A busy week

I've been quilting here and there on the Green Beans and Sweet Tea quilt and also hand sewing the binding down on the Exploding Heart.  Nothing got finished, which is OK, really.  We had a very nice week, and today we're meeting for a taco bar lunch/meeting at the library with the Democrats.  I also hope to shop for some chocolate Easter bunnies for next Sunday and maybe do a little reading on the new Jennifer Chiaverini book.

Thursday, we went down to White River Junction to see the musical Waitress at Northern Stage. It was fantastic!  We had never been to this theater and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it is.  The town, has been working hard to upgrade itself, and there are some very nice little shops and restaurants within walking distance.  Even the bus station is much improved and squeaky clean.  We had lunch at home before driving down, but when we go again, we will be sure to try one of the eateries.  I was pleased to run into an old friend and her husband at the show.  We became friends in library school and then worked together for over 30 years.  We've lost touch in retirement, so it is nice to reconnect.

Yesterday we went to Montpelier to pick up a banjo Paul was trying to sell at an instrument exchange.  That chore done, we visited an art gallery/antique shop to see a friend's recent show.  Cara is a professor in the architecture program at a local university and also paints.  

These paintings were inspired by the quilts of Gee's Bend, and I loved the muted colors she used.  It was a little gloomy inside, but the colors are fairly true in the photo.  I liked all of the paintings, though the architectural detail in this one caught my eye.  There was another painting with the dome of our State House prominent.

Then in the afternoon, I called my cousin Jeanne and then my mom, which took up the rest of the day!  Both are great talkers, but I love them.  Good thing I had a leftover casserole to pull out of the refrigerator.

Distracted by food

I have read quite a few blogs and talked to a few people about not getting a lot done over the last few weeks.  The election and its aftermath seem to have taken the wind out of some people's sails, including my own.  One blogger said she was "driven to distraction."  I haven't been reading or sewing as much as I normally do.   When I do sit down and read, however, I am really enjoying Louise Penny's latest, The Gray Wolf.

Although I haven't been quilting as much as usual, I am about halfway around the wide last border of the Dresdent quilt.  It's pretty easy quilting - straight lines down the pieced and plain sections as in piano keys.  It's a fairly big quilt (72" x 72") for using a walking foot, but it's happening.  If I knuckle down I can have the quilting done in another week... but will I?  There's no deadline, really, but I would like to make a few drawstring bags for gifts I should be mailing soon.  Yesterday I wrapped all the presents I'm sending to my sister in the Netherlands, and I hope to get that package out this week.  Last year's package arrived way past Christmas, so I want to get it in the mail sooner.

I also want to start on a Sasquatch quilt for Chris.  I have the Elizabeth Hartman pattern, Legendary, which I plan to modify quite a bit and add a border made with a panel of mythical creatures.  I think it will be fun and fairly quick to do.  If I don't get it quilted by Christmas, I will simply wrap the top up and promise to get it finished by his birthday in January.

Mostly, I've been cooking soup and working with sourdough starter.  I bought the little container of starter at King Arthur Baking a few weeks ago and fed it religiously for a week.  I hate having the "discard" so have been searching for recipes to use that and also have been reading up on various ways to maintain the starter without so much discard.  I have a loaf in the freezer and plan to make another later today using the "no waste" method.   This light rye bread was really good.

Last Friday I spent much of the day cooking a huge kabocha  squash Chris brought from work.   It tastes great but has a very tough skin, so I cooked it in the crockpot for 5 hours.  Then I peeled it, removed the seeds, cut it into smaller pieces, continued on the stove before mashing it.  I have another one in the garage that I'll deal with eventually (before it freezes).

 Chris arrived yesterday with a frozen whole chicken, so I got a loaf of bread out to give him.  The chicken is now defrosting in the refrigerator because there's no more room in the freezer.  I'll cook it Wednesday (if it's defrosted by then) and we'll probably eat it for the rest of the week.

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.

Finally - sun!

