Another start

On Sunday afternoon, I decided to sort through all the catalogs and magazines that had been piling up in the living room.   The ones with clothing were all advertising stuff for spring and summer!  Consequently, almost all went into the recycling bin.  

But one of them went up to the sewing room with me.  It was a pamphlet with patterns for scrap quilts that came with my renewal of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine (sorry about the glare), and it showed a very do-able little quilt using pieces of the rainbow, arranged ROYGBIV style.

I have a new grandniece or -nephew coming this winter, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.   I'm sure the parents haven't decided on a color scheme for their little surprise, so I'll wait to create a back in a color(s) of their choosing.  (I hope it's not "neutral" like the last one I made them!)   I've made three rounds and hope to add the green round today.

I'm using a white dotted fabric for the strips in between.  The original pattern shows a light blue dotted fabric which is also nice, but I don't have enough of any color for that.  It's quite easy although it's important to square up everything after each round of color.  I don't want to end up with a parallelogram!

I'm heading to the quilt shop this morning with the Gumballs and purple Round Robin quilts.  I'll tell Marie there's no rush on the quilting.  Having just finished Dear Jane and Wensleydale, I am definitely not in a hurry to bind two more quilts.

I need to get some more thread as well as a new blade for my smaller rotary cutter.  I am hoping to make a Flowering Snowball quilt this fall also, and I find the smaller cutter is easier to use around the plastic templates.   I already took a small chunk out of one point the other day as I tried to cut some pieces ahead. 

Quilt pictures

 It was sunny and not too wet outside yesterday so I decided to take pictures of two quilts I finished recently.  First is my Modern Dear Jane, which I started 1/1/23 and finished 8/2/26.  Phew!  I love it and can't wait to put it on our bed.  That will have to wait until the cooler nights when we put two on.  I will enjoy looking at each little block.

I quilted this myself, in sections, and hand stitched the binding to the back.  Here's a close up.

And here's my Christmas Wensleydale which I started last winter and finished in the spring.  I had Marie quilt it with her long arm.  I machine stitched the binding.

I really don't need another Christmas quilt, but I had a lot of scraps.  I thought I could do the whole thing with the scraps in my stash, but found I needed more fabric, including the fabric for the border.  It's hard to see in the picture but that inner border is a soft blue to go with the floral outer border.  This will be fun to use during the holidays because there are some cute little motifs here and there.

Maple leaf blocks

For the sampler I'm designing for the state quilt guild, I made a couple of blocks that I really like this weekend.  One is a 12" maple leaf block and the other is a 12" block made of four 6" maple leaf blocks.  They will end up as the centerpieces of the sampler, I think.

I wish I had cropped the photos before downloading them from my phone!   I was just too eager.  I'll have to crop them before I write up the instructions.  Maybe I was thinking ahead to the yellow rainbow scrap challenge blocks I plan to make this week.  

I did make five log cabin blocks yesterday after I made a batch of nutella cookies and a large pan of brownies for library programs this week.  The kitchen got quite hot, but the cookies were delish.  

Our friend Fred is coming over for coffee on Friday morning, and I'd like to make something special to serve.   Will we have enough cookies left over or should I make something with blueberries?  That is the question!  And if the latter, shall it be bread pudding or muffins?  I guess I'll decide tomorrow...

A hot week coming up

The weather people are predicting a hot and humid week ahead except for today which I had already set aside for baking and, perhaps, jam making.  I promised cookies for library programs Wed. and Thurs., and our friend Fred is coming for coffee on Friday.  Luckily, we have a heat pump which offers air conditioning when we need it.  I'm going to try to do a little cooking ahead today.  Our blueberries are coming in fast and furious.  Peaches are ripening, too, for some blueberry peach jam.

Over the weekend, I worked on blocks for my planned Green Mountain Sampler, a compilation of blocks selected from the last 40 years of the state quilt guild's various raffles and challenges.  2009's block was a maple leaf, and I made a 12" and four 6" blocks.  Those were fairly easy.  

I've been thinking about how I'm going to put all the blocks together in a sampler with some fillers like checkerboards and flying geese.  This is a fun project for me as guild historian.  My goal is to have the written instructions and the finished throw-sized sampler quilt ready for the spring meeting.

Yesterday I tackled the 2019 block which was the center of a guild logo challenge based on the 12" APQS Vermont block which is paper pieced.   The result was disappointing to say the least.  I now remember doing this back then and finding it very difficult to make all the points match.  

I will have to do my sample over before I can publish it in the booklet/web page I'm planning.   I now remember making an 8" block based on Marcia Hohn's Vermont 2 block, also paper pieced.  I'll pay better attention to the colors as well when I get around to it.  I really don't like the way these colors are arranged.

But before I tackle a re-do of the Vermont block, I will work on this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks:  log cabins, improv houses, and traffic jams.  The color is yellow - hooray!  My yellow/gold box is full of scraps.

