Feeling productive

 It's amazing that finishing small projects can lift my spirits on a gloomy day.  After weeks of wonderful, sunny days, it has turned gloomy most days lately. but inside, bright things are happening.  I finished a few potholders yesterday.  Two will be raffled off during Light Up the Library in December, and one will be given away to the friends for whom I made the Christmas tree skirt.

I still have some of that Snowflake Bentley panel left to make a few table runners, but I'm not sure I'll have time to do so before Christmas.  That's OK - I like to sew with holiday fabrics during the holiday season.

Next, I made a raffle block for the upcoming state quilt guild meeting.  It's a rail fence using wintry snow flake fabric.  Hope I win the raffle!  I like the positioning of the rails which, when put together will zig zag a bit.  

I'm looking forward to the meeting as it will be my first since I stepped down as president or secretary, jobs I've held for close to 20 years.  I am dragging my feet as historian but hope to make that my winter project.  I want to get everything organized so that it can be archived at the state historical society library.  Anyway, it will be fun not to have any real responsibilities for the meeting!

Yesterday, I started quilting the little Blue Ocean quilt in a vertical/horizontal grid.  In this picture, I'm using green painters' tape to help me create the straight lines for the quilt.  It's a pretty small quilt - 40" x 40" - so by the afternoon, it was pretty much quilted, and today I hope to get the binding on.  I'll eventually give it to "Bags of Love" for kids going into foster care.  

First, however, I want to sandwich and quilt another little red and cream quilt that's hanging in the closet.  I'll probably do the same grid-like quilting pattern on it.  I heard that there's a need for things for babies and toddlers right now, so I hope these little quilts will help.  I'll post a picture of the finished quilt when it's done and (hopefully) the sun comes out.

Blue Onion... errr... Blue Ocean

 

A few weeks ago, I took an online class with Beth Ann Williams on sewing curves.  I'm pretty good at sewing Drunkard's Path blocks, but I wanted to learn more about complex curves.  Her class really helped me feel more confident about machine piecing curves.  In the past I would opt for hand sewing sometimes, but with my 1/4" foot, I feel I can do these more accurately.

I especially wanted to figure out how to cut the Blue Onion pattern which I bought some time ago.  Beth Ann explained it clearly, and she also referred us to some helpful You Tube videos.  Due to some infusions from friends, my blue fabric tub is overflowing, and this seems like just the pattern for me.

The original pattern calls for purchasing a rather expensive template for cutting the oval pieces.  You stack 5 squares and cut the pieces, flipping the stack as you make the cuts, then shuffling the pieces after cutting.  Beth Ann explained and showed how this works, and I finally got it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the pattern in my stack of Patterns I'd Like to Make Someday.  Grrrr!  Did I maybe give it away last year out of frustration?

I also didn't want to buy the very expensive template (nearly $50 for something I won't use that much, if at all).  So I decided to go improv and cut the pieces freehand.  My blocks ended up at 9" after trimming, and I ended up making 16 in all for a finished size of approx. 40" x 40".  After cutting, the sewing goes fairly quickly and is actually fun.  I'm going to call the quilt Blue Ocean, because that's what it looks like to me.  I'll try to post a photo later today after I get it sandwiched.  My dilemma now is the usual:  how shall I quilt it?

Raffled off

The Friends of the Library book and jewelry sale this weekend wrapped up at 1 pm yesterday, and we drew a winner for the month-long quilt raffle.   I called the winner, Shannon N., immediately when I got home, and she was thrilled.  She wanted to meet me right away, so I headed back down to the library with the quilt.  Shannon told me that she has been getting a room ready for a baby and is using the same colors as in the quilt, so I couldn't be happier to have her win the Barn Star Sampler!

I'm at the stage these days of having too many quilts, so I've been giving some away.  I make at least one purple quilt a year because purple is my favorite color, and this was 2023-24's block of the month with Aby Dolinger.  It ended up a somewhat odd size, and, while I had it for sale in my etsy shop, it did not sell.  After I closed the shop, I decided to raffle it off.  I hope it will make a little girl happy as she grows.  It was fun to meet her mom-to-be!

