Musings from Marianne

Beachy zig zag top done...

2012-02-08T19:01:00.003-05:00

I hate to take photos of quilts on the bed because my sewing/guest room is small. But I also don't like to go to the work of having Paul take the picture (usually while standing in snow) while I hold the quilt up, until it is actually a quilt. I finished this throw (50" x 60") this morning and started piecing a back this afternoon. I'm using orphan blocks and snippets from the pink and brown quilt I made last fall. Hope to be finished by Sunday so I can give it to Lisa to long arm quilt. It feels good to send them away - out of sight, out of mind!

Lots of activity here

2012-02-08T07:13:00.004-05:00

We have had sun and deep blue skies for three days running. Monday, it was nearly 50 degrees out and a lot of people were chopping ice in driveways and on walks. Our driveway has been clear for a while although there's a big lake at the end that freezes over every night. Last night it was around zero and today it's supposed to get up to about 20.

I have been putting together a "While Away Winter" raffle basket for the library with an autographed copy of Sandra Dallas' The Bride's House, a gift certificate for a massage, puzzles, notecards, and a bag of truffles. This is something I've been doing for a few years. It's fun but I always worry that the library staff will be burdened by another set of tickets to sell. They are always so enthusiastic, though, that I keep it up.

The other day I made a cute spring mug rug for a swap. On March 1, I'll get a name from the group and will mail it off. Since we'll be away before then, I thought I'd get it done and ready to mail, especially since I had a flash of inspiration. Can't show a photo in case my secret pal is reading this! Will show it later, though.

I packed up the small basket quilt, made last fall with swap blocks, to mail to my cousin in Curacao. I kept wondering what I could send her since they don't really need to keep warm down there. With a hanging sleeve, it can serve as a wallhanging or throw now. Hope she likes it. Cousins from Holland are visiting her now - wish I could be there as they are a fun bunch. We do keep up on Facebook, though.

Most of the week, I've been making a new quilt out of a batch of batik "fat eighths" in "beach" colors my Mom gave me for Christmas. I chose a fairly simple design of quarter log cabin blogs set straight, with a scrappy border. I plan to put the last border on today and then will take a photo. It is looking pretty and is shouting for a pieced back and large meandering quilting.

In the mail at last

2012-02-03T13:38:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of Henk's Civil War quilt being pinned for quilting. It is finally done and on its way to Holland. My cousin has had some health problems over the last year and recently moved to a new home. So many of the quilts I've made recently have used "girlie" colors, so I hope he enjoys wrapping up in this. Many of the blocks were "blocks of the week" published by Barbara Brackman online, including that "H" which was the symbol for hospital during that time.

I did quite a bit of in-the-ditch stitching, but there are a few spots where free-motion worked. The wide band before the final pieced border includes the words Best wishes, Henk and various wishes such as Health, Happiness, Joy, Surprises, Love. I enjoy quilting samplers because each block suggests a new pattern.

I pieced the back with "experimental" blocks as well as left over fabrics, including one piece with the pledge of allegiance printed on it. Even though the pledge wasn't adopted by Congress until 1942 (and they added the "under God" part in the mid-1950s), it still fit with the patriotic theme of the quilt. As you can see, I didn't have quite enough to go around, but it is the back, after all. I have begun putting my Civil War repro fabrics away, but I can't say I won't be making another before this sesquicentennial is over. I don't generally like muted colors but these seem to draw me in anyway.

By the way, when we went out to take this photo on the back porch, Paul had to stand in the snow. It was about 18 degrees out, with brilliant sunshine. Although everyone is saying it's a strange winter due to the lack of snow, we don't mind it one bit.

Happy Groundhog Day!

2012-02-02T08:39:00.004-05:00

Well, Punxatawny Phil says we're going to have six more weeks of winter. He saw his shadow this morning. While in many parts of the country, this would be a bad thing, in Vermont, it means we're going to have an early spring. I have seen robins around all winter long, and yesterday it was nearly 50 degrees out. Chris broke up all the ice in the driveway and the ice on the front stoop melted all by itself.

While it's snowing lightly right now at 8:40 am, it's not supposed to accumulate. This has been an unusual winter - frequent little bursts of snow, very little accumulation. Cross country skiiers and snowmobilers are upset, but the ski areas can still make snow. Chris says no one he knows has been ice fishing either. Oh, well. No matter what the weather, every day is a good day for quilting!

Prototype block

2012-01-29T16:15:00.002-05:00

I signed up for this year's signature block swap through the "Friendship Block" swap Yahoo! group recently and thought I'd see how the block might look. This year's block, "Goose Creek" (available via Quilters Cache), is supposed to be a stash-buster, and I have high hopes for it. My stash is overflowing with snippets.

For this trial block, I used mostly Civil War left-overs from the two quilts I made last year. But when I get really going on them - and I may end up making 30 or so for the group - I will be mixing batiks, florals, '30's, CW, you name it in. One of the big plain squares will have my name and year, and the other will have city, state, country. It's an international group, so that adds to the fun.

The blocks won't be due until September, so I have plenty of time to gather stuff. I thought I'd just set aside 2.5" squares in darks and mediums all year as I'm cutting for various projects. I will probably end up with more than I need, but I can always use the excess in the final quilt.

Busy but quiet

2012-01-27T18:48:00.004-05:00

Since Dec. 1, I've been knitting a "sky scarf," and knitting two rows that reflect the color of the sky each day. This week has been almost totally gray, so that's been the predominant color this week.

Saturday, I went to a Stack & Whack workshop, and it was fun! I made four blocks over the weekend and then decided to put the pieces away until Feb. 12 when I go to quilt camp. I do have the blocks on the wall, though, because they look so interesting.

Most of the week, I put together the 12" Amish blocks guild members made. An area quilter gave me a trash bag full of solid colors, some cotton, others polyester. The guild made some lovely blocks, but some had trouble with the poly. I did, too, when putting them together. I used Amish black from Keepsake and scrappy cotton cornerstones, so it will be a sturdy quilt nonetheless. I left the quilt in 3 pieces to make quilting easier, but I still have to find some backing fabric. One person made a 16" block which I am using as the signature block for the back, too.

This morning I got the crib-sized Winding Ways quilt out of the closet, cut some batting, and pieced a back. I'll sandwich it at quilt camp where we'll have bigger tables. I had thought I would make more borders but I now see that it is really complete as is. After that!!! I worked on this month's step for the guild mystery quilt - 120 2" half-square triangles. Ugh. But they are done and put away for ... whenever.

The weather has been iffy all week, so I haven't been out much. I did go over to the library a few times to help Karen sort through all of the stuff for the auction tomorrow night. The Friends of the Library are putting on the annual Chinese New Year's banquet, with silent and live auctions. We have some wonderful things this year but as always, they are almost overwhelming. Just about every restaurant has sent a gift certificate, there are gift baskets from various shops, and there's artwork, crafts, tickets to events, and more. Pauline and Bob are coming over from Milton to join us, and we have a nice congenial table for 7 reserved. Samantha will help me do the credit card transactions, and Winnie and Paul will help with clean up. It will be a fun evening, but part of me wishes it were already over!

Just Takes 2

2012-01-20T19:10:00.005-05:00

The last few days I've been making some of the blocks in Brenda Papadakis and Gay Bomer's Just Takes 2 project. It is a mystery quilt inspired by the Infinite Variety show of red and white quilts last year in New York City. Twice a month, Brenda and Gay offer several blocks in various sizes on their websites, and participants are invited to share photos of their blocks as they make them.

Since I'm making a red and white quilt, mostly using swap blocks coming in April, and a blue and white quilt, mostly with blocks from the guild "square robin," I thought I'd add to each with some Just Takes 2 blocks. I made mostly 6" blocks - a Shoo Fly (although the pattern was for Churn Dash - oops!), Fox and Geese, Square in a Square, and one that looks a lot like a Dear Jane block, a four patch with a four patch circle appliqued on top. I have tons of scraps so this should be a fun thing to fit in now and then.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Stack and Whack workshop with the Calico County Quilters. So another UFO will be generated! Should be fun.

Home sweet home

2012-01-18T15:31:00.004-05:00

Chris and I went to Golden, Colorado, for a few days last week. He was turning 30 and has a few weeks off from work, so it seemed like a good time to visit my parents. We had a great trip with no slip ups, airplane-wise. The first day there, last Wednesday, it snowed the entire day and the roads looked quite iffy. So we stayed in, chatted with Mom and Dad, read, knitted, etc.

Thurs. we were the first in line for the Coors Brewery tour. We had both been on it before, but Chris wanted a refresher since he has been brewing his own beer for a while. The tour is free, and they give you up to three 8 oz. glasses to sample at the end. I had a glass of "Colorado Native" since it isn't sold outside the state. Chris had that and a glass of another ale-like beer. Afterwards, we walked to the parking lot because it had gotten a lot warmer, and we went to my favorite place for lunch, the Old Capitol Grill in downtown Golden.

Friday, we visited the Astor House museum which purportedly had the first bathtub in the Rockies. The lady who owned the boarding house made more money on baths than she did with overnight guests! We also stopped in at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum to see some lovely star quilts, replicas of historic quilts. Some were minis - amazing.

Saturday we ran some errands in the morning and went to Purple Ginger, an Asian Fusion restaurant and my parents' favorite, for a birthday lunch. My sister Jenny joined us, and we got home in time to take down Mom's outside Christmas lights before the big New England-Denver football game. Throughout the week, all we heard around town was talk of the quarterback, Tim Tebow, but he did not lead his team to victory unfortunately. The headline in the next morning's Denver Post read "Over and Ouch."

We left at 4:30 am MST on Sunday and were home by about 4:30 pm EST. While we were away, it had snowed about 6" and got very cold. Meanwhile, back in the Denver area, it was a balmy 55. We'll be back in June for Mom's 90th birthday.

Christmas stars

2012-01-07T16:37:00.002-05:00

This fall, I received a batch of 12.5" Christmas star quilt blocks in a swap. They are really nice and nearly perfect. I bought some muted red floral fabric on sale ("Robin's Baltimore Album" by RJR) and used that as 1.5" sashing for what turned out to be a nice 75" square quilt. The cornerstones were scraps with a black background. I was going to quilt it in sections but realized that it needs an overall quilting pattern to bring it together. So I pieced a back of green woodsy fabric (also on sale) and took it to Mad River Quilting this morning. I wish it had been a little less gloomy so I could have taken a picture. That will have to wait til it comes back. But it feels so good to have a near-finish!

This 'n' that

2012-01-06T06:52:00.005-05:00

It seems as if I've been reading Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire forever, and it has just been over two weeks. The story just keeps winding along, and I'm enjoying it although I really wish it would move a little faster. I have had the Broadway show Wicked on my bucket list for a while and will have to see if it's going to be anywhere near us in the next year or so.

