Where did the week go?

I was busy as a bee this past week, and, I guess, too busy to take a picture or write a blog.  By Friday, both Paul and I looked at each other and wondered how the week just zipped by.  He wrote two historical articles for the newspaper which I edited, and he started on another.   I worked on binding two quilts that came back from the long arm quilter, put together and quilted a small (36" square) quilt, and started quilting another small (51" square) quilt.  I am half-way around, sewing the Unity quilt's binding down to the back.  I am also in the homestretch of knitting the second blue sock.  Phew!  I need to take some pictures.

Along with all that handcraft activity, I made a chocolate cake to take to a potluck and some brownies to share with neighbors on Friday.  I did the minutes for the Friends of the Library meeting last Tuesday, and sent out publicity for the Friends' annual meeting and the barn quilt meeting in September.  Thursday we drove to St. Johnsbury, 45 minutes north, and took Suzanne, who just turned 87, out to lunch and on an errand.  Double phew!

Now it's Sunday and I promised to go with Paul to Green Mount Cemetery to help him gather GPS coordinates for a guidebook he's writing about prominent Montpelier citizens and where they're buried.  Hope to get a little time sewing and quilting later today.  There is definitely a touch of fall in the air now with morning temperatures in the 50s.  We see a few trees changing color, too.  The days are definitely getting shorter.  I love fall, though, and think it's time to pull the tomatoes out of my planters and replace them with mums.  We'll still have some hot days here and there and hope the heat pump can be installed soon.

The sock

 Here's a picture of the sock as a work in progress...

I bought a bunch of blue washable wool to knit a sweater for myself, but then I realized I really don't like to commit myself to big projects.  I only knit while watching TV and then not every evening.  I thought I'd try knitting socks which might also be cooler to work on during the summer months.  So far, so good.  Just have to learn the Kitchener stitch to finish the first one off, or maybe I'll wait til I have both done.  I tend to forget things like that very quickly.

Yesterday I did 3 loads of vacation laundry, including the quilt I keep in the car (it's an early one made of polyester and will probably outlast me!).  Today I'll do the last two loads and work on binding the Unity quilt that came back from the long arm quilter's.   It's good to get back in the sewing room again.

There's no place like home!

It is a long drive, from Wisconsin to Vermont, but we made it in three days via the ferry across Lake Michigan, and then across Michigan, Ontario, and New York.  We crossed over into the US at Buffalo, where there was almost no wait at customs.  The electronic signs said the wait was 45 min. at Niagara Falls, but I accidentally went the Buffalo route.  Will I ever find it again?  Next year we hope to take a trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., for the theater festival.  It is a very cute town surrounded by vineyards and orchards, and very walkable.

I missed my sewing machine while I was gone, but I did manage to [almost] finish knitting one blue sock and start its mate.  Now that I'm home with my computer handy, I'll look for a you tube video on how to do the Kitchener stitch to finish the toes.  I feel more confident in knitting with four or five needles now, so I will give making a pair of socks on #2 needles a try next.

Of course, yesterday was spent emptying suitcases and bags, grocery shopping, picking up and sorting through mail, and just plain relaxing.  Mary came for dinner which was nice, and I slept like a log two nights in a row.

Taking it easy in Wisconsin

 

It was a long ride to the Madison, Wisconsin, area; we arrived at my brother's apartment on Thursday afternoon.  Our route had taken us through Niagara Falls (both US and Canadian sides), across Ontario and Michigan, and on the fast ferry across Lake Michigan.  We took some wrong turns here and there, and it was nice to be in an air-conditioned car during a rather long heat wave for the north country. 

We found my brother, Axel, in pretty good shape, considering his ordeal this past year.  He is adapting well to having only half a foot, living in the hospital or rehab center most of the year, and now settling into a new, 55+ apartment in a suburb.  He can't really walk without his walker or cane, but he does manage to get around without help in his apartment.

We found Middleton to have a very cozy, inviting downtown with the historical features we enjoy.  The National Mustard Museum is small and silly, but we just had to visit it.  The gift shop was as goofy as the rest of the place.   Yesterday we took Axel to a doctor's appointment and did a little shopping, with a stop for lunch.  In the evening we took a dinner cruise on Lake Mendota, the largest of the lakes in the Madison area.

Today we are on our own and taking it easy as Axel attends a wedding.  After a trip to a farmer's market, the museum, and lunch, we attended an interesting book fair.  Groups and individuals could set up tables on the grounds of the Capital Brewery and sell mostly used books.  There was no fee to participate, and the sellers could keep whatever they earned.  There were authors, community groups, and people who just wanted to thin their collections.   Paul bought two books, and I just looked and thought about how we could organize something like this in Barre.   

Busy times

This past weekend was the annual Barre Heritage Days celebration, although we haven't had it since 2019 due to the pandemic.  The Friends of the Library always has a big book sale on the library's side lawn, so that's where I was Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday morning.  I got a few steps in during set up and clean up, that's for sure.  We had paperbacks and children's books under tents outside and adult hardcovers inside where it was air conditioned.  It wasn't too hot out, but it was nice to go in once in a while to cool off slightly.  We had a couple of rainy times on Friday, even though none were expected, but, thanks to the tents, very little got wet.  The whole operation took about 25 volunteers, so yesterday I wrote a thank you to the community to post on Front Porch Forum.  It is amazing how many people pitch in to make all the components of Heritage Days a success.

