It's humid

We seem to be stuck under a cloud of humidity lately.  I haven't had the energy I normally do.  Yesterday I wondered if I ought to have my thyroid checked out.  I have a "getting to know you" appointment with my new doctor later this month (they keep retiring!) and maybe I should ask about this?  But then everyone I've talked to lately is complaining about feeling a bit sluggish.

Last night it rained quite a bit, and today it seems a little more bearable.  I actually did a few things around the house - laundry, making a dry rub for some country-style ribs, and making potato salad.

Then I sat down to work on my Low Volume at 70 Sampler.  I have made four August blocks so far, put together the 12 July blocks, and now it's time to quilt the July section.  I am using a 1" beige print sashing between the blocks and will separate the months with slightly wider strips of the same print.  The back of each section will be one of the many Indonesian fabrics I have accumulated.   A pieced back will be nice for this project which is to reflect my last 70 years, which started in Indonesia, after all.  I may mix in some tea-dyed muslin here and there.  I'm quilting this one in sections which should make it easier with my Elna.

I found a batik just the right size for the July section, so I started quilting that this morning.  I am running out of the cream Aurifil thread I use most of the time, so I got out a spool of Craftsy 50 wt. beige thread that came free with fabric I ordered.  That's on the top, and the Aurifil is in the bobbin.  I like the Craftsy thread so far.  It runs through the machine smoothly, is soft, and looks good.  I had been a bit skeptical because someone gave me a spool of Connecting Threads thread that seemed too thick and stiff.

My Antelope Canyon quilt came back from the long arm quilter over a week ago, and I have gotten one side of the binding down sewn to the back by hand.   Lately, I have sewn almost all of my bindings by machine.  I sew it to the back and then topstitch on the front, mitering as I go around.  This quilt's edges were a bit uneven - perhaps because the jelly rolls I used weren't exactly true - so I had to sew the binding to the front first.  There's a project I haven't touched since the humidity started.  Maybe tomorrow?

Turning 70

Yesterday was my birthday and, like Paul and so many friends from high school and beyond, I turned 70.  It seems like just yesterday I was turning 21.  How did the time fly so fast?  I've had plenty of ups and downs, done plenty of interesting and dumb things, and seen a lot of places.  I started yesterday opening up some cards and lovely gifts from Paul, my mom, my sister Jenny, and various family members.

One gift I look forward to every year is a package of fat quarters - quilting fabric - from the online friendship swap group I belong to.  The ladies live in Australia, Canada, England, and all over the US.  We state our preferences and gather others' fat quarters late in December, and then mail them to one willing person who sends them out all year as our birthdays arrive.  This year I must have asked for reds, purples, and black/white prints - it's been so long that I'd forgotten - and I love what came!

Interestingly enough, around mid-day, after our Tuesday morning walk in the town forest, a lovely bouquet arrived from Mom and Jenny.  It contained deep purple gladiolas and carnations, red roses and alstroemeria, and white baby's breath.   Beautiful!

The evening was capped with dinner at the Royal Orchid Thai Restaurant with Paul and son Chris. The crab Rangoon (which really contains crab meat), chicken and basil stir fry, and fried banana with coconut ice cream were just delicious.   Chris gave me a gift certificate to Joann Fabrics which, as Paul says, I visit every Sunday.  I just happen to need some muslin...

And the fun continues this morning when I meet Cindy for breakfast at the Wayside, a Central Vermont landmark and featured in the book Road Food.  I can almost smell the French toast and bacon now.

Pillows

I've been mining my "orphan block" pizza box lately and making pillows out of the larger blocks.  I don't have much use for table runners, and everyone in my family has received at least one.  These are going into my etsy shop and, if they don't sell, guess what people are getting for Christmas? 

Speaking of which, I decided to add my Christmas things back into the shop as people seem to be thinking about the holidays already.  Amazing!

The first was a class sample from a hand applique class I taught some years ago.  The three below were blocks that didn't get into a Barbara Brackman Civil War block of the month quilt. 

And the last pillow is a modern rose based on Karen Eckmeier's rose pattern.  And there are more, but I need to find pillow forms for them first.