I am anxious to finish Oz and move on to a growing stack of other books, including a giveaway mystery I won from GoodReads, the new P.D. James Death Comes to Pemberley which has had mixed reviews, a new Miss Julia romp, and a couple of mysteries I've picked up here and there. I'll take a few on the plane next week as Chris and I make a quick trip to my parents in Colorado. The worst case scenario for me is always to get hung up somewhere without a book to read.

Yesterday was gloomy so I didn't do any hand sewing. Instead, I started putting together some 12" Christmas star blocks I received in a swap. They are looking good so far with a relatively thin sashing of muted red with black print cornerstones. Today it's supposed to be sunny, so I can take a photo, and perhaps do a little applique on the Simple Graces medallion and work on sewing more of the binding on the Civil War quilt for my cousin who had a stroke last year. There's still some machine quilting to do on the latter. I plan to quilt in some encouraging words, but I need to think about them a while and, perhaps, discuss them with my mother.

No resolutions

2011-12-31T08:26:00.003-05:00

Everywhere I look in the last few days, there are ruminations and directives about making resolutions for the new year. Last year, I resolved to eat more fruit, and I have pretty much stuck to that. In the fall, I bought a treadmill, and I try to walk a mile at least five times a week. On the days when I don't walk, I vaccuum. I ought to go to the gym more, since I'm paying, but I ought to do lots of things!

At this year's end, quilters are especially good at exhorting themselves to de-clutter, de-stash, finish UFOs, and more. We have such visible evidence of things we ought to do. I have only one quilt top, the Winding Ways one, in the closet waiting to be quilted or added to. I'm still deciding. I do have a sweater I finished knitting this past winter that needs to be put together. I have two sets of blocks that will be put together this winter - 25 Christmas stars (need to find some nice sashing fabric) and a bunch of Amish blocks made by members of one of my guilds. The Amish quilt will be raffled off in the spring/summer for the library. Those are my UFOs, and I have several works in progress. I can't beat myself up about them really. I've gotten pretty good at throwing scraps away or putting stuff I don't want on the guild "free" table.

As this year draws to a close, I note that I finished quite a few projects, gave many away, and helped quite a few people with this or that, in ways large and small. Family and friends are all doing reasonably well, and we are snug here in our house on the hill. My hopes for the new year: a cleaner environment, smarter and nicer politicians, peace for all, and plenty of good reading!

Civil War quilt #2 for 2011

2011-12-28T14:21:00.004-05:00

By the time I finish this, it will be 2012. :-) Over the last few days, I've been putting together the Barbara Brackman blocks of the week and the Virtual Bee blocks of the week I've been making in Civil War fabrics. Yesterday, I pieced a back using reject and orphan blocks as well as some fabrics I know I will never use again. The result is about 64" x 64", a good-sized throw. I pin-basted it and started quilting today but am taking it easy. It's fun to look at the blocks again as I quilt them.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-28T14:09:00.005-05:00

We had a very nice Christmas! Dinner on Christmas eve with Polly was fine, with delicious cranberry chicken and brownie a la mode. Chris came for brunch Sunday, and then we opened a pile of presents. I got some very lovely jewelry (including donkey earrings to wear to Democratic functions), an immersion blender (from Chris), books, and some gorgeous batiks (from Mom). We had a quiet afternoon and evening since we both had big, thick books to keep us busy. I'm moving along with Out of Oz but Paul is almost finished with Stephen King's latest.

On Monday night, we were invited to Vicki and Samantha's for a Boxing Day dinner with Polly. Samantha received a turkey from her company for Thanksgiving, and saved it to cook for us. Yum!

I don't know when I'll take the decorations down since we have a busy weekend ahead. Thought you'd like to see my "Christmas with Jane" quilt on the couch. I enjoy looking at it and remembering all my adventures with the various Dear Jane quilts.

Still dark at 7:02 am

2011-12-23T07:02:00.002-05:00

We woke up to snow so it is still gloomy. I was planning to go to the grocery store early, but I guess I'll have to go with the crowds after the roads clear a bit. Going down the hill is just too scary when it's snow-covered. We are out of the usual - milk, eggs, etc. - and need some of those occasional things, like ice cream. An apple-and-possibly-pear crisp is on the menu for Christmas eve, made with some lovely fruit my parents sent.

If I get hung up with the groceries, I may not be able to go to the quilt shop today. So I put the red and whites away and pulled out the Civil War blocks at 6:00 am. I have plenty of blocks for a quilt but some are 6" and some are 8". Then there are some of neither size that could be expanded or put on the back. Four 8" blocks have an on-point orientation, suggesting a medallion. Last winter, we "secret stitchers" were quite taken with a sampler in the VT Historical Society collection. It had a center medallion on point surrounded by smaller blocks, too. It's a good day for moving blocks around. :-)

Red and white swap

2011-12-22T15:33:00.005-05:00

I made two sets of six 12" red and white blocks for another swap over the last few days. The one on the left is Jacob's Ladder and, on the right, Lady of the Lake. Each of the latter takes 20 half-square triangle squares so I don't think I'll be making any more real soon.

I discovered a way to make a lot of pretty accurate half-square triangle squares, though. Cut one square from each of your two fabrics, put them face to face, sew all around all four sides, and make two diagonal cuts. If you start with 6" squares, you end up with 4" HST squares. With 5" squares, the result is 3.25" HST squares, and with 4" squares, 2.25". These do have bias edges, so they need to be handled with care.

I fiddled with three more possible squares for the swap, but decided only one would work. Watch for more pictures... eventually! With all this trial and error, I am running out of white-on-white fabric, and if I can go to the quilt shop tomorrow, I will get more. If not, I am out of luck until Jan. 3 since the shop is closing for the holidays.

I am pretty excited about making another red and white quilt. My first quilt was red and white, started in 1974 and finished in 1986! Made of polyester blend cotton, it has been mended several times. I also signed up for a new year-long two-color mystery quilt developed by Brenda Papdakis of Dear Jane and Gay of Sentimental Stitches, called Just Takes 2. Should be interesting and I'm hoping I can use the blocks in this quilt, too.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T08:08:00.002-05:00

Even though we plan a low-key holiday, I have been busy either preparing or enjoying the season. Not a lot of quilting going on. Sunday night, we went to some friends' house for an Indian dinner which was fun. Monday, we had some dear friends over for a dinner of French-Canadian meat pie, "tourtiere." I had never made it before, and the recipe was a composite from various ones I found online. With Sandy's salad, Cindy's bread, and Polly's apple pie, it was just right.

Yesterday morning I had tea at my former neighbors' in Montpelier. When we moved there, Chris was only two so he views them as surrogate grandparents, and they had to be the most supportive people this single mom could ever have had. I wish we saw them more often, and it was nice to catch up.

Today I'll finish some blocks I'm making for a swap and maybe start on a few more. I'll do my Civil War block of the week sometime, too. There's only one left to go before Barbara Brackman's series is over. Then I'll have to figure out if what I have is enough for a quilt or not.

Mostly these days, I've been baking cookies and Chex Mix, reading, and just enjoying the sights and sounds of the season. The classical radio station has been having a good mix of music for quilting or reading. It's snowing lightly now but I don't think we're going to have much accumulation before Christmas, and that will make traveling a little easier for those who do. Polly will join us for dinner Christmas eve, and Chris will be here for brunch on Christmas day. We'll call various relatives and just play with our "toys." "Santa" (my brother) did send me Out of Oz so I know what I'll be doing later in the day!

The tote

2011-12-13T09:51:00.004-05:00

Ever since I spilled coffee on my everyday tote, I have been thinking about making a new one. I usually need one that will hold a book, calendar, distance glasses, snacks, and papers, sometimes all at once if I'm traveling. The button on the tote came from my former MIL and has moved from item to item as I wore whatever it was on out. There are a couple of pockets inside made from selvages, too.

The books of 2011

2011-12-13T09:38:00.002-05:00

2011 could easily be called "the year of the series" because I discovered new ones and read the most recent book(s) in various ones I have enjoyed over the years. I discovered the Irish Country Doctor series by Patrick Taylor and devoured the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. They were entirely different but enjoyable for their reflections of the times, with Taylor's covering the 1950's in Northern Ireland and Winspear's England post-WWI.

I also caught up with Precious Ramotswe, VI Warshawski, and Kinsey Milhone, three of my very favorite characters. Inspector Gamache, Louise Penny's wonderful detective from just over the border in Quebec, also made an appearance in one of my favorite books of the year, A Trick of the Light. A new contemporary series, set in Ireland and Minnesota, fascinated me, beginning with Haunted Ground by Erin Hart.

Other favorites included:
The Book Thief - Zusak, recommended by Carole
Sarah's Key - de Rosnay, read in the book group and now a movie
My Life in France - Julia Child, recommended by Karen and soooo enjoyable
Dreamers of the Day - Russell, set in Egypt in 1921
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins, also read in book group

A few books I'd like to read in 2012 include new titles by Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Addison Allen, Sandra Dallas, and Gregory Maguire. In fact, I hope "Santa" (my brother) brings Out of Oz!

Accomplishments

2011-12-11T07:14:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, in a frenzy of sewing, I made a new tote bag for myself. First I made a fat quarter out of selvages sew together. I cut it down slightly as I squared it off, and I had enough selvages left over to make inner pockets and an little outer pocket. I realized that the pockets needed something on the backs so that I didn't catch stuff on the unfinished sides. So I faced them with Pellon. Anyway, I don't have a photo, but am happy with the new bag which I hope is big enough to carry papers and books to various meetings, library Friends, Democrats, and otherwise.

Along with several tote bags, table runners, and mug rugs, I really finished quite a few quilts this year:

A 9-block appliqued sampler for flood relief

A red, white and black baby quilt for Jovianne

A green and white Irish Chain baby quilt for the Mad River Charity Auction

A batik squares quilt for the MRCA

"Full Duty" Civil War quilt

"Candy Land" wallhanging (hand quilted)

Australian fabric baby quilt for Robin's Yann

A garden row robin wallhanging

"Lasagna" flannel baby quilt for Hudson

"Prairie Flowers" friendship swap quilt

Ugly rectangles quilt for flood relief

"Virtually Pink" quilt using Tante Wil's last UFO for cousin Marianne

Basket block swap throw

Calico County challenge

Wow!

Beautiful morning

2011-12-08T07:38:00.004-05:00

We had a couple of inches of wet, sloppy snow over night, but the roads seem to be melting quickly. My meeting tonight in Montpelier was cancelled, so I have a free day!

Winding Ways

2011-12-04T09:02:00.004-05:00

Over the last few years, maybe since I read Jennifer Chiaverini's book with that title, I've wanted to make a Winding Ways quilt. Last summer, I bought 3 yards of a very sweet cream background fabric with pink and gray. I used it to make a few test blocks in other patterns, but still the Winding Ways was calling my name. So I bought a couple more yards and a set of templates. Last week, I took the plunge, using my Curvemaster foot. At first, I thought I'd never master the process, but with each block, I seem to be getting better. The hard part is matching the center. The Curvemaster likes you to have the convex piece on the bottom, but sometimes you just have to have the concave part there. There's quite a bit of "easing" that goes on, too. I have fat quarters in pink, hot pink, gray and black to use along with the background. So far, I've made about 10 blocks and have four more cut out. Since it's still a fairly intense process, I'll see how large it will grow. 16 blocks? 20?

