A few UFOs finished!

Today is a warm, sunny, not very humid day.  Perfect, I thought, for picture taking.  I found it is a little too sunny, so please excuse the glare and the wrinkles that last week's humidity caused.  

This year, Aby Dolinger posted a block of the month project called "Favorites."  I always like her patterns because of the very clear directions.  I put my blocks together a little differently, though, combining Aby's blocks with my guild's blocks of the month.  Of course, that meant I had a few too many blocks, so some made a nice back.

I love the background fabric which is from a line called "Pressed Flowers," and has flecks of burgundy, gold, and greenish blue.  I used quite a few scraps and added a few fabrics, too.  The binding is a floral gold with burgundy accents.

This measures 47" x 47" and I quilted it fairly simply in a grid, with a smaller grid in the plain areas.  It will be a nice wall quilt, table topper, or even a quilt for a modern baby.

Those fold lines worry me, so I now have the quilt spread out over the back of our sofa and hope they go away.  If not, I'll use a little steam and then let it hang some more.

Yesterday I finished a quilt I'm calling "Scrappy Town," made of variously sized house blocks.  I found a free pattern on the Fat Quarter Shop's website called "Brick House" and thought I'd use it for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  After making the block a few times, I wasn't totally happy with it, so I decided to add some other sized house blocks here and there.   I think they add variety, and I enjoyed paperpiecing some of the blocks.

The resulting 45" x 45" quilt also uses scraps of muslin and 2" scrappy squares from my vast collection.  I quilted with my walking foot, mostly outlining and  crisscrossing the squares.  I loved making those tiny 3" houses, but I don't think I could endure making a whole quilt out of them.  This is a good solution.

The back of the quilt is a yellow blender and the binding is a yellow print that I've had for ages.  I had just enough to go around, thank goodness.  I ended up with three 2.5" squares for my 2.5" square scrap box.

Now I'm pondering what to do with all the multicolored 6" blocks of the month I've made in my online quilt group.   I had them lined up row-by-row fashion, but that seems too dull somehow.  Now I have 9 wonky star blocks auditioning for the center of a medallion quilt.  I could also make a haphazard sort of layout with fillers, again using my trusty 2" or 2.5" squares.  I'll keep shuffling them around for a while before deciding.

Orphan blocks

In my quest to use up some of my orphan blocks, I got some I Found a Quilted Heart hearts ready to hide in plain sight soon.  I put two crumb blocks together with batting, quilted them, and then pinked the edges in the shape of a heart.  Then I sewed some ribbon for hanging and pinned a tag on each.  Here's one...

I'm writing a short article for the state guild newsletter on this phenomenon.  It's really fun to send these little hearts on their way, and I hope some nice people find them and report in.

I finished quilting the little house quilt today, too.  It needs to be trimmed, bound, and photographed for posterity.  I hope to get to that tomorrow.  This morning I decided to make some Zucchini Bread, using Mom's recipe that she gave me in the 1970s.  I made two medium loaves (one to eat, one for the freezer) and a smaller one for my nextdoor neighbors.  I had asked my cleaning person to bring me a zucchini, but she brought 3 good-sized ones.  I'll probably make another batch later in the week and then figure out some sort of casserole for the smaller of the three.

This afternoon, I made a pillow to take to Wisconsin for my brother Axel's new apartment.  I used a t-shirt for the back and two orphan blocks on the front.  I have no idea what color his furniture is, so I chose blue which seems to go with everything.   Growing up, Axel and I always watched Jeopardy together after lunch in the summer.   Even now, we compare notes although he is careful never to tell me who wins for the day since his comes on at 4:30 pm and ours is on at 7 pm.  Paul gave me the Jeopardy t-shirt for Christmas as a gag gift.  It's too small anyway, so I think this is a great use for it.

 

Two weeks of heat

 I have been busy trying to stay cool for the last couple of weeks - sewing with the air conditioning on, reading in front of the fan, and running to the library to do various things to help the Friends book sale  this coming weekend.

On the sewing front, I took two quilts to Marie to long arm, and I'll pick them back up on Thursday morning.  Don't know when I'll get them bound as I have plenty of other things in the pipeline.  I made a couple of mug rugs and a table runner.  One of the rugs is for a raffle basket and the other will go with us to Wisconsin along with various table runners for my brother to use as gifts for people who have helped him this past year.  