Gumballs top

Even though I had a lot to do last week (Heritage Days, after all), I started a new quilt.  It's a scrappy one called Gumballs, a pattern I saw in another blog and which appeared in McCall's Quilting some years ago.  I decided to try to use up some blues and, unusual for me, cut all the pieces before sewing them into blocks.  I needed 120 nine patches and 120 half-square triangles, plus other fillers!  I can almost close my blue fabric tub now.  

Over the weekend I managed to get most of the blocks together and finished the 60" x 72" top yesterday.   I have some pieces of previous backs ready to put together today.  But I'm not all that thrilled with the whole thing.  Maybe I'll like it better once it's quilted.  At any rate, I'll take it to Marie for quilting when I have the back ready, and I'll probably give it to Bags of Love after that.  

Meanwhile, Dear Jane has been languishing on a chair, waiting to be bound, and I did get half-way around over the weekend.  Our perfect weather has come to an end, and it looks like I'll be indoors watching the rain for the rest of the week.  

Our blueberries are coming in strong right now, and I've already frozen several bags.  I want to bake another blueberry buckle for Friday (my birthday) so will try to get outside in between showers to pick two cups more.  We're planning to go out for Chinese on Friday with Chris and Paul's sister Pat.  I'm sure we'll be too full after dinner for cake, so I'll give them each a piece to take home afterwards.

And speaking of blue, I must be in a blue period as last week I also finished a blue tote bag for my brother Axel to give to a friend who has been driving him around.  It's hard to see, but both sides have a pocket between the handles.  I used pre-quilted fabric from "Connecting Threads" for this bag and another one I need to put a button on.

Yesterday I went to the quilt shop where they offer a discount of half my age around my birthday.  I bought about many yards of mostly neutrals, stocking up for the coming year.  Phew!  Had a nice, long awaited chat with Robin while she cut everything.  That in itself was a birthday gift as we don't get together often enough.

Favorites from Billings show

 I forgot to show photos of two quilts I really liked at the Billings Farm Museum show last weekend.  The first was called "Eclipse," and I loved its simplicity.

Next is my favorite of the show, perhaps because I met the quilter, Susan Damon Balch, a year or so ago at a meeting of the state quilt guild.  I forgot to write down the name of the quilt, but the use of monochrome gave it a peaceful feel and I liked that she blended in some traditional quilt blocks in the background.

Billings Farm Museum show

I spent yesterday in Woodstock at the Billings Farm Museum "Quilt Guild Day."  The Green Mountain Quilters Guild was the featured guild in an old barn set up just a little way from the main building where the annual Vermont Quilt Sampler exhibit is.  Five members of the statewide guild showed some of our work and demonstrated some techniques, including three ways of working with hexagons, hand quilting in a large hoop, Hawaiian quilting, and sashiko.   Several people asked how to get started in quilting which was fun to discuss.

It was a gloomy day, but morning and mid-day visitors to the grounds all stopped in to see what we were up to.  At around 2:00, the heavens opened up and it poured off and on for about an hour and a half.   We decided to pack up and go home at 3:30, even though we were scheduled to leave at 5 pm. 

We did sell about ten small quilts made by members which was good.   Several people wanted to buy my little landscape, but it was promised to a lady who had to visit the ATM first.  I love how the sky turned out in this one, and I have another hanging on the wall over my desk.

There was a distinctly "farm" smell throughout the barn perhaps due to the pigs and other critters in the barn next door.  Because it was a bit damp, I'' run all five of the quilts I brought with me through the dryer on "air" to freshen them up a bit.

I was also surprised that my bookshelf quilt received a lot of comments from visitors.  I made as a "row robin" several years ago with my international friendship swap group.  

I enjoyed looking at the quilts in the show, too.  This is the third year for the show, and the jury takes great pains to make sure there's a variety.  I was especially pleased to see quilts by three members of my local guild there.  All were deserving of note.  I didn't take too many pictures but the museum's website (link above) has several good shots.

What I do on Mondays

 

For the past few years, I've been Zooming with old friends from my work life on Monday afternoons.  These are all people who worked for their state libraries and collected data about public library use.  We were mostly all together in Washington, DC, on 9/11/2001 when the twin towers were hit.  We spent some tense days then and really bonded.  All retired now, we talk of books, movies, politics, and anything else that comes to mind.  States represented are Colorado, Georgia (now living in FL), South Carolina, Minnesota, and Massachusetts (now living in Chicago).  Quite a spread!

A trip and a finish

First, the finish!  Another small hat for a child going into foster care.  I've only been knitting this for a few weeks although I probably would have finished sooner if I'd stuck to it and sewed it together right after I finished knitting.  Instead, it languished as usual.

I love the "Hawthorne" yarn that Knit Picks sells and have made a few other hats using it.  I still have enough of this yarn left to make most of another hat, but I think I'm going to concentrate on finishing the purple scarf I started months ago.  It uses smaller needles so is taking me a while to finish.

