A touch of spring

 

I saw these in the grocery store yesterday and just couldn't resist buying them.  "Field grown in England" (so the tag said), they greeted me this morning and gave me hope!  The thermometer read -0.6 degrees, and today's high will be around 8.  But we aren't having the big coastal snowstorm that may bring 24" to the Boston area and elsewhere.  For that I am thankful, and today I'll spend a little time organizing my tax stuff, balancing my check book, and quilting the scrappy, little bird quilt I made this week.  

I made four 10" pieced bird blocks and set them with 25 patch blocks made of 2.5" scrappy squares.  The back is an odd piece of Minnie Mouse fabric I had hanging around.  I will check with Bags of Love if they take smaller quilts (36" x 36").  Funny how those scraps don't seem to take up less room no matter how many I pull out of the boxes.

Elephants

 This fall, I joined a swap of 10.5" elephant blocks.  We could use any pattern we wanted and have the elephants facing in any direction we wanted, as long as we used Kaffe Fassett-like fabric and black backgrounds.  

The blocks have been coming in; I'm waiting for a few more.   One of the swappers has COVID, so her block won't be coming until February.   I was itching to see how they'll looked together.   I thought a simple setting would work well, given the colorful fabric used.  When the rest of the blocks come, I will sash them so that the black and colorful sashings alternate.  I'm hoping for a 36" square quilt - baby or wall hanging sized.  

Today it's quite sunny, but at 10:30 it was still one degree below zero.  All these continuous days indoors have made me restless, and the best thing for me is to sew.  I have these blocks ready to put together and the binding ready to go for whenever the other blocks arrive.  

Pam is coming for lunch, and this afternoon I'll get my book out - Murder at Malabar House - and try my hand at Wordle.  

More cold weather

I took advantage of today's brilliant sunshine to take a few pictures.  It can sometimes be too gloomy in my north-facing sewing room. 

Here is the table runner I made out of a couple of antique hankies and a corner of an old, embroidered tablecloth.  Pink seemed just right to surround the hexagons I used under each piece.  I have a nice piece of pink fabric cut for the back and plan to get it all quilted... manana.  

Next are some more heart blocks that I'll tuck away for now.  I am planning a smaller sampler with various blocks of the month.   Earlier this month, I made some Friendship Stars, and the hearts are really for February.  This was an extremely easy pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew.  I like her patterns which can be adapted in many ways.

I may make a few more of these heart blocks in different colors as the month goes on.  I like Cluck Cluck Sew's colorful way of setting them with scrappy squares for a happy quilt.

Finally, buds!

My Christmas-oriented plants seemed to have taken a year off until I noticed these buds on the plant I inherited from my former neighbor.  When I watched her house during the winter while she was in Florida, I always took care of it, and it seemed to bloom the whole time she was gone.  Now that it lives permanently in our house, it has turned as fussy as the other Christmas cacti here.

It gets the same amount of light, but it's probably too warm since her house was at minimal heat while she was gone (55 degrees).  At any rate, I'm happy to have blooms any time of year.

My other Christmas cactus used to bloom at Thanksgiving and at Easter but lately has been dawdling also.  Nonetheless, it appears to have woken up and may even bloom for Valentine's Day.   This summer, I plan to repot it as it seems to be a bit crowded.    Right next to it, my orchid is still going strong, having started blooming in September and currently sporting a new bud.  

Last night, we finally celebrated Paul and Chris' birthdays which occurred over the weekend when it was first too cold and then too snowy for Chris to get here.   It seems impossible that he is now 40 years old.  I had some filet mignons in the freezer - delish with mashed potatoes, peas, and various cookies for dessert.  It was a fun family night in the middle of the week.

I haven't done a lot of sewing over the last couple of days, but I did finish a knit hat that I started about a month ago.  After I got it sewn up (I always use straight needles), I started on another hat.   These go to "Bags of Love," which puts together kits for kids going into foster care.  I plan to make a few pairs of mittens after I finish this hat.  I usually only do a few rows a day whenever I watch TV.