Loose ends and future plans

Our summer guest will be moving into her new condo early next week, we hope.  The financial stuff related to the purchase is coming along well, and her sons are planning to come to help with the move next Monday.  Having just finished two big projects, I decided not to start anything new this week.  Yesterday I finished a rug I started for my brother out of a quilt I made him years ago.  I cut some non-slip stuff to fit and used my walking foot to attach it.  Today I'll pack it up to mail to him.

While I was in the basement, I started a couple of mug rugs with left over Christmas fabrics.   I have a stack of them to give to library staff and need a few more.  I'll continue making them today and will quilt them when I get back up to the Elna which I have missed very much.  

On tap when I get back to my sewing room will be finishing some UFOs - the guild block of the month, a Kristin Laura block of the month, and Optimism blocks of the month by Aby Dolinger.   Now that the guild year has begun again, I will plan on making something out of a fat quarter swap this month to show at the November meeting.  There's a little scrappy red quilt hanging in the closet for quilting, too.  And speaking of guild, I hope not to be tempted to make the block of the month each month this year because that just adds to my backlog.  If I can finish up the UFOs I have before plunging ahead, I will be happy.

Having taken a class in curved piecing with Beth Ann Williams a few weeks ago, I hope to use my overflowing tub of blue fabric for a Blue Onion quilt or table runner.  The directions were a bit confusing when I first got the pattern, but Beth Ann helped make some sense of them.  It involves layering, cutting, shuffling, flipping, etc. piles of six fabrics.  This was the third class I've taken with Beth Ann this year.  Her instructions are incredibly clear.  

I have a pile of holiday fabric upstairs set aside to work on a Jen Kingwell Wensleydale quilt next year.  I have the papers from the Fat Quarter Shop all ready to go and have viewed a You Tube video from Quilted Chicken about how to put fabric together so that blocks end up scrappy.  I will probably watch it again as my memory isn't what it used to be.  Each block ends up as a rectangle about 6" x 9".

Finishes!

I finished two projects this past week!  One was begun in May and took most of the summer to complete.  The other was started about a month ago. 

Here's Double Date, a pattern by Jen Kingwell, which is mostly paper pieced.

I spent the summer paper piecing this using scraps of green and neutral backgrounds.  I hate taking the paper out, but because I was sewing in the basement away from my stash, I was not distracted by other projects (I have quite a few UFOs).  I used my not-so-great little Brother to do the sewing, and it proved quite good for this.  In between, I did sew the binding onto a friend's quilt, but that didn't take too long, especially because I sewed it all by machine.

Here's an up-close version:

I say I will never make such a project again.  Nonetheless, the Fat Quarter Shop's paper foundations were a godsend, and I have a book of papers to make a Wensleydale quilt out of Christmas fabric waiting in the wings.  Maybe I'll work on it this winter...

Meanwhile, I made a Christmas tree skirt using the Bentley's Snowflakes fabric.  This one is for my friend Pauline with whom, with her husband Bob, we enjoy going on historical and artistic jaunts.  Bentley was a Vermonter who photographed snowflakes long ago and discovered that no two are alike.  His original plates are owned by the Smithsonian.

The snowflakes came as a panel to cut up into 8" squares.  I still have some that I plan to use to make a table runner to raffle off at the Light Up the Library event that starts in November.  If there are any squares left, I'll make some potholders.  

 

Not a lot of sewing

In spite of the above, I've done very little sewing in the last few days, but it's been fun anyway.  Sunday, we picked up Paul's brother Jim at the airport, and we've been busy "entertaining."  Monday we drove to Windsor, VT, a little over an hour south, for lunch with their sister Carole and her husband John at the Harpoon Brewery.  The weather couldn't have been much better, and after lunch we sat outside to chat.

