Spring!

 

When I saw these at the grocery store yesterday, I just could not resist buying them.  Later in the morning, as I was sewing, a huge flock of cedar waxwings swooped into the flowering crabapple tree outside my window.  They gobbled the little fruits and then swooped away.  Still later, a flock of robins pecked around on the front yard.  I think they know that spring is near.  

In true April fashion, it's supposed to rain all week.  This is good as we need the rain AND, best of all, gives me an excuse to spend as much time as possible sewing.  I've got 36 Wensleydale blocks made - just 20 left to go!  I ordered some matching fabric for the border via etsy yesterday.  I've found etsy orders come quickly, so I'm hoping I'll be nearly ready for it when it arrives.

We went to the movies yesterday to see Project Hail Mary, and I highly recommend it.  It was fun, interesting and very touching.  Ryan Reynolds was perfect in it.  How nice it was to see the theater practically full.  The last few times we've gone to the movies, there were only a handful of other people there.

Illusive spring

I was working on another Wensleydale block yesterday and glanced, as I usually do, out the window behind my machine.  A flock of robins was hopping around the front yard!  What a great sight.  It gave me hope that spring is on the way.  It was a sunny day but chilly and windy.  Later in the day we had a brief snow shower, but my optimism about spring remains undaunted.   "The snow that takes away the snow" will inevitably give way.  My Dutch sister has been posting pictures of Keukenhof where everything is abloom.

It's one week before Easter, and my pink Christmas cactus is blooming.  Friday I drove over to the Lake Champlain Chocolate outlet and got some chocolate bunnies.  Their chocolate is delicious - almost as good as Dutch - and I like to give them away to family and friends.  This Saturday we'll be going to Burlington to see a play about Marie Curie with longtime friends Pauline and Bob.  Afterwards, we'll have dinner at our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant and spend the night.  We all have Easter things to do, so Paul and I will head home fairly early in the morning, and I'll leave them each a bunny.

My daily goal is to make five Wensleydale blocks a day, and I cut out a bunch more fabric yesterday to make it all easier.  Today we have some grocery shopping to do, and then I'll get right to it.  This afternoon we're hoping to get to the movies to see Project Hail Mary.  The theater always shows films with subtitles on Sunday afternoons.  I plan to make some chili for dinner before we leave.  So I'd better get on with my day.  Hope you have a good one!

Continuing on with Wensleydale

Before I left on vacation I cut a bunch more fabric for the Wensleydale blocks.  The pieces are all stacked on paper plates so I can pick them up in turn and mix the fabrics as I go.  I made five blocks in the last few days and took the papers out yesterday while watching TV.  There are now 21 blocks made.  I'll need at least 35 more, but I was running low on larger pieces of Christmas fabric.   Luckily, the fat quarter bundle I ordered before we left arrived, and I can cut those fabrics when I get a chance.

I don't usually work on one quilt at a time, but somehow Wensleydale is so satisfying to paper piece that I'm sticking with it for now.  The larger harp on my machine makes it fairly easy to maneuver the 6" x 11" papers; it would be more difficult with a conventional harp.  It's fun to see the variety of blocks as they develop.

Yesterday I took the teal tote bag I made a while ago down to Studio Place Arts, the local gallery, for their spring silent auction.  The director seemed thrilled with it (perhaps it's the only practical item in the auction so far?) and asked if I make them to sell.  Because it took me about half a day, I said it is a one-of-a-kind.  I confine my energy mostly to quilts anyway.

Then she asked if I was busy making spring clothes!  Ha!  I am lousy at garment sewing and haven't made anything to wear in many years.  Quilting is my jam!  I did tell her I bought some pink sneakers but haven't worn them yet as it still feels pretty wintry.  Anyway, I hope the tote will be a big hit for the gallery and bring someone joy.   A woman who "won" a little wallhanging of mine a year or so ago told me she loves seeing the little scrappy houses every day.

Beaufort, South Carolina

We arrived home from lovely Beaufort yesterday around 1 pm.   It's a three day drive either way, which we have decided is too long for us nowadays.  Next time we go south, we will probably fly and rent a car.  We did need a car in Beaufort - to go to the laundromat, to visit the other islands, and to go to the Kazoo Museum.  Other than that, we walked everywhere which was fine with us in such nice weather.  There was only one rainy day, and we even managed to get outside between showers then, too.

Our motel was downtown and just a block from restaurants, shops, and tour meeting points.  We took several tours, beginning with a golf cart history tour that took us by some amazing antebellum houses once owned by plantation owners, briefly run as Union hospitals in the Civil War, and then owned by other wealthy folks.  Their gardens were amazing.

Beaufort is a very nice city, perfect for tourists.  Our first morning walk brought us by Harriet Tubman's monument, and we learned about her time teaching freed blacks and organizing a raid on rice fields owned by Confederates.  On an excellent walking tour led by a ranger from the Reconstruction Era History center, we also learned about Robert Smalls, a former slave who captured a Confederate ship, and later served in the US Congress.  A major motion picture is being made of his life.  

