Forest walks

I haven't posted many pictures of our weekly forest walks this year, mainly because they are a bit repetitious.  How many photos of a small group of walkers do we need to see?  Tuesday morning walks started in June, and there are only two weeks left before I hang up my boots for another year.  We have two new "regulars" this year - Nancy and Bruce - and some drop outs from previous years.  I especially miss Lois who moved to NC to be closer to family.  She especially loved the walk to the Empire Lookout, mainly because six years ago we could still see her old house from up there.  Now the trees have grown and hidden it.  At any rate, I always think of that route as "Lois' walk."

Last week I led a small group of college kids and two adults on a short walk.  It was a beautiful day.  Two of the kids were from out of state (CT and NJ) while the other five were from Vermont.  Before lunch at the forest, they had toured the active Rock of Ages quarry, but they had not had time to watch the video at the Visitor's Center.  

Starting at the kiosk with its map, I told a little about the history of granite quarrying in Barre (I do take horrendous pictures!).  They were very attentive and seemed to enjoy themselves.  Their instructor said that they came to explore “what is the ‘social imagination’” — i.e. what are the things we (humans) do to evolve our ideas to fruition? Friday, September 6, we found ourselves immersed in nature and it felt like a trance — even students who were reluctant to hike were snapping great group photos and taking selfies.  The walk was persuasive and put us all in a good mood. 

After the walk, they were heading to Bragg Farm by way of Hope Cemetery.  The VT kids told the out-of-staters that they had not really experienced Vermont until they had had a maple creemee (soft ice cream).

Insul-brite

Every year, I make little gifts for the library staff to give them at the Friends and trustees' annual appreciation dinner before Christmas.  Gifts have included mug rugs, key fobs, and more.  This year I've made small jars of jam and potholders.  The latter are very scrappy, using orphan blocks and fabric from stash.  Last weekend, I put together 15 8" blocks and 10" backs and, yesterday, quilted most of them together.  I also made a large poinsettia hotpad to sell in my etsy shop.

Unfortunately, I only had enough insul-brite to finish off 12 potholders.   So yesterday I headed off to Joann Fabrics for more.  Much to my disgust, they no longer carry any Warm Company products, including Warm & Natural batting and Insul-brite.  The clerks in the store are very dismayed about this; customers regularly complain.  I didn't want to try the Pellon alternative they carry - some sort of gray insulated fleece.  I don't want some of the potholders to look different, and how will that stuff quilt?

My order from Amazon.com will be here in a few days, luckily, and meanwhile I have plenty of cotton batting, both Pellon and Quilters Dream, to work on other projects while I wait.  Hope to get My Small World sandwiched this afternoon, after I make banana bread.

Fall items finished

The other day when I was in the flower shop showing friends two quilts I have on sale there, the florist asked me when I'm going to bring some fall table runners to her to sell for me.  She said people have been asking for them as they buy chrysanthemums.  Today I finished one and will take it down either later this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  Here it is, front and back.

I love the print, which includes sprays of fall leaves, berries, and acorns in blues, salmon, and bronze.  Luckily, I have some left for other projects.  

 I'm taking a green table runner to the florist's as well as a small quilt that can be a table topper or wallhanging.  Its fall colors are certainly varied and should go with any chrysanthemum.

Here's a closeup of the quilting, done with my domestic machine:

While I haven't been posting much, I have been heating up my machine!  Knocking a few items off my UFO list.

September already?

Happy September!  It's amazing how fast it crept up on us.  The nights have been cooler and I see some leaves turning just a little bit.  I have had to wear a sweatshirt in the forest and shoes with toes a lot.  I still have UFOs that I wanted to finish this summer, but I guess I will just keep plodding along.  I am almost finished with the curved flying geese quilt - just a little quilting and the binding left to do.  Then I will most likely make another table runner and get the three I have down to the florist's shop for sale.   

I was a little under the weather yesterday so spent a lot of time snoozing and finishing Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser.  It was looooong but very extensively researched.  Laura Ingalls Wilder lived a very typical frontier life, and her books were my favorites growing up.  I had heard rumors that her daughter actually ghost wrote them, but it seems she only edited them, adding pizzazz to the writing.  Much of the book is about Rose, who was not the easiest person to get along with.  She wrote yellow journalism, fictionalized biographies that she passed off as true, and potboilers.  Yet she made her mother's books come alive.  Still, I'm happy to move on.  The book was 600 pages long (I read the Kindle version), with photos and many footnotes.  I'm looking forward to dipping into A Better Man, Louise Penny's latest.