A look back

This morning, my cousin posted a picture of the family assembled for Mom's 100th birthday back in June.  I'm not sure if someone took it with her camera or where it came from, but we are all there, making it a super memento.

I'm on the end, in the first skirt I've worn in quite a while.  I enjoyed wearing that cool skirt throughout the summer.  Paul is next to me, and Chris is way over on the other end.  Mom had hired some ladies to take pictures, but I haven't seen any and I'm not sure she has either.   It would be fun to create a photo album of the event for everyone, including those who couldn't come.

It's a busy time around here with meetings, gatherings, and chores.  There's a mountain of laundry to do since I did none while Paul's brother Jim was visiting.  Today I'll shop for groceries and head over to Burlington for lunch with Sonia, an old friend from my Syracuse days.  She and I were beginning librarians in towns close by each other.  We gave each other lots of moral support in our 20s and kept in touch all these years, through moves, divorces, various jobs.  She has retired to the Albany area so we haven't seen each other much in recent years.  I can always count on her for a laugh, a strong opinion, and a cool head while shopping for a winter coat (which I don't need right now).

The coming week will be busy:  pedicure, Friends of the Library meeting, yoga, baking cookies for an author program at the library, neighborhood ladies' lunch, quilt bingo, and the fall state quilt guild meeting.  In between I'll try to do a little sewing.  I laid out the first section of Austen Jubilee yesterday, but I probably will continue with the Scrappy Mountains quilt when I get a chance.   I'm looking forward to a quieter November.

Fall's next phase

 

We made another trip to Green Mount Cemetery Thursday to find what we hoped were the last three monuments for Paul's book.   Unfortunately, we had to return on Saturday for two more.  I help with the GPS coordinates, and he photographs them.  As I told my mom, you have to be a mountain goat to roam around that place.  Thursday was a warmish but gloomy day, but sometimes that makes the waning foliage shine better.  

It rained Friday and was windy, too, so I many leaves started falling and the colors began to fade.  The tour buses and RVs started moving south, following the color.  Our restaurants will again have room for us.  They had been posting on Facebook that they were booked up - which is good - but cautioning locals that they might have to eat at the bar after long waits.  The restaurant at the country club closed until spring over the weekend.  We like to go there to eat on the patio and look at the scenery but didn't get a chance this summer.

Soon it will be "stick season" in these Green Mountains.  We are hoping for a winter getaway, after three winters at home.   We're not sure how far south we'll go yet or even when we'll head that direction.  Our road trip this summer made us realize how much nicer it is to drive than to fly.  We enjoy seeing new places and having food and gear along.

Meanwhile, I've been cleaning up the quilting room for a guest arriving today.   Whenever this happens, I turn my attention to handwork and knitting.  I'm halfway through knitting a striped scarf and almost finished appliqueing melons in a starburst pattern onto a string pieced background for a wallhanging.  Maybe I can finish that this week.   I'm in a bit of a holding pattern until the next issue of Quiltmaker arrives with the last "clue" for the mystery quilt.  Austen Jubilee is my biggest UFO from 2021-22.

On the design wall

I've had a productive few days in the sewing room, after several days with unexpected company.  Paul's brother-in-law came out of the hospital Thursday and really couldn't go back to his remote island summer home with little or no heat.  We have had some very chilly nights, and Jay needed rest.  They stayed with us for a few nights and then headed south to Florida where their condo had no hurricane damage.   The warmth should also help Jay feel better.

We were happy to help, but I'm glad to have my sewing room back, too.  I was in the middle of making some log cabin Christmas stockings when they arrived, and I finished them on Monday.  I started out by making a small log cabin quilt top which I then cut the stockings out of.  I use batting in the front and quilt it, but the back is simply two layers of fabric.  This makes the stocking a little more flexible.   These stockings are going into a Christmas raffle at the library in December.

On my design wall now are some test blocks for a quilt to hang at a senior nursing/rehab center that recently renovated its courtyard entrance.   I'm going to see if the Calico County Quilters group would be interested in working on a group quilt which only needs to be 4' x 5'.  I chose Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties for its ease and "Vermontish" feel.  It's an easy pattern - these blocks only took about an hour to cut and sew - and I hope it will make a fun group quilt.

I'm not totally sold on this colorway -- green scrappy quilts tend to be a little blah.  I thought the light blue "sky" backgrounds would work, but now that they are together on the wall, I see some brighter skys might help them stand out better.  The quilt will hang over a door and shouldn't fade into the beige wall.  I'll see what the group thinks.  

After I got these blocks made, I decided to break out my Go Baby and start cutting out scrappy Hunter's Star pieces.  I'm using various colors and various gray backgrounds for this quilt.  Stay tuned!

Fall is showing its beauty

A drive to the mall on Friday revealed absolutely no fall color.  It's always a nice view, but it was still green.  On Saturday morning, it was chilly and foggy, and when I drove down to the grocery store, the colors had popped overnight.  Everywhere we turn, there are reds, golds, and more.  Yesterday's drive up to the mall (I rarely go there; this was to pick up Paul's new glasses after his appointment Friday), an overwhelming amount of color.  

And the tour buses and RVs are everywhere!  Local restaurants are warning folks about reservations made by tour groups and some long waits to get seats.  But the weather has been so nice that we've been getting some last grillings in before we put the grill away for the winter.  