We had some very chillly, gloomy days this week, but yesterday it started looking very nice, and today it's even better.  I finally snapped a picture of the bowtie quilt which I hope to get to Bags of Love very soon.  It was made with swap blocks from my online group.  Most people made one or two blocks to swap, but Debbie and I decided to swap 10 blocks each.  I made enough extra blocks to make this crib-sized quilt.

I took part II of my online walking foot quilting class on Thursday and, while my Elna doesn't cooperate when it comes to using fancy stitches to quilt, I did learn quite a bit that I can use right away.  In fact, yesterday I quilted two Christmas table runners using things I'd learned in class.  I just need to put the bindings on (by machine of course), and then I'll be able to take them down to the florist's to sell along with some Christmas stockings.   Everyone seems to be getting an early start on their holiday shopping, me included.

I have a few other things I want to quilt right away, but those I'll save until gift giving time during the holidays.  Most were made with "Snowflake Bentley" fabrics .  Wilson Bentley was a Vermont farm boy who was the first to figure out that each snowflake is different from all the others.  Beginning in 1883, he photographed the ones he caught, and his photos are now in the Smithsonian.   Marcus fabrics has a line featuring a panel with 8" individual snowflake blocks.  So far I've made two table runners and several hot pads and potholders with the blocks.  I'm running low on accent fabric, unfortunately.

This morning we took a quick trip over the antique mall.  It's usually closed for the winter right after Halloween, but this year the owner says he isn't reopening in May except to hold a closeout sale.  We wanted to wish him a happy retirement and to see if there was anything we couldn't live without.  I found a "Delft" (made in Belgium) plate that looks nice among all my other Dutch-themed things in our powder room.  I have been looking for a small table for our front hall, but no luck.  The plant stand covered with a quilt will have to continue there, maybe forever.

In my endless quest to lose weight, I started rowing this morning.  The nurse practitioner I saw suggested that I row at least 5 minutes a day until Thanksgiving at which time it will have become a habit I won't be able to stop.  I don't know about that, but today's session wasn't bad at all.

Finishes!

What a great feeling it is to finish long-standing projects!   This morning, I took pictures of two things I finished recently.

First is a Christmas throw made of one of my guild's blocks of the month.  I think the month was December, so the drawing was in January.  I call the block "Ribbon Star," although I'm not really sure what the name was.  At any rate, it was quite easy to make.  I really like the alternating sashing - green and red.  My friend Marie quilted it on her long arm using variegated green and red thread in a loopy floral design.

I have two more of these blocks left over so I may make some placemats for us to use over the holidays.  I didn't use them in the quilt because it was big enough and one of them was made of a juvenile print with a gold glitzy background (not my style!).  

I enjoy participating in the guild block of the month but I try not to enter more than once a year for fear I will win.  I usually make the block but don't put my name in the drawing.  I'm not sure who I'll give this throw to or if I'll put it in my etsy shop.   For now, it's going in a pile with all the other quilts I'm not planning to keep.

I received five homespun Ohio Star blocks in a "teacup" auction at the state guild meeting.  People buy tickets and then put their tickets into the teacup - or in this case a brown paper bag - by the item(s) they want to win.  No one was putting tickets into the bag for this item which also included some books, patterns, and fabric.  So, of course, I did... and won.  

All of the blocks were different colors except the two in the table runner I just made.  It took me a while to decide that I didn't need to use all five in the same project.   I love the denim-colored quilter's linen I used around each block set on point and am happy to have some left over for a future project.  Now I have two blocks left over that will probably become potholders.  I'm going to take this table runner to the florist/gift shop downtown to sell when they are ready to take more items.  They opened the day after the flood cleanup but are still fine tuning.   

This morning, I got the binding on the bargello Christmas tree skirt, but I didn't take a picture yet.  Will do that tomorrow if I get a chance.  That project wasn't too hard once I figured out that paperplates were helpful for keeping track of the order of each fabric.  I used a preprinted piece of batting from the Warm Co. and found the instructions very helpful.  I needed over 6 yards of bias binding, though, and didn't have enough coordinating Christmas fabric.  I ended up buying green commercial bias binding, and it turned out surprisingly nice, even though it is a bit stiff.