I turned my attention to a bunch of blocks of the month from Aby Dolinger's "Favorites" along with some Heart of Vermont guild blocks of the month, all done with the same background fabric.  They went together nicely in a 48" x 48" quilt which I quilted on a grid with a smaller grid for the plain pieces.

Next, the multi-sized house blocks I've been making for the rainbow scrap challenge all year called to me, and I set them together with sashing made of scrappy 2" squares.  I'm calling this quilt "Scrappy Town," and I've been quilting it for a day or so.  It is about 45" x 45".  I don't know if I'll give these two little quilts to Bags of Love (for foster kids) or change out some of the quilts I've had on my etsy shop for a while.  I may also change out the quilts at the florist's downtown.

In between, I was busy gobbling up Lessons in Chemistry because the e-book came up on my library waiting list.  It was one of my favorite books so far this year.  Very witty and quirky.  I wanted to finish that before the next book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, comes up.  My niece Evelyn liked it very much, as did her mother, so I am assured of a good read.  In between, I'm into the next Ruth Galloway mystery, The Locked Room, by Ellie Griffiths.  All good reading for hot afternoons.

I have a pile of quilted things to take outside to photograph, but it's been too hot and humid to go outdoors much.  We keep waiting for the contractor to install our heat pump - guess it will come in the fall in time for heating season.  I had hoped it would come sooner.  Meanwhile, Paul is busy picking blueberries, so I will be in the kitchen later today making my annual pie.  Luckily, I have some salads waiting in the fridge for dinner, so I won't be in the kitchen long.  Hope you're having a great weekend!

A lovely weekend

Our weather has been fantastic the last couple of days - sunny, low humidity, warm but not too warm, and plenty cool for sleeping.  Perfect!  Friday we took Manny and Mary out to a long, leisurely lunch at a local favorite.  We ate far too much, and I ended up taking a nap at 4 pm.  This made it hard to sleep, so I woke up too early on Saturday.  

We drove to Burlington to attend a play at St. Michael's Playhouse called Into the Breeches.  It took place during World War II when "all" the men were fighting and the women were home and in need of some entertainment.  A few women actors decided to put on Shakespeare's Henry IV and Henry V.  All the parts were to be played by women, including the male parts.  Hilarity ensued, and it was so nice to get back to theater again after three summers without.   During the intermission, a librarian we knew and worked with came by to chat.  It was fun to see her and her husband again.

We have been meaning to get out into the Town Forest for another walk, and this morning we finally did.  We took the Grand Lookout Trail, one of our favorites because it ends with a fantastic view of Barre and the mountains, including Camel's Hump, the distinctive peak on our state quarter.  Along the way are a series of sculptures, including Hephaestus, god of fire.  Funny thing is, when I got home, Facebook reminded me that four years ago on this day, I posted another picture of Paul and a group of walkers at this very spot.

Unity is finished

Over the weekend, I put nose to the grindstone and finished my "Unity" quilt top.   I found the next-to-last round of this quilt quite difficult, requiring quite a bit of time with "Jack" the ripper and requiring what designer Bonnie Hunter called "ease."  There was quite a bit of stretchy easing needed to get the whirling blocks to fit, so much so that I decided not to make the last two pieced sides.  Instead, I put two solid 2" borders around and, while they were hard to "ease" on, they will, I hope, help the quilt lie squarely.

I'll take it to be long arm quilted this week, and as usual I'll be glad to see it leave our house!  I'll deliver the Tulip Tango quilt then, too.   Today I sewed the back for that quilt, and I also made some double pinwheel blocks, the online group's block for July.

The blocks at the bottom are the blocks for the month, and one will be swapped and the other kept.  I'll probably make a few more of those to go in a sampler I've been working on all year.  

After finishing those blocks, I got out my "orphan" box and started working on an appliqued piece I've had on my mind for a long time.  It's based on an antique quilt a guild member brought to a meeting.  Mine will use a pieced background (which was already in the box) and melon shapes in similar colors, but here's what was shown at guild.  

I haven't done any hand applique in a long time so this was fun.  I'll work on it again tomorrow.