We went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, for a long weekend and returned this morning after spending the night in Glens Falls, NY.  It's about a 10 hour drive to NOTL, which I could do if I felt like it.  But we decided to break this trip up into two days each way to give ourselves a chance to relax.  We are, after all, retired with no real place we have to be.  Going back and forth over the border was easy, which was a relief.

NOTL is a charming village on Lake Ontario, just over the border into Canada.  Every summer, they hold a series of plays and musicals in a festival honoring playwright George Bernard Shaw.  Two summers ago, we were wowed by My Fair Lady.  This year's offerings included the musical Funny Girl and a wacky play about Jeeves and Wooster.  Both were very enjoyable, and we're glad we went. 

NOTL is a real tourist destination with lovely shops and plenty of nice places to eat.  Walking down the street, one hears all sorts of languages, and one needs to be careful not to photobomb anyone.  My favorite view was a whole window full of red and white pajamas in a maple leaf print.  Wish I'd gotten a picture.  The Sunset Grill saw us twice - once for lunch and the next day for breakfast - so it was obviously a hit.   We noshed on great ice cream cones while people watching in the city park which is beautifully landscaped, and we splurged on a Thai dinner complete with fried bananas Sunday.  Our room at an older inn was conveniently located and comfortable albeit tiny.  A perfect minivacation!

Two finishes!

Last week I picked up the Wensleydale quilt from Marie, the long arm quilter, and had it all bound by machine on Sunday.  She quilted it rather loosely in a snowflake pattern which looks a bit like a large stipple.  I like its puffiness and am glad it's done.   Foundation paper piecing made it easy to put together.

I realize that blue isn't considered a Christmas color, but it is used in most winter ones, so I chose the light blue stop border because the outer border includes blue.  I used the same outer border fabric for the binding because the inner part of the quilt is busy enough!  Of course, the holidays are plenty busy.

I may take this quilt to the library to hand on the wall during the holidays along with another quilt I often use with the auction items during "Light Up the Library."  When I get a chance, my plan to is make shopping bags for all the members of the library staff for Christmas.  Right now, I'm looking for a pattern that's easy and folds in or rolls into itself without snaps, buttons, or elastic.  

Over the weekend, I also got all the quilted pieces of my Modern Jane quilt together, bordered, and partly bound.  That was a lot of work, hauling the sections around and squaring them up together.  I was amazed that I had made almost the perfect lengths of piano key borders.  Sometimes things work like a charm and other times they are a pain.   The corners were duplicate DJ blocks that I made by accident during the three years I made them.  I lost track here and there along the way.

The spirit of Jane Stickle was with me on this quilt, I guess.  Besides the almost perfect length of borders, I found I needed to create about a foot more binding to get all the way around neatly, which used up all of one black/white fabric in my stash.   I had plenty more other b/w fabric but didn't want the binding to be scrappy.  I now face the task of sewing the binding down by hand, and I'll do that in spurts.

To give myself a break, I've been working on the July Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  Why - oh why? - did I decide to make three different quilts this year?  The color of the month is Bonnie Hunter's favorite - aqua.   Unfortunately, I have very little of what I consider to be that color, so I have expanded it to be what I consider to be teal which I have a lot of.  Five log cabin blocks are in the bin and put away already.  The "traffic stop" blocks are well on their way to completion, and today I'll start on the improv houses.

Home is best

Off hand, I can't remember the quote so well - east, west, home is best?   But it sure is good to be home in peaceful, green Vermont although we enjoy visiting Mom and sister Jenny in Colorado.  Saturday was Mom's 104th birthday, and we celebrated with two online video chats.  My brother took a screen shot.  It's difficult to see anyone, but the upper right has Mom, my son Chris, me, Jenny, and Paul.

Later in the day we had another video chat with my nieces in Los Angeles and Queensland, New Zealand.  It was good to see them both.

The day before we had a visit from my second cousin, twice removed, Joice, her husband Bob, and one of her sons and his family.  Mom hadn't seen Joice and Bob for 60 years.  The last time was when she gave them baby furniture, and now her son has grown up with kids of his own.

Joice lives in Pennsylvania, and we last saw her and Bob a couple of years ago when we were traveling through on our way home from the south.  We hope to see them again this spring.

Our visit included a lot of "mom care," taking her to appointments, helping her navigate the oxygen tubes, and just helping her in general.  I did a little cooking but also discovered delicious pizza already made at Whole Foods.  Wish we had one!  We browsed around Barnes and Noble, stopped at Starbucks, and generally enjoyed life in suburban America. 

A trip to Colorado is never complete without a trip to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.  This time, there was a fabulous exhibit of medallion quilts by Cindy Vermillion Hamilton.  All were hand sewn, hand appliqued, and hand quilted.  Very impressive!  

The blue and white quilt is about the plainest one in the exhibit, but one I think I could actually do.  It gave me the idea that I could surround the map of the Netherlands I made last winter with a border of appliqued melons.   

