu, even though spotty showers are predicted.   Chris will come over to help us get the grill going again, and I've been saving some burgers that came with a gift we received at Christmas.

Next week is going to be busy with appointments and meetings as well as the Champlain Valley Quilt Show.  I'll be delivering my Harriet's Journey variation quilt on Tuesday evening and then picking it up again on Sunday evening.  In between I'm looking forward to the show after a couple of years without one.  Happy holidays to you!

Just machine quilting with a little handwork

Not much to show here - I've been busy at the computer, running around town on errands, and slowly machine quilting lines down my It's the Point quilt.  I'm using a variegated gray King Tut thread, and it's coming along pretty well.  I had been having a lot of trouble with my painter's tape popping up on long seams, so I tried a variety of other brands and weights.  Frog tape seems to work the best for me, considering I have a black background and a mix of batiks and other cottons.  The blue tape used to react differently depending on colors and types of cotton.  It was incredibly frustrating!  Now I'm facing a few weeks of straight line quilting with my walking foot.  It's a little dull but looks pretty good so I'll continue.  

I won't be working on any other machine projects for a while, but yesterday I did get the hanging sleeve on my Harriet's Journey quilt so I can send it to the Champlain Valley Quilters Guild show - April 22-24.  I'm mailing it but will go to the show on the 24th so I can pick it up afterwards.  I'm not having it judged and also noticed a couple of mistakes I made in the entry form so I'll send a message to the registrar today.

If I do sit down to do any sewing, it will be to work on some embroidery, both with the crazy quilt block I started at my sewing group's meeting in February and some wool pennies.  Both need quite a bit of embroidery embellishing which is more like play than anything else.

When I finish the machine quilting and binding, I will try to get my machine its much-delayed annual check up.  I always hate to see it go for a couple of weeks, but I do have plenty of handwork to keep me going.  And now that spring is trying hard to come, we will take more walks and even putter around the yard a bit.  We took the feeders down the other day because the bears are waking up.  There's plenty of seed that's been dropped on the grass underneath for the chickadees.  Quite a few tiny crabapples left on the tree have attracted flocks of robins and Bohemian waxwings - fun to watch from my sewing room window.

Down to the wire

With year's end approaching, I did finish two more quilts in the last few days - Harriet's Journey and the scrappy big block sampler.  Both turned out great.  Harriet's Journey was long arm quilted by my friend Marie in a floral pattern, and I quilted the other sampler myself in sections using my trusty Elna.  Both bindings were sewn by machine.  

Unfortunately, it's been too gloomy to take pictures.  We've had the living room lights on for days.  And there is no sun in the forecast!  It's been warmer here lately which usually is a sign that it's going to snow.  Luckily, we haven't had a whole lot, but the weekend sounds a bit promising (or ominous, depending on your point of view).   If the sun ever comes out, I'll get Paul to hold the quilts while I stand in the snow to take some pictures.

Meanwhile, what to do next?  I made some miscellaneous blocks the other day but think I'll start working on the Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt which I'm doing as a quilt along with my friend Joanne.

This is Laurie's quilt in greens, blue and yellow.  It inspired us to organize the quilt along with other guild members.  We'll do a section every month.

The original is red, dark blue and aqua.  I have chosen bright yellow, navy, and light blue with scrappy background fabrics.  I'm anxious to start because the center looks intimidating with all those chevrons.  The last time I made a quilt using chevrons - for another Hunter mystery - I made them too small and had to make 100 more to fit!  I will try not to repeat that mistake again.

I'll be making a special, Indonesian dinner for New Year's Eve, and hope to Zoom with Mom and sister Jenny over the weekend.  Best wishes for a very happy New Year!  

Unity quilt along

Joanne and I are running a quilt along in 2022 using Bonnie Hunter's "Unity" medallion quilt pattern for our local guild.   We both missed making it last winter and were re-inspired when we saw another guild member's finished quilt this fall.  I love scrappy medallion quilts.  I have been gathering fabric for this quilt this month.  The original colors are red, blue, and aqua, but I'm using bright yellow, dark blue, and light blue since I have a lot of blues in my stash and want to use more yellow in my quilts.   I have a full project box of neutrals collected, too.  

I can't wait to begin work on those dreaded chevrons in the center, so I probably will get a head start in a week or so, after I finish quilting the big block quilt (which needs a name!) and binding Harriet's Journey.  For 2022, I plan to continue making four 6" pineapple blocks each month, making some 12" blocks in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and making the guild blocks of the month.  I hope to finish a little quilt with elephant blocks on a black background, too.   