The Pat Conroy Literary Center was high on our list of places to see, and we enjoyed our tour with a northern transplant.  A couple also on the tour were devoted Conroy fans and lent other information about one of our favorite authors.

As I mentioned, on a rainy day, we visited the Kazoobie Kazoo factory and museum for what turned out to be a fun tour.  Everyone got make their own kazoo in colors of their choosing.  Paul's is all black, but mine is purple and hot pink.  The kids on the tour really seemed to enjoy that part, but Paul and I enjoyed learning about and seeing all of the similar instruments that have been developed.

The Gullah-Geechee three hour tour on St. Helena Island was very good, too.  Our guide, who also works as a storyteller, talked to us some of the time in Gullah, a West African patois based on the native language ("Krio") of the people brought over to farm rice and indigo on the islands around Beaufort.  We visited the Brick Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr., worked on his "I Have a Dream" speech, and e drove on back roads, including the one where they filmed the "run, Forrest, run" sequence in Forrest Gump.

There were lots of great restaurants to try, but the hearth-cooked lasagna at Plum's was to die for.  I did enjoy some crab cakes, but unfortunately Paul didn't get a po'boy.  Next vacation, maybe!  

Packing, cleaning, and more

This afternoon I'll be packing for our trip.  I have lots of stuff gathered or thought about and just have to fold them neatly to get into suitcases and tote bags.  I don't like to do it too early in the day in case I change my mind or take too much that I never use.  I'm not looking forward to three days' drive, but I do like to have our car with us.  When we're going for a while somewhere, I like to take food, coffee, things to do (knitting, reading, etc.), chargers, and guidebooks.  Paper towels and disinfecting wipes come in handy on the road.

This morning, I made my RSC blocks for the month.  The color for March is red and I have already made a bunch of red log cabin blocks.  I just had to make a couple of red Traffic Jam blocks.

I had to cut some more 2" and 3.5" squares of red this time.  I have a box of 2" squares that makes this the perfect block for the RSC most months.  I hope the next color will be purple or orange.  At the end of the year I'll make some brown/beige/black ones to fit here and there.

I put away all of the Wensleydale blocks just to keep them together.  I have more pieces cut for when we get home.  It's fairly easy once I get the rhythm of cutting and paper piecing.  I may even finish before summer if I keep at it.  I hope there are a few quilt shops on our trip as I need a small transfusion of holiday fabrics.  If not, I'll order some when I get home.

Chris and Marad are coming by this afternoon, no doubt to find out if we have any last minute requests for watching the house.  I hope they will fill our windshield washer fluid for me.  I need to clean the inside car windows, too, as well as the headlights and rear windshield.  As usual, we will be hoping for a little rain to wash the rest of the winter dirt away.  

Proceding with Wensleydale

 I've made ten Wensleydale blocks so far and pinned a second row over the previous blocks.  Today I cut out a few more, but I may just sit down a read for a while now.  I gave Paul a haircut and helped my neighbor use my Elna machine to fix a bathmat.  Then I made blueberry pancakes for lunch - yum!

Last night we watched the movie Train Dreams which was a somewhat sad but sweet film about a lumberjack in the west who lives through the world's "progress."   William H. Macy is up for an Oscar (best supporting actor) in it.   He's always one of our favorites.

Tomorrow I'll be doing one last load of laundry and then will start packing for our trip south.  We hope to leave early on Tuesday and make it to Wilkes-Barre, PA, by midafternoon.  With the advent of daylight savings time, it's again quite dark in the mornings, so we will definitely wait until the sun comes up.  At least the longer days will be nice for traveling.

Wensleydale

 Here are my first five blocks, made yesterday.

I thought the instructions I found were for conventional piecing but, after making one block, I realized they were all cut oversized so that they can be paper pieced for accuracy and less fabric waste.  I also soon realized that I need more Christmas-related fabric.  I have lots of smaller scraps, but not a lot of pieces that are 6.25" x 42", even by using fat quarters.  I'll look for fabric shops as we travel and see if I can't get a few more to add to the mix.  I will plan to make as many blocks as are in the pad of papers - 60 - so I have a long way to go.  I view this as a year-long project anyway, and there's no hurry to be done by Christmas.

As I cut the various pieces, I'm arranging them on paper plates left over from an old Bonnie Hunter mystery.   Paul was a little surprised to see them all laid out, but this is a good way to mix up the fabrics to achieve that scrappy look.  It's a big block, measuring about 8" x 11".  The larger harp on my machine makes the piecing a lot easier.

Today I'm off to the library for some aerobic walking followed by a pedicure with my friend Debb.  We always have a nice time catching up on the past month's activities.  I especially like to hear about her grandson's latest adventures.  He's smart and likes to read, making us both happy.