"Be My Neighbor" quilt

It's finished!  What follows isn't the best photo since I took it with my phone indoors. 

But I'm pleased with the way this swap quilt turned out.  Each person made two blocks, which were somewhat large so fairly easy to do.  Several of the 16 blocks have birds, others have simple flowers, and all have just a hint of yellow in them.   The pattern was a block of the week from Moda.

I used cream fabric between the rows and as borders and then used a yellow binding to tie all the other yellows together.  I need to measure it, but it is a good-sized throw, simply quilted, mostly in the ditch.  I did use some of my machine's fancy stitches here and there for fun.  I tried a couple of houses before settling on fabrics for swapping, so there are two extra blocks on the back with signature blocks of those participating in the swap in the windows.  I wrote the block numbers on the signature blocks so I have a key to look at later.  I love the fabrics everyone used.

My Moda Blockheads blocks of the week have piled up in the meantime, so this afternoon I made this week's block.  Tomorrow I'll try to catch up with the two or three others I have missed while working on Be My Neighbor.  It's so nice to finish something!

Birthday fun

I belong to an online group in which we swap fat quarters on our birthdays.  I received a package of FQs from Althea in Wyoming a few weeks ago, and I was happy to open it yesterday.  I had requested neutrals or shirtings, and the variety is just wonderful.  I will enjoy using them all for quilts projects, including cotton and wool applique backgrounds.

It was a fun day.  I made an easy coconut cake which turned out delicious:

  1.  Bake a white cake in the 13" x 9" pan.

  2.  When warm, poke holes in the cake with a fork.  Spread coconut cream (the kind you find in the bar section of the grocery store for pina coladas) over the top.

  3.  When cool, frost the cake with Cool Whip (I suppose whipped cream would be fine, too, although one of my guests has lactose issues).

  4.  Sprinkle sweetened shredded coconut over all.

  5.  Store in refrigerator.

Cindy, Sandy, and Chris joined Paul and me for a cookout later in the day.   There were some rumbles of thunder before they arrived, but the sky cleared right as Paul was about to go grill the burgers.   I made a Caprese salad and coleslaw (with grated apple and Craisins), Sandy brought her own delicious tabouli, and Cindy brought chips.  Delish!  and good company to boot.  Everyone was willing to take some cake home, too, which left us with a manageable amount.

I spent quite a bit of the day quilting my Be My Neighbor quilt and hope to put the two quilted sections together late today or tomorrow.   Quite a nice birthday!

Another successful booksale

After we take the big tent down this morning, the annual Friends of the Library summer booksale will be but a memory... thank goodness!  It's a lot of work and, even though I've been trying to cut down on my involvement, it was an exhausting weekend.  Thursday we put up the donated tent on the library's side lawn with a crew of people.  Some worked on the big tent and others on the smaller ones until we were all needed to put the cover on the "skeleton."  We are hoping to rent a larger tent next year because the company will put it up and take it down for us.  Age is a factor for our Friends group, and we all agreed it would be worth it for us each to pay $10 toward this effort!

An army of volunteers put the books out later in the day so that they would be ready for an early start Friday.  Because I volunteer at the state historical society Friday mornings, I "only" worked at the booksale Friday afternoon.  But business was brisk as you can see.  I was good and only got four books this time, including one interesting quilt sampler book.

Saturday morning early (beginning at 6 am!) the library trustees helped with the Rotary Club's annual pancake breakfast, also on the library lawn, but around front.  I helped put table cloths and condiments on the tables before going home for a breather.  Paul and I headed back downtown late morning to help with the booksale, and we stayed "til the last dog was hung" (an old Vermont expression), helping with clean up after giving away books at the end.  We had thought about eating dinner downtown as many of the restaurants were offering ethnic specials and the street food is good, too.  But instead we went home and ordered a pizza.  My feet and brains were too tired to do much more. 

