Busy times

Our roads are full of tour buses and cars from out of state - sure signs of fall.  Saturday, I drove down to the quintessential Vermont town - Woodstock - and was impressed by all the people wandering the streets, standing on the covered bridge downtown, and ducking into all the cute shops.  I was coordinating a meeting about barn quilts with my friend Sharon who is our state expert on all things barn quilt.   25 people gathered at the public library, a Richardsonian building that has been renovated inside for high tech service as well as coziness.   

The ride back and forth revealed pops of color among the trees, but much of our foliage seems a bit muted this year due to the heavy rain we've had all summer.  We are having a bit of a heat wave for fall right now with temperatures in the 70s and lovely blue skies.  I have been doing a bit of yard work - not too much as I have plenty of other stuff to do.

I finished the neutral baby quilt over the weekend and popped it in the mail yesterday along with a comfort quilt for a cousin who's going to be having chemo.  I wish we lived closer so that I could be of some help.  We just reconnected after 50 years, but I remember being giggly girls together when we had to sleep in the same bed on visits to her home in Hershey, PA.  Their family lived on Chocolate Avenue, and sitting at the picnic table in the backyard, the aroma was wonderful.

Today I baked a loaf of bread and, while it was rising, started sashing the queen-sized quilt that I've been working on as a row of the month called "Rows Parade."  Each row needs to be about 73" long, so it's taking a little longer to put the whole thing together.   I have to add a little here and taking a tuck there on some of the rows.

I made most rows in colors chosen by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, although some rows have a mix of colors.  The sashing and inner border are a "quilters linen" in beige, but I have no idea what to use for the outer border.  Hope I get inspired soon - I have lots of possibilities in my stash.

Jammin'

The Friends of the Library book sale took up most of my time since Thursday, but thankfully it's all over.  We did fine, and Heritage Days, which had been postponed due to the July floods, went very well.  People seemed happy to be together again, temporarily not worrying about sludge and stuff.  There were plenty of food vendors downtown although Al's French Fries were noticeably absent.  My neighbor's daughter sold us some great oatmeal butterscotch cookies on Friday night, so I ordered more that she delivered Saturday.  We are sorry they are gone now!  I'm not sure if she'll be at the Farmer's Market this afternoon, but if she is, we'll be shopping there.

The last few days have been filled with catching up on errands.  I also took Pauline to lunch for her birthday, had a pedicure, emptied flower boxes and pots.   I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce and plan a pot of chili today.  Temperatures are cooler in the morning these days although by mid-day it's warm enough to go without a jacket outside.  The morning fog has been quite thick, a clear indication of the seasons' changing.

I also made some raspberry peach jam from frozen fruit.  The last two batches of jam I've made have turned out runny, so I was glad to see this all jelled nicely.  I have enough fruit in the freezer to make another batch, so I just might do that soon.

Today I'm hoping to sandwich a baby quilt - another "neutral" one (ugh!).  This one's for Paul's sister to give to someone in Utah.  It won't take long as I'm planning to quilt a simple grid.

Another neutral quilt

I'm not sure what's going on in the world, but I was asked to make another neutral baby quilt.  With all the colors in the world, it seems a shame to surround a baby in neutrals.  Nonetheless, when Paul's sister sent me a suggestion, I realized that, rather than doing a custom job, I had a small top in the closet waiting to be quilted.  I quickly took a picture of the top and she loved it.  

Our Joann Fabrics is closed due to the flood, so she's going to look for some flannel for the back and mail it to me.  When it comes, I'll quilt it in a simple grid and send it to her in Florida.

This little quilt was made completely of "strings."  Foundation pieced strings were surrounded  by scrappy log cabin blocks.  I bought no new fabric for this top, always a plus!  

A little hand work

Over the last few weeks, including our all-too-brief vacation in Colorado, I did a little hand sewing and no machine sewing.  I even packed up my old Viking 100 and sent it with my brother down to my niece Evelyn.  That leaves me with just my Elna machine which is OK.   I am happy doing hand work when/if the machine needs service.

I made a few Manx blocks and started a new Jen Kingwell quilt.  Both of these projects will be on the "slow go" over the next few months, but it's really nice to begin something new.  

I love Jen Kingwell's patterns and have had Green Tea and Sweet Beans for a while.  It has both pieced and appliqued blocks, and I have several yards of a nice off white print for the background.  I decided to use mostly wool for the appliqued blocks which are scattered throughout the quilt.  It is a whimsical design that was Kingwell's first block of the month.   

The quilt finishes at about 71" x 74", but I'm not sure how big I'll end up making mine.  I am not doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year so that I can finish up a few other projects.  I'm not even sure I'll do Abby's block of the month again because I still have blocks to make for that queen-sized project.

The Manx blocks are very portable, and these were worked on at my mom's house, both at the dining room table and the one on the back porch.  It was fun to watch the birds and look at all Mom's flowers, well-tended by my sister Jenny.  I am using traditional colors for this quilt - red centers, with white prints and blues.  I have so many blue scraps that it's difficult to put the lid on the bin at this point.

