Rows Parade

I'm a little slow in showing this new quilt which I bound last week.  I had to find two tall people to hold it up so I could take a full photo.  Luckily, Soni and Mary were willing at quilt guild on Saturday, and here Rows Parade is!  It was a row of the month designed by Aby Dolinger, and all the rows were made with scraps I already had.  I did buy the sashing and border fabric as well as the binding and backing.  It was fun to make, and I especially enjoyed the hearts row made in February.  Most of those blocks were hand appliqued.

I started out choosing colors from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge but then veered off the page a bit.  And somehow it grew to be full sized - not my initial intention!

A productive day

I had no reason to leave the house yesterday, so I stayed home and got a lot done.   A quilt got bound and 8 placemats got quilted.  First I had to create some "Frankenbatting" for the placemats.  My bin of scraps was overflowing, but now it isn't, and I still have a couple of queen-sized batts in plastic bags waiting to be used.  I wish I could buy batting by the roll, but I just don't have space to store one. 

Quilting the placemats was fairly quick because I used a very simple 2.5" grid on each one.  I only had to mark two with washout ink; the rest I merely cross-hatched through squares by eye.  I can't really machine quilt in a straight line, but it isn't all that noticeable.  The stiff backing, a Waverly upholstery print, made it very easy.

I have some binding cut out for four of the placemats and ordered some more for the others.  While I was in a binding mood, I got out one of the quilts Marie quilted for me and got that ready.  Not having anything else that needed to be done, I started binding and finished after lunch.  The quilt is Rows Parade, a row of the month quilt I worked on in 2023.   

How good it feels to finish!  I have no idea what I'll do with this quilt, but I'll take it to guild for show and tell and maybe list it on etsy eventually.  I have another, smaller quilt waiting to be bound.  Getting it ready will be today's project, but I'm not sure how far I'll get.

This morning we're heading to yoga and, after a quick nap, we'll go to Burlington to have dinner with Pauline and see Come From Away at the Flynn Theater.  Hoping the weather improves so the drive over is OK and that tomorrow morning's return home is without snow, ice, what-have-you.

Getting things done

Good morning!  It's another gloomy day here in Central Vermont, with rain in the forecast, too.  We would all like to see the sun sometime, just to make sure it still works!  Yesterday was quite chilly, but the Friends of the Library's booth at the town Fall Festival went well.  We had a lot of young families stop by for giveaway books.   It was fun being right in front of the skate park which was teeming with kids.

That's Jo, one of the Friends, looking cold.  I had on my fleece jacket covered by my quilted winter jacket and gloves.   We were both happy when our two hour shift was over.  Our booth was right next to the Lions Club booth which was quite busy, too, with kids trying their hands at "corn hole" and picking up prizes.  

Today I'm trying to get things done.  I finished copy editing my friend Alan's book and sent it back to him.  It took me 11 hours over a week, reading it twice, and finding a lot I'd missed on the second pass.  I hope it is what he was hoping for.

I have some laundry going and an Indo-Dutch beef stew ("hache" my Otie called it) bubbling on the stove.   I'll most likely serve it with potatoes and peas.   An apple tart is cooling.  So I am feeling very accomplished this morning!  I'm heading to the quilting room as soon as I fold the clothes from the dryer.  I had an inspiration for Margaret's quilt in the guild Round Robin.  And if I have time, I'll put the last borders on Rows Parade.  Most likely, I'll collapse after lunch and do a little reading.  Have a fun Sunday!

A little of this and that

 Much of my time has been on the computer over the last week or so.  I've been working on publicity for the Nov. 4 genealogy fair as well as a mailing for the Friends of the Library's annual Light Up the Library program.  We solicit contributions from local businesses and groups to decorate the library with trees, wreaths, and other things during the holidays.  This year it's tricky because all of our downtown business owners suffered some sort of flood damage, with at their businesses or at their homes.  So we're trying to be sensitive in our solicitations.  It's a major fundraiser/raffle for the Friends. 