The red background with bright blue on this quilt is stunning, my favorite of them all.  It was Cindy's wedding quilt and reflects her and her husband's Native American heritages.  

We've been home a few days, and laundry, grocery shopping and other household chores have been done.  I think I'll get a chance to quilt today before going over to Pam's with lunch and gossip.  She had a stroke about a month ago and needs a little pick-me-up.

Going scrappy

Even though I've been busy quilting Dear Jane off and on, I've taken the time to work on this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks and do the guild monthly challenge.  I showed the Improv Houses a few days ago.  

Here I am at guild with our June challenge.  Each person received a baggie of scraps and was asked to make something with them.  All of the scraps belonged to Lisa, so I decided to make her a "thank you" fabric postcard with the scraps I received.  Lisa does a lot for the guild, including a massive fabric auction in May.  I came home with 18 yards of lovely purple fabric for $30!  All the money went to the Vermont Food Bank or a project to support Afghani refugee ladies learning to sew and earn a living.  

At the June meeting, some guild members brought a large number of tubs filled with the stash, much of it yardage, of a lady who had moved to a nursing home.  I felt pretty smug, taking home only two large pieces of Christmas fabric which will become tablecloths.  I have too much stash as it is.  I'll use the fabric for table cloths during this year's Light Up the Library event.

The guild's summer challenge is to make a tote bag from scraps.  I am planning to make each library staff member a fold up shopping bag for Christmas this year.  I'll be looking for a pattern very soon so I can peck away at the bags over the summer.

The 2026 round robin

The last Heart of Vermont guild meeting was this past Tuesday, and we had the reveal of our 2025-26 round robin.  One person in the group couldn't make it, but we showed her quilt anyway, and we all took home our own quilts which were begun in the fall. 

I started with a left over 14" square from last year's Optimism quilt along sampler designed by Aby Dollinger.  Then it passed along to the other five members of the group monthly or bi-monthly depending on the size.  Each made a round with fabric I provided.  As you can see, it's another purple quilt, my favorite. 

Toward the end of the nine months, we had two months to work on a round, which some bigger quilts needed.  In the next to last round of Diane's quilt, I made a ton of nine patches in 30s fabrics, and for Marie's last round, I made quite a few friendship stars in red, white, and blue.  It's really a lot of fun to work on these round robin quilts with fabric other than my own.  Everyone does her best work, which is really nice.  As I said at the meeting, "it's a matter of trust," and it usually comes out great.

I didn't know some of the quilters in this year's group very well, and it was nice to get to know them through their quilts.  Here are five of the six of us, with me holding Marie's quilt top.  Our red ribbons denote that Ginny and I were "founding members" of the guild back in 2008.

I'm not sure when I'll get to my round robin quilt top or if I'll add another round to make it bed-sized.  These days I peck away at quilting my Dear Jane which is coming along pretty well.  We're heading to Colorado for a week to visit Mom, and I hope to finish Dear Jane all together by the end of July.  I have a few small projects I'd like to work on but meanwhile, I'll just think about what I'll do with the purple quilt.

Summertime and the living is easy

 

The rugosa roses in front of our house are blooming, and I picked lettuce yesterday.  Friends came for lunch Friday and gave me a lovely bouquet.  The whole house smells delicious - peonies will do that.  Wish we had some in the garden, but at least these are ant-less.

We had some pretty muggy days with summer temperatures.  School is almost out here - I know it's out elsewhere around the country, but ours stays in session longer to make up for the inevitable snow days.  We've had the fan on in our bedroom at night and the AC on in the living room and sewing room a few times.  We've had a few salad and cold cut meals, too.  Tonight we'll grill some pork chops from the freezer which I'm trying to empty in anticipation of having a crop of blueberries later this summer.

I am now ready to quilt the last section of Dear Jane.   I worked on the borders last week and made four 3" blocks for the corners.  Then I made another Improv House block.  I'm not sure how many of these I'll make, but so far I've been following the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors.  This month's "pastel" turned out not as light as I wanted, but that's OK.  I plan to vary the landscapes a bit so that not all the hills go in the same direction.  It's pretty easy pattern, but I can't remember who designed it off hand.  Jo Avery?  Will have to go through my notes to make sure.

Yesterday I did a little embroidery at quilt guild while chatting with the group.  Some of us are planning to go to the first Vermont Quilt Show this week by a for-profit national group.  I'm curious to see vendors and some displays by local guilds.   My other guild meets this Tuesday for the last time before a summer break.   

Progress!

So far this week, I've been making all kinds of progress.  I finished a book and started another one.  And on Monday, I finished machine quilting the third of four sections of Dear Jane.  I'm pleased and want to work on the final section and work on the borders soon.  

But I also want to get the month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks finished so that I don't fall behind (as I often do!).  This month's color is "pastel," which is a little vauge and presents a bit of a challenge.   I have a lot of pastels, but I'm not sure how good they'll look with the blocks I've already made.  I decided to combine some colors, so yesterday, I made a couple of Traffic Jam blocks in pinks and purples.  