I made four blocks on our trip and had one already made before going.  But one does not fit with the others since I started with light blocks rather than dark.  It will be a potholder!  

These four would make a cute table topper, but I'm going to aim for nine 8" blocks for a 24" square.  I need to get some pointers about putting the blocks together from my friend Soni who demo'd the technique at guild meetings.

It's a new guild year, so there will be new blocks of the month to make also.  The background color has changed to off-white, and the September block will be "No Name" from quilterscache.com in fall colors.  I try to make at least one block each month out of scraps to enter into the lottery, so I'll get busy with that today.  In that guild, I'm also in a round robin group and have an orphan Christmas Dresden plate block to start my quilt with.  That's all ready to pass along at the October meeting.

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

We've been in Colorado for a week, visiting Mom and my sister Jenny.  Mid-way through our visit, my Wisconsin brother Axel arrived.   We squeezed into the car one day (with two walkers) to go to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden.  Thank goodness it is only about 15 minutes away.  There were three quilters featured, including Lea McComas who I've seen on Quilting Arts TV.  She does some incredible thread painting.

Another quilter on exhibit was Sharon Schlotzhauer whose applique and 3-D quilts were also amazing.  I was very impressed with her use of pieced prairie points in the curvy lines of this quilt.  

Many of her quilts included beads and other shiny things, along with hand applique.

The sheer simplicity of this quilt really inspired me to try something similar very soon.

All in all, it was a peaceful trip with lots of family time.  Mom is 101 and still pretty sharp although she is a little less mobile than when I saw her last year.  We sat on the back porch, chatted, and watched the birds and gardens a lot.  I handsewed some Manx quilt blocks which are turning out pretty nice.

Now that we are home, it's time to get back in the swing of busy-ness, with lots of fall events coming up.

Cleaning up

My brother R and his wife L are coming for an overnight on Sunday, so I need to clean up my sewing room.  They are easy guests, but I still like to make things tidy.  I had asked my niece E if she wanted my Viking Classico 100 machine, and yesterday I packed it and its various auxiliary parts up to send home with R & L.   She had asked me a year or so ago what to look for in a machine but hadn't gotten around to buying one (she's in graduate school).  

I think something basic like the all-metal-parts Viking will be a good starter.  And it drives me crazy when I need to use it as I have gotten very spoiled with the automatic cutter, the needle up/down, and all the features of a computerized machine.  I still think about getting a Singer Featherweight for travel, but I also think about a new computerized model that does a better job at free-motion quilting.   Decisions, decisions!  Not to be made swiftly!

Meanwhile, I also put away all sorts of stuff - a pile of backing fabrics, orphan blocks, Christmas gifts I've bought or made, etc.  I can actually see the top of the guest bed now!  

I took six orphan blocks and made two small insulated table runners.  I need to do a fall change over of my stock at the florist shop anyway, so today or tomorrow I'll take them and 3 regular-sized table runners there and bring home any summer stuff that's still there.

With everything picked up, I'm at a loss for what to tackle now.  In the closet, there are five quilt tops waiting to be quilted.  Most of those are destined for Bags of Love (for foster kids) along with some knitted hats and a scarf (in progress).

Today may be the day I start an appliqued block for Jen Kingwell's Green Tea and Sweet Beans.  Stay tuned!

Summer's end

It's always a bittersweet time of year, isn't it, the end of summer.  Time for school to start again, sweaters at the ready, and leaves beginning to turn color and fall.  Here in Vermont, RVs head south and tour busses galore roam the state.  Road construction seems to speed up, and pumpkins and mums appear on doorsteps.  

My impatiens, which bloomed profusely this year due to all the rain look a bit out of control and spent.  I'll be taking the window boxes and planters in for the winter soon.  Will there be time to plant some more bulbs?

This summer was odd due to the flood and its continuing clean up.  Roads are being fixed and a second Green Up Day has already been held.  We are looking forward to delayed Heritage Days at the end of September, and there are several more big events to look forward to.  What are the highlights of this summer?

- my little On the Patio quilt won an honorable mention at the Gypsy Moth Quilt Shop.  I sold a quilt (Hunter's Star) and finished at least five others, including a little house medallion mini (above).  I have just a few lines to quilt on a white-on-white piece that I've been working on (and mostly off!) for 20 years.

- quilters around Vermont mourned the end of the Vermont Quilt Festival and wondered if it can be resuscitated.

- we attended a few plays:  The Addams Family musical, Popcorn Falls, and Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson:  Apt. 2B, all at different venues.  We made plans for a few more fall activities with our friends Pauline and Bob.

- I celebrated my 75th birthday with an open house for neighbors and friends, along with dinner with my two dearest men.

- we grilled between frequent rains on a new-to-us grill we got at a yard sale, and I tried to master a new artisanal bread recipe with mixed results so far

We are looking forward to our Colorado trip (here's Mom at age 98 - three years ago!) and, then, in mid-winter a return to Alabama for a few weeks.