Sunny days

The last few days have been just wonderful, and things are finally greening up outside.  I love spring!  We are leaving tomorrow for two weeks, though, and I hope my tulips wait to bloom until I return.  They are looking really great - the deer have not discovered them!

I took some photos of the recently finished guild mystery quilt that Chris calls a "grandma quilt."  It was a little too sunny on the back porch, but I like the casual look.

I was pleased to see that all the wash-away thread and the marking pen are gone now that it's washed.  I really like the echo quilting in this quilt although it was a bit tedious to do at times.  The finished quilt measures about 53" x 73".  I plan to donate it to some cause eventually, so I guess it will sit in storage for a while.  The "reveal" for mystery quilts is in June.

Today I'll do some house work, laundry, and pack our suitcases for the trip.  If I have time, I may start an appliqued block for my "Dear Yve" quilt.  I made four blocks over the last couple of days to use up some nervous energy.  I did start another good book, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman.  It was billed as "funny," but it's actually a bit sad, yet a page-turner as you know Eleanor will transform in some way.   We leave tomorrow morning for the Netherlands, via car, bus, plane, and finally boat!

No snow this Easter!

Easter turned out to be ideal.  Hope you had a nice one, too.  Ten years ago, our first Easter in this house, it snowed, much to our chagrin.  Yesterday I could open the doors and get some fresh air in.  We grilled hot dogs which were accompanied by baked beans, fruit salad, and apple turnovers.  Chris took food home.  I finished a good book (The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson), and Paul watched Red Sox baseball (as usual).  Chris gave me this lily, and I took the photo a day or so before Easter.  That's why it's dark - we had rain and more rain for a few days before.  As a result, the grass is greening up with the sun on it.

I have been gathering things to take on our trip, and not doing a lot of sewing.  This morning I did make two 6" blocks for my "Dear Yve" quilt, and I began cutting out fabric for another one which will be pieced and appliqued.  The Splendid Sampler 2 is winding down online, as has Moda Blockheads 2.  I wonder if one or the other will have a third rendition.  I like the ease of a block of the week although both quilt-alongs so I just picked and chose whatever appealed.  Sometimes I made something up or made a different block altogether.  I am looking forward to finishing "Dear Yve" and getting started on Jen Kingwell's My Small World, for which I've been gathering fabrics.  I cut out a lot of sky pieces, but I need over 500 1.5" squares so it will take a while.😊

Still quilting

There is a lot of thread in the "grandma" quilt I've been quilting.  I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with the quilting, so I hope to get it done by the end of the week, doing a little bit each day.  Once I get into a rhythm, the process is quite smooth, but still I need to take frequent breaks and ease up on my shoulders.   So, while my days haven't been all that exciting, they have been good (as my banner says).

Yesterday I spent a pleasant half hour at the quilt shop getting more Aurifil gray thread, having finally used up all my King Tut.  I spied a remnant of black on white that I can use in my "Dear Yve" quilt and also saw a nice polka dotted light blue on cream background fabric on sale that I just had to have.  After a nice chat with Paula, I headed home, took a couple of walks and a nap, and made blueberry-peach cobbler with the last of the frozen fruit.   We went over to friends' in the neighborhood for dinner, without putting on our jackets.  We haven't done that since October.  And how nice it is to walk a few houses down the street to spend a pleasant evening!

Everything "wash-away"

We had a busy day yesterday.  The weather was terrible - rain, ice, snow.  I went to the dermatologist who confirmed that the place where she removed cancerous cells a few months ago was all healed and show no signs of anything.  UPS delivered Euros we had obtained through AAA for our cruise in a few weeks.  And!  The car was fixed with parts that arrived in the morning.  What a relief to have a reliable vehicle again.  This past week or so was one of the few times when we missed having a second vehicle.

In the middle of all these things, I finished pin basting the guild mystery quilt that Chris says looks like something a grandmother would make.  I decided to anchor the quilt by using wash-away thread in the ditch between the blocks.  Now that I have started quilting, I can remove the pins and maneuver the quilt much more easily.

I hope you can see the quilting in this photo.  I drew criss-cross squiggly lines on the quilt with a wash-away pen, and am now echoing the line over the whole quilt.  I thought that, with the old fashioned look, it needed a more modern style of quilting.  Luckily, it's smallish so quilting shouldn't take too long.  When I finish the squiggles, I will quilt the borders very simply, bind, and wash away the marks and the basting thread.  This is my first time using this thread which Ricky Tims swears by.  Hope it all comes out!

Today we go to vote on school board members, I'll go down to the flower shop with quilts to hang and sell in her store, and then I'll make some hot cross buns.  And then I'll get a few more rows in on the quilt.  And I might get a load of wash in, too.

Staying close to home

Why is it that when you don't have a lot to do, it seems you get even less done?  Our car has been on the fritz for a week so I have been sticking fairly close to home, driving only downtown when I absolutely need to.  I need to go farther afield to Joann Fabrics soon to get a few supplies, but I keep hoping the garage will call to say the part they're waiting for is in and it's time to deliver the car for repair.  I may get courageous over the weekend.

Instead of housecleaning, the latest "Maisie Dobbs" book by Jacqueline Winspear took a lot of my attention this week.  It was great, and I was sorry to have it end.  Now I'm slogging through a book about Alaskan homesteaders a neighbor thought I'd like after he saw me reading The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.  That was a page-turner, but Alaska Homestead is not, AND it has tiny print.

I've also been working ahead on Splendid Sampler blocks for April and May because of our upcoming trip.  All twelve April blocks were sashed and sandwiched yesterday, and I started quilting this section.  I'll try and take a photo later today.  I also made three May blocks with a Dutch theme since that's where we'll be at the beginning of the month.    Paul's sister and her husband are coming up from Connecticut today for lunch and to deliver two folding bicycles for us to store for Paul's other sister who winters in Florida.  But I'll probably finish the April section this afternoon.

I've been doing things in preparation for our trip to the Netherlands (in just three weeks!) and had to laugh over the president's comments about windmills the other day.  Then my Dutch cousin Walt in Pennsylvania posted this photo giving me even more chuckles.  We will be visiting a very historic area with restored windmills while on the cruise - can't wait!