Row K is finished!

 

It's been a busy week, but I managed to peck away at Row K for Dear Jane here and there.  I'll continue to do the same on the next two rows, but I think this weekend I'll work on binding Double Date which I picked up from Marie the quilter.  She did a wonderful job, and I can't wait to finish it.

I missed the first Heart of Vermont guild meeting of the year, but response to my email to the guild about a round robin activity has been good.  There are now six of us planning to join in.  I don't know two of the people, but that will make it all the more fun.  I enjoy meeting people in smaller groups, especially because that guild has 60 members.  It's hard to get acquainted just at meetings.

We had a very nice time with my brother Rob and his wife Linda early in the week.   We took a guided tour of the Vermont State House, visited a sugar shack for maple ice cream, visited the Vermont Granite Museum, and took several nice walks in the sunshine.  Of course, meals out together and a lunch at home were fun, too.  Rob is totally immersed in changing his house over to solar power and driving his new-to-them electric vehicle.  The learning curve appears steep, and I'm not sure I could deal with it all.

Vermont is experiencing a drought, and our plants are all in need of soaking rain.  The foliage is changing color rapidly, but I don't think it will be as vibrant as usual.  Still, the visitors are beginning to come, including the tour buses.  That's our "bread and butter"!

Winter is definitely here

As is typical for December, we've had a little snow every night and we wake up to the sound of the snowplows on the roads.  Living on a corner makes it more apparent that there's lots of activity in the early morning hours.  This was our view a few mornings ago.

We've had more since then, but none of it has clipped our wings much.  We have still gotten out and, yesterday, even took a walk.  Today, though, I plan to stay home, do laundry, read, and sew.  

My brother and his wife have been visiting over the weekend and are leaving this morning before the predicted freezing rain starts.  I hope they don't encounter any on the way home to NJ.  We did have a nice weekend - lots of good conversation and food.  We went to see the Wicked movie which I loved and also to A Christmas Carol adaptation played by local folks.  Our little town may seem like "Maybury" once in a while, but that's when we love it the most.  The holiday lights downtown, sprinkled with snowflakes now and then, make it very cozy after dark.  Hope you're enjoying the season as much as we are.

A few small projects

Yesterday I made some new curtains for the upstairs bathroom.  I've had the fabric for months, but just haven't gotten around to making them.  The café curtains - bottom curtain and valance - took about an hour to sew!   The walls are painted a soft lavender, but the previous curtains were a small pink print on white.  So the lavender didn't stand out very well.  Now the room has a rosy glow, which is supposed to make people look good.

Next I made a new bathmat, using an old towel and some orphan quilt blocks.  A few years ago, I participated in a scrappy heart block swap, resulting in a nice-sized throw with multicolored hearts.  I saved out two purples ones exactly for this bathmat.  Well, it takes a visit from my mother to light a fire under me!

This took an afternoon because I used the "quilt as you go" method and then added a little more quilting to anchor the top.
It's basically a small quilt because there's a piece of batting between the top and the bath towel which I cut down to size.  The lavender border matches the curtains.

Mom and Jenny arrive a week from today.  I need to get the basement ready for Jenny to sleep in, and I'll try very hard not to mess up the guest/sewing room before Mom gets here.  I am really looking forward to their visit!