Then I made an Improv Houses block in light blues.   I added the houses to my RSC list last month because (a) I love making house quilts and (b) I have plenty of scraps.  I have yet to make the log cabin blocks for the month and hope to get to them today.

Yesterday morning I made a stop at the Vermont Historical Society library with a bankers' box full of the archives of the state quilt guild.  I had been sifting through several tubs all year, with turning the files over to VHS for safekeeping the ultimate goal.  I was so glad and relieved to be able to finish this long term project.  The tubs had been languishing in the former historian's basement and garage for ages.  Now they will be preserved, indexed and available to anyone doing research.

Naulakha

On Saturday we drove two hours south to Dummerston where British author Rudyard Kipling lived for a time back in the 1890s.  His house and outbuildings, "Naulakha," are open to the public one weekend a year for Rhododendron Weekend.   The rest of the time the space is reserved for overnight guests in a sort of B&B arrangement.  

The highlight for visitors on this particular weekend is the rhododendron tunnel as long as a football field.  Once inside, it is amazing!

It was an overcast day, which means it was a little humid, but it didn't rain until the afternoon when we were well on our way home.  We had a tour appointment for 11:00 and found that only about 25 cars fit in the parking areas down the hill from the main house.  It was all very well organized with volunteers directing traffic,

All three main buildings were open for view and all are available to rent during the year.  The main house sleeps 8 and all of the bedrooms looked comfortable and inviting.   I took this photo from the upstairs balcony.  The views of the mountains were very nice.  The main house had a billiard room on the top floor, which was impressive considering how the staircases wound upstairs.

People were encouraged to bring picnic lunches, and drinks (water and seltzer) were complimentary.   Of course, everyone ventured into the tunnel.  I took this photo about halfway through.  We have a rhododendron at home, but it is much shorter than these which must be as old as the house.

There is a pavilion area at the end of the tunnel which must have been a nice spot for cocktails in Kipling's time.  We could see a tennis court down the hill from there, and we heard voices in the woods behind.  We couldn't find a path to walk out there, however, and I thought it was a bit buggy.  June is black fly season for Vermont, so I didn't want to attract any, having already been attacked in our yard a few weeks ago.

We enjoyed our visit very much and talked about renting the house some time with family.  It has the potential for a peaceful, fun weekend.   After about an hour, we had seen it all, so we ventured back toward Brattleboro and stopped at Panda North, a delicious Chinese restaurant, for lunch.  

Now that we're home, we are still curious about why Kipling was there.  He wrote several of his more famous books there, including Captains Courageous.  Paul ordered a book, of course!

Orchids and more

Several Mother's Days ago, my son gave me an orchid plant.  It bloomed for a long time and then nothing happened for a year or so.  I transplanted it into a larger pot, and it immediately bloomed.  After the blooms were finished, maybe 6 weeks after beginning, maybe even longer, I snipped the stalk near one of the "elbows" (or whatever they are called).  Finally, that branch began to grow and started blooming.  There is still one bud at its end.  

Much to my surprise, another stalk appeared and now has some fairly sizeable buds.  I'm amazed!  My other orchid plant looks awful even though I water it just the same (minimally) and it sits right next to this larger one.  Orchids are fickle!

Our kitchen and dining room were painted during the last three days.  Our painter is just wonderful - very neat, precise, quiet, hard working.   She's a pleasure to have in the house.  Prior to Monday, I moved everything off the kitchen counters and everywhere else I could.  We moved the dining table into the living room and a large antique sideboard into the middle of the dining room under the chandelier. 

The kitchen bench was stashed behind the couch and paintings were stored in various places.  This morning I rehung curtains, removed a slight film of dust here and there, and started moving stuff back into the kitchen.  This afternoon, Chris is coming by to help us move the bigger items back, and life should return to normal, albeit much cleaner and brighter.

Quilting Dear Jane!

I put the last stitches in block M-13 of Dear Jane Friday, and Saturday I sashed the row and added it to the Rows J, K, and L.  Sunday I sandwiched that section and have one more section left to sandwich.  It feels so good to make progress! 

I cut my sashing 1.5" instead of Jane's 1" (or less) because I think that makes each block stand out a little more.  Of course, that makes the center bigger (about 73" square) which is OK since I'm not adding the triangle border on Modern Jane.  I have been cutting pieces for the 3" wide piano keys border when I have gotten a chance, and I'll continue to do that off and on as I quilt.  

Yesterday I quilted the grid of this section, and today I started on the individual blocks.  Each one is being done a little differently, just as it would be if I were hand quilting.  Meanwhile, downstairs, the painter is working hard on our kitchen and dining room.   Our house is a bit topsy turvy this week.

