Rain and gloom

This year's October weather seems much like past years' November that I hope we don't slip right into December weather after Halloween.  

We did manage to take a short walk in the forest with Suzanne this week when she came down to get her car serviced.  The sky was gloomy but what was left of the foliage was quite pretty.  We have had a little wet snow the last couple of days, too.  Rib-sticking meals have been the order of the day - chili, mashed potatoes, beets.

I've been chipping away at UFOs this week and have just one more border to finish appliqueing on the Goose in the Pond medallion I started last winter.  Actually, the center block is about 3 or 4 years old.  I cut all the strips for two plain outer borders as well as the binding, so I am looking forward to finishing soon.  

My bookshelf row-by-row quilt returned yesterday after having been worked on by six quilters in Australia, London, Washington state, North Carolina, and Florida.  It looks fabulous!   I am still considering setting the "shelves" in two ranges with a wall above for a mini quilt.  That will probably necessitate making another "shelf" or two of books.  Row-by-row quilts tend to be 36" wide, but I'm thinking 72" or so would be more practical.  I need to figure out what the outside of the "shelves" will be made of.  Perhaps a "grunge" fabric will mimic antiqued wood?  The quilt shops are having a Halloween shopping event, so I might run down later today.  Saturday is the state quilt guild meeting, always a source of interesting ideas, and sometimes a source of interesting fabric, too.

UFO night at guild

Our local quilt guild met last night, and the topic was UnFinishedObjects.  As "homework," we were to locate all of the UFOs we had and then bring one that we would like to finish, one that we won't finish, and our oldest one.  Most of mine need hand work of some kind so are mostly small.  The oldest one is a white-on-white piece that I started hand quilting in the early 1990s.   The group at guild urged me to finish, so I will try to get back to it this winter.

The one I don't think I'll ever finish is the one I made in David Taylor's machine applique class.  I just don't need another little wallhanging, and I really didn't like using nylon thread.   Maybe I'll try making a fancy "frame" for it using some glitzy thread I bought at Ricky Tims' class.  Anita Shackleford, from whom I took a hand applique class, said that class projects rarely get finished, but that's OK.  She suggested we keep them as samples to refer back to.  I didn't finish the project from her class either, and I can't even find it.  :-)

My list of UFOs (which I keep on my phone) keeps growing even though I pride myself on finishing things.  Those with an * begin in the new year, and I hereby resolve to tackle at least a few of the long-term ones in the coming year:

• Red, white and blue medallion - working on applique for another border
• Splendid Samper - combining SS 1 and 2 with Moda Blockheads weekly
• Quilt guild block swap - make 32 12" blocks by May*
• Guild mystery quilt - finish cutting and do the October clue
• Double churn dash swap with online group - due 9/30/2019*
• Missouri Star block swap - blocks to return to me this fall
• Bookcase row by row with online group - to return to me this fall
• Hawaiian appliqued turtle (started in 2016?)
• Wool appliqued vase with flowers (started in 2017)
• Affairs of the heart block - embroidery and finish
• Selvage quilt - make a few more blocks and finish (an ongoing project)
• Recent applique class project (problem created by teaching!)
• Guild panel challenge*
• Bonnie Hunter 2018-19 mystery with online group*

There are also a couple of things I'd really like to start, but I'll leave that list for another time.  I should mention that two days ago I made 20 key fobs to give to the library staff for Christmas, and I'm feeling very smug about it.  The staff appreciation dinner will be sometime in November, and I'm already ready!  I bought the kits on etsy.com and cut scraps of fabric 2" x 10".  I ironed seam allowances and sewed them to the strips to the webbing using a jeans needle and my walking foot.  Then I hammered on the hardware.  Some of the hardware is a little crooked, but they looks great and only took a morning to make.  I enjoyed it so much, I might just order another set to work on before Christmas.

Just living

I rarely photograph my food even though I like to cook and to go out to eat.  Trying to lose weight, my restaurant food tends to be salad-based, and I haven't made an apple pie, loaf of bread, or anything else photo-worthy lately.  I did make a great turkey vegetable soup, roasted chicken, and chicken/biscuit dinner this week, though.  My jeans are a little loose - whoo hoo!  

It's been a quiet week here.  Chris and I drastically trimmed the lilac bush which had grown too tall to deadhead.  I also managed to deal with a mountain of laundry, taught an applique class to two students, ran some errands, and quilted the September Splendid Sampler 2 blocks.  Now I'm putting together the July, August, and September sections of the quilt which is a year-long project.   I do love making those 6" blocks.

Our quilt guild program Tuesday is going to be on tackling UFOs, so I've gathered a bunch of those to take along.  I noticed that almost all of them require some hand work or applique.  Maybe I should look into finishing some by machine?   I have a feeling there are more buried in the dresser in the guest room, too.

Before we left on our trip, I rearranged many of the quilts in storage by unfolding the newer ones and layering them on the guest bed.  I replaced the quilts on the rack in the living room with oldies that I ought to give away.  But to whom and how?   One in particular is only fit to be a dog bed, so maybe I'll cut it up and give the pieces to the Humane Society.  My Double Dutch sampler (appliqued, pieced, hand quilted, pre-2000) is hanging over the railing in the upstairs hall - "sick bay" - because it needs repair, a/k/a more hand work!

