Time passes quickly

 It's been well over a week since I blogged.  It's been busy around here with out of town guests enjoying the amazing fall foliage.  Paul's brother from Alabama came to visit so I had to clean up my sewing room so that Jim could comfortably sleep there.  I made a few scrappy blocks in the pristine space and cleaned up well after each session.  A week ago Sunday we picked him up at the airport after having lunch with friends who live in Burlington.  Jim's plane was an hour late, but we got home in time for a pizza dinner.

Monday was gloomy, chilly and threatened rain so we didn't do much.  In the afternoon, the sun came out for about half an hour, so we went to the cemetery to clean up Paul and Jim's parents' grave and then on to the maple farm for ice cream.  There were lots of "leaf peepers" there, including a tour bus.  I had a cup of soft ice cream (known in these parts as a "creemee"), and Jim had a cone.  Yum!  For dinner we went to their sister Pat's for lobster, which was delicious.  I took the carcasses home to compost.  I love lobster but it is a lot of work to eat!  Thank goodness the grocery store will cook them for us.

Tuesday was a lovely day, so we took Jim to the granite museum.  He's a geologist and, while he's been there many times before, he is always intrigued by what they've been up to since his last visit.  I wish I'd taken a picture of the life-sized slate and granite truck that's being built out in the parking lot.  It's going to Delaware to sit on the lawn of a business.  I made soup for dinner, and Pat joined us.  

Jim left on Wednesday, and then Pat's son came to visit her.  We had dinner at Pat's again - ravioli with pesto.  Pat owned a couple of restaurants over the years so is a great cook.  It's been fun having Pat around this summer; she returns to Florida for the winter next Monday,  

In between all this activity, I managed to make a batch of spiced pear jam - my favorite flavor.  I also made a scrappy baby quilt top and went to guild to do a little hand stitching with the group,  I have set aside the purple scarf I was knitting in favor of a red hat for a child going into foster care,  At guild I spent about an hour rolling up a huge skein of red yarn I got at Walmart.  I guess I'll be making more than one red hat for kids this fall, but I vow never to buy Red Heart yarn again.  It isn't as fine as the DK yarn I've been buying via Knit Picks.

Running around

 Last night my SIL Pat and I went to a fun play about women's clothing, which was, of course, really about feminism.  I am always complaining about not having pockets, and that came up time and time again.  We had fun, and it was good to get out.  I sat next to a filmmaker who also writes books, illustrates them, and farms.  He's quite a character, so it was fun to chat before the show started.  We drove home in fog, but we arrived without mishap.

This afternoon, Paul and I are heading south to White River Junction, about an hour away, for the play John Proctor is the Villain, about a teacher running a play The Crucible.  It won an Emmy when it debuted a year or so ago on Broadway, and we love the theater there.  Paul is still not feeling 100% so I hope he isn't totally exhausted by the time we get home.

Tomorrow afternoon, we are picking Paul's brother Jim up at the airport in Burlington, another hour away but north of us.   Before we pick up Jim, we'll have brunch with friends who live in Burlington.  With gas prices high, it's good to make each trip count.  Ji.m will only stay 3 bights and then head home again to Alabama.  So we'll try to pack a lot into his visit:  a few museums, an art gallery, the cemetery, and - most importan - a maple "Creemee," soft ice cream only available in Vermont!  If we're good, we'll also have lunch at the Wayside, a diner where "everyone knows your name."

You can't see it in this picture, but there's a big parking lot to the right that's often very full.  Best breakfast in town, served all day long!

Dragging my feet

I really don't like to hand sew binding!  It has taken me a week to finish binding the purple Round Robin quilt I made with guild members.  It's so easy to procrastinate but it is now finished.  I often sew the whole binding by machine because I'm not sure who will end up with it.  Will they machine wash it a lot?  Will it go to a child in foster care? Is the person ill?  I have a bag of four quilts that I'll give to Bags of Love later this week for kids going into foster care.  And I have a friend undergoing cancer treatment that might like a quilt.  I need to downsize my collection because I'm out of storage space.  And, of course, I keep making quilts. 

At any rate, yesterday I knuckled down and finished the purple throw.  One of the reasons I needed to hand sew the binding down was that I rounded the corners.  The person who made the last border added a very plain one. and I thought the quilt would look better with something curvy.  Before it came back  to me, I had thought I'd applique the last border, but it had a large 

bulge in the middle.  Marie, my friend and quilter, managed to "quilt it out 

 This weekend I put most of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge log cabin blocks together into a 7 x 8 block top.  I made a list of the colors for the next row and hung the UFO into the closet.  Paul's brother is arriving Sunday for a few days, so my quilting/guest room will be taken and we'll be busy.  I don't want to start on anything that's messy.   Guess I'll work on my knitting today when I get a chance.  The purple scarf is nearly finished, so it's time to roll up another hank of yarn.

ps.  while I was writing this Microsoft Edge decided it needed editing and enhancement.  I had to work hard to eliminate its "help."  Big Brother is out there...