Everything from the kitchen counters is either stuffed into cupboards (watch nothing falls when we open them!) or in some spot in the living room.  We moved all the dining room furniture into the living room except the big sideboard which we left under the chandelier.  My Oma's big painting of Lake Como is covered in and resting on two old quilts in the front hall.

We went out for pizza last night, but I plan to cook tonight.  Actually, it will be a salad topped with left over chicken.  The good news is that she's almost finished, after just two days on the job!   It will probably take a few days to get things back in order, but that's OK.  It's nice to see everything looking bright and clean.

 

Row M has begun

I finished blocks M-1 through M-5 yesterday for my Modern Dear Jane, including the dreaded M-3 which can include quite a few Y seams.  Rather than piece M-3, I decided to applique the pieces which worked OK but required a little hit of Fray Check here and there.  ome of these final blocks seem quite intricate - and difficult!   M-7 looks like it will need to be fused, but I'll worry about that when I get there - maybe today.

Lately, email ads and blogs have been touting patriotic themes as the 4th of July approaches.  I understand and honor the writing of the Declaration of Independence, but today's USA is in such turmoil that I just can't get enthusiastic about celebrating.  I won't be joining others in making anything patriotically quilty this year.   It just makes me uncomfortable.

Here's a quilt I made in 2018 that has the typical red, white, and blue color scheme (which I like very much).   It includes an old UFO center block along with several Dutch folk fabrics from my stash.  It's one of the first quilts I quilted myself using my old Viking.  I'll be changing the quilts I hang at the library soon and think I'll take this one to display along with Cornucopia of Thanks.  

Row L is finished!

This morning I appliqued Dear Jane block L-13 and that leaves only one more row to make!

Tomorrow I will sash these blocks and attach them to rows J and K before I move on to Row M, which has a mix of foundation pieced and appliqued squares.  I think Jane might have been running out of fabric by this point because some of these later blocks are very intricate.    

Once I finish Row M, I will attach it to Row L and perhaps add the bottom border.  I have several sections to quilt before putting all the sections together into one quilt.  This should take me quite a while, and then I'll add borders to the sides.  I've been cutting piano keys sporadically lately to try and get a jump on the borders.  I have a lot of black and white scraps by this stage in the process.

Wednesday, I worked on the "block of the month" for one of my guilds.  Each person received a baggie with some scraps, and we are to make something quilty with them.  Having just enjoyed making a quilted postcard for Diane and Bill's anniversary, I decided to make another post card.  I need to get some stiff Pellon in order to finish it. 

This measures 4" x 5.5", so the pieces are about .75" square.  It was fun to make.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

Spring planting

The last few days have been just beautiful - warm, sunny, breezy - perfect for getting the gardens in shape.  My aging knees have been put to the test, but they seem to bounce back fairly well if I don't overdo.  Saturday Chris helped me plant the flowers that I had bought earlier in the week, and yesterday I did a major weed of the garden beds in the front yard.  I planted a bunch of impatiens in a shady spot.  I also now have two garbage bags full of weeds to give to the compost guy when he comes to pick up next week.

Today's plan is to plant some lettuce in boxes out front and some geraniums in a pot.  I decided not to put out flower boxes this year because our windowsills have just been repainted.  I'd hate for Nate's work to be spoiled by the mess of boxes make.  

If I feel up to it, I'll work in the backyard, but if I don't, I'll worry about that flower bed manana.  I have wave petunias to plant there and want to reduce the size of the shasta daisies.  They like to take over.

After my session with the Maze of Mystery Saturday, I decided to take a break and just read yesterday afternoon.  Maria Semple's latest book, Go Gentle, has been highly anticipated by critics but I'm not loving it.  The plot zigzags in time and seems very disjointed.  If it doesn't improve (and I am now 37% into it), I'll set it aside and start reading a mystery set on the Isle of Man.  I halso ave a haircut scheduled and a Zoom gathering with state library retirees, too, this afternoon.  

Spring has sprung!

Yesterday was sunny, warm, and lightly breezy, with trees beginning to flower.  We opened up windows for the first time since fall, cooked outside on the grill, and planted annuals.  What a day!  We're hoping for another today and, if we're lucky, tomorrow, too.  The many colors of green are wonderful to see on our lovely Green Mountains.

Chris came over to help me with some planting and, while I had a tall person around, I took a picture of the quilt I finished last week, It's made with scrappy Kaffe Fasset fabrics and a few other colorful prints and will be going to Bags of Love for kids going into foster care.  I quilted it very simply using fusible batting (which I don't like much but keep trying to work with as it does make it easier to baste together).

Today I'll do a little more weeding and may go out to buy another hose and a longer extension cord so Chris can trim the bushes.  While at the hardware store I may also get a few more plants although there is still a slight danger of frost.  We always waited until after Memorial Day to plant tomatoes and other things, but in recent years, with climate change, we can often plant a little sooner.

This is going to be a busy week with a hair appointment for me and dental cleaning for Paul, quilt guild meeting, lunch and dinner out with various friends, and the opera - Cinderella - on Saturday.  In between I'll peck away at Dear Jane and the gardens.

