Toujours Paris

I've been humming "I Love Paris" while cutting out the fabric for this quilt I'm making for Yvette's petitite cousine en Quebec province.  She sent me fabric with sepia-toned postcards which I felt was too somber for a little girl.  So I have added scraps of pink in various shades along with some other more colorful Parisian-themed fabrics.  It's going to be bright! 

The postcards aren't quite square  and are odd-sized, so they present a bit of a problem while cutting.  Do you think it needs sashing?  I'll show it to Polly for her opinion, too, tomorrow when she's here for Thanksgiving.

I hope to finish soon and then I'm planning to stitch in the ditch with some simple outlining of the motifs in the center of the postcards.  I may have to quilt it in sections which is OK.  Hope she likes it - I'm not planning to finish until early 2015.  Yve is the only person I do any commissions for - I just can't say "non" to her.

Woohoo!

I made $108 on the craft fair last weekend, which is quite a bit more than I thought.  I have a lot left over, but many have a future as holiday gifts.  And as luck would have it, my Mom called the other night and asked if I could give her a baby quilt and a tote bag that she could give as gifts.  I put some potholders in, too, and all the other baby quilts are now back up on the etsy site.

Almost everything that sold had a Christmas theme, so while I am in the mood (and I usually do enjoy using Christmas fabric at this time of year), I'm making a few things for next year.  I'll get them quilted when I get a chance throughout the coming year.  I ordered a 108" piece of backing fabric for the log cabin star, and when it comes, I'll get it ready to take to the long arm quilter's.  I also added the sleeves to the body of the cardigan I'm knitting, so I feel like I'm well on my way to finishing that (only 54 rows to go...). 

Today I shopped for Thanksgiving provisions - snacks, potatoes, fresh vegetables.  I'm in charge of "sides," which I enjoymaking, and I'm ever so glad that Samantha is cooking and bringing the turkey and gravy.  Cindy will bring dessert, Polly rolls, and Vicki her mom's corn casserole.  All of us are "orphans," with family far away.  Chris is joining a friend he rarely sees, as usual in Burlington.  

Saturday I made the easiest cake ever:

Pumpkin spice cake
  Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9"x9" pan.
  Mix together a can of pumpkin and a box of spice cake.  (That's all!)  Bake about 25 min.
  When cool but not cold, pour over a glaze made of confectioner's sugar, some pumpkin pie spice, and a little apple cider.  Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Finished!

It never ceases to amaze me how, when you plan to make a quilt to use up all your scraps, you end up having to buy more fabric to fill it out.  I thought I had plenty of blues and plenty of shirting to make a log cabin star quilt for Paul's great niece Tori, but I guess I never have enough fabric!  I saw a photo online and made my logs 1.5" (2" strips), for a finished quilt of about 88" x 88".  I think this is much too big for a young girl to take to college.
 

She's graduating from high school in June, but she may end up going to community college for the first two years.  So maybe she'll use it at home?  It is destined for the long arm quilter but I have a couple of other quilts to finish before I make the trek.  Hope I get it back by May!

 

 

Appreciation

My friend Guy stopped by today to thank me for serving as campaign treasurer for his [unsuccessful] run for Vermont House.  Aren't these flowers pretty?

I enjoyed doing it, really, and it was a great way to help that didn't involve making annoying phone calls to people I didn't know!  I liked helping with honk 'n' wave events, and it wasn't that hard to file campaign finance reports really.  The Secretary of State's website works great for that.  I have one last report to file Nov. 18, and then I will give the file to Guy.  He's just going to hang on to the little amount of money that's left... for a future campaign or a good cause?

Busy days

The election is finally over, and while my friend Guy lost for Vermont House, he worked hard and did fairly well.  We can work with the guys that won and see what the prospects are for another run in two years.  I have one more campaign finance report to file for him, but we ended up in the black which is better than a friend in the city who was down to change by the end.  I was impressed by the people who gave and their good cheer.

The town forest walks are over, too, so my weeks are a little less structured.  With hunting season starting along with iffy weather,  it's better not to be in the woods. 

But we will miss the fresh air, so Paul and I are trying to walk more regularly, including some longer walks downtown.  Here, in "suburban" Barre, there are no sidewalks which make walking a little less fun, especially with snow and ice.  We have already had some snow showers along with some crisp, sunny days to balance out the gloom of November.  (The photo at left is from September)

This week I finished and bound two quilts, made a table runner, did the month's steps for a mystery quilt, and delivered all of my items to the Nature's Way craft fair which is happening next weekend.  There are 14 pot holders, 6 quilts (baby and lap), 5 table runners, two sets of 4 placemats, 3 tote bags, and two hexagonal table mats.  Phew!  It only took me 2 trips to the car and back, so not that much really.  What is nice about this show is that it's held in a home, so items are displayed as they would be in one's home.  

Coming up this week is our monthly Central Vermont Quilt Show committee meeting.  We are busy getting the guidelines for entries ready and doing behind the scenes stuff.   One question is whether or not to make or buy black curtains to hang between the quilts on the racks so that quilt backs don't distract from the front of the one on the other side.  If we decide to make them, who...?