Knitted stuff

Yesterday was a recuperation day for me.  I didn't do a lot, just a little gardening in the early part of the day.  I sat down to watch Love of Quilting on TV along with a Hallmark mystery, something I rarely do.  I did some hand sewing of the Dresden Plate blocks I started last week.  And I wove lose ends of knitting things that will be going to kids in foster care eventually.

The "wave" scarf is made with a variety of colors, including shades of purple and brown and is quite long.  If I ever make another, using the technique called "short row knitting," I'll use a continuous couple of skeins of variegated yarn.  Adding the different colors was just a pain as all the additions and subtractions needed weaving in to finish.  But I do like the way it turned out.

The hat should fit ages 18 mos. to 4 years, but it's almost big enough to fit any kid's head.  Paul thinks it's appropriate for both boys and girls, but I imagine a little boy wearing it.  I bought several skeins that blue DK weight washable wool fully intending to make myself a sweater.  But then I realized I didn't have the stamina or interest to knit one.  So I've made lots of blue hats in the last couple of years.  I have a batch of other ends and pieces of yarn that I am hoping to make a few more hats out of this year, and yesterday I started one using remnant of cotton/acrylic blend variegated yarn.  It should go fairly quickly as it's for ages up to 18 mos.

This morning I'll head down to the library to meet the recycling crew which will take our 100 boxes of leftover books from the book sale.  I'll stop at the grocery store for milk and bread on my way home, and then I'll make a chicken salad for dinner.  This afternoon, I'll get together as usual with librarian friends around the country via Zoom.  They always have good suggestions for books, movies, etc. and there will surely be some discussion of politics.  In between, I'll probably put in a little time machine quilting a little Christmas quilt.

A successful summer ritual

Over the 24 years I've belonged to the Friends of the Library, we have almost always held a summer book sale during our town's summer festival, now called "Heritage Days."  This year was no different.

We set up the sale Thursday afternoon although I met the tent company representative that morning.  John was already setting it up when I arrived at 9 am, and he did a great job.  A bunch of us, including two young people we paid, put up tables supplied by the city, two pop up tents, and a whole load of books in boxes and on carts.  It took our relatively well-oiled machine under two hours.  

Friday morning, bright and early, a crew opened the sale for the day.  This is a picture taken by a new group in town that is supporting various causes, including the library.  These folks sold lovely tote bags that people could fill with books for free.  Half the money came to the Friends and the other half went directly to the library.  The Friends always offer very low prices and, this year, we added "buy five, get one free," which seemed to confound a few of the cashiers.  People always enjoy a bargain, though.

I helped out with sales on Friday afternoon and all day Saturday until the parade started at 1 pm.  That's when we got busy cleaning up.  All books were boxed and stacked in the library's vestibule.  On Monday, before the library opens, I'll meet the recyclers and wave goodbye to about 100 boxes worth of dregs.  Any books going to various giveaway sites have already been siphoned off for distribution this week.  The $2,000-plus we earned this weekend will go to programs for all ages during the coming year.  Today I plan to take it easy, quilt and read a bit, and begin to enjoy what's left of summer.

Still working with orphans

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Sometime last week I got out all of the smaller orphan blocks I had and put them on the design wall.  Several seemed just perfect for mug rugs, so I made six.   I'll be giving them to the board of the state guild as thank you gifts at our meeting in August.   They really work hard to make the semi-annual meetings fun and active.   

I worked on a little table topper, too, which incorporated a few 6" blocks and a bunch of neutral "crumb" blocks.  I am thinking of a little applique on the neutral parts but will set it aside for a while.

Saturday, I joined the Calico County Quilters for a nice afternoon of hand stitching and chatting.  I made good headway on a sashiko piece I worked on in Colorado.  I'm not sure what I'll do with that when finished, but I have a few guild meetings' worth of embroidery to go.