Meanwhile, this week has been a busy one and the coming week promises more of the same.  This week we've had two sets of guests visit for lunch, and today there will a third.  The extra leaf is out on the dining room table.  Wednesday I'll be helping set up and take down a luncheon for the library staff put on by the Friends of the Library.  Due to COVID, we won't be having our traditional holiday gathering, but we don't want the year to go by without recognizing all they are doing.  

Finished!

I put the last stitches into the border of Harriet's Journey on Monday, and it felt so good.  It's not a huge quilt, but the components took quite a bit of time.  I've been making 8 or so blocks a month since January, using Moda's "Moody Bloom" fabric with a few coordinating scraps here and there.   You can barely see the outer border, which is the dark, colorful print in that line that caught my eye first.  I started with a fat quarter bundle but added more along the way.

Each 6" block is a quilt in itself.  As is typical of Jennifer Chiaverini's patterns, the blocks are a mix of pieced, paper pieced, and applique.  That drunkard's path appeared pieced in her book, but I sewed it by hand because the pieces were so tiny.

I substituted a few blocks, like that courthouse steps block, when the suggested blocks of the month seemed too complicated.  The substitutions came from previous Chiaverini books as well as The Splendid Sampler, by Pat Sloan.  

I found some of the easiest looking blocks, like that pink and dark "wheel," were the hardest.  I really enjoyed making the interlocking chain block.  

I made the alternating setting blocks out of leftover scraps, thinking that would allow the individual blocks to stand out more than they would with the conventional sashing with cornerstones setting.  That means there are 121 blocks in this top, which only measures 78" x 78".  I plan to take it to my friend Marie who will do the longarm quilting, but I'm not sure when I'll get over to see her.  I'll need to buy some backing and batting also.

As usual, I took a day off from sewing yesterday.  I always need to take a mental break after finishing something this intense.   I still need to clean up the scraps and put everything away.  But I'm reading Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny's new book, State of Terror, and it's really getting good.  I'm not sure how much time I'll devote to quilting today.

Options and a sale

I forgot to show the three "Options" blocks for this month.  Aby Dolinger has designed a scrappy block of the month with variations, and I have made at least three blocks in a black/white/red colorway all year.  This month's blocks are "Birds in Flight," which is very appropriate.  We've heard lots of Canada geese honking away on our daily walks lately.  

I'm looking forward to putting these blocks together, although it won't be soon!  I am a little behind on my blocks of the month because I've been putting my Harriet's Journey blocks together.  Hope to get the center done today.  My pineapple blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge will just have to wait, and I'm sure I'll be doing them in 2022, too, in order to get a quilt of any size.

This morning, I received news from etsy.com that a small, fall tabletopper has sold, so I'll be packing it up and mailing it to Washington state.  

Fall colors aren't usually my thing, but I did like making these wonky flying geese with a gray-tan background.  It's Are We There Yet? from a book by Sew Kind of Wonderful and uses their mini-curve tool.  

I quilted it modern-style and am glad someone else will enjoy it.  The back is a blue sampler made with swap blocks, so it can be turned around or used as a baby quilt.  My first order of business today will be a trip to the post office.  It's a rainy, gloomy day, but it will be nice to get out of the house.  Maybe I'll stop by the bakery across the street for treats?

More blocks

Aside from those yoyos, I've been working on figuring out a layout for my Harriet's Journey blocks now that I have about 64 of them.  I'm running out of focus fabric and seem to have bought an endless amount of white background fabric so far.  

What I have is draped over a bed right now, but I hope to start putting the blocks together as soon as I make some more "cobblestone" blocks using scraps of the focus fabric to serve as spacers between the blocks.  I've decided on a layout of 13 by 13 with two borders so that I end up with a quilt measuring 82.5" x 82.5".  I hope I can stretch my available fabric out to make this work!  I may have to make a couple for HJ blocks, but that will be OK.  I also have some of that lovely pink and two yards of one of the dark prints for borders and, maybe, binding.   Stay tuned!

Fall!

The fall colors are at their peak and, while the chicken pie suppers are now carry out only due to COVID, everyone is busy enjoying the season.   I made my annual apple pie last weekend, and our daily walks have been very nice, with new color showing every day.  It's foggy every morning but by mid-day it's sunny and bright.   My neighbor made this sweet arrangement between our garages.  We are lucky she takes care of our decor as I was nursing my summer flowers for as long as I could.  They are finally all gone today when I cleaned the garage, put away all the planters, and scrubbed the house where the flowers were touching.