Hopping around

I think most quilters hop around between different quilting (and other) projects, and I am no exception!  I have a long list of UFOs on the "slow go," as one friend put it.  Yesterday I finished up a knitted hat and scarf to give to kids going into foster care.  I'll deliver them along with a few more hats and a quilt on Thursday.

I also worked on my Jen Kingwell Sweet Tea and Green Beans quilt that I started this summer.  I love a mix of applique and piecing, but this pattern is meant for hand piecing which I rarely do.  I'm sewing mine on the machine when I can and hope to do more wool applique.   This will probably take me most of the next year to finish, but I do love working on Kingwell's unusual samplers.

I love the outer border with its vine and whimsical flowers.  It will be a while before I get there, though.  My quilt will be scrappy, but I am using a neutral background - cream with a brownish small print.  I think I have enough of it to get through the whole pattern, but to be on the safe side, I'll cut the outer border soon and set it aside (with a note to remind me about what it is).

Robin and I are doing a demo on "green wrapping" at the state quilt guild meeting in a few weeks, so I also made a couple of little goodie bags for Christmas.  I used a Halloween pattern from last month's BH&G American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  Today I'll make a quick Japanese knot bag which is partly cut out and maybe start knitting a baby hat with peach leftover yarn.

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

We've been in Colorado for a week, visiting Mom and my sister Jenny.  Mid-way through our visit, my Wisconsin brother Axel arrived.   We squeezed into the car one day (with two walkers) to go to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden.  Thank goodness it is only about 15 minutes away.  There were three quilters featured, including Lea McComas who I've seen on Quilting Arts TV.  She does some incredible thread painting.

Another quilter on exhibit was Sharon Schlotzhauer whose applique and 3-D quilts were also amazing.  I was very impressed with her use of pieced prairie points in the curvy lines of this quilt.  

Many of her quilts included beads and other shiny things, along with hand applique.

The sheer simplicity of this quilt really inspired me to try something similar very soon.

All in all, it was a peaceful trip with lots of family time.  Mom is 101 and still pretty sharp although she is a little less mobile than when I saw her last year.  We sat on the back porch, chatted, and watched the birds and gardens a lot.  I handsewed some Manx quilt blocks which are turning out pretty nice.

Now that we are home, it's time to get back in the swing of busy-ness, with lots of fall events coming up.

Happy 4th!

Wishing everyone a happy 4th of July.  I arrived in this country from the Netherlands in 1952 on July 5th, so it is an important day for me.  We usually don't do a lot different today than any other day and, in fact, we're having leftovers for dinner.   In 2017, we did go to Paul's sister Pat and her husband Jay's house for a BBQ but they stayed in Florida this summer, so it's just us this year.  I remember Pat decorated a sheet cake with berries to look like an American flag.

When I was a teenager, we lived in Rockville, Maryland, where our family always went to the 4th of July sing-along and fireworks.  Mom loved the old songs because they were all new to her.   Bicycle Built for Two was one of her favorites.  The fireworks were always spectacular.  That was when Rockville was a small town where most people knew each other.  We all sat in the bleachers at the high school, and the fireworks were shot off on the football field.  Traffic going home was awful and, while we could have walked, it was nighttime at the end so we endured.

The last couple of days I have been hand quilting parts of the hankie quilt that are a bit too fragile to quilt by machine.  I hope to put the two sections together and work on the borders soon.   I've also been working on a small quilt to enter into the Gypsy Moth Quilt Shop's summer contest.  Will try to take a photo today.   No one I've spoken to likes the fabric we needed to use, but I don't think my piece turned out that badly.