The backing fabric for the purple Barn Star quilt came in the mail from Keepsake (how I miss their store in New Hampshire!). Now I need cut it to size and get it ready to take to Marie for long arming.  I hope to get to the quilt shop on Thursday when she works.

This morning I started cutting out a new quilt using a fat quarter bundle I've had for a while.  The fabric line is called "Flora" by Riley Blake, and while cutting I couldn't help singing that song about Flora, the lily of the West (I love this version by Tim O'Brien).  It's got pink, periwinkle, green, yellow, and black florals as well as a few geometrics which are making nice Dresden Plates.  

I saw a quilt on the Moda website that really caught my fancy, and I will adapt it to suit me.  I like a mix of applique, paper piecing, and regular piecing.   I'm planning a Dresden Plate to replace the center panel which didn't come with the bundle.   I'm not wild about panels anyway, but my next quilt will probably incorporate one.  Stay tuned for Bigfoot!

We were fairly busy this past week because of a break in the hot weather (ahh!  a few good nights' sleep!), and, regardless of the weather, we have a busy week and weekend coming up.  

Barre Heritage Days will flood downtown with lots of activity, including a library book sale Friday and Saturday.  The tent will be put up Thursday when we'll take all the accumulated books outside.  I'm scheduled to work Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday. Sunday I'll collapse, rest my feet, and maybe work on Flora a little more.

Finishes!

What a great feeling it is to finish long-standing projects!   This morning, I took pictures of two things I finished recently.

First is a Christmas throw made of one of my guild's blocks of the month.  I think the month was December, so the drawing was in January.  I call the block "Ribbon Star," although I'm not really sure what the name was.  At any rate, it was quite easy to make.  I really like the alternating sashing - green and red.  My friend Marie quilted it on her long arm using variegated green and red thread in a loopy floral design.

I have two more of these blocks left over so I may make some placemats for us to use over the holidays.  I didn't use them in the quilt because it was big enough and one of them was made of a juvenile print with a gold glitzy background (not my style!).  

I enjoy participating in the guild block of the month but I try not to enter more than once a year for fear I will win.  I usually make the block but don't put my name in the drawing.  I'm not sure who I'll give this throw to or if I'll put it in my etsy shop.   For now, it's going in a pile with all the other quilts I'm not planning to keep.

I received five homespun Ohio Star blocks in a "teacup" auction at the state guild meeting.  People buy tickets and then put their tickets into the teacup - or in this case a brown paper bag - by the item(s) they want to win.  No one was putting tickets into the bag for this item which also included some books, patterns, and fabric.  So, of course, I did... and won.  

All of the blocks were different colors except the two in the table runner I just made.  It took me a while to decide that I didn't need to use all five in the same project.   I love the denim-colored quilter's linen I used around each block set on point and am happy to have some left over for a future project.  Now I have two blocks left over that will probably become potholders.  I'm going to take this table runner to the florist/gift shop downtown to sell when they are ready to take more items.  They opened the day after the flood cleanup but are still fine tuning.   

This morning, I got the binding on the bargello Christmas tree skirt, but I didn't take a picture yet.  Will do that tomorrow if I get a chance.  That project wasn't too hard once I figured out that paperplates were helpful for keeping track of the order of each fabric.  I used a preprinted piece of batting from the Warm Co. and found the instructions very helpful.  I needed over 6 yards of bias binding, though, and didn't have enough coordinating Christmas fabric.  I ended up buying green commercial bias binding, and it turned out surprisingly nice, even though it is a bit stiff.

Working with orphan blocks

What do you do with your orphan blocks, the samples you make before making a whole quilt, the blocks of the month from guild (if you belong to one), the odds and ends that didn't make it into a quilt?  I keep mine in a pizza box until I get an idea about how to use them.  Sometimes I even throw them away if they've been in the box too long.

My pizza box was full, and there were some nice blocks.  I made a table runner out of some blue homespun Ohio Star blocks, but I still need to take a picture.  I may take that down to the florist/gift shop to sell.  

