Testing out a pattern

My friend Debbie in Indiana is always up for a block swap.  Last spring, she suggested a bow tie block swap, so we narrowed the size down to 8" squares because two fit neatly into an envelope with a first class postage stamp.  She and I exchanged ten blocks each and mailed two to each other participant.  Yesterday I laid the blocks I had out and sewed a few rows together. The swap doesn't end until September, and I'm waiting for one or two blocks from one person.  So I put it on a hanger in the closet for a while.  I may also make a few more to get a twin-sized quilt.

Meanwhile, Debbie and I are testing possibilities for another swap.  More people signed up for the bowties because they were easy.  I saw a very nice scrap buster this week which she and I each made.  I'm not sure the other folks in our swap group will be interested, so maybe it will be a project for just Debbie and me.  But this modern looking block is really easy and addictive to make.

The "Butterflies are Free" pattern includes 6 plain 3.5" background squares and 10 background squares with 2.5" squares sewn on the diagonal for a 12" square.  I had a lot of leftover gray pieces and a growing box of precut 2.5" squares to use and ended up making three blocks in a short time.  These made a table runner with some Tula Pink zebra fabric for the back.  It has a modern feel to it and may just catch the eye of someone at the florist shop.   I'll take it down to sell this coming week along with the blue star table runner I made a few weeks ago.

Debbie also made a very pretty block using a cream background and bright blue and yellow batiks.  We will check soon with the swap group to see if they want to swap these blocks in the next few months.   Postage has been a problem for some, yet we still have active participants from London and Ontario, along with members from the US.  If they aren't interested, Debbie and I may swap all by ourselves, or we may do something else.

I made one more 12" block, and now I'm out of larger scraps of gray except the solid gray.   I'll turn my attention to a few other projects for a while.   Yesterday at the Calico County Quilters sewing session, I applique a couple of half Dresden Plates and almost finished a whole one for the Lily of the West small quilt I'm making using the Flora line by Riley Blake.  Today I'll be paper piecing some butterflies to go with the plates, and I'll probably make some oatmeal blueberry muffins, too.  Hope you're having a nice Sunday!

Another orphan block quilt

I finished the last small quilt in a series using orphan blocks yesterday and feel I have license to work on a few other UFOs.  Whoopee!   I haven't made any Dear Jane or Green Tea and Sweet Beans blocks in several months, and of course, there's the Lily of the West quilt I just started last week.  I also have a couple of scrappy leaders/enders going, too, along with the bow tie block swap blocks.  I always chuckle when people ask me what I'm working on.  They are often surprised to hear that usually I have 10 or 12 quilts going at once.  That's not untypical for a devoted quilter.

Anyway, the quilt I just finished combines various guild blocks of the month with some string blocks.  I usually make my string blocks on an 8" paper foundation.  This time, after removing the paper, I cut each one in half diagonally and sewed four sections together.  Unfortunately, the result didn't measure the 12" of the BOM blocks so I had to border them in order for the blocks to fit together.  

I'll take this 50" x 50" quilt to Bags of Love for kids going into foster care as soon as I finish the little hat I've been knitting for them.  I have a bunch of leftover yarn to make a few more hats this fall and winter.  I decided not to buy any more yarn (I can't resist the lush colors of wool) until I use up some of my miscellaneous yarn.

The monthly guild "teams" decide the colorways for the blocks we bring for the monthly drawings.  I have been making two blocks the same and keeping one.  But this year, I've decided to try and make all of the blocks of the month I keep for myself in the same colorway.  I'm not sure what that will be yet, but I'm leaning toward blue and white to use some of the many blue scraps in my stash.

I am sure that Marie, the long arm quilter, will be letting me know soon that my Barn Star Sampler is ready because when I saw her last week, it was on the frame.  I'll try to cut a binding out for it in the coming week and pick it up next Thurs.  But today Deb and I are scheduled for our monthly pedicure and gabfest in the morning, and, in the afternoon, I'm going to the library to help clean up the booksale room with Pam and Martha-Jean.  By the time I get home I'll be thinking about what to make for dinner.   Black bean bowls?

