Rainbow Scrap Challenge

 I took a little break between clues of the Grassy Creek mystery quilt to make a few blocks toward my Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2021.  I decided to continue making Jenny Doan's Pop Stars blocks using various gray backgrounds and also to make some 6" pineapple blocks.  I don't plan to use these two sets of blocks together in a quilt.  I'll see how it all goes - you never know!

Pop Stars is a very easy variation on a saw-toothed star, with points that float.  The January RSC color is pink, so I dug deep into my pink box for these odd fabrics.  The one on the left is about the last remnant of my aunt's stash that I inherited after she passed away around 2003.  There were several UFOs and a lot of scraps.  I finished all the UFOs, made other quilts out of most of the scraps and gave many of them to my cousins.  I do love using a few of Tante Wil's scraps in my own quilts, though, as it keeps her memory close to me.  She seemed to love pink and brown.

Then I decided to make a scrappy little pineapple quilt as part of RSC also.  The Nov./Dec. colors were gray and black, but I used a variety of odd strings to make four 6" blocks, and then I also made a couple of pink ones for January.  I figure if I make at least four of these a month, I will have enough for a small quilt by the end of the year.   

I think the only sensible way to make a pineapple quilt is by paper piecing, so I bought some books of printed papers from the Fat Quarter Shop and figure I can remove the papers while watching TV.  Doing a few every month will get them done without too much moaning and groaning on my part.  Paper piecing isn't my favorite technique, but it is handy in the quilter's "toolkit."  I'll make two more pink blocks tomorrow because another mystery clue will arrive on Friday.  I like the pace of this year's mystery which is giving me time to work on a few other projects in between.

New Year's Eve

 We are celebrating New Year's Day by making a special cheesecake to share with neighbors.  Paul's mother, Mildred, won awards at the Vermont Farm Show with this, and the recipe has been missing since she passed away.  Paul's sister found it recently in an old box.  Here it is:

Mildred’s Award-winning Cheesecake

 

Crust

Mix and press into 8” springform pan:

          22 single graham crackers, rolled fine (or 2 c. crumbs)

          1 T. sugar mixed with a little cinnamon

          1 stick melted butter

Bake @ 350 for 6 minutes.  Cool.

Filling

Mix with mixer until smooth:

          2   8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

          1 T. vanilla

          2 eggs, beaten

          1 c. sugar

Pour into cooled crust and bake @ 350 30 min.  Turn oven off and allow to cool for one hour.  Do not open the oven door.

Topping

Mix:

          1 pt. sour cream

          2 T. sugar

          2 T. vanilla

Pour over cake

Sprinkle on:

          ¼ c, sugar mixed with ¼ t, cinnamon

Bake @ 350 for 6 minutes.

Cool in refrigerator for at least 10 hrs. before serving.

Now you can see why we are making it today - it needs all that cooling time.  Licking the beaters, I can attest to its deliciousness!  Happy New Year!

For 2021: Declutter

I've read a few blogs that suggest choosing a watch word for 2021, sort of a theme for living.  I've been thinking about mine, and it is definitely declutter.  Or should I say unclutter?  I spent a little time last winter going through basement closets, shredding old documents, and doing a little organizing.  I need to finish that and once it is safe to do so, give things to the ReStore, the Salvation Army, etc.  These items have now become clutter even though I intended for them to leave the house.  And there is more to do to add some air to our house.  

I love our house, but we do hope to move in the next year or so to one with a bedroom and bath on the first floor.  I want to make sure moving isn't as much agony as it was the last time, when we moved from a giant Victorian to a three bedroom condo.  The upcoming winter months will be a good time for decluttering.

My sewing room is pretty much under  control, and my goals for this year include working on several quilts:  

  - Grassy Creek Mystery - Bonnie Hunter's, going on now

  - RSC2021 - actually two projects - MSQC's Pop Stars and 6" pineapple blocks

  - Anything Goes swap blocks - all made but need to put together

  - Christmas Cobblestones swap blocks - waiting for blocks to arrive and need to make some more

  - Dear Jen by Jen Kingwell, incorporating some guild blocks of the month along with pattern blocks

  - Barbara Brackman Civil War block of the month using Jane at Home fabric

  - Hanky quilt

  - "Sisters" quilt - needs quilting

I've also been gathering things to start a crazy quilt for months now, but I'll wait to start when the Calico County Quilters group can meet again.  Bronwyn was to lead us through that process.  I do miss getting together with those ladies!  We usually work on our own projects while talking about quilting, life, and more.