Calico County Challenge

2011-12-03T11:52:00.006-05:00

My Saturday quilt group, the Calico County Quilters, is holding its second annual "pretty/ugly" challenge. At our November meeting, we were each to bring a fat quarter that we think is pretty and another we think is "ugly." These were put into separate bags, and we each drew one out of each bag. With our two fabrics and no more than two others, we are make a piece no larger than 12" square. It can be traditional or not. Last year Elaine made a chicken pot holder with hers while I made a landscape.

I couldn't go to the meeting because I was teaching an applique class. But Polly drew for me - a lovely burgundy "blender" as well as a wild fabric with spools of thread, buttons, and measuring tape. There was no way these two fabrics were going together in any kind of traditional block. The pink thread clashed terribly with the burgundy.

I kept looking at my fabrics and decided that the spools of thread were like a bad dream. And so an idea came to me! I found some motley light pink for a face and some black with irregular dots for the night. It just so happened that yesterday's quilting motif of the day by Leah Day was a swirly one, which went very well with a dream.
Hence, this piece, which I am calling "Quilter's Dream." Or maybe "Visions of Quilter's Sugarplums"? The reveal will be at our February meeting. Can I keep it a secret from Polly until then?

Scrappy wreath

2011-12-01T19:45:00.002-05:00

Last week, I saw a pattern online (at www.quiltinspiration.com) for a wreath made with green scraps. It looked like just the thing I've been looking for. I usually have small quilts on our door, and I change them with the seasons. Our Christmas one hung on the door at Maplecroft where it was exposed to high sun. It is really faded and should be retired. This wreath didn't take long to make - maybe 2 afternoons - and looks real from the street. One bad thing is that it didn't use as many scraps as I had hoped. The tote with my green scraps is still overflowing!

Basket quilt done

2011-11-29T15:15:00.003-05:00

I put the last stitches in the binding of the Basket Block Swap quilt today. It's a smallish throw but I love the various baskets. I added some broderie perse to one block (lower middle) and removed some yoyos (top right) to make quilting easier. I quilted a curvy weave grid over the borders and am pleased with the effect. My machine quilting is improving, but slowly.

For the last week or so, I've been working on miscellaneous blocks, including Civil War blocks-of-the-week and some Winding Ways 9" blocks. For the latter I have a sweet background print of gray and pink on cream. Accent colors are various grays and pinks. It will be a while before I'm finished all the blocks, but with practice and the Curvemaster foot, the curves are looking better as I go.

An unconventional Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T06:53:00.003-05:00

Our Thanksgiving lobster was delicious but messy. Paul and I headed to the store early yesterday, and it was mostly empty. We left "Larry, Loretta, and Lucille" in the car to cool until noon when they went into my big canning pot. I made a salad, melted some butter, and warmed up the whole wheat/oat rolls I had made Wednesday. Polly arrived at 12:30 pm, bringing a lovely apple pie. She had never had a whole lobster before. It is a messy proposition, and I'm glad the trash will be collected today. I need to change the tablecloth, too, since things tend to get a little wet. It was a light, easy meal, topped off by the pie a la mode.

I talked with Mom Wed. night, and Axel yesterday morning. He was heading over to friends with a relish tray. Chris spent the day with friends who love football as much as he does, but of course we see him almost every day for lunch. We will probably see him this weekend when he runs out of clean clothes.

I liked not having so many dishes and pots/pans to wash, and it gave me time to sew. I started knitting another hat, this time off white with purple stripes, and worked on more mystery quilt blocks. This month's "clue" calls for 24 string blocks, 8.5" square, in background fabrics. It was tough to gather them all together, and I hope I have some left for any upcoming clues. When I saw Jen at the store in the morning, she told me December's clue won't be as labor intensive. Thank goodness! I hope to finish those blocks today and get back to working on other projects. That Winding Ways quilt keeps calling to me, as I keep setting it aside for other things.

I'm not planning to shop today except for food. Paul needs to go downtown and will pick up the holiday letters at the printer's. I hope to do a little housework, walk on the treadmill, and then get back to sewing. Big eternal question: what's for dinner?

Rijsttafel vanavond

2011-11-20T07:13:00.002-05:00

Dinner tonight: Indonesian Rijsttafel with dear friends. Many years ago, I took Chinese cooking lessons with Chet and have been meaning to invite him and Karen for an Indonesian dinner for some time. Tonight's menu includes:

Sayur Lodeh - vegetables in coconut sauce

Rendang - spicy beef stew (the crock pot works well for this)

Tempeh goreng

Atjar ketimun - cucumber salad

Garnished with peanuts and sambal oelek (hot sauce)

Nasi (I'm using brown rice which my grandmother would frown upon)

Black rice pudding with mango for dessert

Just like Thanksgiving, I've been working on this for a few days, but the result will be a little lighter. When I was a kid, my mother made all her Indonesian food from scratch and taught me to do the same. The Dutch can buy many dishes in the deli at the supermarket or just use a mix. Luckily for me, my sister sends me mixes from Holland so I don't have to do as much from scratch, but I still prefer making my own sayur. The mix just doesn't taste right, and I can't figure out what it is I don't like in it. I do wish I had some krupuk, but that will have to wait til another time. Chet's bringing a Reisling and some beer.

Basket Swap quilt ready to quilt

2011-11-14T12:22:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I finished adding the borders to the quilt top I mostly put together from swap blocks at last weekend's quilt camp. At first, I was going to piece extra side borders because the top was long and thin. But after I got the new outside border batik, I realized it would look fine if the side strips were 6" wide and the top and bottom were 3" wide. And so it does. The batik between the blocks is more of a beige-brown while the borders have a little more teal in them.

I pin-basted it yesterday and then took a break to finish Jennifer Chiaverini's newest book, The Wedding Quilt. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon read. I enjoyed catching up with characters from various books in the series and look forward to her next, Sonoma Rose, coming this winter. While reading, I thought a little about the Winding Ways quilt I hope to make from Jennifer's latest quilt book, Traditions from Elm Creek Quilts.

This morning I started quilting in the ditch between the center blocks. After tying off many loose ends, I am taking another break to think about what I will quilt in the plain blocks and on the borders. Free motion? A motif drawn on tracing paper? I'm using a nice beige-gray thread and will proceed slowly. I used to hate tying off the loose ends, but now I find it relaxing and a good way to stretch between quilting sessions.

Sunday

2011-11-13T07:14:00.005-05:00

Even though retirement means never having a schedule, today I hope to:
- vaccuum and mop
- grocery shop
- put something in the crock pot for dinner
- make the borders for the basket quilt (IF I feel like it!)
- tackle a couple of block of the week Civil War blocks
- finish reading The Wedding Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
- take a photo of the Prairie Flower quilt I finished last week

It's going to be a busy week so I do want to relax today. I have a county Democratic committee meeting Monday night, quilt guild Tuesday night, and book group Wednesday night. On Saturday morning, I'm slated to teach an applique class at A Quilter's Garden. So I need to get my stuff together for that. The class sample, hanging at the shop, uses Christmas fabrics, but I want to make the one I do along with the class in blue and white. Someday, I'll add it to my "square robin" that's going around to members of the quilt guild this year.

Yesterday, after a quick trip to Joann's, I finished knitting a hat. It was my first and turned out way too large for either niece. I have a huge head and it's even a little big on me, so I'll set it aside and wear it in bad weather. I got a few more skeins of yarn but won't start on another, easier hat for a while.

Home from retreat

2011-11-08T12:24:00.003-05:00

I went to my first overnight quilt retreat last weekend. Paula picked me up at 1:30 pm for Seyon Lodge, just half an hour east of us. There were 12 other quilters, and we sewed, chatted, ate exceedingly well, and laughed a lot for the next two days. And I got a lot done:

I made six "mug rugs" to give family and friends for Christmas. I plan to add some goodies along with a tag that says Enjoy your mug rug! so they know what it is. I still have a few more to make. For many of them, I used selvages clipped off fabrics I've been using this summer and fall. They are really cute.

I put together the basket blocks I had received in a swap a few weeks ago. The resulting quilt top is just a little too thin and needs borders along the sides. Unfortunately, I am almost out of the grey/brown and blue batik I was using between the blocks. Sarah, who sat next to me at Seyon, works at the shop where I bought the batik. She took a snippet and will call me tomorrow when she's there to let me know whether or not to make the trip down to get more. Otherwise, as she says, sometimes creative solutions come out of these situations.

I made a couple more Amish blocks for the library raffle quilt that guild members are working on. I have about 20 blocks so far, most of them made by guild members who have until Dec. 13 to make them. It should be a stunning quilt.

I made good progress hand appliqueing a center medallion from the book Simple Graces by Kim Diehl. After I finish this I will surround the medallion with small log cabin blocks similar to those in a quilt owned by the Vermont Historical Society. I'm using a variety of shirtings for the 40" x 40" center and will use them in the log cabin blocks, too. This is a longterm project but is beginning to look like something after spending a number of hours over the weekend.

When I got home, I puttered around the sewing room, putting stuff back, but I haven't sewn a stitch since. I guess I OD'd on quilting! I've been knitting a hat - my first - in a lovely hot pink. If it turns out nice, I'll give it to a special niece for Christmas.

A carpet of flowers

2011-11-01T09:42:00.003-04:00

The 2011 Friendship Swap "prairie flower" blocks arrived last week, and I couldn't resist laying them out right away. At first, I planned to put a floral print in between the blocks but that didn't look right, so then I thought I'd frame each floral block with a dark green. But that didn't look right either. A block-to-block layout seemed to show the various greens and creams off better. It was a little difficult to put together this way, and I had to iron seams toward the opposite side in some places. I also made a few extra blocks to create a 5 x 6 block setting.

But it all worked out, and I spent the last few days quilting. I went in the ditch along the greens and then stippled the floral print border. We had a little snow which was a good excuse to stay home and quilt. I'm sewing the binding down today and should be done soon. It will be a great throw for reading on the couch this winter!

Right now I'm reading The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Barry Udall for my book group. I read somewhere that the author wanted to write a "big" book, but it needed a good editor. The torturous behavior of the boys in boarding school was hair-raising and Udall's descriptions are over-long. This was marketed for YA and up, but I can't see a teen sticking with it. Can't wait to finish and move on to something lighter: Jennifer Chiaverini's The Wedding Quilt and two Carrie Bebris mysteries featuring Mr. and Mrs. Darcy!

Swappin'

2011-10-25T19:26:00.003-04:00

This sweet little bluebird arrived in the mail last week from my Secret Santa, Mary in Ontario. It was part of an online swap for which I made a Christmas banner for Tricia, who lives in England and is crazy about Christmas. She received her banner today and promised to take a picture which is great because I forgot to take one before I mailed it.

