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.

February's finishes

Besides the retro fabric "Bindy" bag and the snowflake rail fence quilt, I finished a strippy teal tote and a Triple Barn Star quilt.  I am on a roll!

I got the kit (marked batting, instructions, handle webbing) from Sentimental Stitches online.  I had lots of teal fabric and hadn't made anything with it in a long time.  I still have lots after cutting 2.5" strips for the tote.  It is so nice to finish a project in a day or two!

This Triple Barn Star was designed by Amy Gibson, and I think I downloaded the .pdf from the Missouri Star Quilt Co.  It was actually very easy to make, and once I cut the pieces (which were big), it took about a day to put it all together.  My friend Marie quilted it in a swirly pattern with light blue thread.   My blue box is still full to the point of not being able to close it, but it did use up some scraps.  I love the speckled background fabric.  I used a navy blue striped fabric (part polyester I think) for the binding.  I'll get a better picture the next time I take it to quilt guild show and tell.

Today I'm planning to start cutting and maybe piecing the Wensleydale quilt, a Jen Kingwell design.  I'm making it in Christmas fabrics and hope to be done by then!  I found a way to cut the pieces on You Tube through the Quilted Chicken, but I also have foundation papers in case that pieced way is too difficult.  There are other sites that offer suggestions, too.  This looks like it will be a project I pick up and put down throughout the year,

As it's March, I will most likely start on a batch of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, too, although this month's official choice is red.  I have some log cabin blocks already made, so I will most likely just make two Traffic Jam blocks in red.  This is fine since our trip south beginning next week will cut into my sewing time anyway.
 

A couple of projects

Most of this past week was spent preparing for the Friends of the Library's school vacation mini-golf session yesterday.  We had 140 people of all ages, a lot of them families, play the nine hole course throughout the library - on all three floors.  Most of the Friends took a turn at directing traffic, taking donations and handing out equipment.   People from neighboring towns came, and I overheard adults say they had never really been in all the parts of the library.  The little kids were adorable, and everyone had fun.   The owner of The Portable MiniGolf Company couldn't have been more helpful and encouraging.  It was a great day, but we Friends were all beat at the end.   Today we'll take it easy!

This week I finished my round for Donna's round robin quilt.   It's not due until April but I like to get these projects out of the way.   I also managed to finish a tote bag I started last week.  I needed some magnetic snaps before I put the whole thing together and found them at my local quilt shop.  I didn't know they carried them and the webbing for handles, too.  I used my old favorite retro print for this bag.

I also tried making the state quilt guild's tenth anniversary block, which was designed by a guild member back in 1989.  I'm not sure paper piecing had been "invented" yet, but this pattern sure could have used it.  I followed the pattern as shown, but I plan to revise it before I show it at the spring state quilt guild meeting.  I'm hoping to challenge folks to make it for a block raffle at the fall meeting.

I do like the colors which were all scraps in my seemingly endless supply of blues.  I was intrigued that the block includes half rectangle pieces which are a little tricky, and as you can see, the side triangle points will be cut off if I sew sashing or another block to this block.   Paper piecing should take care of that (I hope!).

Meanwhile, I started on another tote bag which is quilt as you go.  Guess I'm channeling my inner "Elsbeth" (the funny lawyer/detective in the TV series).

A busy weekend

I didn't get a lot of sewing done over the last few days.  I did work a bit on the guild round robin quilt - Donna's - and hope to finish this week.  We have two months to work on this round because the quilts are getting bigger.  I like to work on them as soon as I get them and not wait til the last minute.  Donna's quilt is 46" square already, and my border will be about 5" all the way around, between blocks and a coping strip.  It's all sweet 1930s fabrics which I haven't worked with in a long time.  I hunted around for matching fabric for the coping strip but didn't have anything that looked right.  So I am using one of hers before I add the very scrappy uneven nine patch border.  It's looking good so far.

Saturday, our group held a genealogy help session at the library in the morning, and then Paul and I headed over snowy roads to Burlington.  We went with friends Bob and Pauline to a play, Murder on the Orient Express, which was quite good - funny. and well-acted.  Afterwards, we all had a belated Valentine's Day Middle Eastern dinner at a favorite restaurant and then watched a more serious version of the same story starring Sir Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot.   We spent the night and came home after breakfast.  It was a nice getaway.

Today it's off to the grocery store before knuckling down with taxes.  Ugh!  But the sooner it gets done, the happier I'll be.