I've reached the top part of the baby hat I've been knitting so will do the decreases and finish.  Maybe today although it's been too hot/humid to do a lot of knitting the last few days.  I may simply sit and read as I did yesterday.  My e-book, Remarkably Bright Creatures, is due at the library Saturday and I'm about half-way finished.  It started slowly, but I'm beginning to see why it's been such a favorite of so many.  Give it a try if you like a fresh story with unusual characters.

A nice encounter

We had a busy day yesterday which started off very nicely.  As I was going into the library for a Democrats meeting, I walked up the stairs with the chair of our school board.  She asked me if I am the quilter who had a quilt in the recent Studio Place Arts online auction.  When I said I was, she said she had bought the quilt using the "buy it now" feature and loves it.  I was thrilled!  

I gave it to SPA for their auction last year, and, sadly, no one bid on it.  I worried that it wouldn't sell again this year, and I was planning to take it back and offer them something else to auction off next year.  Besides that, I was happy because she is such a nice person!  It always feels good when someone likes something you've made.

After the Dems meeting, I went home and got Paul so we could go to the Pride Festival in the City park.  There were lots of people there, all having fun.  We bought a few things at the bake sale - funds go to Outright Vermont - and looked at some of the other booths.  I got a free flag to hang on the door.

On the way home, we stopped at a yard sale three doors down and bought a gas grill.  Ours bit the dust over the winter, and we were mourning the loss of charbroiled items, particularly the Wagu beef waiting in the freezer.   We had hot dogs last night for dinner.  I'll get out the beef next time Chris is over for dinner.

In between, I went to the Calico County Quilters meeting and did a little more hand quilting on my longstanding white on white UFO.  The end of that project is in sight - two or three meetings to go.  It's always fun to see those ladies and catch up on their lives and projects.  Everyone is so supportive of everyone else's projects.  Several of them are working on English paper pieced items.  That's not for me, but it's still fun to watch those items develop.

This afternoon, an old friend is arriving for an overnight.  Sonia moved to Albany after living in Plattsburgh, only an hour and half away, for several years.  I miss seeing her.   We have known each other since we were librarians in neighboring towns near Syracuse 50 years ago.   We had planned to go to a talk at the Old Labor Hall, and Sonia said she'd be interested in coming along.  We'll have dinner out and, I hope, watch the Emmy Awards afterwards.

Arboretum

I am really on a roll these days, getting right into the sewing room as soon as I can in the morning.   Yesterday, I started putting together some blocks I received in a swap along with some I had made myself.  I moved those blocks around and around until I finally had them the way I think I wanted them.  This pattern, Arboretum, was designed by Spring Leaf Studios.  The blocks are easy and improvisational which made them fun to make.  The designer used Kaffe Fasset fabrics, but most of mine are made of batiks.

   Sewing the blocks together was fairly easy, and by afternoon, I had the middle all put together.  This morning, I put on a 3" border, took a picture, and hung the top up in the closet with two other quilt tops that need quilting and backs (my least favorite job).   The $64,000 question is, when will I get around to quilting it?   Who knows!?!  

I got out another batch of blocks this morning, some purple floating stars on white backgrounds that I won in a guild raffle.  I laid them out, using 20 of the 21 blocks, cut some sashing and cornerstones, and started putting them together.  Because the guild has a few beginners, the blocks are a bit disparate in size.  Some needed coping strips to fit in.  Luckily, I have plenty of white for those.

I did find some lovely purple on white sashing fabric by Victoria Findlay Wolfe in my stash which I must have bought this past summer during my birthday "spree" at the local quilt shop.   I always stock up because we get half our age as a discount.  The older I get, the better!  

I'm going to sit down and read for a while this afternoon.  I've been entirely too industrious this week, and Jacqueline Winspear's latest book is calling.  Hope you have a great Easter if you celebrate.  We don't usually do much special but I do usually make a nice lunch for Paul, Chris and me.  This time, I thought we'd go out for Chinese which should be fun.

Jinny Beyer

 We got back from our southern adventure on Thursday just before lunchtime.  It is good to be home, but it was also fun to be on the road, especially in warmer (to us) climes.   We had some chilly days in Virginia and wore our mid-weight winter jackets most of the time.  Still, a change of scene is always a good thing.

