Mt. Fuji

The Heart of Vermont Quilt Guild had a Asian panel challenge this year.  Anyone who wanted one was given a panel that belonged to a quilter who had passed away.  Some were basically florals, and some were scenes as mine was.  At first, I thought I'd cut it up, but then I decided it was really too nice to do anything more than quilt it by hand.  I thought I'd try "big stitch quilting" with perle cotton.  I hated doing that!  It was difficult to get a needle through, and I tried all sorts of needles.  I also thought I'd try quilting with some gold thread here and there.  It shreds if you use too long a piece (or maybe I didn't use the proper needle).  But I managed.  

In the end, I reverted to regular hand quilting thread, mostly black, and got very nice results, especially on the tree.  The quilting created good texture.  Here I am at show and tell last Tuesday night.  I was very glad to finish this project but also to have an opportunity to do some hand quilting which I have always enjoyed.  Paul's sister saw this picture and liked it, so I'm mailing it to her next week.  

Now I'm working on a little hand appliqued piece for a show and contest at the new quilt shop in town.  We can do just about anything except that the finished result needs to be only 12" x 15".  It's been quite humid lately, so yesterday I turned the heat pump to air conditioning and worked away on the new piece.  I'll keep at it today, and maybe I'll have another picture to share soon.

Finally, sun!

We got out fairly early today to go to the dump with our old grill.  Couldn't close the back of the hatch so it flopped all the way up some steep hills to the industrial park.  We had to go slowly because of the hatch,  but also because we were behind some line painting vehicles.  It was quite an adventure but they took the old grill for free.  Phew!  Our "new" (to us) grill cost $40 at a yard sale, and we don't expect it to last as long as the old one.  But the steak we had Sunday night was just fine.

The sky had turned a brilliant blue by the time we got home, so I went right to work, taking pictures of quilts I've finished lately.  First, is Arboretum, which has a few blocks made by others in my online group.  I love this throw and hope it will sell!  A contractor driving by admired it which is a good sign. 

I quilted this simply, with vertical lines through the stems, and it has an orange batik binding.  I have more of that batik and hope to use it again soon.

Next up was the colorful Hunters Star, scrappy, double-sized, and cut using my AccuQuilt.  I hope never to make another.  There are a lot of pieces in every 12" block.  The block backgrounds are various scraps of gray, and the back is a nice swirly piece I bought at Joann's.  Marie quilted it on her longarm with swirls, too.  

It measures 84" x 84".  I make a lot of square quilts, which I like because you can turn them regularly to avoid fading, and they still fit however you turn them.

Today, I'm going to list both of these quilts on etsy before going back to machine quilting my blue and white hankie quilt for a while.  Then I'm going to dip back into Murder at Haven's Rock, by Kelley Armstrong, a new sequel to the "Rockton" series.  I borrowed it from the library, and it's due Saturday.  Luckily, it moves right along.

Quilting another one

Yesterday, it rained hard almost the whole day.  We only left the house to go to the library for some DVDs to watch when we can't agree on anything to stream.  Unfortunately, it turned out Behaving Badly wasn't all that great, so we'll be taking it back soon.

I put a binding on the Hunters Star quilt on Thursday but haven't had a chance to take a picture due to the rain.  Maybe later today?  

Meanwhile, I got out the first section of the latest hankie quilt to sandwich and start quilting.  It looks like it will end up being around 63" x 63", which I could do all in one piece.  But I would really like to take some time to quilt each block in its own way, so I'll have to manipulate it quite a bit.  Quilting in two sections seems sensible for this.  Some parts may even need to be quilted by hand due to the uneven lacey edges.  It's going to be very pretty when done.

I signed up to be certified to use the longarm machine at the Gypsy Moth Quilt Shop in July.  I'm hoping to get a handle on the rest of my UFOs waiting to be quilted.  While I was at the shop, I picked up the two fat eighths required for the shop's mini quilt show and contest.  I hung them on my design wall in hopes that I will be inspired.  So far, no luck!

A nice encounter

We had a busy day yesterday which started off very nicely.  As I was going into the library for a Democrats meeting, I walked up the stairs with the chair of our school board.  She asked me if I am the quilter who had a quilt in the recent Studio Place Arts online auction.  When I said I was, she said she had bought the quilt using the "buy it now" feature and loves it.  I was thrilled!  

I gave it to SPA for their auction last year, and, sadly, no one bid on it.  I worried that it wouldn't sell again this year, and I was planning to take it back and offer them something else to auction off next year.  Besides that, I was happy because she is such a nice person!  It always feels good when someone likes something you've made.

After the Dems meeting, I went home and got Paul so we could go to the Pride Festival in the City park.  There were lots of people there, all having fun.  We bought a few things at the bake sale - funds go to Outright Vermont - and looked at some of the other booths.  I got a free flag to hang on the door.

On the way home, we stopped at a yard sale three doors down and bought a gas grill.  Ours bit the dust over the winter, and we were mourning the loss of charbroiled items, particularly the Wagu beef waiting in the freezer.   We had hot dogs last night for dinner.  I'll get out the beef next time Chris is over for dinner.

In between, I went to the Calico County Quilters meeting and did a little more hand quilting on my longstanding white on white UFO.  The end of that project is in sight - two or three meetings to go.  It's always fun to see those ladies and catch up on their lives and projects.  Everyone is so supportive of everyone else's projects.  Several of them are working on English paper pieced items.  That's not for me, but it's still fun to watch those items develop.