The Christmas round robin

This year I participated in another round robin with five other members of the Heart of Vermont guild.  I have participated in several over the years and find it fun and challenging.  This time around, I had a nice Dresden Plate orphan block waiting to be used as well as a variety of holiday fabrics.  With six people and nine months to finish, we were able to take two months for the last few rounds.  This was great because, as the quilts grow, we often need more time to work on those rounds.  

I am always amazed at the work people put into these projects, and I enjoy getting to know different quilters through their work on the quilt tops.  While I certainly would not have added the borders group members added, I like the way my quilt turned out.  It measures about 50" x 50" and will look nice on our dining room table during the holidays.

One of the group members, Tammy, owns a long arm machine and generously offered to quilt everyone's quilts for free.  But I wanted to quilt mine myself, using my walking foot.  I find medallion quilts fairly easy to handle because I can anchor the rounds in the ditches and then go back and fill the borders in with quilting.

I especially enjoyed quilting around the "ornaments" border although I didn't go around the smaller cathedral windows.  I just quilted those 4" blocks in the ditch because of their bulk.  There was one green and white "ornament" left over which I turned into a signature block on the back, adding all the names of the participants.  This was a successful group which I'd love to work with on another quilt in the coming year.  We'll see how they all feel about it in September.

Although we had a reveal of all of the tops at our last guild meeting before the summer break, we will be showing our finished quilts at the September meeting.  Mine's all set to go, and now I'm quilting another UFO that's been waiting patiently in the closet.  It's been hot and humid, so the quilting room is the place to be.

Another trip around the sun

I had a very nice birthday yesterday although I did nothing very special.  We went out for groceries quite early, and then I got busy making a blueberry pie.  Paul was picking berries as I was working on it, but we still have plenty left.  He thinks we'll get another quart or so tomorrow.  What neighbor will I "gift" them to?  We've already given some away.  

I used the recipe for Triple Berry Pie that's available at Sally's Baking Addiction, my go-to site for all things baking.   I wish I'd put in a little more corn starch because the all-blueberry filling was still a bit runny, even though I didn't remove the pie from the oven until it reached the 200 degree temperature in the recipe.  But it was delicious!  Not too sweet with a nice crust, albeit made from a box.

We had planned to go to the Asian Gourmet restaurant with Chris for dinner, but in the afternoon we had off and on torrential rain.  The city was preparing sandbags for businesses to use in case Main Street flooded (it didn't), and, since the restaurant is right downtown, we decided to postpone our dinner to tonight.  That was OK with me as we had leftover curry chicken salad and, of course, the pie with some vanilla gelato on top.

I did a little reading and some more quilting on the Christmas round robin quilt, which I will continue with today.  I talked with Mom and enjoyed lots of emails, text messages, and Facebook well wishes throughout the day.  Just a nice way to greet age 76!

Knitted stuff

Yesterday was a recuperation day for me.  I didn't do a lot, just a little gardening in the early part of the day.  I sat down to watch Love of Quilting on TV along with a Hallmark mystery, something I rarely do.  I did some hand sewing of the Dresden Plate blocks I started last week.  And I wove lose ends of knitting things that will be going to kids in foster care eventually.

The "wave" scarf is made with a variety of colors, including shades of purple and brown and is quite long.  If I ever make another, using the technique called "short row knitting," I'll use a continuous couple of skeins of variegated yarn.  Adding the different colors was just a pain as all the additions and subtractions needed weaving in to finish.  But I do like the way it turned out.

The hat should fit ages 18 mos. to 4 years, but it's almost big enough to fit any kid's head.  Paul thinks it's appropriate for both boys and girls, but I imagine a little boy wearing it.  I bought several skeins that blue DK weight washable wool fully intending to make myself a sweater.  But then I realized I didn't have the stamina or interest to knit one.  So I've made lots of blue hats in the last couple of years.  I have a batch of other ends and pieces of yarn that I am hoping to make a few more hats out of this year, and yesterday I started one using remnant of cotton/acrylic blend variegated yarn.  It should go fairly quickly as it's for ages up to 18 mos.