Then I decided to make a small quilt for Bags of Love, which supports kids going into foster care.   I used some string blocks that I didn't feel like making more of and some guild blocks of the month to make a little quilt measuring about 50" x 50".  The picture shows only part of the quilt which was on the bed in the sewing/guest room.  But you get the idea.  I found that the string blocks needed to be trimmed to a uniform size that ended up being 11", so I used blue sashing around them.  There's a thin border of blue around the whole quilt, too.   I plan to quilt it very simply when the batting I just ordered comes in.  

While I wait for the batting, I decided to attach a binding onto the Christmas block of the month quilt that came back from the long arm quilter last week.  I'll take a beauty shot tomorrow if the sun is right.

Next, I started cutting some triangles out of orphan blocks.  I plan to make more with strings as a ongoing project.  I had thought of making Bonnie Hunter's leader and ender project, but I like this better.  Right now, I'm thinking I'll alternate neutral and colorful triangles.  Of course, this could always change as I go along.  

Right now, there are more triangles cut out of orphan blocks than there are string ones, but I figure the string ones will dominate soon enough.  My basket of colored strings and my bag of neutral ones are both overflowing.  I'm using newsprint foundations just to make sure they aren't too wonky.

In going through my orphans, I see that I have quite a few small blocks that could be set with white or cream to make some table runners.  But right now, while I have the dual feed foot on my machine, I am going to focus on binding the Christmas tree skirt.  Then I hope to quilt the orphan quilt and the round robin Christmas one.  Maybe I'll even finish quilting the first three rows of Dear Jane.  

Another flood event

July 10 is not a good date for Barre.  Our area experienced flooding Wednesday night after having had a terrible flood last year.  Folks were still cleaning up from last year's flood when it started pouring, with thunder, from about 5 pm and into the morning.  Most of the standing water in our yard was absorbed quickly, but others weren't as lucky.   We live high and dry a mile from downtown.

Much of downtown Barre was closed yesterday for clean up, and it was amazing how fast it occurred.  Last summer's routines of clean up operations were fresh in people's minds, so volunteers turned out with sump pumps, cleaning equipment, food trucks, and more.  I drove down to the library to sort books for the Friends' upcoming sale and noticed quite a bit of dust in the air.  The sun was out helping to dry things.  Unfortunately, some of the 100 or so houses condemned from last year's flooding got hit again and will be bought out.

Around the state, back roads and highways were washed out, and I was sorry to see a great deal of water in what we call the Northeast Kingdom.  Since last year's flood, there's been talk about flood proofing, but it seems we really need to speed that up and not just talk about it.

Meanwhile, back in the quilting studio where the air conditioner is blasting away (thank goodness), I finished quilting the Christmas tree skirt and like it very much.  Here's a picture of it before binding - I put it on the bed so the center and one side of the bed's quilt shows through.  

The thing about tree skirts is that they require a lot of bias binding - at least 234 inches.  I decided to look at pre-made bias binding, so will need to go to Joann Fabrics later today.  If I don't like what they have, I'll look for a yard and a half of something coordinating.  While I have a lot of Christmas fabric, none of it is large enough to get longer bias cuts.  I'll sew it all by machine and then set it aside until the Friends of the Library's holiday raffle.

Next on my mental list will be making a few table runners to sell at our local florist/gift shop which was again flooded downtown.  The owner also owns the Kitty Cat Cafe next door and spent the night there with the cats.  All felines are fine, but the cafe part and her florist shop did take on water.  She'll be looking for a few new things to sell, and I know she is treating various crafters' items with extreme care.  I'll go through my box of "orphans" for these items.  I am anxious to get back to Dear Jane.  Maybe next week?

Moving slowly

 We've had some hot/humid days recently, so I've either spent most of them sewing  or reading with the AC on.  I finished the purple Barn Star Sampler quilt top and will take it to Marie for long arm quilting eventually.  Right now it's in a bag waiting.  If I take it too soon, I'll have too many UFOs to keep up with.