I have been busy making Harriet's Journey and Options blocks of the month.   Here are the HJ blocks.

I made some substitutions to avoid tiny appliqued pieces.  I have 64 blocks made now and am pondering how I'll set them.  And should I continue with the blocks of the month project or choose a few more to make before I put them together?  I have bought several yards of one of the black prints, some pink, and some white.   It's probably overkill, but I'd rather have options and some leftover fabric after I make up my mind.

In case you aren't as lucky as we are right now, here's another fall in Vermont photo - this is Paul's sister's home and island at Greenwood Lake, taken today.

Busy not sewing

 The last Friends of the Library book sale of the year was a great success, perhaps because of the off-and-on rain we had this weekend.  People came downtown for the fall festival but some events (like the sidewalk sales!) were rained out.  So they came inside the library to shop.  

We still have plenty of books returned to boxes and stacked up, but we'll spend the winter organizing.   Paula did a great job cleaning up the area under the stairs, which we filled afterwards, along with our "store" area which is available whenever the library's open.   

I was on my feet most of Thursday through Saturday, so yesterday I took it easy.  I did manage to get into the sewing room and finish up my Harriet's Journey blocks for this month.  I have at least 64 blocks so far and chose several more blocks to make before I set them together.  I'm running out of focus fabric and keep buying white on whites for the background.

I still can't decide how to set Harriet, however, so today I'll work on some other blocks of the month - the "Options" blocks and, if there's time, the RSC pineapples.  The latter will follow me into the new year since I only have 9 or 10 made so far.  Not enough for a quilt of any size.

I keep saying I won't take on any more blocks of the month projects in 2022, but of course one of my guilds has one that's just starting.  The blocks will be 12" instead of 6" as we did last year, so a bigger quilt is definitely possible.  I offered to design the December block and have been experimenting with various patterns.  So far, I haven't settled on The One.

A variety of blocks

Happy Labor Day!  It is nice to have a holiday to serve as a bridge into a new season.  We are noticing that fall has begun here in central Vermont.  Mornings have been dark but crisp, and the sun sets before 8 pm now.  Leaves are beginning to turn and even fall.  Apples are appearing in the stores.  I'm looking forward to making spiced pear jam again and also an apple cake.

I spent the last few days working on a variety of quilt blocks.  I counted my Harriet's Journey blocks after I made this month's eight.  I now have 56 and am beginning to run out of fabric.  I had started with a variety of whites and a fat quarter bundle of "Moody Blooms" by Moda.  I later bought a few more half yard pieces and just ordered another yard and a half for a border.  I'll wait until October to decide on a layout.  I may stop then and plan to put them all together in late December or January.  Many of Chiaverini's blocks are paper pieced, something I hadn't counted on when figuring out how much fabric to get.  

I signed up for an elephant block swap, so I started making some blocks and ended making all eight that I will need.  These were fun to make in Kaffe Fassett and other bright fabrics.  The pattern I'm using makes a 10.5" block, but mine ended up just a little shy of that size.  So I may make a few more to swap and keep the ones that are too small.

I'm thinking about making a few other animal blocks including birds with long legs and paper pieced dogs and cats.  I may also vary the backgrounds a bit because the solid black, while dramatic, really strains my eyes.   Maybe charcoal gray or even a blackish print might work.   The swap blocks aren't due until January, so they are now resting in a pizza box until I decide what to do.

A little sewing

I have been finishing Louise Penny's latest mystery, The Madness of Crowds, and, while it is a little slow going, it's very thought-provoking.  I ended up liking it a lot although it doesn't have as much "action" as some of her 16 previous books.  Now it's another year's wait until her next offering although I will probably read the book she has co-written with Hillary Clinton when it comes out in October.  I'm curious!

The Options blocks of the month are fairly easy this time, so I made four of them.  Now I'm wondering how I'll set them.  They're 8" square and I probably have at least 27 now.  I'll lay them out one of these days to see how they all look together.

Today, I've been busy making my eight Harriet's Journey blocks for September.  Those are 6" square and more work.  Most are paper pieced which means copying them onto foundation paper.  I've noticed that I use quite a bit more fabric for each block than I had thought I would.  So I'm running low on some, even though I bought a fat quarter bundle and several half yards of the focus fabric.  The background is a mix of whites and I have lots of that.  But maybe it's time to call it finished?  

More Harriet's Journey

Aren't these little (6" finished) blocks sweet?  These are for the Harriet's Journey quilt I've been working on all year with a group on the online Quilting Board.  The book is based on Jennifer's Chiaverini's book, The Circle of Quilters, which I read some years ago.  I have made a few other Chiaverini quilts and find them quite challenging mainly due to the size of the blocks which are complex to begin with.  