The Maze of Madness!

It felt really good to work on my modern Dear Jane quilt again.  I hadn't made any blocks since September, but when I got everything out again, I found that I only have two more rows of blocks to make.  That's 26 blocks, however!  I have been quilting as I go, in batches of rows, so I sashed three rows and put them together.  I'll quilt those... eventually.  I then sashed two more rows and put them together.

Here are the six blocks I made this week for Row L.  While I'm not wild about paper piecing, it really works the best for many of the blocks in this row.

Just in case you'd like a closeup of L-6, Maze of Madness, here is one:

It truly did drive me nuts although not as much as L-4 (the name eludes me).  I hope the next few blocks are a bit easier.

All the blocks in rows A-K look great together, and I think I have enough gray grunge for the 1" sashing and stop border for the rest of the blocks.  Instead of the triangle border I'm planning a 3" piano keys border using all of the black on white background prints all the way around.  I will start cutting those scraps up when I feel like taking a break from sewing the blocks.   

We are having the kitchen and dining room downstairs painted the first week in June, so that will most likely be a good time to escape upstairs to sew or outside to garden.  It's been raining a lot lately, so everything is green and growing quickly despite chilly overnights.  Chris is coming tomorrow (Saturday) to give me a hand outside which will be nice.  I always enjoy those mother/son workdays.

Blocks of the month and other finishes

I managed to finish the Out of my comfort zone quilt and a table runner last week in between other activities.  I'll try to get pictures of each if/when the sun appears.  It's been very unpredictable lately.

And this morning I finished Blocks of the Month for May!

There are five 8" log cabin blocks and two 9" Traffic Jan blocks, along with a hexie flower that I made for one guild's block lottery.  The latter was finished at my Saturday sewing group a week ago Saturday.  It took quite a bit of time, but the light there is great and good for hand sewing.

Yesterday's state guild meeting went well.  It's so nice to attend as a "civilian" (non-officer)!  As historian, I have very few real duties although I have been organizing 40+ years of papers in order to turn them over to the state historical society archives for safe keeping.  I am planning to run a block of the month activity on the guild's website and Facebook group, but I don't think I'll start until I've figured out what blocks to include.  People seemed quite interested when I showed them the blocks for 1989 (10 year anniversary) and several others.   

Happy Mother's Day to all who read this!  We are heading to see The Sheep Detectives at the movies.  They always have subtitles for Sunday matinees.  We'll stop at the bowling alley on the way home for pizza.  They make the best in town.  My biggest question for the coming week is...  what UFO should I work on next?  Stay tuned!

Busy week ahead

Today we have an appointment at the "Eco Depot" to deliver some used batteries, old light bulbs, and an old thermostat for recycling.  They used to be the "Additional Recycling Center," but when they moved they upscaled the name and, annoyingly, made it mandatory to make an appointment before dropping off stuff.  I am curious to see their new digs.

It's going to be a jam-packed week.  Tomorrow I'll bake a lemon cake to take to a musical program at the library on Wednesday, and then on Thursday I'll go with Paul as he is interviewed by one of the TV stations about a Barre baseball bat company that became world famous for a time.  Apparently, all the major leagues used this particular bat.  I'm not sure when it will be televised.  The young reporter who arranged the interview seems to have caught on to Paul's vast knowledge of quirky local history. 

Friday I will be baking something again in preparation for Saturday's state quilt guild meeting.  I have a quilt made out of blocks I won at the fall meeting for show & tell, and I'll do a short talk on what I've found in the archives.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the finished quilt - I'll rectify that soon.

In between, I'll keep quilting the "Out of My Comfort Zone" quilt and knitting this purple striped scarf.  I started the scarf earlier this winter but because the yarn is very fine, fuzzy, and uses #4 needles, it's taking a while.  It will be a cozy scarf for a little girl going into foster care when I'm done.

State Quilt Guild Blocks

I've been working steadily on organizing the state quilt guild's archives over the last couple of months.   My plan is to deliver the archives to the state historical society for cataloging and storage in the manuscript collection as soon as I'm done.  Every two years, when officers change, I'm suggesting that they add to that collection.  

I inherited bags, tubs, and other containers of papers from the previous guild historian.  She seems to have lost her enthusiasm for the job several years ago, and they had all been stored in her garage.  One of the tubs is filthy, and the other one needs a little spraying with the hose.  I threw away all the three ring binders and plastic sheet protectors that had been used.   The materials used in the past were not acid free and some of the sheet protectors show signs that ink had already been removed from the paper.

The best part of the archives is the newsletter which was published at least twice a year since the organization's founding in 1979.  It's been fun looking at them, especially seeing the patterns for raffle blocks that people make in advance of the semiannual meetings.   I'm thinking of making a sampler of blocks from various years, beginning with those tenth anniversary blocks.  I think I showed the 1980 block, but here it is again.