As for knitting, I am working on a lavender scarf for Jenny who gave me the yarn for Christmas.  I just finished the little shawl I made, and I have some pretty variegated yarn waiting in the wings for a hat and mittens for me.  I feel no need to hurry knitting projects along as it's basically a relaxation activity.

Today I'll run down to the store for milk, finish up this week's mystery quilt clue, AND do a little decluttering in the living room which still has Christmas presents and candy stacked up here and there.  Maybe I'll sew the last side of a binding down, too.  Have a great day!

Merry Christmas!

 Just a quick note to wish you a Merry Christmas!  We had lots of rain overnight so our snow is almost all gone.  We just have a few banks along the roadway, which I hope don't turn to ice later today.  I'm sure we'll have snow again soon enough.  Today we'll have presents and brunch with Chris, followed by a Zoom with my family and some phone calls with Paul's family.  Have a great day, however you celebrate it!  (This photo is of our Christmas village "tree," from 2018)

Projects near the finish line

 In between weekly clues for Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek Mystery quilt and holiday cooking, I've been pecking away at various projects.  Maybe I'll finish them by the end of the year; they are both quite close.  

I spent a couple of days hand quilting the sashiko center of my blue and white round robin quilt after it came home from the long armer.  I discovered that my hands aren't as dexterous as they used to be.  Quilting was hard and slow.  It might also be that the sashiko fabric was a little thicker than the usual quilting cotton.   At any rate, I am now working slowly on binding and am lucky to do a half side a day.  I didn't work on it yesterday but hope to get back to it today.  It is nice to sit partially under a quilt on a chilly day.

Most days I do several rows of knitting on a shawl made from a "cupcake" of various blues and greens.  As it grows, each row takes a little longer.  I don't have a pattern for this - I just adapted a dish cloth pattern and will leave it as a big triangle when I've used up all the yarn.  I do want to finish this fairly soon, though, as I have some very pretty yarn waiting in the wings for a hat and mittens.  Unlike quilting, I don't want to have more than one knitting project going at a time for fear I'll never finish anything.  

I finished the kelly green section and now there's a little bit of teal yarn before the final bright blue start.  It won't be long til it's finished.  I knit while watching TV - Quilting Arts in the afternoons and Jeopardy in the evenings,  sometimes a little more in between.

I draped the shawl over the coffee table which has a very old Christmas table topper on it.  Since COVID-19 began, the coffee table is usually in front of the fireplace and piled with bolsters and other equipment for yoga via Zoom in the middle of the living room.  We are taking two weeks off from yoga so we can have a "normal" living room for a little while.   

On tap today:  vaccuum, bake a loaf of bread and drop off cards and little gifts (mug rugs, coasters, goodies) at the neighbors.  We had considered a little driveway get-together, but cold weather and a recent increase in virus cases makes that a little too risky since we are all "of a certain age."  

Sisters top finished. goals for 2021

 I am enjoying this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt project because, so far, I am able to finish each clue with a few days to spare before the next one.  That's left time for some other quilting projects, knitting, cooking, going to the dentist (broke a tooth but now it's fixed), etc.  

I was able to put together all of the blocks for Aby Dolinger's Sisters quilt along, which involved blocks of the month, one 12" and one 6" in similar designs.  I used a variety of cream backgrounds and scrappy blues for the blocks, and then I added a nice printed cream for the open spaces, sashing, and borders.  It's 60" x 64" and will be quilted in early 2021 (I hope) on my trust Elna.

I seem to have made quite a few blue scrappy quilts this year and still have plenty of blues to piece a back, which is something I'll work on in between mystery clues.  

In 2021, I plan to work on Jen Kingwell's Dear Jen (incorporating some guild blocks of the month) and make a quilt out of some old hankies with some Jane Austen fabric I've been hoarding.  One of the fabrics is called "Marianne" so you can imagine that I had to buy that!  I am also gathering Christmas Cobblestone blocks from a swap with my online group so that's in the queue, and of course I'm working on another Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.  No doubt a few more projects will be added to this list along the way.