Hankies

Every time I look at my stack of old hankies, new ones seem to appear.  I had been saving some for a tutorial on crazy quilting with my Saturday sewing group.  But I discovered a lot more in various tubs and project boxes.  I used two to make a small table runner last week.  I added a hexagon cut from an old embroidered tablecloth.  Each block was surrounded by 1.25" strips of pink or beige fabric for a very feminine, spring-y table runner, now waiting patiently to be quilted and photographed.

What shall I do with the rest of the hankies?  I have used them in baby-sized quilts, purses, pillow tops, zipper bags, and more.   Knowing I like them, people give them to me, and I also bid on some in an online auction to benefit our beloved Old Labor Hall here in town.  I even have the book Hooked on Hankies and have played around with folding them in various shapes.  My fingers fumble a lot while folding.  I might manage a butterfly someday.  Today, though, I'll pack them away again until inspiration strikes.

Over the weekend, I read a super book - West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge - about two men driving a couple of giraffes cross country from New York to San Diego during the Great Depression.  I liked it so much, Paul read it, too, and enjoyed it as much as I did.  

I am working ahead on a couple of February projects, including the next step in the Unity quilt along and a swap with my online group.  We had a full day of snow yesterday and stayed cozily indoors again after several days of below zero weather.   Here are all the requisite parts to the next round.

Today I started putting these together and adding them to the center.  What a job!  There are a lot of points to fit and press together somehow.  I took a break to read part way through.  Hope to get the last rounds on tomorrow.  

Austen Jubilee

 Quiltmaker magazine is offering a six part mystery based on Bonnie Hunter's "Addicted to Scraps" blocks.  The designer of the quilt is using red and white scraps, which is very pretty and a bit modern.  But I have a lot of "Jane Austen at Home" fabric, so I thought I'd use it up for a more old-fashioned look.  Here are my first blocks.

The block at the bottom left came out of my "orphan" box and I'm hoping I can work it into the quilt.  If not the front, then the back.  Naturally, as I was working on these blocks, I realized that the finished quilt is going to be fairly large.  Oops!  Do I have enough fabric?  I ordered a few more Austen fat quarters to see me through, and I'll slip in more scraps of cream here and there.  

The blocks weren't difficult, but they did take some time, especially the ones with all the nine patches.  Since the pattern comes out every other month, I should be able to keep up and stretch the work out a bit.  Although I usually avoid using brown in my quilts, it looks good with pink and it's good to get out of my comfort zone now and then.  

Happiness is...

...a new bobbin cover!  After a week on the fritz, my Elna is working now that the seemingly inconsequential part has been replaced.  After vacuuming the inside of my machine in search of a teeny piece of plastic that may have fallen in, I got right to work this morning and didn't come up for air until noon.  I had cut various parts of blocks out, starting with the last two red pineapples, and then moving on to a couple of red houses, both for the rainbow scrappy challenge.

The house blocks will vary from month to month, in both size and type.  The paper pieced one finishes at 3.5" and came from an old book by Carol Doak.  The bigger block is 10" x 12" and came from A Scrapbook of Quilts by Carrie Nelson and Joanne Figueroa.  I'll be making some other house blocks each month until I feel like stopping.  Then I'll add some filler blocks, too.  I hope this prevents me from getting bored, as I often do when working on blocks of the month.

Next, I turned my attention to some of the many old hankies and a little embroidered tablecloth I have accumulated over the years.  I cut them to fit 6" hexagons which I then surrounded, log cabin style, with pinks and beige fabrics.   I have a little handwork to do and then I'll put these 8" blocks aside for now.  I'd like to use them eventually with the star block I made last year.  I'll think about how to set them and perhaps a few more blocks together before going forward.