Last week, I read a couple of mysteries as "palate cleansers" in between copy editing a friend's new novella.  He usually writes creepy stuff, but this is a straight whodunit, which was a relief for me.  It has taken me seven hours to go through on a first pass, and I will now read it through from start to finish again to make sure I didn't miss anything.  By the time I finish Paul's books, I have usually looked at them at least three times and still we find typos in the final work.  So I want Alan's to be in fairly good shape when I turn it back over to him.  This is the first time I've edited anyone else's work besides Paul's, so it took me a while to get comfortable with Alan's writing style.

Today I hope to get the last borders onto Rows Parade.  One of the nine 73" rows is at left, unassembled.  With sashing and borders, it's grown to queen size very rapidly, and that makes it difficult to handle.  I hope to take it to the quilt shop tomorrow to choose a back for it and to give it to Marie to quilt.  Although I received ten yards of unbleached muslin from Paul's sister, I will save it for smaller quilt backs as it's 60" wide.

A gallery visit

 

On Saturday, we braved some heavy rain to drive about 1.5 hours south to tiny Reading, Vermont, to visit the Hall Art Foundation's exhibit of smaller Andy Warhol pieces.  Through the rain, it was difficult to see any foliage, but when things let up a bit, I was able to take a photo of part of the sculpture walk area.  Maybe next time we go, it will be dry enough to enjoy!

The gallery consists of two renovated lovely old farm houses, one of them stone, across the road from each other, and two barns.  The massive walls in the barn we visited (featuring Sherry Rothenberg) were perfect for larger paintings.  We saw quite a few of Warhol's smaller works, including the famous Campbell's Soup painting which was quite interesting.

We also stopped to look at part of a 39 minute video of Warhol eating a hamburger meal from Burger King.  He looked a little uncomfortable as if he'd never eaten a fast food lunch before.  He had a big ketchup bottle rather than little packets so it was all staged.  How many bags of food did he use to make that film?

Speaking of lunch, the restaurants were packed with leaf peepers from all over, including Vermont but mostly elsewhere.  The parking lot at our favorite Harpoon Brewery was impossible so we drove into Windsor to try their diner.  Good food, but rude service - an embarrassing visitors' introduction to our sweet little state.  A sharp contrast to lunch at the Hardwick diner which we visited last week.

Today I hope to put the final border on the Rows Parade quilt.  It's now queen sized!  If it's sunny out, I'll try to do a little yard clean up before going to quilt guild tonight.  My bags are packed for that, including a round robin bag - yet another UFO but always fun to work on.

Busy times

Our roads are full of tour buses and cars from out of state - sure signs of fall.  Saturday, I drove down to the quintessential Vermont town - Woodstock - and was impressed by all the people wandering the streets, standing on the covered bridge downtown, and ducking into all the cute shops.  I was coordinating a meeting about barn quilts with my friend Sharon who is our state expert on all things barn quilt.   25 people gathered at the public library, a Richardsonian building that has been renovated inside for high tech service as well as coziness.   

The ride back and forth revealed pops of color among the trees, but much of our foliage seems a bit muted this year due to the heavy rain we've had all summer.  We are having a bit of a heat wave for fall right now with temperatures in the 70s and lovely blue skies.  I have been doing a bit of yard work - not too much as I have plenty of other stuff to do.

I finished the neutral baby quilt over the weekend and popped it in the mail yesterday along with a comfort quilt for a cousin who's going to be having chemo.  I wish we lived closer so that I could be of some help.  We just reconnected after 50 years, but I remember being giggly girls together when we had to sleep in the same bed on visits to her home in Hershey, PA.  Their family lived on Chocolate Avenue, and sitting at the picnic table in the backyard, the aroma was wonderful.

Today I baked a loaf of bread and, while it was rising, started sashing the queen-sized quilt that I've been working on as a row of the month called "Rows Parade."  Each row needs to be about 73" long, so it's taking a little longer to put the whole thing together.   I have to add a little here and taking a tuck there on some of the rows.