She asked how I made it, and it was quite easy and fun, really. I was inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, so I got out my Dear Jane triangle ruler and bought a zig zag blade for my rotary cutter. I fused two rectangles of Christmas fabric together and simply cut the piece into a triangle. When I had made a number of them, I made a long strip of binding and sewed it across the tops. A little embellishing, and voila!

Last week I also mailed out all the basket blocks for another swap that I was hostessing. There were 16 participants, so I went to the post office when I thought it wouldn't be busy. I love the helpfulness of the staff there, and, although a line formed almost immediately, Nancy just calmly took care of each package in turn. Most had postage already on them, but some people wanted delivery confirmation and it made sense to check to see if there was enough postage. Most of the people in the swap have already received their blocks and are happily moving them around their design walls. I have some fabric I'm going to use to set them with, but I'm putting it all in a bag to take to quilt camp in a couple of weeks. It is really nice to read of everyone's enthusiasm for their blocks which will make some sweet quilts.

On Saturday I received a nice fat squishy package of Friendship Swap blocks. There were 21 "Prairie Flower" blocks from various people in the US, Canada, and England. Each has "solid" green and floral fabric surrounding a center signature square so that when they are laid out, they look like a carpet of flowers. After laying them out, I decided to make a few more so that I can have 6 rows of 5 blocks. I tried a variety of settings, but they look pretty just set block-to-block so that's what I'm working on now. Photos... eventually!

Baskets and more

2011-10-17T14:24:00.003-04:00

I've been quite busy lately but not with very interesting things. This past week, I helped with a Health Care Update program at the library one night - set up chairs, helped set up the sound system, handed out cards for questions to people arriving, etc. Only about 20 people came, but it was a great program by two very impressive young women putting the Governor's single payer health care program together.

Friday Paul and I joined our neighbors Tom and Dolly for a trip over to the Burlington Country Club for lunch with friends of theirs. It poured all the way there and back, but I enjoyed chatting with Dolly in the back seat. Saturday, Paula and I headed out bright an early for the fall Green Mountain Quilters Guild meeting in Bethel. It was a good meeting. I'm finding it easier to take the minutes now that I know a few people. The workshops were on wool applique and using a bleach-resist process to create very interesting effects on solid fabrics.

Over the last few days I've been juggling 6" basket blocks since I'm the hostess of a basket block
swap for the Friendship Swap group. The guidelines stated that the baskets needed to be of the brown family but the contents could be any color. Almost all of the 16 sets that came to me met the guidelines, but I was in a quandary about this purple basket with brown handle. When I asked people if they were OK with a purple baskets almost all said it was. Quilters are so flexible! I will be mailing these out in a few days to everyone. I am already imaging the looks I'll get from other customers at the post office.

Meanwhile, I started a new quilt - grays, creams, and hot pinks. The background is a sweet print that reminds me of a summer dress. I'm making Shoo Fly and Star blocks but am not exactly sure where it's heading. Still, it's fun to play with these fabrics.

Blocks of the week

2011-10-08T14:46:00.005-04:00

Now that I'm finished with the pink and brown quilt, I'm using Civil War fabrics to make the weekly blocks in the "virtual bee" organized on the Friendship Swap group. The "bee" calls for 6" blocks, but I'm enlarging them to 8" to fit in with the Barbara Brackman blocks of the week.

Last week's block was "rosebud," for which I used a greenish print just for the tips. I have learned that green fabric was hard to get during the 1860's, so little bits of it will go a long way in this quilt. As I made this, I was thinking back on Sandra Dallas' recent book The Bride's House. The main character made and wore a distinctive green dress that made her stand out in her little mining town.

This week's block is a "sawtooth star," with a four patch in the center. I love being able to use up some scraps this way.

This afternoon, I finished the Brackman block for last week, which was all applique. Will take a photo soon. This week's block is a five pointed pieced star, that looks like it should be either hand pieced or appliqued. The latter's for me!

Virtually Pink and Brown

2011-10-07T19:07:00.003-04:00

I have wanted to make a pink and brown quilt for a while, so when someone in the Friendship Swap group suggested a "virtual bee" with a block of the week, I decided to raid my stash. I also traded some fabric with Elaine who had had enough of the pink she had used in a previous quilt and is on to batiks in blues and greens.

About mid-way through the year, I realized that the blocks really went nicely with some fabric I "inherited" from Tante Wil, who passed away in 2003. I have been chipping away at her UFOs all this time. Six very meticulously pieced log cabin blocks have had me puzzled. No matter how I arranged them, I couldn't figure out what she had been planning. There was about a yard of her pink and brown fabric left, so I decided to use it in setting the blocks. Three of hers are in this quilt, at the top right, lower left, and center.

I like the Irish Chain setting, using scraps of brown with Tante Wil's pink floral fabric. After putting what turned out to be a generous throw together, I still have about a dozen pink and brown blocks which I will save for a baby quilt sometime. I quilted each of the "virtual" blocks individually and also went diagonally through the brown squares. Here's a picture of the back, which offers an homage to Tante Wil and states that I finished it. I am planning to send it to my cousin Marianne, Wil's daughter, who lives in the Netherlands.

Many years ago, when Tante Wil visited me, I took her along to a fabric shop and showed her my quilts. She was hooked immediately and made some lovely things. From the fabric and projects she left, it appeared she liked pinks and browns, so I was pleased to be able to honor her in this way.

Errands

2011-10-06T15:09:00.003-04:00

I just returned from a swing through Berlin and Barre. First stop was Lenny's where I tried on any number of shoes that did not fit. The saleswoman seemed to think I was just too fussy and ended up telling me I was looking for too "dressy" a shoe for their store. Come on! I am going to wear these with jeans and socks. Frustrated, I left without looking for jeans for Chris which I hear are on sale this weekend.

I headed up to the Berlin Mall with Joann's and Penney's, old haunts from my working days. They were cleaning the restroom near Joann's, so I headed down to Penney's where I also looked at shoes. Nothing much caught my eye. I ducked into the Shoe Dept. which has odds and ends at discount prices. Sometimes there's lots I like, but most times nothing. They had lots today, and I very easily found a cute pair of Merrills Mary Janes, black with purple accents. Guess I wasn't looking for "dressy," just "cute." The minute I put them on, I knew I had the right shoes.

Joann's also had all I needed - glitzy buttons, rickrack, a zig zag blade for my rotary cutter, braid for handbag handles, and some charms. I'll be embellishing a couple of fat quarter clutch bags with the buttons. And some of these things are for a Secret Santa swap with my online Friendship Swap quilting group. I had an amazing inspiration this morning for my "pal." Hope she likes it.

Next stop was the post office to return the shoes I bought from Zappos.com. I do like the way they pay postage both ways. I had parked right behind the Barre Opera House so I could buy tickets for two performances, an opera program with the Vermont Philharmonic on Oct. 23 and Paula Poundstone on Oct. 28. Last stop was the public library to return a book I just couldn't finish - Burn by Nevada Barr. Her "Anna Pidgeon" character investigates child sex slavery in New Orleans which is just too icky for me. I love her stories set in the national parks. I was happy to find a biography set in Africa and have another paperback mystery at home to keep me happy, too.

It's supposed to be lovely weather for the next few days, so I should be able to take some pictures of blocks, bags, and quilts to post soon!

Buried in UFOs

2011-10-03T08:02:00.002-04:00

I seem to have a lot of projects going at once these days. Many of them are the result of an online Friendship Swap group or the Heart of Vermont Quilt Guild. For the guild, I am working on a mystery quilt that is supposed to use up stash, and I have chosen my holiday box to tackle for this project. I also have gotten together bags of fabric for a row robin in black, white and red and a "square" robin in blue and white. In the "square" robin, the bags go around monthly to a different person who makes a block with our fabrics. My Civil War blocks turned out great last time, so I am looking forward to this year's robins.

Paula in the guild is also putting together a fabric challenge which we'll pick up at the October meeting. We'll buy 3 carefully chosen fat quarters from her for $5.50 and will have until June to create a 36" wallhanging. Can't wait to see what her devious mind comes up with.

In the online Friendship Swap group, I have the following I'm waiting for:
1. 6" basket blocks due Oct. 15 - I'm the hostess for the first time, so it will be interesting
2. 12" Christmas stars due in Nov.
3. 6" Christmas novelty blocks due in Nov. (can I combine the two? will have to wait and see)
4. 9" floral blocks signed by participants (22 blocks coming soon)
I also signed up to do a Secret Santa ornament swap (due Dec. 1) and a winter mug rug due in January.

And speaking of mug rugs, a friend gave me the idea to make some for Christmas gifts and add hot chocolate, biscotti, and a mug with each. A nice idea for the adults-who-have-everything in the family. I also found a cute pattern for a little zippered bag that will be nice for travelers.

All year long, I've been participating in a "Virtual Bee" and have made blocks in pink and brown each week. Now that I've put those blocks together, I'm making weekly Civil War blocks to add to Barbara Brackman's Civil War block of the week. I have a few left over pink and brown blocks, too, which I can put together for another baby quilt, maybe for charity.

And someday, I'll finish putting together the vest I knit last winter and finish knitting the brown scarf I started this summer. Lots to do!

"You go, girl"

2011-09-30T11:58:00.002-04:00

When a member of an online swap group I'm in began making some big changes in her life, several of us submitted blocks for a quilt. We signed with encouraging words, and Carol in the group put them together and quilted it. Mine is of course the one with the tulips (fourth row, 2nd from left). Quilters have to be the nicest people!

Busy quilting

2011-09-28T16:03:00.003-04:00

There is definitely a touch of fall in the air. Mornings are foggy and, even though it has been warm, it's dark when I wake up and it gets dark earlier in the evenings. The trees know it's fall - they are beginning to turn and some are even losing their leaves. It is a great time of year - craft shows, chicken pie suppers, leaf peepers from all over the world, and more. And while we sometimes miss the variety of guests we used to have, we don't miss the frenetic energy of the B&B at this time of year.

I have been spending quite a bit of time quilting a largish throw in pinks and browns. The 6" blocks from the "virtual bee" block of the week in the Friendship Swap group alternate with Irish Chain blocks made with the last UFO of my Tante Wil's. She passed away in 2003, and I have been chipping away at her projects ever since. I love the pink and brown fabric she chose but have never been able to figure out what she intended with a few very meticulously pieced log cabin blocks.

I finished putting the top together Saturday, pieced the back out of scraps, and started quilting Sunday. By Tuesday, I had run out of pink variegated thread, so I had to make a run to the quilt shop. I crisscrossed the Irish Chains but am doing some free motion in the sampler blocks. Have to take frequent breaks because every free motioned block is different and I need to relax while working on them. I used to hate the process of tying off loose threads, but now I find it a nice time to reflect about what I'm going to do next.

This afternoon, I took a break by reading and going to the farmer's market. There weren't many vendors today but I ended up with lettuce, eggs, and some apple samosas for dessert. Yum!