I still have a Christmas quilt to bind and will soon have a bargello Christmas tree skirt to bind as well.  The pattern is at left.  I thought it would be fairly easy but figuring out the order of the strips of fabric took quite a bit of time.  Paper plates came in handy to keep them all straight.  The binding will be cut on the bias and will be quite long.  I'll sew it on by machine.

I finished the last book in the Maisie Dobbs series the other day. The Comfort of Ghosts was a very satisfying conclusion to a great series with interesting mysteries.  Usually the murders occur "off screen" so to speak, and Maisie just happens upon them or is contracted by someone to solve them.  It has been great to grow old with Maisie and some of her characters, including her assistant, Billy, who has gained quite a bit of wisdom over time and exposure to Maisie.  I will miss her but know that author Jacqueline Winspear will most likely come up with new characters that are just as interesting.  I really liked the standalone novel about post World War II that she wrote a few years ago, The White Lady.  I have her memoir waiting in the wings.

Now I'm back to reading about Aunt Bessie, having read all 26 of her mysteries in the last year or so.  Author Diana Xarissa couldn't set her aside so is writing a "Cold Case" series featuring Aunt Bessie and friends.  It's a comforting, quick series that I was initially drawn to because the books are set on the Isle of Man, and I was making Manx quilt blocks at the time.

We are all bracing for the remnants of Hurricane Beryl to arrive this afternoon.  Having gone through a massive flood here exactly a year ago, everyone is preparing for the worst.  I'll charge everything I can in preparation for power outages, and I'll bring my lone tomato plant in its pot up on the porch out of the wind.  Luckily, we live up a long hill from downtown and also on a flat piece of land away from any landslide-prone areas.  Some of our near neighbors aren't so lucky.  Fingers crossed!

Back from vacation

Good morning!  We arrived home from a week in Colorado on Saturday night, and I've been doing some catch up the last couple of days.  Haven't sewed at all but did get a bit of reading in.  The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear is coming to an end (sob!), and I'm nearly finished with the last book.  It's hard to say goodbye to a favorite character.

Big loads of laundry have been done, the refrigerator is restocked, and the garden has been checked over for weeds and such.  Our blueberries are heavily laden and were drooping, so we staked them up and are hoping for a bumper crop.  That means I need to get rid of some of the berries we still have in the freezer.  Friday (after a check on my blood sugar and pressure at the doctor's), I plan to make a pie.  Yum!

We had a great week visiting Mom and my sister Jenny.  It was just the right mix of activity and down time.  We sat on the back porch and chatted quite a bit and also went out a few times.  I did some sashiko while enjoying the breeze and watching the birds.  Mom loves to go out for breakfast, so we took her to the ultimate:  Denny's for a "grand slam" with waffles.  

Chris and I went to the Coors Brewery gift shop for some retail therapy, and we all visited the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.  Luckily, they had two chairs outside for Paul and Chris to sit in while Mom, Jenny, and I did some detailed looking at the quilts.

We had a fun 102nd birthday party with Mom's Dutch-Indonesian club one day.  Mom was very happy that Chris could come along with us this time.  He's her "favorite grandson," she always says (he's also her only one!).  All of the guests brought food and a huge cake, which we all enjoyed.

Mom was very pleased with the Birch Street collage I brought her, and we hung it up so that she can look at it from her favorite chair.   At the party, I had a fun conversation with Inga, the daughter of Mom's late friend Judy.  She mentioned that when she was cleaning out her mother's house, it was full of items made by a friend who is a quilter.  That's the way my mom's house looks, too - table runners, tablecloths, bed quilts, and wall quilts are all made by me.  It's nice, since we live so far apart, to have a bit of myself there for her to enjoy.  And Paul and I enjoyed sleeping under one of my first quilts, a handquilted Amish sampler made in the 1990s.