Tomorrow, I'll get started on the serial mystery quilt that started in Quiltmaker, incorporating various Bonnie Hunter Addicted to Scraps blocks.  The editors are making theirs in red and white scraps, but I'm using a leftover "Jane Austen at Home" layer cake and cream scraps.   This will be an every-other-month project, beginning with four styles of blocks in various quantities. 

Another snow day

There's a "nor'easter" coming up the coast after hitting the Midwest.  We are just getting the dregs, but the roads look pretty mushy today so we're staying in.  I finished knitting and blocking the blue scarf I've been working on this morning and started on a hat to match.  These will eventually go to kids entering foster care.    

I have a great book that gives generic patterns for commonly knit items, with suggestions for embellishment.  I'm using slightly smaller needles for the hat so that it will be warmer.  

Before the bobbin cover on my machine broke, I managed to finish the center medallion on the Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt for the quilt-along.  Then I started on my four 6" red pineapple blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Alas, I could only make two.  I have all the scraps piled up on my sewing table in hopes the replacement part will arrive soon.  I guess this would be a good time to vacuum the machine a bit.  I'm afraid the little plastic tab fell into the machine somewhere.  I hope to make the other two pineapple blocks and sew them together into a 12" this weekend.  

Our little Saturday hand sewing group is meeting - masked - tomorrow at the local quilt shop.  We were going to learn crazy quilting from one of our members, but unfortunately, she has been exposed to COVID-19.  So those who come will work on our own projects as usual.  That means a little more white on white quilting for me.  The piece I'm working on has been a UFO since the 1990s!   I unearthed it last year and hope to finish by the end of the year. 

January doldrums

 

Yesterday's sunrise was amazing, and several people posted similar pictures.  Unfortunately, that was the prettiest moment of the day which quickly turned gloomy.  This morning treated us to a brief period of blue, but again turned gloomy as most of the last couple of weeks have been.  It makes it hard to stay perky, especially since we've been dealing with a few calamities.  First, our upstairs toilet got clogged and we had to wait several days for a plumber.  Turns out, Paul had just about fixed it, but that didn't make waiting any easier.  All is well today.

What worse, one of the little plastic tabs on the bobbin cover on my reliable Elna broke, and I can't sew until I get a new one.  I ordered one that is coming from Great Britain, so I ordered another one that will come from California.  Good grief!  Equidistant from Vermont!  And nothing closer.  To keep busy until my machine is back in business, I cut some wool pennies using my Go Baby, and I'm appliqueing them to batik squares.  It's fun to try different embroidery stitches with them.  I never seem to improve when it comes to embroidery, but someone riding by on a galloping horse won't know!

Unity quilt

Happy New Year!  May 2022 be a good year for everyone.  2021 was a bit shaky due to Paul's health, including a long hospital stay, but he is doing fairly well right now.  My biggest hope for 2022 is to be able to get to Colorado in June to celebrate Mom's 100th birthday.  Fingers crossed!

I spent yesterday putting the center medallion of the Unity quilt (a Bonnie Hunter pattern) together.  I'm pleased with how it looks.  Here are the sections ready to sew together.  I like the way the dark blue chevrons swirl around the bright yellow ones.

I'm using a variety of low-volume backgrounds for a scrappy look, along with various dark and light blues.  The bright yellow will be a constant.  It went together easily due to Bonnie's suggestion to press seams open.  I hate doing that but managed to get most of the seams to nest OK.  I added a 1" border all around before putting it away until nearly February.  This project is a quilt along with members of my local guild.  Every month, we'll work on another set or sets of borders, and Joanne and I will figure out a schedule for the next steps later this month.

Today I'm going to make some Indonesian food for dinner.  We'll be celebrating my heritage to start the year.  While it's simmering, I'll clean up the sewing room a bit and start on a few face masks.  I have lost all but one in parking lots and other unknown places this past year.   The blue paper surgical ones don't fit my nose very well despite the metal nose part.  The shaped ones work better for me, and they're washable for reuse.  I do keep a box of the blue ones in the car and in the house, just in case.