Hudson's quilt

2011-09-21T12:47:00.004-04:00

I've heard these called "lasagna" quilts since strips are layered on top of each other. It probably isn't apparent from the photo but these are all flannels. A friend gave me a whole bunch of samples in varying sizes, and I cut them into 3.5" strips. My sewing desk is about 48" wide, so I just sewed the strips together at random and cut the result every time it got longer than the width of my desk. This went fast. I used the serpentine stitch on my machine to quilt it horizontally and vertically, and it was all done, including the binding, in two days. Very fun! It's going to Paul's new greatnephew, Hudson, born just a few days ago. He joins three little girls who are probably going to spoil him rotten!

Holiday sewing - already!

2011-09-12T13:20:00.002-04:00

Last week when I stopped in A Quilter's Garden for thread, Dee asked me if I would be willing to teach another class this fall. I thought her class schedule for fall was out already, but she said it was only for Sept. and October. Plenty of time for more, she said. So I said I would be happy to teach beginning applique again and, maybe this time, create something a little easier that people could actually finish in class.

I went home and started working on a holiday table runner which I finished today. It is very simple, and the applique features a simple vine, 8 leaves, a flower, and 3 circles in 2 sizes. I hope people will be able to finish most of the applique in three hours. I'm not sure anyone who took my class in winter 2010 finished their projects at all, and I hate to generate more UFOs in classes. During the class, I like to work along with everyone, so I am going to make another table runner in blues.

Our guild is offering a mystery quilt this year, so I decided to do it in holiday fabrics as well. I hope it will help me clean out my old scraps andmake room for a few new ones.

More Civil War blocks

2011-09-06T13:41:00.005-04:00

Those 8" Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks are really addictive. Although I have made one Civil War quilt already this year, I am steadily accumulating more blocks for a second quilt. Brackman has a great blog. Every Saturday, she posts a story about something that happened about that time 200 years ago along with a block of the week. The stories are really interesting.

I made the last two blocks over the weekend. The one on the left is called Star of the West, and the accompanying story was about Jessie Benton Fremont, wife of John, who tried to abolish slavery in Missouri. Lincoln said it was too soon for Missouri, but Jessie traveled to Washington to try to change his mind, to no avail. The Fremonts went back to California. Several years ago, a dual biography came out about the Fremonts. This reminded me to put it on my "someday" reading list.

The block on the right is Kentucky Crossroads. It was easy but, made over and over again in various prints, would make a nice, scrappy quilt.

Busy week

2011-09-03T18:56:00.003-04:00

While we in Barre felt pretty lucky that Irene didn't damage us much, many people around the state have not been as lucky. State employees in Waterbury are all being re-located to other places, and many towns south of us are just barely getting out of isolation. Roads are washed out, bridges are gone, many homes are filled with mud. My heart goes out to them all. This week we plan to go to a play at Lost Nation Theater since part of the admission cost will go to flood relief. There's also a "stuff a truck" event Saturday that I'll have to gather stuff for.

Up here on the hill, it was pretty much business as usual. I finished quilting the row by row quilt, but mostly I buried myself in several good books, all of them the latest in their respective series. First was The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, the 12th installment of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. This book was a little more philosophical than previous ones, but now that I've seen the TV series, I can really picture Botswana as Mma Ramotswe drives into the country on her latest case.

Thursday, I finished An Irish Country Courtship by Patrick Taylor. This series involves a doctor, his assistant doctor, and all the people in a Northern Irish village, Ballybucklebo, in the early 1960's. Dr. O'Reilly has never really gotten over the death of his wife at a very early age, but he begins courting a nurse he dated before he met his wife. Kitty is patient, but not that patient. Young Dr. Laverty's girlfriend ditches him, and he wonders if he should leave general practice in the village and specialize in obstetrics. The many odd characters in the village are fun to check in with also, just as those in Mitford are.

Today, I finished Debbie Macomber's newest in the Cedar Cove series, 1105 Yakima St. This was the lightest by far of the books I've read, bordering on soap-operaish, but it was nice to find out what has happened to the many characters in the series. 1225 Christmas Tree Lane, coming out next month, will be the last in the series and, while I know I'll read it, I do feel it has run its course.

This evening, I started Louise Penny's latest mystery, A Trick of Light, which I have been waiting several months for. I am going to try to read it slowly because her books are so good and another one won't be out for a year. The action takes place mostly in a small Quebec village just over the border from Vermont. Both French- and English-speaking characters blend into the stories which are quite puzzling and feature the very human Inspector Gamache. Christine saw Louise Penny at a bookstore in Maine this week and said she was just delightful. We hope she can come to speak in Barre sometime soon. I'll be putting together a raffle basket featuring her latest book which Christine had autographed. Guess it will have a Halloween/fall theme?

"Irene" begins

2011-08-28T07:00:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we battened down the hatches, and Friday we stocked up. Today we wait, watch, worry. Hurricane Irene is over New York as I write this, and I sure hope Rob's business in the city and Long Island home stay OK.

Stocking up included shopping for printer toner cartridges (have work to do in preparation for a meeting Monday), bread, and fabric. Since it's going to rain steadily, I will very happily sew on my row robin unless the power goes out. In that case, I will try to applique by the window. But I do want to get to the row robin, which was flying around the country, from St. Louis to Michigan and several other places, this year. I had chosen a garden theme, and my friends did a wonderful, creative job on their rows. Friday, I found two lovely green batiks for between some of the rows and for simple borders. I am hoping to put this quilt on a wall in the basement, right next to my treadmill so I can enjoy it while I walk.

While at the quilt shop, I chatted with Paula about a row robin for our Heart of Vermont Guild. She's going to base the guidelines for the new RR on those of the online group I belong to. I think there will be a "Square Robin" and a mystery quilt coming out of our local group, too, so it will be a busy year.

Yesterday, while I was out getting toner, I ran into Chuck, husband of Florence, the former librarian from Brookfield. She was one of my favorites when I was working, so I went out into the parking lot to find her waiting. She has retired, too, and is as busy as I am. But it was good to catch up since I have wanted to drive down to visit her for ages.

Battening down the hatches included putting all flowers in pots in the garage and taking our big wooden rockers in from the porch. We usually leave them out all year long, but if the wind picks up enough to blow them around, they could really damage our French doors. I noticed my neighbor has taken her glass-topped table and hummingbird feeder inside, too.

It started raining softly during the night and has picked up steadily since I got up. The worst is supposed to start around noon and continue into the night. Paul went downtown already to check on the sandbags at the Old Labor Hall. He isn't thrilled about a repeat of the flooding that occurred in May. So he'll be worrying all day, and probably going down to check a few more times. Good thing I stocked up on gasoline, too!

This morning, while the power's on (and it may well stay on), I'm going to do a little cooking. Our annual condo picnic was cancelled due to the weather, so I think a pot of chili is on the agenda along with the upside-down cake I was planning to take to the picnic. One good thing - glad it's not snow!

Dear Hannah in Colorado

2011-08-24T07:50:00.003-04:00

While in Colorado, Mom and I visited the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum for its latest exhibit, quilts by Ann Elliot whose Baltimore Album quilts are all hand-quilted. They were masterful, and I particularly enjoyed seeing her version of Dear Hannah. The individual blocks weren't quilted but the sashing featured big-stitch quilting with black perle cotton. Quite effective!

Dad's 85th Birthday

2011-08-24T07:45:00.002-04:00

Dad invited 21 friends to join him, Mom, and Jenny for lunch at "Purple Ginger" Asian fusion restaurant on August 20. Little did he know that I would be coming, too! It was fun, and he really enjoyed himself. Danny, the manager, made a special nasi for him, complete with candle in the rice. We all had a great time!

Virtual bee blocks

2011-08-16T11:03:00.004-04:00

This morning I made my "Virtual Bee" block of the week, and it was so easy that I made another. I took photos of it and last week's.

A Rainy Monday...

2011-08-15T13:50:00.003-04:00

...but that don't get me down! I always have so much to do, and most of it's fun. We had a very nice weekend, starting with the arrival of Rob and his girls, Caroline and Evelyn. At 13 and 11, they are really growing up but still have a streak of kid-ness in them, too. They had each made me a lavender-filled sachet for my birthday along with long letters updating me on their summers. After hamburgers, grilled by Chris, and corn on the cob, they showed us their "telepathy" act, which Paul figured out but Rob still can't. They really enjoy the fact that they have their own father befuddled!

Friday morning, we headed over to Burlington to meet Chris for a scenic cruise on Lake Champlain followed by a trip to ECHO, a museum focusing on the ecology of the lake. There was a huge group of seniors on the boat, so other passengers had to sit outside. Chris and I each got a little pink in the face, but it was really nice out there. Not too hot or cold. When we got back to Barre, we left Rob snoozing on the couch and took the girls down to the public library for the opening of Almuth's exhibit of textiles and watercolors. I ordered pizza for dinner, after which Rob and the girls went for a bike ride and saw a lovely sunset over the mountains. They left all too soon Saturday for a party in Granville, VT, where they were going to camp. It rained overnight, so I hope they didn't get too wet.

Yesterday, I started working with some linen that Yve sent me. I made two patchwork pillows and found that linen is really hard to work with. It slides a lot, so I ended up using my walking foot much of the time. It's a little difficult to cut straight with the rotary cutter, but I did make a couple of stars and a log cabin block, using fairly large pieces. Yve had sent three shades of green, a natural linen, and a white which all go very nicely together, and the pillows are really soft. I put the rest back in a bag in the closet for another day (month? year?).

This morning, I also made a mug rug for a swap coming up this fall. I alternated three 3" maple leaf blocks with a fall print. Then I quilted it using variegated thread in fall colors that Karen, my secret pal from 2009, gave me. I love the way it looks!

Undoubtedly the best thing that happened today is that Chris started his new job at Westminster Stone Works. He came over for lunch at 11 am and said it is "awesome" and doesn't feel like work at all. May it stay that way.

Catching up

2011-08-06T19:14:00.004-04:00

This week I spent finishing various quilt/sewing projects. I made a pillowcase for my brother's birthday and two reversible aprons for Dad's birthday. With Parkinson's, Dad uses aprons at every meal and the ones I made for him a few years ago are shot. So he got some very colorful ones using Laurel Birch fabric.

Then I turned my attention to some Block of the Week projects. First were Friendship Swap "Virtual Bee" blocks in pink and brown. I was behind by five weeks, but not anymore!

I also caught up on my Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks. Made three of them and felt smug until a new one came out today. Manana! I do like these block of the week projects because getting them done feels so effortless, yet at the end of the year, I should be able to put them together into two very different quilts.