Yesterday, we visited the Vermont Granite Museum here in town.   Jim is a geologist and wore is "Easily distracted by rocks t-shirt.   The exhibits tell the story of Barre's granite industry, and there was a sculptor working on several impressive, large pieces.  Afterwards, we stopped at Studio Place Arts to look at the gallery's annual "stone" show.  It wasn't open on Tuesdays, but the director saw us peeking in the window and opened up anyway.  The many sculptures from a variety of stone were very interesting.  Outside the gallery, Jim was able to see "the world's largest zipper" made of granite by the same sculptor who was working at the museum.

Lunch was at a restaurant that goes overboard decorating for Halloween, and on the way home we stopped to buy Jim a bag of apples to take home.  He says they just don't taste as good in Alabama.  We'll take him back to the airport this morning and get ourselves back to "normal" later.  The one thing we didn't do was get a maple "creemee" (Vermont-ese for soft serve ice cream).  Next time.

Sunny fall days

A long time ago, a library customer moved to Arizona but returned after a year or so, telling me that "it was just too sunny there."  I wonder what he would think now that we've had at least a month of almost constant sunshine?  I like it.  The mornings are crisp at around 40, and the afternoons are warmish, around 70 degrees.  It's been nice for leaf peeping.  

Tomorrow Pat has an appointment in Morrisville, so we're looking forward to driving up that way, especially through Stowe and then by Lake Elmore where it's usually very pretty.  The foliage may have already gone by but it will still be nice.   

We took a walk around the neighborhood this morning and saw a lot of the leaves have already fallen.  But there's still plenty of color in this post-peak time.  After all these years in Vermont (almost 50), you'd think I wouldn't get excited about the fall colors.  But every fall is a little different, and I do love driving around our beautiful state.  (These photos came from the state's Lake Elmore State Park website)

Adding to my stash

 Even though I am still sewing in the basement, two floors from my stash, I can't seem to stop adding fabric to my "collection."  Guess I'm more of a fabric collector these days, but I do plan to spend a lot of time in my sewing room this winter, using some up.  I bought a bundle of nice Riley Blake half yards on sale recently, and the other day a friend, Robin, gave me two tubs of mostly cottons to take to the free table at guild after taking some myself.  There were some bigger pieces I can use for quilts for "Bags of Love" and some blues that would be good for a few projects I've been thinking of.

Saturday, I took an online class on curved piecing with Beth Ann Williams.  I have wanted to try working on a scrappy quilt with arcs as well as the Blue Onion pattern.  Beth Ann is a great teacher - this is the third class I've taken from her this year!  Everything is clear and concise, and I now feel very confident to tackle Blue Onion.  That's what all of Robin's blues will be used for.

Beth Ann showed how she cut her fabrics and sewed the blocks together.  There's a bit of flipping, shuffling and trimming involved that I didn't quite understand from reading the pattern.  It's somewhat improvisational which I was hoping for.  

I'll set that aside for now as I have two projects nearly to finished.  First, I'm about halfway through hand sewing the binding down on Double Date.  And I'm days away from finishing a blue Christmas tree skirt with "Snowflake" Bentley fabric for my friend Pauline.  I have four snowflake blocks to machine applique, and then it will be ready to bind as well.  I will sew that binding on completely by machine as there's always a lot of binding needed for tree skirts.   Not my favorite step in the process but definitely needed.   I chose this holiday project to finish before a few others so that I would know how much of that special panel I have left to use.  I now have enough for at least one table runner for the library's Light Up the Library raffle.

Why is it taking me so long to accomplish sewing projects lately?  I've gotten distracted reading a few good books (Britt-Marie was Here, Silent in the Sanctuary, and Dreaming Spies), but mostly we've been running around the countryside looking at fall foliage.  We take advantage of nice weather now before winter keeps us closer to home.  Tomorrow we're heading up through Stowe to Morrisville on an errand with a stop at Thompson's Flour Shop which makes great sandwiches and amazing take-and-bake pies.  Early next week, Paul's brother Jim is coming for a few days when we'll do a little more leaf peeping.  Busy days here!