Today, refreshed, we'll go down and help take the tent down and wait for a report on how much we made.  The money goes toward library programs and books for all ages, so it's well worth the effort.  People look forward to it every year, and it's a great gathering place.  I saw several old friends there which is what Heritage Days is really all about.

Top is done

I've been building each block made in the guild round robin and blocks of the month into 12" sizes to set together.  It looks a little haphazard in the photos but I think it will make a very colorful quilt for our bed - 84" x 94" give or take.  I'm going to ask Marie if she'll quilt it for me, but I'm waiting for the gray floral backing fabric to arrive from Connecting Threads.

Now I'm onto my blue and yellow Dutch Sister's Choice top!  I have the plain squares that are going between each square all cut and laid out.  Today I hope to put them all together and ready to quilt.  I hope to machine quilt it myself, so wish me luck!  Once I have the center quilted, I'll machine applique and put the borders on and then quilt them.

Vermont Quilt Festival

It was weeks ago, but I am still studying the photos of some of the quilts I saw at VQF.  The festival website has not yet been updated, but it should have this year's winners and all the contest quilts up eventually.  Here are a few of my favorites.

 I was looking hard at border designs, especially appliqued ones, and I just love the red and white "infinite variety" quilt.   The setting was so unique!

Sharing a couple of photos

I have been working on the guild "block robin" blocks I received in June lately.  Last year, I got about 4 yards of a pink and purple batik.  Half went into the block robin bag along with some purple and hot pink scraps and fat quarters.  I kept the other half to make blocks of the month.  Now I have 30 blocks, for a 5' x 6' quilt, which is a little too small.  So I'm making 13 more blocks this week.  Hope to get them done by the weekend so I can put them together.  We'll see!

Meanwhile, my brother Rob was here over the weekend.  I cleaned my sewing room up so he could sleep in it.  We had a great time, hiking, roaming around downtown, and just catching up.  I had been waiting for another tall person to come and help Paul hold up the 365-challenge-inspired quilt I finished a while ago so that I could take a picture.   Every time Chris comes, I forget or it's raining.

This quilt is made using all blue and green scraps which I thought would deplete my stash.  Unfortunately, the bins are just as full as ever!  I like that large star block which came from a tutorial at the Missouri Star site.  It was easy to make - although of course Jenny Doan uses a jelly roll for hers.

I like quilting medallion quilts because you can anchor the rounds and then work on each round separately.  This fits a double bed, so it did take some time to finish quilting.  

I also had the guys hold up the crib-sized quilt I made using swapped heart blocks.   I enjoyed quilting this one, one block at a time.  The sashing is pieced using two mini charm packs and some additional 2.5" squares that I cut in pastel colors.  I plan to add both of these quilts to the etsy shop initially and then, if they don't sell, take the heart block to the hospital's children's department.

I'm not sure if I'll quilt the pink batik quilt myself or send it off for quilting.  Because it's a sampler, I think it will look good with an overall, edge-to-edge design.  If I do quilt it myself, I think it will be easier to do in sections.  Will have to wait until all the blocks are finished and I decide on a final layout.

I sent Rob home with my modern Tequilla Sunrise quilt for his office.  It is always nice to reduce my stash of quilts!

The 4th of July

We really didn't think many people would join us on our usual Tuesday morning walk in the Town Forest on Independence Day, but we had ten plus a very nice dog, Max.  The weather was wonderful - sunny, low humidity, clear, breezy.  Because the trails are still a bit wet, I chose the Mainline because it has some gravel and usually doesn't get as muddy.  There were some wet spots, and we took a turn onto the Boulder Dash trail to get to Little John Road more quickly.  From there we walked over to the Empire Lookout where Lois can see her old house.  We took the Upper Mainline trail back, and then I suggested taking a short cut through disc golf tee #4 to get to the VAST trail down to the parking lot.  It's almost all rock, so dry.  Even though I was toward the end of the line, I beat everyone to the VAST trail because they took a different route and were beset by a few dogs along the way.  It was about a 3 mile walk and felt really good to be outdoors.