Collage class

I took a day-long class in Laura Heine collage Saturday.  It was fun but intense.  Six people came, and our instructor, Marie, spent the day running between us, guiding us in making the collages of our choice.  One young woman had never made a quilt before, while others were seasoned quilters.  We all had different patterns, too, and plans for our pieces.  

Most of my time was spent filling in the background of this massive (38" x 50") quilt, Birch Street.  This is the pattern so you can see that much of the background gets partially covered by other things.  There's a lot of layering that goes on in these quilts.

Some people used a solid fabric for their backgrounds which seemed more difficult to me as the center motif had to be cut away to reduce bulk.  I made a scrappy background of black on white prints and managed to get one tree trunk down before leaving at around 2:30 pm.  My feet and back were tired from bending over the table most of the day.

I haven't used a lot of "Steam a Seam" before, so that was an adventure.  I think (hope!) that building the houses and trees will be fun going forward.  I watched other people in the class cutting out lots of flowers for their central motifs.  Kathy had a cat; Jen had water lilies.  I'll be curious to see how theirs turn out.  In some ways, I wish I'd chosen a mini for the first project as my quilt could take a year to complete!  It's always fun to learn something new and different.

Hopping around

I think most quilters hop around between different quilting (and other) projects, and I am no exception!  I have a long list of UFOs on the "slow go," as one friend put it.  Yesterday I finished up a knitted hat and scarf to give to kids going into foster care.  I'll deliver them along with a few more hats and a quilt on Thursday.

I also worked on my Jen Kingwell Sweet Tea and Green Beans quilt that I started this summer.  I love a mix of applique and piecing, but this pattern is meant for hand piecing which I rarely do.  I'm sewing mine on the machine when I can and hope to do more wool applique.   This will probably take me most of the next year to finish, but I do love working on Kingwell's unusual samplers.

I love the outer border with its vine and whimsical flowers.  It will be a while before I get there, though.  My quilt will be scrappy, but I am using a neutral background - cream with a brownish small print.  I think I have enough of it to get through the whole pattern, but to be on the safe side, I'll cut the outer border soon and set it aside (with a note to remind me about what it is).

Robin and I are doing a demo on "green wrapping" at the state quilt guild meeting in a few weeks, so I also made a couple of little goodie bags for Christmas.  I used a Halloween pattern from last month's BH&G American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  Today I'll make a quick Japanese knot bag which is partly cut out and maybe start knitting a baby hat with peach leftover yarn.

Getting things done

Good morning!  It's another gloomy day here in Central Vermont, with rain in the forecast, too.  We would all like to see the sun sometime, just to make sure it still works!  Yesterday was quite chilly, but the Friends of the Library's booth at the town Fall Festival went well.  We had a lot of young families stop by for giveaway books.   It was fun being right in front of the skate park which was teeming with kids.

That's Jo, one of the Friends, looking cold.  I had on my fleece jacket covered by my quilted winter jacket and gloves.   We were both happy when our two hour shift was over.  Our booth was right next to the Lions Club booth which was quite busy, too, with kids trying their hands at "corn hole" and picking up prizes.  

Today I'm trying to get things done.  I finished copy editing my friend Alan's book and sent it back to him.  It took me 11 hours over a week, reading it twice, and finding a lot I'd missed on the second pass.  I hope it is what he was hoping for.

I have some laundry going and an Indo-Dutch beef stew ("hache" my Otie called it) bubbling on the stove.   I'll most likely serve it with potatoes and peas.   An apple tart is cooling.  So I am feeling very accomplished this morning!  I'm heading to the quilting room as soon as I fold the clothes from the dryer.  I had an inspiration for Margaret's quilt in the guild Round Robin.  And if I have time, I'll put the last borders on Rows Parade.  Most likely, I'll collapse after lunch and do a little reading.  Have a fun Sunday!

A little of this and that

 Much of my time has been on the computer over the last week or so.  I've been working on publicity for the Nov. 4 genealogy fair as well as a mailing for the Friends of the Library's annual Light Up the Library program.  We solicit contributions from local businesses and groups to decorate the library with trees, wreaths, and other things during the holidays.  This year it's tricky because all of our downtown business owners suffered some sort of flood damage, with at their businesses or at their homes.  So we're trying to be sensitive in our solicitations.  It's a major fundraiser/raffle for the Friends. 