It's a long winter here in Vermont, and even if we get COVID vaccines, we'll be stuck inside a lot of the time.   Quilting is the perfect way to keep busy - and sane!

Progressing

Good Monday morning!  It was a fairly productive, yet relaxing weekend here.  Hope yours was, too.  Chris came Saturday to help me put up our Christmas village/"tree."  This picture is from last year, but it looks about the same except for the addition of a few more houses and a little red covered bridge bought on Ebay after last Christmas.

I added a red bow and a stuffed Santa from Chris' preschool days on top.  The 1950s creepy Santa is on a window sill this year.  A few other decorations make the house feel very festive and cozy.

As we were putting things out, three packages from Mom and Jenny arrived, so I opened those and put them under the tree.  My one regret about this new "tree" is that I'm not using the skirt I made out of swap blocks a few years ago.   It has a hole for the tree stand in the middle and doesn't look right under the village.  

Yesterday I made some squash bread (using Linda's late mother's recipe for pumpkin bread).  It turned out great, and as luck would have it, Chris appeared as it was cooling.  I gave him and his buddy little loaves to take home as "payment" for taking our cans and bottles to the redemption center.

I sat down a few times during the day to read Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters, by Jennifer Chiaverini.  It is sort of a parallel sequel to Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker that she wrote a few years ago.  I loved that story of Elizabeth Keckley.  This novel is told from the points of view of four of Mrs. Lincoln's sisters and is interesting but not her best novel.   I am definitely looking forward to Chiaverini's new (unrelated) pattern book which is coming out on Christmas day.

Headway was made on the Grassy Creek Mystery, too, and I have just a few more sets to make today.  I keep each week's clue sets in baggies in a shoebox.   I like the pace of this year's mystery - as Bonnie said, it's a "normal" pace, not too fast, not too slow.  This gives me time to get started binding my blue and white virtual round robin quilt.   I'll have to hunt around for some navy blue thread to hand quilt the sashiko center of that quilt.  I think I'll enjoy doing that quilting this coming week as it's supposed to be a lot colder and snowier.  

Another sale!

This is the year of mail order, I guess, and I've been doing quite a bit of it myself.  My etsy shop has been busier than ever, too.  This summer I sold a blue and gray Civil War sampler quilt that had been on there for several years, and before Thanksgiving my Ohio Star sampler sold.  

The buyer of the Ohio Star quilt wondered if she could return it if it didn't fit her bed.   I labored over a response, hoping to sound encouraging and not negative.  I have been worrying ever since I mailed it, but so far, it has not returned to me.  I especially love the scrappy green border on that quilt which includes blocks from a swap in my local guild.    

Earlier this week, I received an inquiry about my Modern Ohio Star challenge wall hanging.  The person wanted to know if  I could make one just like it, only "a little" bigger.  It is 21" x 26", and she wanted it to be 36" x 48", not even the same proportion.  The inquiry caused another diplomatic dilemma for me as I absolutely had to decline.  I used "Quilters Linen" for the navy blue and know that my local shop no longer has any because I liked it so much that I tried to get more for another quilt.   

Luckily, someone else likes it just the size it is, and I mailed it to someone in Colorado a couple of days later.   I hope it arrives there before Christmas.  Everything seems to be taking longer to mail these days.  I really liked this little quilt which was a guild challenge to "modernize" a traditional block.  The back has one large, strippy Ohio Star, making it reversible.  It's so gratifying when something sells!

December "Sisters" block

This is the last month for the "Sisters" block of the month quilt along, created by Aby Dolinger.  I've enjoyed making the blocks out of mostly blue scraps.  Each month, there have been instructions for two similar blocks, one 12" and the other 6".   I have some nice cream fabric for spacers, borders, binding, and any sashing I might want to add.   The finished size will be about 71" x 78".  I may quilt it in sections.