I made most rows in colors chosen by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, although some rows have a mix of colors.  The sashing and inner border are a "quilters linen" in beige, but I have no idea what to use for the outer border.  Hope I get inspired soon - I have lots of possibilities in my stash.

Keeping cool

The AC is on in the sewing room, and our heat pump is taking away the hot, humid air on the first floor.  We are definitely comfortable inside.  Outside, not so much, but it is good to see the sun after days of gloom.  First there were the fires in Quebec clouding up the skies, and then there was the thread of and downpours of rain.  Today thunder storms are expected at around 4 pm, which makes sense due to the heat/humidity.

I finished the "mini" quilt for the Gypsy Moth shop contest.  I'll take it along when I go for my class on using the long arm there next week.  We received two fat eights and needed to use at least 25% of them in our projects.  One is the binding and the center of the Dresden flower along with some petals.  The other is the flower pot and the center of one of the smaller flowers.  I guess they "went" together but I had a heck of a time coming up with an idea for using them.

The required size was 12" x 15" and that posed a problem for me, too.  I did some hand applique, some hand quilting, and some embroidery on this piece.  Of course, now that it's done, I see that, as usual, the pot is crooked "On the Patio."  Why, that's the name of the piece.  

The label on the back has the quilt name, basic info about me, and my age.   WTH!   I rather resent having to add the age, but...  oh well.

I am slowly hand quilting fragile sections of my hankie quilt, but this morning I had a hankering for machine sewing.  I cut out and sewed some flying geese for this month's Rows Parade quilt along with Aby.  We need to make 48 during July and August, and I managed to make 24.  I'll rearrange them when I get the other 24 made.  

I got to thinking that this is going to be a very colorful quilt.  I will probably put a nice neutral between the rows when I go to put them together.  Or should I make some table runners with the rows?  We will have to wait and see.

This morning I'm meeting two other Friends of the Library to set up a collection of freebies at the agency that serves the needy in the area.  This is a trial to put small collections in waiting rooms around town using excess book sale books.   Afterwards, I'm having coffee with the new volunteer who will take care of the collection to keep it fresh.   It will most likely be iced coffee!

Catching up

 

Sometimes it seems like all I do is catch up on various projects and don't finish much.  When I look at my list of finished things, I see I actually do get things done.  But I always have a to-do list anyway.

Here is this month's Heart of Vermont guild block of the month.  I wasn't late, but it was on my mind since the last meeting, so I got it done over the weekend.  It is to depict a Memorial Day poppy, and I love red and white together.  I made myself one, too, and this one is for the monthly swap.  Lately, I don't put my name in for the swap since I won the purple hearts earlier this year.  One win a year is plenty for me!

The next thing on my agenda was to catch up on the monthly Rows Parade and since I had the red box out, I decided to make my April plus signs in reds and prints.  It's been so long that I worked on it that I forgot which size quilt I'd planned to make.  So I made all that's required for the queen sized quilt.  If I decide to make a smaller quilt, I'll just make a table runner or something with the leftovers.

If I do make the queen-sized quilt, I'll stagger the blocks with plain fabric as shown on my design wall.  But for now, I'm not putting any month's blocks together until I decide on the size and arrangement.  I also have some multi-colored nine patches, hearts, and blue criss-cross blocks.

See that piece of paper in the top right corner by the blocks?  That's my to-do list which has quite a few things crossed off.   I'm making progress!

Next were the May square in a square blocks for the Rows Parade, and I decided to make them in orange and yellow since I hadn't used that color yet.  Initially, this was to be part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, but I haven't been working on it for several months.  I like yellow and orange together, so I decided to dip into those boxes of scraps.

Today I started making the June blocks which are four patches surrounded by solidish fabrics.  I made the four patches and will cut the surrounding fabrics out later today or tomorrow.  

We had errands to run, followed by a little gardening and cooking.  I like to make dinner salads in the mornings on hot days (it's supposed to be near 90 later today).  Today's will be a pasta salad with tuna and pineapple.  Guess I chose pineapple because of making the square in a square blocks!