I also started two new projects, both ones I can pick up and set down at whim. I started knitting a lacy scarf out of brown-burgundy-gray variegated yarn. Today I cut out 16 10" squares of shirting of all kinds and put them together for the background of a large appliqued piece I've been thinking about for several months. The pattern is in a book called Simple Graces by Kim Diehl which I bought at our quilt show from Phyllis of Winterberry Cabin. She was making one in wool, but I wanted to try it in cotton with a scrappy look. It feels good to be starting a new applique project that should last me a while. It's more "country" than I usually make, but after the black and white and the Civil War quilts, it seems to suit.

Cruisin' the Lake and more

2011-08-03T16:06:00.005-04:00

Sunday was my birthday, but we celebrated it for two days this year. Was I lucky! Sunday I enjoyed visits and phone calls from family and friends before going out for dinner in Montpelier at the Royal Orchid with Paul, Chet, and Karen. I love Thai food! Afterwards, we went to Lost Nation Theater to see Woody Guthrie's American Song and drove home with his wonderful tunes and words on our minds. We were especially impressed to hear The Ludlow Massacre, having visited the monument (sculpted in Barre out of Barre gray granite) in Ludlow, CO, a couple of summers ago.

Monday morning, we headed over to Burlington to meet Pauline and Bob for a cruise on The Spirit of Ethan Allen on Lake Champlain. The 10 am cruise was cancelled due to lack of cruisers, so we visited the Ethan Allen Homestead before taking off at noon. We had lunch while seeing and hearing about the sights along the lake. It was breezy but just fine under the canopy on the top deck. People moved out of the sun, though, and we discovered upon disembarking that it was HOT out. But a wonderful time was had with our old friends.

I was so happy to give Pauline and Bob this quilt, too. I had participated in a black, white, and a touch of red block swap with an online group, but I had wanted a quilt with a little more color. So I made a "few" additional blocks! I dug into my stash for 2" squares for that inner border, and the outer border features fabric with all sorts of cartoonish dogs. The dogs aren't immediately visible, but the following morning when Pauline called to thank me again, she had noticed them when spreading the quilt on her bed. It was a lot of fun to make, and I'm glad to be able to move on to a few more UFOs!

Heritage Days

2011-08-03T15:59:00.002-04:00

Barre's annual summer festival, Heritage Days, has come and gone. Last Thurs., Paul, Chris and I helped set up a large tent and tables for the library book sale. Friday, I helped sell books and, luckily, the rain held off until the very end. At 4 pm it poured! We did some cleaning up and then headed to the ethnic food tent with Christine, Helene, Chet, and Karen. Everything was $1, and, altogether, our dinner cost $11. We had baklava, spanakopita, tabouli, mostaccioli with meat sauce, tourtiere, Vietnamese chicken salad, and more. Saturday morning, Paul and I wandered around downtown, listened to some sets at a fiddlers contest, and got some ethnic food for lunch (Middle Eastern mostly). At 1 pm, I was at the Aud for the parade lineup while Paul was down at the city park helping with the "We Dig Barre" info booth. The parade started at 2 pm and we Greater Barre Democrats had a fairly respectable showing. It wasn't as hot as last year, but I still needed to drink two bottles of water and have an ice cream cone after the parade before feeling "normal" again. All in all, it was a very successful event, and thank goodness it's only once a year!

Too hot to blog

2011-07-22T20:32:00.002-04:00

At noon today, our thermometer, which is admittedly on the porch where it catches sun around noon, read 101.4 degrees. That's hot, no matter where one lives! Yesterday, we had a 94 degree reading, but it was more humid. Today it didn't feel as humid, and tonight it is very pleasant outside. I read out on the porch until it got a little too dark. And my feet, which always seem to be blazing by the end of a hot day, have cooled off.

Yesterday morning I finished quilting the second of three sections of a black, white, and touch of color quilt. It is looking really nice, with a mix of free-motion and straight stitching in the blocks most of which came from Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

Today I just went horizontally in the ditch on the third section before it got too hot upstairs. I went downstairs where it's cooler and started washing fabric. A quilt artist had called me last week to offer four bags of scraps which I picked up Monday. One of the bags had a lot of good-sized pieces of solid fabric which smelled a little musty but washed up really nicely.

I sent an email out to members of the Heart of Vermont guild to ask if anyone would be interested in making a block in an Amish colorway to contribute to a quilt for the library to raffle off. So far 18 people have said yes, and last night Betty came over with 4 1/2 yds. of Amish black to add to the cause. I am making kits with about 1/6 of a yard of black and two pieces of solids for people to pick up at the September guild meeting. They'll have until December to make a block. I suspect they will finish sooner but thought I'd give them plenty of time. I'll put the blocks together so that the library can hold its raffle during the winter.

Tomorrow it's supposed to cool off a bit more and be less humid. Hallelujah! I'm meeting Sandy, Cindy, and Polly for breakfast at Maxi's to celebrate Sandy's birthday. In the evening, we're going to the first roller derby "rout" for the Twin City Riot. Should be interesting.

Garden raffle quilt

2011-07-19T06:22:00.003-04:00

I made this lap-sized quilt a few years ago and slept under it on the couch plenty when I had pneumonia two winters ago. Now it is going to the Community Gardens to be raffled off so we can retool the plots after the growing season is over. We met last week to come up with fund raising ideas, and this was one of them. When I made it, I had had the Bird of Paradise fabric for several years. It was one of those pieces I bought because I liked it, and then I didn't want to cut into it. Now that I've enjoyed it and replaced it with another quilt for the couch, I am ready to let it go.

Meanwhile, I've been quilting another larger quilt in three sections this week. Some of the blocks came from a swap, and others I made all winter long. All use black and white prints. The swap blocks have a hint of red while the others have hints of other bright colors. The sashing is bright blue, and there's a large feathered star medallion in the center. The center strip is looking good, with the stippling around the star.

Today I plan to sandwich the two end pieces since it's a little less humid. Hotter, more humid weather is predicted for tomorrow through the end of the week, so I need to get some projects done today: vaccum, cook turkey breast to eat cold all week, assemble treadmill, change linens, do laundry! Since it'll be hot, maybe I'll go shopping later this week. Within ten days of my birthday, I'm eligible for a discount half my age at the local quilt shop. Time to stock up!

Australian baby quilt

2011-07-13T09:58:00.002-04:00

I used strips of Australian aboriginal fabric to make blocks which were then alternated with deep purple batik. The back of this baby quilt is flannel.

Full Duty

2011-07-13T09:55:00.003-04:00

Quilted into the top border: "Vermont will do its full duty." Into the left side: "Governor Erastus Fairbanks," and into the right side: "April 15, 1861." This quilt is to commemorate Fairbanks' reply to Abraham Lincoln's call for troops after the firing on Ft. Sumter.

Dieting, floors, quilting

2011-07-08T19:46:00.004-04:00

I started watching what I eat - nay, really being serious about what I eat! - on Tuesday. I went to the gym and weighed myself and found I had slipped up about 13 lbs. in the last few months. Must be all the wonderful strawberry shortcake and ice cream I've had lately. I've been watching those carbs and eating more veggies all week. No relaxing glass of wine at the end of the day, either. But I think it's paying off because today I weighed myself at home and am down. (Maybe I will keep using the home scale since it is much more in my favor.) I'm glad it's summer and we can eat more salads. Picked my first two Sun Gold cherry tomatoes yesterday and a batch of Swiss Chard this morning. And I ordered a treadmill today for those days when I'm too lazy to drive to the gym.

Yesterday we went out to Country Floors to pick up some samples for new kitchen and powder room floors. The kitchen is on a concrete slab, so we are going with something with lots of cushion. The powder room can be more flimsy. I have been laying the samples out on the floor, and Tues. Mr. Martin will be here to measure and take them home with our choices. Shouldn't be too long before we have new floors since both are in stock. Meanwhile, we've been having our back porch floor painted. Quite a project, involving sanding down to the wood and then two coats of oil-based deck paint. We can't use the porch until Monday (maybe Sunday if not tacky), so I moved a rocker to the front of the house so I could read while Max rolled and sat in the grass.

Quilting on the Civil War quilt has been my focus this week, and is all finished. The binding has been machine sewn to the quilt, and "all" I have to do is sew the binding down! It looks great, and I'll take a photo when I can get onto the porch to do so. I am calling it "Full Duty," since around the outside border I quilted "Governor Erastus Fairbanks," "Vermont will do its full duty," and "April 15, 1861." This is the famous reply to Abraham Lincoln's request for troops after Ft. Sumter fell. And who knows? Maybe I'll make a few more quilts during this sesquicentennial.

Gone quiltin'

2011-07-03T08:49:00.004-04:00

I started quilting my Heart of Vermont guild "square robin" quilt. The fabric went around, beginning last fall, to eight other quilters who made some beautiful blocks. Meanwhile, I was making more blocks so that I could make a full-sized quilt. I'm quilting it in three sections and will add the final border when I get the sections put together. I use the bed in our guest room as a "design wall." I have been thinking about quilting a quote around the whole outside border which will be tea-dyed muslin. Will have to do a little research first. There are three different tea-dyes in this quilt because I put some in with the "square robin" fabric, bought some more as I bought a few more pieces of Civil War fabric, and then bought another two yards when I thought I might use it for the final border. The outside border fabric is a bit stiff so I plan to quilt it more heavily than the rest of the quilt. But, as always, I will have to wait and see. So far, I'm having fun!

Log Cabin diamonds

2011-07-03T08:46:00.002-04:00

On my admittedly small design wall today is the log cabin diamond I made after Flavin Glover's class. Will get to it eventually!

Where does the time go?

2011-06-30T18:42:00.003-04:00

It's been a good week so far - busy but not frantic. I wonder how I did all that I did when I worked. The days just slip by. I have been working on various quilt projects this week.

The Civil War sampler, including eight guild "square robin" blocks, is coming together, and I may just squeak through with enough tea-dyed muslin for the sashes and cornerstones. Big question, now that I'm putting the last row of 9" squares together - what do I do for borders? I have a lot of fabric left over but it's very scrappy. I may cut what I can into strips and sew them end to end and put them around a few times. I am leaving it in three strips so that I can quilt them and put them together later. Today I bought 8 yds. of backing fabric from the sale attic at A Quilter's Garden. I know that's too much but I hate to run out in the middle of the quilt. It isn't very Civil War-ish, but will look nice on the back. It is washed and ready to cut. Tomorrow I hope to finish the final row and put the borders together. Maybe by Saturday I'll be ready to start sandwiching and quilting.

Tuesday I spent making templates and sewing together six log cabin diamonds, just to see if I could remember what I learned in my class last week. They are of dark-ish blue "logs" around kelly green centers. The resulting star is very nice, so I may go on and make a few more. But what diamond shapes should go between them? I'll set it aside until I get inspired.

I spent quite a bit of time this week plowing through The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. In 1799, Jacob, a young Dutch clerk, is posted by the Dutch East Indies Company to a man-made island off the coast of Japan, near Nagasaki. Although he plans to spend five years making enough money to win the hand of Anna, in Holland, he falls for a Japanese midwife. There is a large number of characters and some Dutch-English-Japanese wordplay. It's fiction about an important time in Dutch history, when the Dutch were the only ones allowed to trade with Japan. I remember my Japanese friend Mari's father telling me about this back in the 7th grade. However, after about 1/3 of the book, I gave up and started in on My Life in France by Julia Child. It is pure fun!