In Harrisonburg, Virginia, early in the trip, we visited the Virginia Quilt Museum, and I marveled at a retrospective exhibit of master quilter Jinny Beyer's work.  She is retiring and recently closed her shop in Virginia across the Potomac from where I grew up.  I have enjoyed using her fabrics over the years.  

Most of the quilts in the exhibit were pieced and quilted by hand, and the fussy cutting was amazing!  My pictures do not do her quilts justice, but I thought I'd share a few anyway.  Up close and personal, they show Beyer's incredible mastery of the craft.  The medallion quilt above appears to be queen-sized, and the blue/green one was a wall hanging.  I love the way it flows.

Just south of Harrisonburg is Staunton, another place we had visited before.  We had tickets to two plays at Blackfriar's Theater and stayed in a hotel right next door.  It's a charming town, perfect for walking, and we enjoyed discovering Trinity Episcopal Church with its lovely Tiffany windows.

On Friday evening, we enjoyed Shakespeare's As You Like It, with just seven actors playing multiple parts.  I love the recent trend of diversity in casting.  This group worked well together, as was seen the following evening in a modern version of Eurydice.  Before each performance, they entertained us with several songs, and after Eurydice we stayed for a "talk back" with the cast and crew which was very interesting.  We hope to get back to Staunton again.  

[more on our trip to come!]

Rocky Mountain birthday

We are back to our "real" life, after a week in sunny Colorado for Mom's 100th birthday.  We arrived last Monday so that we could help with preparations for a Saturday party at the church around the corner.  We made runs to the dollar and grocery stores, Coors gift shop, and Target for party stuff and even squeezed in a visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.   

The museum had two interesting exhibits.  One featured quite a few quilts on appliqued clamshell backgrounds and the other was entitled "Evolutions."  I'm participating in a cake block swap right now, so this quilt really appealed to me.  My blocks are different from this, but I could add a cake block that's similarly embellished.

Here's one of the "Evolutions" quilts.  I liked it for its slices of color and the beaded embellishments in the center.

My photo doesn't do it justice.  Guess you had to be there.  Here's my favorite "Evolution" quilt:

Five relatives from the Netherlands arrived later in the week, which was just great, and it was fun to see my brother and his family, my sister, and my very vibrant mom again.  It had been almost three years since we visited because of the pandemic.  That's just too long!

Here's a picture of Mom before the party:

There were about 100 people there all together, and it was fun.  I got to meet quite a few of mom's friends and also got reacquainted with some long-time ones, including a couple who now live in Illinois and drove two days to get there.  It was an action-packed trip, but oh, so worth it!

Fun foodie times

 

I saw this on Bonnie Hunter's blog today and just had to laugh.  Ain't it the truth?!?  My friend Pam and I met for breakfast on Tuesday and had some delicious bagels with cream cheese.  No guilt but, afterwards, we did talk about now hard it is to lose weight at "our age."  Today Paul and I are meeting Bob and Pauline for lunch at a great burger place, and tomorrow Mary and Manny are coming for dinner.  Fun times do revolve around food, but it's fine, really.  

I've been reading What Happened to the Bennetts? by Lisa Scottoline, quite a page-turner.  I take breaks periodically to sew, and yesterday I finished a quilt top using a line of fabric by Robin Pickens called "Tulip Tango."  I guess I'll call the quilt that, too, until I can think of another name.  I love the mix of pinks and lime greens in this quilt which features Sawtooth Stars in various sizes - 4", 6", 8", and 12".

Today and this weekend I'll work on miscellaneous blocks of the month - a 12" basket for guild, 6" rosebuds for an online swap, and some RSC blocks.  I need to get busy with the cake blocks for a swap I'm in, too, but I want to put some ricrac between the layers and keep forgetting to run over to Joann's for some.  When I finish all of these miscellaneous things, I'll start working on the Unity quilt round for this month with all its fiddly pieces.  This is next-to-last round with lots of HSTs has been intimidating me for some time.  I'll take it easy and hope to finish by July.