Last week, I read a couple of mysteries as "palate cleansers" in between copy editing a friend's new novella.  He usually writes creepy stuff, but this is a straight whodunit, which was a relief for me.  It has taken me seven hours to go through on a first pass, and I will now read it through from start to finish again to make sure I didn't miss anything.  By the time I finish Paul's books, I have usually looked at them at least three times and still we find typos in the final work.  So I want Alan's to be in fairly good shape when I turn it back over to him.  This is the first time I've edited anyone else's work besides Paul's, so it took me a while to get comfortable with Alan's writing style.

Today I hope to get the last borders onto Rows Parade.  One of the nine 73" rows is at left, unassembled.  With sashing and borders, it's grown to queen size very rapidly, and that makes it difficult to handle.  I hope to take it to the quilt shop tomorrow to choose a back for it and to give it to Marie to quilt.  Although I received ten yards of unbleached muslin from Paul's sister, I will save it for smaller quilt backs as it's 60" wide.

A gallery visit

 

On Saturday, we braved some heavy rain to drive about 1.5 hours south to tiny Reading, Vermont, to visit the Hall Art Foundation's exhibit of smaller Andy Warhol pieces.  Through the rain, it was difficult to see any foliage, but when things let up a bit, I was able to take a photo of part of the sculpture walk area.  Maybe next time we go, it will be dry enough to enjoy!

The gallery consists of two renovated lovely old farm houses, one of them stone, across the road from each other, and two barns.  The massive walls in the barn we visited (featuring Sherry Rothenberg) were perfect for larger paintings.  We saw quite a few of Warhol's smaller works, including the famous Campbell's Soup painting which was quite interesting.

We also stopped to look at part of a 39 minute video of Warhol eating a hamburger meal from Burger King.  He looked a little uncomfortable as if he'd never eaten a fast food lunch before.  He had a big ketchup bottle rather than little packets so it was all staged.  How many bags of food did he use to make that film?

Speaking of lunch, the restaurants were packed with leaf peepers from all over, including Vermont but mostly elsewhere.  The parking lot at our favorite Harpoon Brewery was impossible so we drove into Windsor to try their diner.  Good food, but rude service - an embarrassing visitors' introduction to our sweet little state.  A sharp contrast to lunch at the Hardwick diner which we visited last week.

Today I hope to put the final border on the Rows Parade quilt.  It's now queen sized!  If it's sunny out, I'll try to do a little yard clean up before going to quilt guild tonight.  My bags are packed for that, including a round robin bag - yet another UFO but always fun to work on.

Busy times

Our roads are full of tour buses and cars from out of state - sure signs of fall.  Saturday, I drove down to the quintessential Vermont town - Woodstock - and was impressed by all the people wandering the streets, standing on the covered bridge downtown, and ducking into all the cute shops.  I was coordinating a meeting about barn quilts with my friend Sharon who is our state expert on all things barn quilt.   25 people gathered at the public library, a Richardsonian building that has been renovated inside for high tech service as well as coziness.   

The ride back and forth revealed pops of color among the trees, but much of our foliage seems a bit muted this year due to the heavy rain we've had all summer.  We are having a bit of a heat wave for fall right now with temperatures in the 70s and lovely blue skies.  I have been doing a bit of yard work - not too much as I have plenty of other stuff to do.

I finished the neutral baby quilt over the weekend and popped it in the mail yesterday along with a comfort quilt for a cousin who's going to be having chemo.  I wish we lived closer so that I could be of some help.  We just reconnected after 50 years, but I remember being giggly girls together when we had to sleep in the same bed on visits to her home in Hershey, PA.  Their family lived on Chocolate Avenue, and sitting at the picnic table in the backyard, the aroma was wonderful.

Today I baked a loaf of bread and, while it was rising, started sashing the queen-sized quilt that I've been working on as a row of the month called "Rows Parade."  Each row needs to be about 73" long, so it's taking a little longer to put the whole thing together.   I have to add a little here and taking a tuck there on some of the rows.

I made most rows in colors chosen by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, although some rows have a mix of colors.  The sashing and inner border are a "quilters linen" in beige, but I have no idea what to use for the outer border.  Hope I get inspired soon - I have lots of possibilities in my stash.