Last night's author at the library was MT Anderson, who writes for all ages. He read the beginning of his Nurembega quartet and spoke humorously about developing websites to expand on his stories an characters. After that, we joined folks in the park for a pre-4th of July concert by the South Royalton band. Real home town stuff!

My garden downtown and my various plants around the condo all needed some attention this week. My beans are looking amazing, and we counted 22 cherry tomatoes on the plant in the container in the driveway. Guess things are catching up despite the rain.

Some antique quilts from VQF

2011-06-27T19:57:00.007-04:00

This year's Vermont Quilt Festival had a very special exhibit of 66 antique quilts from the collection of the Vermont Historical Society. Some had hanging sleeves sewn on by me, so I was particularly happy to see them hanging. The first one was made by a Mrs. Bolster who lived in Barre. She made thisCarolina Lily quilt while her daughter made an almost identical one but with all light pink flowers. I would love to make one someday.

Mary, my "boss" at VHS said that certain quilts "spoke" to each of us. The blue and light orange "pinwheel" on the right was Sandy's favorite. She even drew up templates for it.

I was also quite taken by the baby quilt, which is an appliqued star with the center points all turned under to form a flower. The red print is appliqued onto a black and white shirting. I also love the Barn Raising quilt, one of two made with very thin strips of shirting as the light fabrics. Both are quilts for my "someday" list. The positioning of the yellow and navy fabrics really make this old quilt, in mint condition, "pop."

Favorites from VQF

2011-06-27T19:52:00.005-04:00

The Vermont Quilt Festival had some wonderful contest quilts, which will be available at their website soon. But these were just two that caught my eye. The row-by-row is just fun and I was thinking that it might have been made in a row robin like the one I'm currently working on with an online group. The medallion applique is just plain gorgeous.

Thursday at VQF

2011-06-25T09:53:00.005-04:00

One highlight of my year is always the Vermont Quilt Festival, now held at St. Michael's College and the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction. When it was in Northfield, I could zip over every day for a while, but now it's an hour each way. It is worth it, though. I love the airconditioned classrooms and exhibit hall, and the space for more displays and vendors.

Thursday, I left home at 6:45 am (reminiscent of my working life!) so that I could register and find my classroom. I took a day-long workshop on creative log cabin diamonds with Flavin Glover who turned out to be a soft-spoken Alabama woman who hand-quilts all of her pieces. She had lots of examples to share and templates that we could photocopy and use. She also had project sheets to color on which I later found helpful in making my log cabin tumbling blocks table topper.

We could choose to make either log cabin stars or tumbling blocks. Both start with a diamond, but the stars build all the way around it, while the tumbling blocks build on two sides. All use strips cut 1.25" but the diamonds use a 1.5" center. I chose to make the table topper because I was hoping to finish by the end of class. And I did, pretty much. There were some blips due to my cutting and sewing the 1/4" seam, but it will be a nice sample for the future.

I have Flavin's earlier book on pictorial quilts using log cabin squares, and she was happy to autograph it. I hope to start working on a star quilt soon although yesterday I was completely involved in putting together the blocks from the Heart of Vermont guild's "square robin" along with some others I had made during the year. It uses Civil War reproduction fabrics, so it's quite a change from the fabrics I took to class. I need to make 11 more blocks before it's ready to put the rows together, but I made good headway. And I have plenty more fabric from that era to do some piecing on the back.

This afternoon, I'm going to help at the Vermont Historical Society booth, and (finally!) Sunday morning, Polly and I will go over to the show to see the quilts and shop the vendors.

Been busy sewing

2011-06-18T19:04:00.004-04:00

I did a lot of sewing this week in an attempt to get ahead of some UFOs that will be coming in the next week or so. Paul had quite a few meetings, so had the car a lot. But that was fine with me. The first thing I did was make #24 of the pink and brown "Virtual Bee" blocks. I tried to upload a photo but there were "internal problems" with Blogger.

Next, I cut apart some 12" Rail Fence blocks I had made with a batch of Australian fabric strips. I ended up with 12 6" blocks that I set on point, alternating with a deep purple batik. I added a scrappy border, since that was all that I had left of the Australian fabric and decided it was a bit too small. The little top is now hanging in the closet, waiting for a yard and a half of one of the fabrics that will be the last border.

I also made 6 12" star blocks using Christmas fabric for a swap. The pattern I chose was fairly complex (oh, how I wish I'd chosen something easier!) so they took me all day. I need to get out and get some more Christmas fabric to make more sets of star blocks, but they aren't due til November, so I have stashed them in my "swap drawer" for now.

I finished making 18 6" Cake Stand blocks for another swap. I'm the hostess for this swap and will be distributing the blocks in October. This "Friendship Swap" group on Yahoo! may be my undoing as I am generating one UFO after another! I signed up for a Christmas novelty block swap also. Made 3 sample blocks but set them aside in my swap drawer for now.

Several weeks ago, at our quilt show, I bought a "Curve Master" foot for my sewing machine and today, I was determined to give it a whirl. I cut out 4 Drunkard's Path blocks in Civil War fabrics and tested it out. It works like a charm, and I hope that someday I'll be able to put a "Flip Flop" block quilt together with it.

Coming back to me this week will be my Civil War "Square Robin" from my Tuesday night guild. The fabrics have been moving from person to person for 8 months, and I have completely forgotten what was in the bag. Meanwhile, I've been making other 9" blocks using Civil War fabrics - will they go together or not? I'll just have to wait and see.

Christmas in June

2011-06-14T20:13:00.003-04:00

Today I made six 12" (finished) Christmas star quilt blocks for a swap with the Friendship Swap group. I saw a nifty but somewhat complicated block on my block-a-day calendar a couple of weeks ago and wanted to try it. I'm glad today was the day because they kept me concentrating most of the day. I needed something like that to keep from obsessing.

We've been without phone service since yesterday but only discovered it this morning. It seems the guys who installed our neighbor's cable phone cut the land lines to four houses around his house. Our cables and wires are all buried in this neighborhood, so "Dig Safe" came to show them where to dig. Guess they missed. So we are waiting for the [land line] phone company to come and repair the damage done by the cable company. I was on the phone and running from neighbor to neighbor as well as downtown to the local cable office most of the morning. The lady at the cable office very kindly said she would like to talk to me sometime about bundling my phone service with cable TV and internet, but she guessed today wasn't a good time.

A "goose chase"

2011-06-12T19:18:00.005-04:00

On our last day in Colorado, Paul and I headed up to Boulder for lunch with Keith and John. My sister Jenny was anxious for us to see a "point of geological interest." She gave us directions to the corner of Baseline and Broadway and was very mysterious about what we'd find there. So we parked and walked around. The first place we came to was a little fire station with a little green shed behind it. That didn't seem to be the spot, so I called her. She asked if I could see a bank. Paul leaned out into the road and did, indeed, see one catty-corner across the very busy intersection.

We headed over and found what John later described as the "Mason-Dixon" line for the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. It marks the 40th parallel, which was surveyed when the territories came into being. After reading The True Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley this winter, I know a bit more about the conflicts between slave holders and abolitionists in Kansas territory prior to the Civil War. Here I am, talking to Jenny on the phone, letting her know we did find the large rock that marks the spot. So glad I brought my phone along as this was, indeed, an interesting spot.

Home from Colorado

2011-06-10T19:35:00.013-04:00

We got back from a week-long visit to my parents and sister in Colorado last Wednesday night and, since then, have been playing "catch up" with all sorts of things. We had a wonderful time catching up with my parents who, at nearly 89 and 85, are still engaged in a variety of activities. That's Mom coming down the steps by Clear Creek in downtown Golden.

It was in the 90's during most days and cool at night, but dry. What a refreshing change from the humid east. We all went to a play, had dinner at Jenny's, and ate at a delicious Asian fusion restaurant where the manager calls Mom and Dad "Oma" and "Opa." We were able to lend some muscle to Jenny who's having a dinner party tomorrow night by moving furniture up from her basement.

We took lots of pictures of downtown Golden with its many sculptures along the streets. We are hoping Barre can someday have more public art, so we also visited Grand Junction, about 4 hours west, to see their Main Street's public art. Both towns are really inviting. The trip west took us through Vail Pass which still was covered in snow. Along the way, we also saw a herd of buffalo and one of big-horned sheep. Jenny said in the 20 years she's lived out west, she has never seen one, so we felt quite privileged.

While at Grand Junction, we visited Colorado National Monument. About 5 miles of switch backs at either end lead up to and down from the top of a mesa with some amazing views. With every turn, all we could say was "wow." Luckily, there were places to pull off and take photos. Otherwise I might have driven right over the edge!

We also visited the Denver Botanic Gardens (lovely), the Denver Public Library (impressive), and Harriet Hargrave's quilt shop (fun). A highlight for me was a book signing by one of my favorite authors, Sandra Dallas, at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. She spoke to a packed gallery about her new book, The Bride's House, which was inspired by a house she and her husband renovated in Georgetown, CO.

Pink and brown blocks

2011-05-31T13:40:00.006-04:00

To the left is last week's block for the "Virtual Bee" I'm participating in. Each block is 6" so by the end of the year, I'll have a nice little quilt. There were a few pieces left after I made this block, so I made another.

This week's block is called "Darting Birds" - it's week 22. Amazing that the year is nearly half over.

Flood

2011-05-28T10:49:00.004-04:00

Thursday night, at about 9, toward the end of a particularly bad thunderstorm, we had a call to come down to the Old Labor Hall (brick building at right) because the basement was filling up with water. The business district along Main St. was closed off, so we had to travel via back streets. Just past Capital Candy, I debated about driving through a huge puddle, but with a fire truck and police car further down the street, I decided to brave it. The Granite St. bridge was closed, but Paul asked the officer if we could go over to get to the OLH. We parked just beyond it and saw a huge lake covering the OLH/Pepin Granite parking lot and Granite St.

The lights were on, though, and Chet and Karen were there putting together electronic equipment for the concert Saturday night. After a while, Mike and Tess appeared, followed by some other neighbors. One had a sump pump which we put down in the basement. The water was at the top of the bottom step and pouring in. We left at about 10:30, again going over back streets.

At about 1:30 am, Chris called from Montpelier to say that people living downtown were being evacuated. He is about 3 blocks from Main St. and one block from the Winooski River which was 3 ft. above flood stage. I told him to come on over but to take the high roads. Then I went back to sleep. In the morning, he wasn't here, and apparently when he tried to get to Barre, he found most of the roads under water so he turned back. His place wasn't flooded, thank goodness. Thurs. night 50 people stayed in a shelter in Montpelier and 100 in Barre.

