Back in "business"

Our internet, TV, and landline were all down for three days last week.  It wasn't a total tragedy because my cell phone is on a different carrier.  But it was an inconvenience.  Spectrum was "upgrading" the system, but I was still able to get email and play New York Times games on my phone.  We have a TV with a digital antenna in the basement, so we only missed Jeopardy one night, much to our relief.  But it all recalled days gone by when our homes were quiet and our lives less distracted.  Not a bad thing!

I got some sewing done, too, this past week.  I finished the Rainbow baby quilt top and hung it up in the closet to wait for quilting.  I have a bunch of beige squares that I got from my neighbor Carol that I'll sew together somehow for the back.  The parents to be requested a beige quilt with the previous baby, so I'll do the same this time - bright back, beige (ugh!) front.

Meanwhile, I got out a box marked HSTs and sifted through all the cut-offs and leftover half square triangles.  The tiny ones, mostly likely from a long ago Bonnie Hunter mystery, were thrown out which I should have done ages ago.  If I still had a dog, I might have used them to stuff a dog bed.  But I know I'll never do anything with them, as there were potential HSTs in larger sizes.  I'm not sure where I'm going with the ones I sewed together, but I now have a collection of 9 patch blocks made of HSTs.

Then I turned my attention to starting a new row-by-row quilt, my 2026-27 guild row robin project.  My theme this year is "Fall" which includes colors I don't usually use together.  But my stash holds quite a few oranges, browns, beiges, greens, etc. to use up.  I'm telling the other quilters not to focus on Halloween, so I left out any fabrics directly related to that "holiday."

It's really difficult to take a photo of something so long and skinny, but you get the idea.  My initial row turned out to be 48.5" long.  The blocks were 6" baskets set on point, making the row is about 9" high.  I could have made maple leaves, but I thought I'd leave that for someone else to make.  I also made a small strip of 2.5" yellow HSTs (from the aforementioned box) that I will save for another row when the row robin return to me.   One of the members of the group wants people to attach their rows as her quilt moves along, but I'm asking everyone not to do that with mine.  I'd rather put the rows together myself, maybe with a bit of sashing in between the rows.

Where did the week go?

I was busy as a bee this past week, and, I guess, too busy to take a picture or write a blog.  By Friday, both Paul and I looked at each other and wondered how the week just zipped by.  He wrote two historical articles for the newspaper which I edited, and he started on another.   I worked on binding two quilts that came back from the long arm quilter, put together and quilted a small (36" square) quilt, and started quilting another small (51" square) quilt.  I am half-way around, sewing the Unity quilt's binding down to the back.  I am also in the homestretch of knitting the second blue sock.  Phew!  I need to take some pictures.

Along with all that handcraft activity, I made a chocolate cake to take to a potluck and some brownies to share with neighbors on Friday.  I did the minutes for the Friends of the Library meeting last Tuesday, and sent out publicity for the Friends' annual meeting and the barn quilt meeting in September.  Thursday we drove to St. Johnsbury, 45 minutes north, and took Suzanne, who just turned 87, out to lunch and on an errand.  Double phew!

Now it's Sunday and I promised to go with Paul to Green Mount Cemetery to help him gather GPS coordinates for a guidebook he's writing about prominent Montpelier citizens and where they're buried.  Hope to get a little time sewing and quilting later today.  There is definitely a touch of fall in the air now with morning temperatures in the 50s.  We see a few trees changing color, too.  The days are definitely getting shorter.  I love fall, though, and think it's time to pull the tomatoes out of my planters and replace them with mums.  We'll still have some hot days here and there and hope the heat pump can be installed soon.

Fall!

The fall colors are at their peak and, while the chicken pie suppers are now carry out only due to COVID, everyone is busy enjoying the season.   I made my annual apple pie last weekend, and our daily walks have been very nice, with new color showing every day.  It's foggy every morning but by mid-day it's sunny and bright.   My neighbor made this sweet arrangement between our garages.  We are lucky she takes care of our decor as I was nursing my summer flowers for as long as I could.  They are finally all gone today when I cleaned the garage, put away all the planters, and scrubbed the house where the flowers were touching.

I have been busy making Harriet's Journey and Options blocks of the month.   Here are the HJ blocks.

I made some substitutions to avoid tiny appliqued pieces.  I have 64 blocks made now and am pondering how I'll set them.  And should I continue with the blocks of the month project or choose a few more to make before I put them together?  I have bought several yards of one of the black prints, some pink, and some white.   It's probably overkill, but I'd rather have options and some leftover fabric after I make up my mind.

In case you aren't as lucky as we are right now, here's another fall in Vermont photo - this is Paul's sister's home and island at Greenwood Lake, taken today.

It's fall

 

This is not a block I remember making, but I made it for a state quilt guild exchange a couple ofyears ago.  I love the soft colors.   I enjoy making leaf blocks in the fall, and this arrangement has always appealed to me.

This is the best time of year for us - cooler nights, crisp mornings, sun and warmth in the daytime, sweaters or fleece, apple pie, chicken pie suppers.  The latter will probably not happen this fall due to COVID - again.  It is fun to go to at least one in the fall, though.  People sit down with strangers, often those just passing through the state, and chat like old friends.  I hear that St. Monica's church will be having a take out chicken pie supper, so I may arrange one of those.  We went out to a restaurant a few weeks ago when the COVID cases were down, but now that they are up again, we carry out again once in a while.  Everyone is wearing masks in most public places again.

I've been working on some bigger blocks using scraps lately.  I saw something similar to this 16" star block at right and had fun digging through my scraps to put it together.  I have boxes of 2.5" squares and half square triangles, so I only had to make a few more HSTs.

I have another appliqued piece from the Piece 'o' Cake The Best Sampler Ever to work on.  I went through various websites and old magazines to find a few more 16" blocks I can make.  I am tired of the grind of blocks of the month, and I will try hard not to work on any more in 2022.  But I will eventually make my four orange pineapple blocks for Sept. and may make more in the coming months.

The squash that ate Barre

 Kabocha squash.  It looks a bit like buttercup but doesn't have the "turban" part.   It's also called Japanese pumpkin and is supposed to be very healthy.   Its size reminds me of the old song, The Eggplant that Ate Chicago.

Chris brought me one last year from his boss, and this year his boss harvested enough to fill a bucket loader.  Saturday, I was gifted with four of them.  After giving two away, I decided to work on one and leave the other in the garage for a while.  The result was a full Dutch oven of mashed squash, created by roasting first, then peeling and chopping, and finally boiling a while before mashing.  It felt like a full day's work!

Today I made some ginger squash soup to go along with bread baked in a wood-fired oven from the Rise Up Bakery.  It's delicious, and I'm sure I'll make more over the next few weeks.  I thought I'd try making a bread like pumpkin bread later this week, and Chris' boss recommends making a squash pie like pumpkin.  We'll see.   But we are definitely having squash with our Thanksgiving dinner this year.

It was a lovely fall day and perfect weather for putting flower beds to bed, doing a little reorganization of the garage, and taking the air conditioner out of the sewing room window.  Temperatures are in the 30s at night now, and leaves and pine needles are falling.   It's a beautiful time of year, but, as Vermonters say, "you know what's coming next!"