Teal mini swap

The best thing in our mail which was held at the P.O. during our vacation was a package from my Teal Mini Swap partner, Shelly in SC.  Each participant - and they came from the U.S. and Canada - received a small piece of fabric to incorporate into either a mug rug or mini quilt for a partner who was assigned.  Ten of the $15 we sent in went to ovarian cancer research, so it's a fun and useful swap.   It is amazing how well we are partnered, too.  I have a lot in common with both this year's and last year's partners who are so nice - but then, quilters are generally nice!

Here's the mini Shelly made me:

I love the puffin fabric she used as a border.   The fabric we both received is the teal print at the top left.  Both of us weren't enamored of it, but it ended up working fine in our minis.   It's clear we both love color.   How did she know that I have been trying to use more orange in my quilts lately?  Here's the string star mini I made Shelly:

Shelly's package also included several items she made herself:   some knitted dish cloths, a neat scrubby, and a tea caddy for my purse or travel.  This is a great way to meet quilters around the country as well as a way to contribute to a very good cause.  I hope to join in again next year.

Colorado memories

Our week in Colorado went by much too quickly, and now we are back to "life" - grocery shopping, mail, laundry, to-do lists.   But we had a fine time with Mom and Jenny - a ballet honoring the Harlem Jazz Age, a visit to a Dutch artist's studio, a Vietnamese lunch with the Indo-Dutch group, and a trip to Leadville, the highest municipality (over 10,000 feet) in the USA.  We took a tour of  the Matchless Mine shack where poor Baby Doe Tabor spent her impoverished last 36 years, and we stopped at the public library which had an extensive local history collection.  Lunch was super there - delicious grilled cheese, tomato and bacon.  In fact, we ate too well the entire week, and now it's back to watching our intake again.  :-)


We also visited the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden where there were two outstanding exhibits - one of Russian quilts and the other some amazing thread painted pieces by Jill Kertula.  There were quite a few Russian quilts using traditional American patterns like Trip Around the World.  The fabrics were muted even though they used a lot of red.  Many of the appliqued quilts showed scenes from folk tales, but any words were not translated, unfortunately.

I'm sorry I didn't get any photo of the Kertula quilts - they were outstanding - but a couple of Russian ones caught my eye.  The logs in the log cabin quilt finished at less than 1/2" and many of the centers were grass green satiny fabric.   It ends up looking like an oriental rug.

The appliqued quilt was pieced first and then appliqued with butterflies, yo yo flowers, etc.  I think the background was mostly hand pieced, too.

 There was a fun display of Matryoska dolls, including one featuring the Washington Redskins football team and another featuring heroes of the Soviet Union, with Lenin being the smallest.

The gift shop in the new museum location has grown considerably, and pretty soon they'll outgrow the space.  I didn't buy anything, but I admired the Laurel Burch scarves and t-shirts, and Mom got greeting cards and fun socks.  In fact, I didn't buy any souvenirs at all.  We were too busy to shop!

We love to go to the movies when visiting Mom because there are two multi-plexes nearby.  We saw BlackKKlansman, a Spike Lee film about a black cop infiltrating the KKK in Colorado Springs in the 1970s, and Crazy Rich Asians, a very lightweight romantic comedy with great music - familiar pop songs sung in Chinese.

Honkin' n wavin'

Our local Democratic Committee held a "honk n wave" yesterday afternoon for various candidates.  It was a perfect fall day to stand on a corner with a sign and wave at passing motorists at a major intersection in town.   I'm helping my friend Guy as campaign treasurer again this year.  He's running for the state legislature, and lost by a narrow margin in 2014.   We're going low budget and low key this time around, and we did have fun yesterday - lots of honks and waves (including a whole school bus of kids), only one raised middle finger, and some adorable dogs in cars!

Teal mini swap

Shelly, my swap partner in this year's Teal Mini Swap, a benefit for ovarian cancer research, posted a thank you photo of the mini I made her so I feel safe in posting a photo today.   Each person received a small piece of teal fabric that we were to incorporate in our mini - it's the one with the wavy white section peeking out here and there.  I wish I had had time to applique something, but I felt somehow compelled to make a string star this year.  

I cut some light paper into 3" strips and then added "strings" of various teal fabrics from my stash along with the wavy teal we received.  I cut these on a 45 degree angle as we did for a Stack n Whack Lemoyne Star.  I removed the paper (ugh!) and sewed the diamonds together.  I was happy to find a good use for the slim outside border fabric which I have been hoarding.  

I'm so glad Shelly likes it.  I also enclosed a small teal shopping bag, a pieced key fob, and a teal fat quarter.  I hope to make more of those key fobs later this fall, but perhaps not all pieced as Shelly's was.  I bought some kits with hardware on etsy.com and plan to start working on them when we get back from Colorado next week.

Our guild had its first meeting of the "year" (which runs Sept.-June) last week, and we broke out into monthly teams to plan our programs.  Our March team will be "going green," so we'll focus on reusing and recycling.  I'm responsible for planning the block of the month for March and am already thinking of a string block, perhaps made with selvages.  I'll be testing it out later this year.  

The guild will also have a block swap and a mystery quilt this year.  For the swap, we're to make 30 blocks of any style using bright traditional cottons on a white-ish background.  We can vary the blocks but I think I'm going to make 15 string blocks and 15 Dresden Plates (there are 15 people participating).   I was hoping to use stash for the mystery quilt, but I just don't have enough of anything but the neutral for what will end up as a throw.  I headed over to Joann Fabrics Sunday at got some rather traditional prints for that.  I have not liked any of the mystery quilts I've made so far, but hope springs eternal!