Elephants

 This fall, I joined a swap of 10.5" elephant blocks.  We could use any pattern we wanted and have the elephants facing in any direction we wanted, as long as we used Kaffe Fassett-like fabric and black backgrounds.  

The blocks have been coming in; I'm waiting for a few more.   One of the swappers has COVID, so her block won't be coming until February.   I was itching to see how they'll looked together.   I thought a simple setting would work well, given the colorful fabric used.  When the rest of the blocks come, I will sash them so that the black and colorful sashings alternate.  I'm hoping for a 36" square quilt - baby or wall hanging sized.  

Today it's quite sunny, but at 10:30 it was still one degree below zero.  All these continuous days indoors have made me restless, and the best thing for me is to sew.  I have these blocks ready to put together and the binding ready to go for whenever the other blocks arrive.  

Pam is coming for lunch, and this afternoon I'll get my book out - Murder at Malabar House - and try my hand at Wordle.  

Steadily working

 

Wish I could say I have finished something in the last few days, but nope!  Not happening!   It's been a busy week.  Tuesday, I made two batches of Chex Mix which I divided for gifts (kept just a little for me and Paul).   I did a bit of reading in between stirring every 15 minutes while it all baked.  I'll bake some cookies over the weekend and will put some in the freezer for after the holidays.

Wednesday, I helped set up and clean up a luncheon for the library staff.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it, including the bowl cozies and soup mix in a jar I'd made them.  One person reminded me that one year I gave everyone Christmas socks - she had just worn hers the previous day.  I am glad the Friends of the Library can do something like this each year for the staff who have been working super hard to keep service going.

In between holiday stuff, I've been putting the quilted blocks of the "big block sampler" (for lack of a decent name) together.  After I quilted each of the four strips, I have been putting them together, one at a time, hand sewing the back seams and then machine quilting the sashing between the sections.  Fitting the sections together is a bit tricky but looks good in the end.  Cornerstones are essential to keeping it all square.

Above is my favorite block in the quilt because it used so many 2.5" squares and some of my stash of half-square triangles, too.   I enjoyed quilting each block separately, even the appliqued one.  Each block finishes at 16".  It feels good to end the year with a very scrappy quilt.  After I get the sections together and cream borders on, I'll decide about a final border - scrappy, strings, plain?  I'll wait and let the quilt "talk" to me about what it wants.

Creepy Santa

 

I've had this Santa since I was five or six.  When new, it had a light inside, but that is long gone.  We get him out every year despite his rather creepy appearance.  Sometimes he sits on a shelf; sometimes on the mantle; sometimes on the back of the toilet; and now it resides at the top of our Christmas "tree." 

A few years ago, Chris made a "tree" to hold the Christmas village we've had since he was a baby.  My parents sent the first two houses and then sent one or two every year for a while.  We had outgrown the small table and then the window seat that we had it on, and I was tired of putting up the conventional tree.  This new set up works well for us.   We can still put presents underneath, it has lights to brighten our evenings, there are no needles to drop, and I could actually buy a few more houses on eBay.  A total win!

Chris brought it up from the basement on Wednesday, and we set up the houses.  He used to scatter small Star Wars figures throughout, but this year only Yoda is visible (I haven't found him yet).

 This picture is rather dark because the village is set up in front of our double glass doors.  I have a few plants on a table behind it, including an orchid that, miraculously, keeps blooming.  We enjoy having more light in the late afternoon and early evening these days.  Paul reminded me that the days won't start getting longer again until after the 21st.  It sometimes gets dark enough to turn on the living room lights at 3 pm these days, yet there is a nice reflection from the snow on sunny days.

I finished sending out Christmas letters yesterday, have wrapped everything that needs it, and am cleaning the oven today in preparation for a bake-a-thon.  Actually, I don't bake a lot for Christmas, but I do like a few sweets and a lot of Chex Mix.  Much of it goes out the door, though.