Heritage Days

Friday and Saturday are our annual Heritage Days here in Barre.  The Friends of the Library will be holding its annual book sale on the lawn both days, and there's lots of preparation behind the scenes:  sorting books, boxing them up, lugging them around to store and then outside on Thurs., supervising the tent (tomorrow morning at 7:30 am!), setting up tables (Thurs. at 10 am), and more.  During the sale, it's the calm before the storm.  It does get busy at times with shoppers, but the clean up can be a pretty exhausting time because of all that's gone before.  Can't wait til it's all over!

Heritage Days are fun, though, since people are all downtown and one tends to bump into them, literally.  I see a lot of people at the book sale that I never see otherwise during the year, including some former B&B guests who come back for class reunions.  The street food, the live music, and old fashioned fun do make it a nice time for everyone.  I usually spend Saturday's parade at the book sale, getting ready for clean up, but we can usually see it from there anyway.  This year, the "heritage stage" will be after the parade, indoors at the airconditioned Barre Opera House.  What a treat to hear traditional folk music there in honor of a dear friend who passed away a few years ago.  If we have any energy left, we'll surely go.

In a slump

What do you do when you've temporarily lost your quilting mojo?  It may be the heat and humidity, but maybe it's that, having just finished a good-sized quilt top, I need a break.  In any event, I am not feeling all that productive lately.  Yesterday I sat in front of the fan and read a mystery most of the day.  It was good.  Then we went out to dinner with Paul's sister and her husband... at the local bowling alley where the crab cakes were good but the fries soggy.  Still, the company was fun and the AC was on.

I have been shuffling the contents of my pizza box of "orphans."  These are blocks that didn't fit into a quilt, that were made to test a pattern, or that I didn't like so much.  Some are made of Civil War fabrics; other from selvages; and even a few "modern" ones.  They just don't go together at all, and  adding a neutral sashing won't help.  What to do, if anything?  Table runners?  Tote bags?  Little wallhangings?  For gifts or to sell on etsy?

Here's what I decided.  I need to practice my machine quilting, both walking foot and free motion.  I have a new book with FMQ ideas that I'd like to play with.   I got a few blocks out and will sandwich them today.  Stay tuned!

Works in Progress

I made a few blocks last week as part of my year-long "Low Volume at 70" project.  I'm making 6" blocks for each month.  Some are Moda's "Blockheads" blocks, and some are Pat Sloan's "Splendid Sampler" vols. 1 and 2 blocks.  Some will most likely be whatever I feel like making, and I'm using shirtings and other low volume backgrounds. 

It will be scrappy and I hope to quilt each month as I finish.  The big decision now is the color for the sashing - navy?   There's also a block to denote the month I made the other blocks.  It's from a set of machine embroidered dish towels I got from Yve long ago.  She thought they'd be fun in a quilt, and, now that she has passed on, I will remember her whenever I see them.

I've finished putting together 25 of the Ohio Star swap blocks I received in my local guild.  Only seven people participated, I think, and we were each to make 3 blocks.  But somehow I ended up with 26, due to someone's generosity.  I'm not sure why some people chose to make duplicates, but I have worked them in. 

I decided that the universal color for the cornerstones should be scrappy green, and I bought some more green to make a wide, pieced border.   You can see some of the border pieces stacked up near the top left.  I'm basing it on Deb Tucker's Oak Ridge Stars border, but because her blocks are 16" and mine are 12", I've had to make some adjustments.   The center now measures about 60" x 60", and the finished quilt should be about 80" x 80".   I just can't seem to make a rectangular quilt.

The heat wave has broken!

We had a lot of wind and some heavy downpours yesterday, and today is a gorgeous one, with low humidity and in the 70s.  What a relief after six days of heat and humidity.  We took some friends along for a walk up the Grand Lookout Trail by the town forest.  We wanted to check out a new sculpture in an abandoned quarry building.   The granite columns are older, but the bust of Vulcan was recently made to go along with the annual "Rockfire" event held last weekend.  It fits the site perfectly.

From the top of the Grand Lookout, one can see all of downtown and the mountains to the west and northeast.   We could also look down to where they are loading huge chunks of grout (waste granite) onto railroad cars.  During the week we've been hearing 5 or 6 trains a day coming down from the quarries and going through downtown.  Paul suggested that with climate change, municipalities are building higher, stronger breakwaters with the stone.