Each month, Dotty D. in England selects eight blocks for us to make, and we all show and share what we've done.  I've been keeping up although they can be quite fiddly.  Some of the blocks are rotary cut; others are paper pieced.   In a few cases, I have even appliqued things that look pieced or have substituted an easier block.  One month, rather than piece a difficult star, I made a Grandmother's Flower Garden block instead.  Mostly, though, I am trying to use Chiaverini's patterns. 

The fabric I've been using is called "Moody Bloom," although I have added a few other fabrics like a hot pink and a green/blue batik that match.  So far, I have made 56 blocks out of a total of 100.  I plan to sash them in white with scrappy cornerstones.

A Little of This and That

It was a busy weekend because of the Friends of the Library book sale.  We hadn't had one in over two years, and throughout the pandemic a small group of us boxed up any donations that came in so that they could be stored at the printer's across the street.  We have 80-90 boxes over there, waiting for our annual sale under the big tent.  That will happen next summer.   Meanwhile, we still have a mountain of books at the library.  So we're holding three sales in hopes of making room for more donations as they come in.   The next sales are August 27-28 and October 1-2.  It's exhausting work but it helps support the many programs the library offers for all ages.  Rockin' Ron the Pirate was there Saturday, and they had an overflow crowd at Senior Day a few days before.

I did manage to squeeze in some sewing here and there, including this month's blocks for Harriet's Journey.   I can't decide how I'll set these blocks and thought I'd try making those pink and white alternate blocks to see how they'd work.  I may simply sash the blocks in white with various colored cornerstones, although I like the top right block as a possibility, too.  

I have 32 blocks made, and there are about 100 or so blocks in Chiaverini's quilt.   I'll go until I'm sick of making them.  The paper pieced star looks easy but ended up very wonky.  But I really enjoyed how the chain block turned out.

This morning, I pieced a back and some batting so I could baste my Pop Stars quilt (a Missouri Star pattern).  Then I started quilting it in random curves up and down the quilt.  It's a little tedious, but I'm liking the look so far.  The quilt measures about 54" x 59" so will be nice for a crib or child's throw.   

I worked on these star blocks as part of the monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge.    They are easy to make, if you can remember from month to month how they are put together.  I always had to look the instructions up.  I only bought a little dark gray for a few blocks and the outer border.  All the rest is made from scraps.

I

Hot, humid days

We are moving a little more slowly these days due to the humidity.  The AC is going in the sewing room, thank goodness, and its coolness wafts downstairs a bit.  A fan also helps make life bearable, both in the bedroom at night and in the living room in the day.  Reading and sewing have been my main activities lately.  I managed to make a few more pineapple blocks for the RSC - so far I've made 24 6" blocks, not enough for a quilt.  So I'll keep at it, making four blocks a month, until I can't stand it anymore.

I'm working on my monthly blocks for Harriet's Journey now.  I love working with the "Moody Blooms" fabric and am now wondering about how I will set the 6" blocks.  I'm testing a block Chiaverini calls "Philadelphia" as an alternate block.  That will result in a very pink quilt, so I'm not sure this will be "it."  I may simply go with white sashing between the blocks.  We'll see.

Yesterday, I received a surprise in the mail - not one but two mug rugs from Cindy in Washington state as part of a mug rug swap.  They're awfully cute and were put into immediate use.   Cindy did a great job with both hand- and machine embroidery and free motion quilting.   I guess happiness is a new mug rug!

I'm off to the library this afternoon to help out at the Friends' book sale.  It's always fun to see the shoppers enjoying the treasures they find and catching up with folks we know.  The sale continues tomorrow, too, when I'll be back with the clean up crew.

All caught up

 Over the last few days, I worked on my Harriet's Journey blocks of the month and made a couple of "secret pal" gifts from scraps.  It feels good to have these blocks of the month done with days to spare.

Each month I try to make eight blocks from Jennifer Chiaverini's new sampler book.  These are assigned by Dotty D., another quilter on the quiltingboard.com who has organized a sew along.  My friend Beth also belongs.  This month's 6" blocks were fairly straightforward, except one was a fiddly applique and another was too complex for me to even contemplate.  So I got out Pat Sloan's Splendid Sampler and chose two blocks that I hadn't made while working on that quilt a couple of years ago.  