Today I'll finish putting the 16" blocks together in strips for quilting and hope to start quilting the first section.  While I'm quilting, I'll think about whether it needs a border and what one might look like.  Right now, with 1.5" sashing and borders, it will measure 71", getting close to twin size.

Busy times

 

This is the quilt I took on Saturday for Show and Tell at the state quilt guild meeting.  Made up of leftover pieces of last fall's Bonnie Hunter mystery, I call it Vermont Spring because the bigger quilt ended up being called Green Mountain Spring.  At any rate, this quilt won first place in the state guild's virtual show, and for that I received an award at our first in-person meeting in two years.

We didn't have a huge turnout, but the program was excellent.  Roz Daniels, a friend and fellow guild member, told about her life as a quilter, from the 1970s with polyesters, through travels to exotic places, and now as an award-winning modern quilter.  I admire her creativity and approachability, and everyone seemed to enjoy seeing many of her interesting quilts.

Sunday, I got out my Options blocks of the month to see if I could put them together into a throw for a friend of my brother's who's been very helpful to him lately.  Ken has been driving Axel around to various doctor's appointments and helping him clean up his apartment - actually, it's with much-needed hoe out.  Why does a single guy need 46 water glasses?  Anyway, I started putting the blocks together on point and realized I didn't have nearly enough fabric. 

Of course, the quilt shop was closed Sunday and Monday, so I was chomping at the bit until yesterday when I found they are out of the fabric I was using for sashing.  So the whole setting is going to be more scrappy than I had planned.  I always have a lot of trouble figuring out the size of the setting triangles around the blocks in an on-point quilt.  Today I'll do the math and try to get everything cut out and start sewing.  I found some nice Aboriginal fabric in my stash for the back - hope I have enough.  

In between all this, I had my monthly pedicure/get together with my friend Debb, went to a Friends of the Library meeting, did laundry and some housecleaning, started knitting a hat while I decide if I'm going to continue with the very slow going sweater, and watched the rain pour down.  After a few days of gloom, we are hoping to see the sun some time today and finally get out for a walk or two.

More big blocks

 Each 16" block takes quite a bit of time to cut and put together, but I am enjoying the challenge.  Here are the latest.  First is a giant Dutchman's puzzle variation.

And next is a Courthouse Steps with a little churn dash in the center.

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.

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Photos!

I've been having a hard time taking pictures of finished quilts this year.  Paul, my main holder of quilts, has been ill for so long and, while he's getting a little better every day, he still isn't up to the task.  I asked a neighbor to hold a quilt and he just couldn't get the hang of holding it taut.  It kept sagging so you couldn't really see the quilt.  Chris has been busy doing lawn care so only comes on rainy, overcast days, not good for photography.  Yesterday I took a stack outside to hang on the fence at the corner of our yard.  Here are a few quilts made this year.

This little quilt uses vintage hankies and some Jane Austen reproduction fabrics.  I plan to give it to the Old Labor Hall for their next fund raiser since the hankies came from a loyal board member who passed away last year.

This bed-sized medallion quilt (twin?) features sashiko in the center, with borders all around.  I didn't use a pattern; just made things up as I went around.  The more I look at it, the more I like it.  Marie quilted most of it in a swirly pattern, but I hand quilted the center.  Who should I give it to?

The photo of the whole quilt shows that it's way too wrinkly to show.  I need to steam it to get some of the wrinkles out before photographing the whole thing.  It's a string quilt but more organized than my usual squares.  Based on "Honeycomb," by Karen Griska, this is about crib-sized and quilted on my home machine.

And here's the Dancing Nine Patch (based on a Bonnie Hunter pattern) I've been working on for the last few weeks.  I made the nine patches over the last year or so after I noticed my box of 2.5" scrappy squares was overflowing.  I had just enough of the blue sashing to finish.  I love the colorful striped border of this couch quilt.

I like the way the quilting turned out.

There are more photos to come - stay tuned!