I got the little yoyo quilt bordered and sandwiched and then started quilting it yesterday.  These yoyos have been appliqued to squares so quilting has been in the ditch and then 1/2" away from the ditch on both sides.  Pretty easy.  I should be able to finish today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm buried in Robert Galbraith's Ink Black Heart, a 1,000 page mystery.  Galbraith is the pen name for J. K. Rowling who can always tell a good story, but, while this is absorbing, I am getting impatient and want to find out whodunnit!  When I took the hard cover copy back to the library (it is very heavy), I suggested that they allow borrowers to read it over six weeks, rather than the month they've been giving them.  I'm reading the Kindle edition now which is a lot easier to hold!

Another sampler

I've had this little quilt waiting for a photoshoot, but it keeps raining and/or looking gloomy.  So today I laid it out on the living room floor and took its picture.  It's a little sampler that will be joining a few others at Bags of Love, which gives quilts and knitted items (I am also sending a few) to kids going into foster care.

I enjoyed making all of the individual blocks, especially the wonky stars, but I worried over arranging them all together.  It's a mishmash, but perhaps a kid can play "I Spy" with it.

I heard about a program to give "blankets" to new refugees called "Welcome Blankets."  My local quilt shop is a drop off point.  They are taking blankets, afghans, quilts, and more, but they all have to be 40" x 40".  

I had one 24" UFO left hanging in the closet after my summer finishing frenzy.  It was made with some yoyo blocks by quilters in the state guild.  We had a ton of blocks made and created 6 or more crib-sized quilts with them, as well as a little wallhanging for our outgoing president.  Yesterday, I expanded the little leftover quilt top to the 40" x 40" size the Welcome Blankets group wants.  I hope to get it sandwiched this afternoon, and I'll quilt away for the next few days. I find it difficult to go around those yoyos which are appliqued onto the center of 5" black and white charm squares.  That's why it's been a UFO, but I am happy to have a place to send it to.

Show and tell

 I took a couple of quilts to guild show and tell the other night.  First is a little (36" x 36") quilt made with blocks of the month I won in the lottery.  I made the purple one (top right), and all the rest were made by guild members.  One was smaller than the 12" suggested, but I just added a little sashing to make it work.  That was a tough block to make (because the pattern given was difficult to read) so only six of us participated in the lottery.

This Ohio Star Variation (?) will go to "Bags of Love" for kids in foster care.  I had the border and binding fabric in my stash.  The backing was a sweet purple and green print that I had found on the guild free table several months ago.  I quilted it in about a 2" grid, using a smaller one for the plain sections around the outside.

I also showed my Unity Quilt (a Bonnie Hunter pattern) at the meeting.  Several other people have been working on them, too, and I'm curious to see how theirs end up.  It was quite an intense experience, and I hope not to do another BH pattern for quite a while (if ever)!

  

The yellow fabric was a constant, but the neutrals (and there are many) and the light and dark blues were all scraps.  I had a lot of trouble fitting the last border on, even though each round's measurement were exactly as Bonnie had stated they should be.  In the pattern, she noted that the last border needed to be "eased," and I can attest to that.  It took me quite a while to get it on.

Marie quilted it in a swirly pattern and said she had no trouble with the last border, which was a relief to me.  It's now on our guest bed and looks great.  This is the best shot I've gotten, though, since the room is small.

Yesterday we drove over to Plattsburgh, NY, for calling hours for Paul's cousin who had passed away suddenly.  I had never met Susie, but we had talked about visiting sometime.  It's a good reminder to catch up with relatives sooner rather than wait. 

Guild Block of the Month

 We had our first Heart of Vermont quilt guild meeting Tuesday night, and it was so good to see everyone again.  Some hadn't been for several years due to COVID.  We sat in "teams" for the month we'd been assigned to.  With such a large guild (80 members?), we like being broken down into teams so that we meet new people.  When the guild first started, some of the people were very clique-ish.  I always try to sit by someone I don't know, but others were adamant that they had to sit with their friends.  I found it very annoying.  

We'll have a choice of where to sit during future meetings, but at this one, we made plans for our monthly programs.   We have some outside speakers coming, which is always fun, and then some home-grown programs this year.  I'll be doing the January program on UFOs, something I am very familiar with.  I want to encourage a little swapping of UFOs during that session, and I hope some will take me up on it.

There is always a block of the month, and last night "Indian Star" was introduced in a red and white colorway.  Above is my block to swap next month as introduced the other night, and here's my variation to keep.   As you can see, I wasn't wild about the suggestion to use just one red fabric.  I'll be curious to see what others do.  If I'd had a lighter red in my stash, I might have used that instead of the red on white.  But I like the way the block turned out.

We also were issued a challenge.  A quilter passed away, and her husband gave Suzy a batch of Asian panels and fabrics.  Anyone who wanted to, took one to work with in any way desired.  We'll have show and tell toward the end of the year, probably in June.  

I chose a panel with a deep purple background and what appears to be Mt. Fuji.  I'm putting it away for now and will get it back out later in the year.  Working on it will be a good snowy day project.  And yes, fall is here today, and a cold front with night temperatures in the 30s is predicted.  But there will still be warmer days, which is good because I have a little yard work to do.