Next, I worked on the block for 1999, the guild's 20th anniversary, which was not what I would call a beginner block.  I wonder how many people made it?  I was pleased that it was appliqued, and I had every intention of doing that with fusible applique.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find my Steam a Seamm so I reverted back to my old favorite, freezer paper.

My fingers are stiffer than they used to be, and my eyesight isn't great, but it turned out pretty good. The embroidery on the darker fabrics doesn't show up that well, but it will do.

I was very disappointed to find the 2009 block was just an 8" half square triangle in fall colors.  That will not do!  I'm going to make some 8-at-a-time half square triangles (a method I've never used before) starting with two 8" blocks and make a block out of the resulting squares.  I don't remember what the 2019 raffle blocks were, but I'll enjoy choosing one to sew, I'm sure.  If folks at the guild meeting in May are interested, I may just distribute little booklet for the fall meeting.

Paper pieced stars

On a visit to the quilt shop last fall, I picked up a book of patterns for paper pieced stars.  I set it aside with some fat quarters that I received from the board of the state quilt guild as a "retirement" gift after my term as president was up.  I worried that the blocks would look a bit washed out so I varied the background from neutral to periwinkle and set the blocks on point.  I added a little goldish brown to the mix and ended with a brighter periwinkle.  For the setting triangles I used foundation papers for 3" triangles which were much easier to make than the stars.  Once quilted, this will be a nice table runner, but unfortunately, it's now waiting in the closet along with several other projects.  I'll try to get a picture today.

I attended quilt guild Tuesday night and showed the Triple Barn Star quilt I made a few months ago. 

Also at guild, I picked up the last round robin quilt - Marie's - to work on, and I've been making friendship star blocks ever since.  It's red(ish), light gray, and blues, with a large pieced star in the middle.  I'm not sure what Marie plans to do with the quilt, but I do know she served in the Army during the Vietnam era.  Several of the rounds have been pretty plain, so the stars seemed quite appropriate to me.  But the quilt is around 48" x 48" so there are a lot of 4.5" stars to make.  I assume they'll take me a few days of solid work to finish.

Meanwhile, there are household and garden things to attend to.  The weather has been increasingly nice, so I need to get out and clean up the flower beds.  My knees have been giving me trouble lately, so I'll take it easy.  We have taken a few walks in the neighborhood, too, which has been nice after the long winter where we hardly walked at all.  

I finished reading Jennifer Chiaverini's latest book, The Patchwork Players.  It's very easy going which is nice after reading The Bullet That Missed, the third book in the Thursday Murder Club series.  The plotlines of those books can be very confusing with quite a few characters, but everything comes together in the end.  I thought our book group was planning to read the fourth book in the series next, so I thought I'd try to catch up before reading that one.  Instead, we're reading The Tokyo Express which isn't available on Kindle.  I'm reading a used paperback and hope I'll to finish before we meet next week.  We have a social week ahead with dinner out a couple times, so I'm not sure how much progress I'll make.  So far, it's moving along nicely, and I like the Japanese background.

A busy week

I didn't sew as much as I wanted this week, and I hope to make up for it this weekend.  This past Tuesday I drove over to Burlington to visit a friend at the hospital (she was in the ICU but recovering well) and to shop at Trader Joe's for a political gathering at our house on Thursday which went quite well.  Of course, I had to clean a bit to host the latter, but everyone appreciated the food and talk.  I also made it to yoga twice - once for gentle, once for chair - and I got some paperwork done, too.  

This morning I made the block of the month for this coming Tuesday night's guild raffle.  It was very simple, and I was glad to use scraps.  It should make a nice quilt in various shades of green.

Earlier in the week I made the state quilt guild's raffle block.  I had a heck of a time finding a pink floral print for the center, but then I remembered that I had a bunch in the box I have labeled "wild fabrics."  These are mostly Kaffe Fassett-like fabrics, and I found one that worked very well.  It looks good with the prescribed dark blue star points and light green background.

I made another state guild tenth anniversary block that worked better, at least for me, using paper piecing.  The one on the left is the first block I made using the 1989 directions.  The one on the right uses the paper piecing method.  As you can see, the points won't be cut off if I were to put them together with other blocks made with the same method.  I plan to try to make one using the "Peaky and Spike" rulers I bought years ago when they were popular.  We'll see how that goes.  I plan to make up instructions using the same 1989 colorway but offering all three methods.  It would make a nice quilt if we raffled the blocks off at the fall meeting, but I'm afraid the pattern will be too complex for beginning quilters., as some of our members are.   We'll see how the other board members feel.

Here and there recently, I did make seven more Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in this month's pink, but I must say I just glanced the tip of the pink iceberg in my stash.   While working on all of these blocks, I have come to realize that I need to do a conscientious weeding of fabric I doubt I will ever use again.  If it doesn't "spark joy" for me, it may do so for someone else.   Will try to sift through the pinks this weekend and put what I can on the "free" table Tuesday night.