On Friday night, our friends Pauline and Bob came over from Burlington to join in the fun, and we all had dinner under another big tent on the library's front lawn.  The menu included chicken and mostaccioli, the typical Barre Italian dinner.  Saturday, I managed to escape the sale for a while to go to Lenny's Shoe Outlet tent sale, but, luckily, I didn't buy anything.  I visited some of the community groups' booths and bought some samosas for lunch at one of the food vendors.  After clean up on Saturday, though, I was definitely done and ready to stay home for a while.

On the home front, not a lot of quilting took place and just a little knitting.  I am nearly finished with the green shawl and have some yarn ready to start to learn how to knit socks.  

Our vacuum cleaner was in the shop and the laundry piled up.  This week I'm catching up with housework and freezing blueberries from our bushes and some Chris brought from his boss's bushes.  I even made a blueberry buckle - yum!  The cherry tomatoes are coming in, and the day lilies are looking superb, despite a definite lack of rain.  We'll be heading to Wisconsin next week, so there's quite a bit of pre-trip stuff to keep me busy in spite of the heat and humidity that's predicted.

A few UFOs finished!

Today is a warm, sunny, not very humid day.  Perfect, I thought, for picture taking.  I found it is a little too sunny, so please excuse the glare and the wrinkles that last week's humidity caused.  

This year, Aby Dolinger posted a block of the month project called "Favorites."  I always like her patterns because of the very clear directions.  I put my blocks together a little differently, though, combining Aby's blocks with my guild's blocks of the month.  Of course, that meant I had a few too many blocks, so some made a nice back.

I love the background fabric which is from a line called "Pressed Flowers," and has flecks of burgundy, gold, and greenish blue.  I used quite a few scraps and added a few fabrics, too.  The binding is a floral gold with burgundy accents.

This measures 47" x 47" and I quilted it fairly simply in a grid, with a smaller grid in the plain areas.  It will be a nice wall quilt, table topper, or even a quilt for a modern baby.

Those fold lines worry me, so I now have the quilt spread out over the back of our sofa and hope they go away.  If not, I'll use a little steam and then let it hang some more.

Yesterday I finished a quilt I'm calling "Scrappy Town," made of variously sized house blocks.  I found a free pattern on the Fat Quarter Shop's website called "Brick House" and thought I'd use it for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  After making the block a few times, I wasn't totally happy with it, so I decided to add some other sized house blocks here and there.   I think they add variety, and I enjoyed paperpiecing some of the blocks.

The resulting 45" x 45" quilt also uses scraps of muslin and 2" scrappy squares from my vast collection.  I quilted with my walking foot, mostly outlining and  crisscrossing the squares.  I loved making those tiny 3" houses, but I don't think I could endure making a whole quilt out of them.  This is a good solution.

The back of the quilt is a yellow blender and the binding is a yellow print that I've had for ages.  I had just enough to go around, thank goodness.  I ended up with three 2.5" squares for my 2.5" square scrap box.

Now I'm pondering what to do with all the multicolored 6" blocks of the month I've made in my online quilt group.   I had them lined up row-by-row fashion, but that seems too dull somehow.  Now I have 9 wonky star blocks auditioning for the center of a medallion quilt.  I could also make a haphazard sort of layout with fillers, again using my trusty 2" or 2.5" squares.  I'll keep shuffling them around for a while before deciding.

Orphan blocks

In my quest to use up some of my orphan blocks, I got some I Found a Quilted Heart hearts ready to hide in plain sight soon.  I put two crumb blocks together with batting, quilted them, and then pinked the edges in the shape of a heart.  Then I sewed some ribbon for hanging and pinned a tag on each.  Here's one...

I'm writing a short article for the state guild newsletter on this phenomenon.  It's really fun to send these little hearts on their way, and I hope some nice people find them and report in.

I finished quilting the little house quilt today, too.  It needs to be trimmed, bound, and photographed for posterity.  I hope to get to that tomorrow.  This morning I decided to make some Zucchini Bread, using Mom's recipe that she gave me in the 1970s.  I made two medium loaves (one to eat, one for the freezer) and a smaller one for my nextdoor neighbors.  I had asked my cleaning person to bring me a zucchini, but she brought 3 good-sized ones.  I'll probably make another batch later in the week and then figure out some sort of casserole for the smaller of the three.

This afternoon, I made a pillow to take to Wisconsin for my brother Axel's new apartment.  I used a t-shirt for the back and two orphan blocks on the front.  I have no idea what color his furniture is, so I chose blue which seems to go with everything.   Growing up, Axel and I always watched Jeopardy together after lunch in the summer.   Even now, we compare notes although he is careful never to tell me who wins for the day since his comes on at 4:30 pm and ours is on at 7 pm.  Paul gave me the Jeopardy t-shirt for Christmas as a gag gift.  It's too small anyway, so I think this is a great use for it.