This morning I'll head down to the library to meet the recycling crew which will take our 100 boxes of leftover books from the book sale.  I'll stop at the grocery store for milk and bread on my way home, and then I'll make a chicken salad for dinner.  This afternoon, I'll get together as usual with librarian friends around the country via Zoom.  They always have good suggestions for books, movies, etc. and there will surely be some discussion of politics.  In between, I'll probably put in a little time machine quilting a little Christmas quilt.

A successful summer ritual

Over the 24 years I've belonged to the Friends of the Library, we have almost always held a summer book sale during our town's summer festival, now called "Heritage Days."  This year was no different.

We set up the sale Thursday afternoon although I met the tent company representative that morning.  John was already setting it up when I arrived at 9 am, and he did a great job.  A bunch of us, including two young people we paid, put up tables supplied by the city, two pop up tents, and a whole load of books in boxes and on carts.  It took our relatively well-oiled machine under two hours.  

Friday morning, bright and early, a crew opened the sale for the day.  This is a picture taken by a new group in town that is supporting various causes, including the library.  These folks sold lovely tote bags that people could fill with books for free.  Half the money came to the Friends and the other half went directly to the library.  The Friends always offer very low prices and, this year, we added "buy five, get one free," which seemed to confound a few of the cashiers.  People always enjoy a bargain, though.

I helped out with sales on Friday afternoon and all day Saturday until the parade started at 1 pm.  That's when we got busy cleaning up.  All books were boxed and stacked in the library's vestibule.  On Monday, before the library opens, I'll meet the recyclers and wave goodbye to about 100 boxes worth of dregs.  Any books going to various giveaway sites have already been siphoned off for distribution this week.  The $2,000-plus we earned this weekend will go to programs for all ages during the coming year.  Today I plan to take it easy, quilt and read a bit, and begin to enjoy what's left of summer.

Still working with orphans

It

Sometime last week I got out all of the smaller orphan blocks I had and put them on the design wall.  Several seemed just perfect for mug rugs, so I made six.   I'll be giving them to the board of the state guild as thank you gifts at our meeting in August.   They really work hard to make the semi-annual meetings fun and active.   

I worked on a little table topper, too, which incorporated a few 6" blocks and a bunch of neutral "crumb" blocks.  I am thinking of a little applique on the neutral parts but will set it aside for a while.

Saturday, I joined the Calico County Quilters for a nice afternoon of hand stitching and chatting.  I made good headway on a sashiko piece I worked on in Colorado.  I'm not sure what I'll do with that when finished, but I have a few guild meetings' worth of embroidery to go.

The backing fabric for the purple Barn Star quilt came in the mail from Keepsake (how I miss their store in New Hampshire!). Now I need cut it to size and get it ready to take to Marie for long arming.  I hope to get to the quilt shop on Thursday when she works.

This morning I started cutting out a new quilt using a fat quarter bundle I've had for a while.  The fabric line is called "Flora" by Riley Blake, and while cutting I couldn't help singing that song about Flora, the lily of the West (I love this version by Tim O'Brien).  It's got pink, periwinkle, green, yellow, and black florals as well as a few geometrics which are making nice Dresden Plates.  

I saw a quilt on the Moda website that really caught my fancy, and I will adapt it to suit me.  I like a mix of applique, paper piecing, and regular piecing.   I'm planning a Dresden Plate to replace the center panel which didn't come with the bundle.   I'm not wild about panels anyway, but my next quilt will probably incorporate one.  Stay tuned for Bigfoot!

We were fairly busy this past week because of a break in the hot weather (ahh!  a few good nights' sleep!), and, regardless of the weather, we have a busy week and weekend coming up.  

Barre Heritage Days will flood downtown with lots of activity, including a library book sale Friday and Saturday.  The tent will be put up Thursday when we'll take all the accumulated books outside.  I'm scheduled to work Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday. Sunday I'll collapse, rest my feet, and maybe work on Flora a little more.