This afternoon, an old friend is arriving for an overnight.  Sonia moved to Albany after living in Plattsburgh, only an hour and half away, for several years.  I miss seeing her.   We have known each other since we were librarians in neighboring towns near Syracuse 50 years ago.   We had planned to go to a talk at the Old Labor Hall, and Sonia said she'd be interested in coming along.  We'll have dinner out and, I hope, watch the Emmy Awards afterwards.

Taking a modern approach

I've been working sporadically on a new Dear Jane quilt this year.  I started in January, trying to keep up with a Facebook group in which the moderator assigns a monthly bunch of blocks.  There's also a group with a weekly assignment.  I got totally confused, made two of the same block, and decided just to begin at the beginning of the book and work my way through.  I look at what others in those groups have made, but I need to do my own thing.

As I went along, I noticed that, 10? years after I made my last Dear Jane block, my fingers don't move like they used to (duh!).  I had a hard time hand appliqueing some of the tinier pieces that I know I could handle before.   I decided to stop worrying and start fusing.  I have never liked using fusibles because the end result is stiff.  But I discovered a new adhesive (Hot Fix) that is more flexible than others I've tried previously.  Since I'm already using a variety of black and white backgrounds with bright colors, fusing seems to go along with the "modern Jane" concept.

Here are the last four blocks in the B row and some from the C row.  B-11 isn't right - call it a "variation."  And I found I had already made C-3 in hot pink.  It wasn't the greatest, so I set it aside, but maybe I'll put it on the back along with other rejects.

I like the modern, more colorful fabrics I'm using with the varied backgrounds, especially block C-2.  When I finish the C row, I may put the blocks together and quilt those.  I'm thinking about using a charcoal gray sashing to make the blocks stand out.  Gray grunge perhaps?

And as for fusing, I will just have to learn to like it.  After all, many of Edyta Sitar's quilts are done that way and she even sells pre-fusible kits.

Today I'm baking some bread and plan to get back into the sewing room to work on C-7 at the very least.  I have been reading quite a bit, too, and watching Fresh Quilts on PBS on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

More catching up

I made the 9 June blocks for the Rows Parade quilt Thursday and  happily put the project box away until July.   I love Aby Dolinger's instructions.  They are very clear and relatively easy, so I have been doing her blocks of the month projects every year since I discovered her.

Yesterday I made a few string blocks, as part of my year-long effort to clean up miscellaneous scraps.  I used tissue paper foundations from Missouri Star for these, but I have to say that I prefer newsprint.   It's easier to remove.   I've been cutting them diagonally and putting four triangles together for larger blocks.  But when I did this, I noticed that the resulting squares were about 2" larger than previously made ones.  I must have given up on the Missouri Star papers in favor of cutting my own 8.5" squares out of newsprint.  Duh!  I AM getting forgetful.  

I hope to make at least one string block out of neutrals today and then hope to start on some more Dear Jane blocks.  Our weekend plan to visit Rudyard Kipling's home in the southern part of the state were vanquished when I read the fine print about the open house during Rhododendron Days.  Advance reservations were required and they were all booked for Sunday.  We'll have to try to visit another time.  We have quite a few theater opportunities already booked for the summer which will be real treats after the pandemic.

This week I need to clean up the sewing room a bit so that my son can install the air-conditioner (not that we need it today - we're going to have a high of 63 after 91 yesterday) and Sonia will be able to sleep in the bed next weekend when she visits.  It will be good to see her again.   We had lunch together last winter when she was visiting near Burlington, but before that it had been 3 or 4 years.  She was the new librarian in the town next to the one where I was the new librarian many years ago.  We helped each other out quite a bit and have kept in touch all these years - 50?  Wow!

Catching up

 

Sometimes it seems like all I do is catch up on various projects and don't finish much.  When I look at my list of finished things, I see I actually do get things done.  But I always have a to-do list anyway.

Here is this month's Heart of Vermont guild block of the month.  I wasn't late, but it was on my mind since the last meeting, so I got it done over the weekend.  It is to depict a Memorial Day poppy, and I love red and white together.  I made myself one, too, and this one is for the monthly swap.  Lately, I don't put my name in for the swap since I won the purple hearts earlier this year.  One win a year is plenty for me!

The next thing on my agenda was to catch up on the monthly Rows Parade and since I had the red box out, I decided to make my April plus signs in reds and prints.  It's been so long that I worked on it that I forgot which size quilt I'd planned to make.  So I made all that's required for the queen sized quilt.  If I decide to make a smaller quilt, I'll just make a table runner or something with the leftovers.

If I do make the queen-sized quilt, I'll stagger the blocks with plain fabric as shown on my design wall.  But for now, I'm not putting any month's blocks together until I decide on the size and arrangement.  I also have some multi-colored nine patches, hearts, and blue criss-cross blocks.

See that piece of paper in the top right corner by the blocks?  That's my to-do list which has quite a few things crossed off.   I'm making progress!

Next were the May square in a square blocks for the Rows Parade, and I decided to make them in orange and yellow since I hadn't used that color yet.  Initially, this was to be part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, but I haven't been working on it for several months.  I like yellow and orange together, so I decided to dip into those boxes of scraps.

Today I started making the June blocks which are four patches surrounded by solidish fabrics.  I made the four patches and will cut the surrounding fabrics out later today or tomorrow.  

We had errands to run, followed by a little gardening and cooking.  I like to make dinner salads in the mornings on hot days (it's supposed to be near 90 later today).  Today's will be a pasta salad with tuna and pineapple.  Guess I chose pineapple because of making the square in a square blocks!