A couple of baby quilts

Because we aren't down in Maryland for my high school reunion this weekend, I decided to work on a couple of baby quilts for Bags of Love.  The group has been calling for smaller quilts as there seem to be more babies going into foster care lately.  (Very sad!)  Both of these measure about 36" x 36".

I had two Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects that I wanted to end, so I used blocks from those to make the quilts.  First, was a set of improvisational houses using a Jo Avery pattern.  It was very confusing, and I groaned every time I got it out.  Quilting is a hobby and should not cause anxiety!   I had five in my project box and made one more.

I enjoyed quilting each house a little differently and using larger scraps to finish.

Next, I got out some blocks called "Traffic Stop" by Pat Sloan.  I liked making these blocks because I mostly used squares that I had already cut from my 2" square box.  The blocks were 9" finished.

I just quilted this quilt very simply - a larger diagonal grid.  I used the same dark gray binding for both quilts which I'll take to the quilt shop this week along with another throw quilt and a little baby-sized knit hat.  I want to make a few more hats now that the weather is turning.

Later in the afternoon, since Paul is feeling better, our neighbors Gale and Alan came over for snacks and a wide-ranging chat.  I feel so lucky that they moved in next door three summers ago.  We get along well, and in the winters, since our garages are attached, we hop from one to the other to get together in the evenings sometimes.  

And even later in the evening, friends in Maryland were having dinner and decided to call me to say they miss seeing me.  I was happy to chat with them and hope we can get down to visit sometime in the not-to-distant future.

Pixilated Holland

It's been a little gloomy out lately and Paul hasn't felt well, but I did finally get a picture of the Pixilated Holland wall hanging I finished about a week ago.

I started with a pattern by Karen Abrahamovich who has made patterns in various sizes for all 50 states and several countries.  Not being one to follow a pattern, I found this to be quite intense to work on.  So I decided to make simple borders, using pieces of old curtains.  I still have some other curtains left that I can use sometime.  Guess I'm a hoarder of Dutch fabric.  I used variegated blue thread for the quilting which was quite simple, too.

My to-do list is rather long but I did manage to do a little yard work last weekend.  I have more to do... eventually.  It's been chillly out - 40ish in the mornings, rising into the 60s later.  Paul came down with what appears to be a cold so we haven't been walking much.  I have taken a few walks around the neighborhood by myself., and I even met some new people two doors down.  Because of his illness (not sure what it is despite tests and a chest xray), we decided not to go to my 60th high school reunion this coming weekend.  I just didn't want to make the 12 hour drive down and back alone.  We can always go down to visit the specific people I want to see another time.  They've promised to take pictures which will be nice.

The "Bags of Love" people put out a call for small baby quilts, so I got out some house blocks from my rainbow scrap challenge bin, put them together, and started quilting this morning.  I got so involved that I almost missed my scheduled pedicure.  It's cute and I hope it will make some foster baby happy.

Took Modern Jane to guild

We had our first Heart of Vermont Quilt Guild meeting of the year on Tuesday night.  Lots of people showed tote bags they had made as part of a summer challenge.  I made two but gave both of them away - one to my SIL Linda and another to my brother to give to a friend who has been driving him around and visiting him at the rehab.

I did get to show my Modern Dear Jane quilt that I finished over the summer.  I think I posted a picture of it hanging over the fence out front, but not the whole thing...

This will definitely be "it" for me and Jane.  I am happy with the wider gray sashing and the many colors on various black and white backgrounds.  It was definitely fun to make.  I'll take it to the fall meeting of the Green Mountain Quilters Guild in October, and then it will go on the quilt rack my cousin's husband made me.

Another finish!

It felt so good Saturday to put the last stitches into the hanging sleeve of Pixilated Holland!  I added Dutch tile squares cut from my old kitchen curtains for the border and then quilted it in vertical straight lines with variegated blue thread.  I just went parallel to the seam lines, and I'm pleased with the result.  You can barely see the wobbly lines now that it's all done.  This was just the right size quilt for machine quilting on my Elna.  I'll take it to guild tomorrow night to get a good picture.

As is usual for me whenever I finish a big project, I took a break from quilting yesterday.  We went to Paul's sister's for brunch, I did a load of laundry, and then I sat down to read for the rest of the day.  I have a few ideas of what to work on next, but it does feel weird not to have anything hanging in the closet waiting to be finished.  

But I am not feeling smug about it since I have 18 items on my UFO list - projects mostly half done, including several project boxes whose contents might end up being small quilts.  I'll take a look today, especially at the box of log cabin blocks made in rainbow colors since Christmas.   Speaking of that holiday, I do have a tree skirt I want to make for the library's Light Up the Library display//raffle.  And what about those shopping bags I planned to make the library staff?  Oh, boy.  I really don't feel smug now!