At the beginning of each year, I say I'm not going to do any more blocks of the month.  Then as the year goes on, I miss having one to work on.  We'll see how the year goes.   I am organizing the guild block of the month so try to work ahead on instructions every month.  I will still be doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each month, and I have been making nine patch blocks out of scrappy 2.5" squares to use, somehow.  I also have  few other half-finished projects in boxes waiting for attention, as well as some knitting to work on this winter.

Today is Friday, so another clue for Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek Mystery was posted.  I got right to work, cutting and then sewing a few of the segments.  I like this week's results because I'm working with one of my favorite color combinations - kelly green and soft pink.  She confirmed today that we won't be using any more gold.  I had substituted purple for that color because gold is not a favorite and I don't have much of it.  This is a help since I've been working on log cabining my "Anything Goes" swap blocks in purple and don't want to run out.  Ha!  As if!

Favorite books, 2020 edition

I usually read about a book a week, sometimes more.  This year, I read quite a few less, probably due to the distractions of the pandemic and the fatigue induced by the insane person in the White House.  Good Reads tells me I read 41 so far, and I have several going right now that I may or may not finish by the end of the year.  Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

 - The Life We Bury - Allen Eskens (thanks, Karen, for the recommendation)

 - Winter Garden - Kristin Hannah

 - Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (my favorite this year; I'll be looking for more by this author)

 - Everyone Brave Is Forgiven - Chris Cleaves

 - The Way Life Should Be - Christina Baker Kline (great recipes)

 - Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith (#5 in series)

 - Ice Blue - Emma Jameson (and three others in the series)

 - The Mountains Wild - Sarah Stewart Taylor (so glad to read a new book by this author)

 - Alone in the Wild - Kelley Armstrong (#5 in series)

 - Westering Women - Sandra Dallas

I see that several of these books were pretty long (Galbraith's book was nearly 1,000 pages!) which also accounts for my not reading as much this year.  I spent more time knitting while watching TV and quilting - it was a productive year at home.   

Curiously, I have been remiss in keeping my handwritten diary of books read this year.  I have five of these going back 15 or so years when I first started keeping track.  It all started at a family gathering when someone who had had a little too much to drink said, snidely,  "So you're a librarian.  How many books do you read in a year?" "52" was my off-the-top-of-my-head response which was met with a respectful raising of the eyebrows.   My diaries prove me correct and also help me remember what I read.  Guess I should go update it today!

Making progress on many fronts

All of our Christmas packages have been mailed, the library staff's gifts have been delivered, and get-out-the-vote postcards to Georgia have been written and are ready to mail.  Now I can start doing a little more holiday prep, including wrapping the gifts for local friends, Paul, and Chris and decorating a little bit.  I did hang the old patchwork wreath on the door.  It looks awfully tatty close up but fine from the street!   I like to Christmas-ize a little at a time to stretch the season out.

Yesterday evening, I posted the guild's block of the month November lottery winner and December block.  We're making snowball blocks in blues this time.  These 6" blocks are pretty easy and one person has already informed me that she's made one.  I made three in this size for my Dear Jen quilt (a Jen Kingwell sampler I plan to start in the new year).

I also sewed four 3" snowballs together for the optional 6" block for the guild lottery,  People in the guild seem to enjoy the lottery aspect of this block of the month, with 15 or so mailing their blocks to the winner each month.   This has been a fun project for me during this more isolated time, too.

This week's Bonnie Hunter mystery clue is also done after a weekend of steady sewing.  I, of course, printed the clue out in black and white to save colored printer ink and, as a result, misread the clue and used the wrong color.   Because I didn't like Bonnie's green-orange-red-gold scheme, I chose green-medium blue-purple-pink.  I should have made my half-square triangles out of pinks, but they are purple so I will shuffle what I had planned.  I always figure I can dig deeper into my stash to finish the clues if I need to anyway.  And I can make a quick run to the quilt shop as a last resort.

My sewing room has been a busy place for me over the last few days because I also made some Christmas Cobblestone blocks for a swap with an online group.  I'll be sending two blocks to each of nine people in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and England soon.  On tap for today:  starting on Christmas cards, taking some stuff to the Salvation Army, vacuuming, and a little more knitting on a shawl which has grown off of two needles and onto circular ones.  Hope it's not as gloomy as the last few days have been.  I'd love to squeeze in a few walks, too.  Have a great day!