I love the "Moody Bloom" fabric I'm using for this sampler, but sometimes the larger prints don't show up as well as they might with larger blocks.  That's why I substituted the blocks with the large floral center and tiny hourglasses.  For the hourglasses, I made larger ones and cut each one down to 2" square.  I also tried to use snippets of most of the fabrics I have in the block with the heart in its center (which I did hand applique).  This was a fun set of blocks to make.

For my secret pals, I made a mug rug to send soon in a mug rug swap and a zipper bag to hold the things I'm sending later this summer to another quilter in a birthday swap.   

Both projects were made with 2" and 2.5" squares and Vermont "license plate" panels.  Sorry I didn't get a photo of the mug rug which had 2" squares with a license plate on one side and 2.5" squares on the other.  Neither made a dent in my stash of scrap squares! 

 This leaves me wondering what to work on today.  Maybe an appliqued block to exchange at the state guild meeting in the fall?

Harriet's Journey for May

 

I pecked away at my Harriet's Journey blocks over the last couple of weeks and finished the assignment for May-June yesterday.  I love working with the Moody Bloom fabric!  It has a soft look, sort of like Jennifer Chiaverini's samples do.

My dilemma now that I have 24  blocks made is whether or not to quilt this quilt in sections.  If so, I probably have enough made to put them together with sashing and start the quilting process.  But how big do I want this quilt to be?  The blocks are 6" so a set of 16 would only be a little larger than 24" square, considering there will be 1" white sashing and cornerstones.

We'll see how it all goes.  I still have six RSC and a few Dear Jen blocks left to make this month.  

Spring is busting out all over

The flowering crab tree in our front yard burst into bloom yesterday, as did our old lilac bush.  I took a walk around the neighborhood early and was blown away by the brilliant greens, pinks, purples, and whites everywhere.  After a long, gray winter, it is a totally different world out there.  What a relief!  As a guy with a camera said to me, "this is why we live here."  We endure the cold and snow for these wonderful spring days.

I'm sorry I didn't stop to take a picture - this one's from 2016.  The upstairs window is my sewing room, and, when I sit at my machine, I feel I'm right in the middle of all that loveliness.  I did make a couple more Harriet's Journey blocks yesterday and have two more to make for this month's quota of eight.  

I still have several blocks of the month to finish for various projects in order to keep up, but I suspect that, when Paul gets home, I'll be home a lot, sewing.  Still to be done:  RSC 20 (Pop Stars and Pineapples) and Dear Jen.  And on June 1, block swap blocks from 22 guild members will be arriving in our garage for swapping, with pick up over the following weekend.

Our Governor has lifted the mask order for everyone outdoors and for vaccinated people everywhere except public transportation and health care facilities.  I still plan to wear a mask in most stores, and of course I'll be wearing one at the hospital when I go to visit Paul.  It was great to go maskless to Christine's for dinner Friday night and to see my brother Rob and his wife Linda yesterday.  They drove up to Boston Saturday, then here (a 3.5 hour drive) for Sunday lunch, and then back home to NJ via Boston. 

Just a little sewing

 

The tulips on the sunny side of the house are almost finished blooming, but the daffodils have finally popped.  Aren't these fun?  I planted some last fall from a bag marked "mixed daffodils," and it was quite a surprise to see the doubles and the littler, lighter colored daffodils pop out.  They look so cheerful on the shady front of the house.  And we need lots of cheer lately because it keeps threatening to rain almost every day.  

Of course, rain is what makes our Green Mountains green so I really shouldn't complain.  On my almost daily drives to Burlington I love seeing the many shades of spring and the flowering trees tucked in here and there.  Vermont is really beautiful, especially in very slow-to-arrive spring.

After three long weeks, Paul appears to be getting better, but we do expect he'll be either in the hospital or at a rehab center for several more weeks.  I'm getting used to the hour long commute, and it seems to do him good to have me there as he naps or eats a little bit.  He has lost a lot of weight so needs to build back up now.  I've been reading a lot, which is fine.

I did manage to make three "Options" blocks for this month along with some extra pinwheels for sashing or borders.  Aby's directions are so clear and easy to follow and adapt.

The guild block for May, Friendship Star, was finished long ago and is ready to mail June 1 to the lottery winner.  And now I'm working on this month's eight blocks for Harriet's Journey.   More "Moody Bloom" fabric arrived yesterday so that I can vary the colors a bit more.  It's going to be a lovely sampler.

I sew a little before I head over to Burlington and a little after I get home.  Quilting is great for the soul.  Unfortunately, I have living room curtains to shorten also, but maybe I will just resort of stitch witchery for that dull job.  The dining room curtains I shortened with it are holding up well after 10 years!