Fri. morning, there was 5 ft. of water in the basement of the OLH - affecting the restrooms, elevator, furnace, and elderly refrigerator (which must be dead by now). The sump pump was trying valiantly but couldn't handle it all. In late afternoon a fire truck from another town came to pump the basement out. Main St. was passable but Granite St. was still a lake. I am so glad I persuaded Paul to buy those tall rubber boots last year!

The concert, planned for tonight, is still going on, but at the Barre Opera House which has generously allowed the use of the space. The historical society will have to pay for a sound technician and a custodian. 75 singers are coming up from Boston, and many are staying in area hotels and motels. We cancelled the Sunday brunch at the OLH, though. Restaurants downtown appear to be closed, so I'm not sure what we'll do about food. We had planned to have two singers stay here, but I am preparing myself to have a few more. And this morning I made a couple of salads, just in case.

Haven't talked to Chris this morning, but I imagine he is staying put. I did hear from the community garden people, and many of our gardens, including the one I just planted Wed., were washed away. I'll go down and check out the damage tomorrow. Right now I'm staying close to the phone to answer questions about the concert. This is definitely an "interesting" time, but I'm really feeling lucky that we live up on a hill and still have power and water.

Busy here and there

2011-05-24T13:37:00.003-04:00

This morning's sun turned to angry clouds and then it started raining, just after lunch when I was planning to go downtown to my garden plot. I even had the tomatoes and basil all ready to put into the car. Guess I'll wait til tomorrow.

Yesterday, Paul and I made a self-watering planter for a cherry tomato plant. It required only one trip to the hardware store because I already had two large white plastic buckets that my friend and former neighbor Lori got from Ben & Jerry's. One sits inside the other, with a "wick" (a former ricotta container) inside. The top bucket and the wick have holes punched in them for bringing the moisture up to the plant. There's a piece of plastic pipe (that's what I got from the hardware store) that one uses to fill the reservoir below. Today, I received the latest issue of Sunset magazine which has directions using a nicer plastic pot. While they aren't decorative, the ice cream buckets should work just as well. I'll take a picture if it ever stops raining. Yesterday I also bought some impatiens for my flower boxes out front and some pink geraniums and lobelia for a pot for Mildred's grave. They look very pretty together.

This morning I put together another raffle basket for the library, featuring two new, autographed copies of books by Barre authors Russell Ashe and Russell Belding. Ashe is a firefighter whose crusade for upgraded fire detectors led to a change in the building code. His book is The Fire that Changed Everything. Belding's book is Hidden History of Barre, Vermont, and includes tidbits from various newspapers from the city's growth period - the late 1800's to early 20th Century. Along with the books are some historical notecards, a historical poster, a gift certificate to the Bag Ladies Cafe, and a gift certificate for a free car inspection from AJ's Sunoco. Best of all, there's a Live Free or Pie t-shirt from the Wayside Restaurant. Drawing will be July 27 after Russell Ashe's talk at the library - I'll ask him to do the honors.

Rain and more rain

2011-05-18T11:34:00.002-04:00

These Green Mountains are sure living up to their name as things green up more and more due to the incessant rain we've been having. The sun peeked out for just a minute this morning before hiding again. Still, the grass is growing apace! I am dying to get outside and do a little planting, both around the condo and in my space in the community gardens. My planters are lining the driveway soaking up rain, and I plan to take one back to the porch later and plant it with lettuce. I do have a soggy hanging set of petunias outside already. Just need a shot of color!

Meanwhile, I've been sewing quite a bit. Yesterday, I got ready to do a brief demo on trapunto for our guild meeting last night. I took a very old UFO apart (it's been moved twice!) to see if I could do a little trapunto to improve it. A few days ago, I made this tote out of a block I made last winter in my black, white, and red phase. It was a sample for the applique class I taught, and I also have a similar block in batiks and one in 1930's prints. Thought it was time to move at least one out the door as a gift!

Favorites from the Quilt Show

2011-05-09T14:10:00.005-04:00

Here are a few of my favorite quilts from the Central Vermont Quilt Show this past weekend.

Scrap Baskets and an interesting log cabin are both by Yvonne Isabelle. Scrap Baskets was hand quilted. The machine quilting on the log cabin was amazing. It included pine cones, ducks, and cattails.

My Favorite Things by Diane Fielder was machine quilted by my friend Mary. Diane included buttons and hand embroidery for a very sweet quilt. In real life, it's much brighter and sunnier.

This very elegant quilt, Quilt Village by Marie Fortier, will be featured in the Vermont Quilt Festival this summer. It won the Viewers' Choice Award in the large quilt category. There is a great deal of hand quilting as well as embroidery and applique. Truly a labor of love!

Primo Maggio!

2011-05-03T06:50:00.005-04:00

We had a wonderful weekend, celebrating Primo Maggio (May 1) at the Old Labor Hall. The Barre Historical Society sponsored two events that drew crowds each evening, and we were lucky enough to make some new friends. The weather couldn't have been more cooperative, showing Vermont's beautiful early greening.

Saturday morning Paul and Chris joined a group at the hall to set up for Saturday night's film and Sunday's Italian banquet. Meanwhile, I attended the opening the community gardens where I did a few preliminaries to my plot which is the same as last year's. I also signed up to be on the garden committee with my former neighbor Lori. Then I headed over to the hall myself to help set up chairs. Anticipating a crowd, we formed a human chain to move the clunky old folding chairs up from the basement.

Later in the day, filmmakers Gianfranco Norelli and his wife Suma Kurien arrived from New York and, after settling into our guest room/sewing room, we went down to Lucia's to meet other BHS members for an early dinner. We met Mary Anne Trasciati, Saturday night's speaker, and her friend Paulette in the parking lot where they unfortunately had had a flat tire on their rental car. Paul tried to change the tire but the flimsey jack collapsed. Avis promised to send someone to change it, so after we ate, I waited with Paulette until Kyle from Tunbridge arrived and put on the "donut." When we got to the hall, the film, Pane Amaro (Bitter Bread), was just starting to an audience of about 150 people. This was ten times what I had anticipated, so I was thrilled. The reception was positive and questions for Gianfranco and Suma afterwards were thoughtful.

Sunday morning, we drove out to East Calais for brunch with Chet and Karen. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful, with everything beginning to green up. All of the out-of-towners went to Hope Cemetery for an in-depth tour with sculptor Giuliano Cecchinelli who, they said, was just great. We had just enough time to freshen up before heading back to the hall for the banquet prepared by the men ofthe Mutuo Succorso Society and attended by about 200, many of whom stayed afterwards to help put away chairs and tables.

Over dinner, we got some insight into the process of putting together a historical documentary. Gianfranco won my heart by saying that filmmaking is much like putting together a quilt - you arrange and rearrange all the pieces and also insert pieces for transition until you are satisfied. After the whole work is done, he said, you may see things you might have changed but by then you have moved on to another work. Isn't this just what happens in quiltmaking? I remembered this quilt, Star of Apeldoorn, in which I found a very prominent mistake only years after making and showing it. It is well-loved, however, because it's a memorial to my Tante Jen.

It's funny how easy it is to connect with some people, and we certainly did bond almost instantly with our guests. After a quick Monday morning breakfast, Paul and the Norellis visited a sandblaster and a granite sculptor before they returned to say goodbye. We hope they return sometime, and we will certainly look them up if we are ever in New York. They urged us to consider staying in their apartment in Rome, too, which sounds increibly tempting!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T15:55:00.003-04:00

When I was little and we had just arrived in the U.S. from Holland, I used to hear things on the radio or from other kids about various holiday traditions. I would pass this important information along to my mother. I remember telling her that she had to get us some Easter bonnets, even though I wasn't quite sure what a "bonnet" was. We didn't go to church, she said, so we didn't really need new clothes, and especially not hats. I did enjoy my Easter basket and coloring eggs, even though I didn't like hard-boiled eggs at all (I still don't much).

My mother used to say I could eat more candy than any kid without getting sick, but today I feel like I have OD'd on sugar. I made a key lime pie for dessert, and it was great! It followed a brunch casserole with sausage, eggs, and cheese along with watermelon and OJ. I'm not sure I'm going to eat much more today... except perhaps another slice of pie?

Growing up in Maryland, it was always hot on Easter, and we would wear sandals sometimes for the first time in the year. Here in Vermont, it is often quite chilly on Easter, and yesterday it even snowed a little. Today it's in the 50s, but in the holiday spirit, I did put my Birkenstocks on with socks. Spring's got to be just around the corner!

Caught by the Civil War bug

2011-04-22T10:03:00.004-04:00

Since February, I've been volunteering at the Vermont Historical Society once a week, helping to sew hanging sleeves onto quilts to be exhibited for the first time at this year's Vermont Quilt Festival. These quilts are amazing! When one considers that many of the seams were done by hand, probably in the evenings or late in the day when chores were done, the quilts are indeed labors of love. I can't imagine how they could see to make such small stitches! This week I worked on a very heavy red and black wool quilt that has lots of little rips in it. The VHS curator told me that it will be hung only during show hours because of its fragility and weight. She is hoping a slant board can be used to display it instead. While we have been exploring conservation of the quilts, covering all the holes in this quilt with tulle or silk might detract from its amazing appearance.

Handling these quilts has caused almost everyone in our small group of "Secret Stitchers" (for the stitch some previous quilters used to affix the sleeves to some of the quilts) to try reproducing our favorites. Sandra is testing templates for a Crossed Canoes quilt, while Nancy is making various Uneven Nine Patches in Civil War reproduction prints. Even though my favorite has been a Log Cabin, with 1/2" logs surrounding 2 1/2" red "chimneys," I have been working on a sampler of 9" squares using fabrics from a collection by Barbara Brackman, along with tea-dyed muslin and some other Civil War era reproductions. So far, I've made about a dozen blocks, and here's what's on my design wall today.

The Civil War repros are a little outside my comfort zone since I tend to like working in brighter colors. But there is something very homey about them, too, and they remind me of the women who worked so hard back home to keep their farms, families, and homes together during the war. I'm not sure how big this quilt is going to be yet. Guess I'll keep making 9" blocks until I get tired. I'm also expecting 8 more blocks when my Tuesday night guild's "square robin" bag returns in June. With sashing (tea-dyed muslin? shirting?) or alternating solid blocks, this should be a very nice quilt.

Recent reading

2011-04-16T13:45:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted about books I've read in a long time, but I have read some unforgettable ones lately:

- Most recently, I finished The Devil's Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke. It was definitely light and fluffy, but the recipes throughout are to die for. Hannah owns a cookie shop and has an assortment of friends and family who help her solve murders in her little Minnesota town. I am going to write down a few of the recipes before I return the book to the library, and I anxiously await Fluke's cookbook, Murder She Baked, coming soon.

- Before that, I finished All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy for our book group this coming Wed. night. I had read it before but realized while reading that I had forgotten almost everything. It's a western set in 1949 when 16-year-old John Grady Cole leaves his Texas ranch with a friend and heads into Mexico. He encounters quite a bit of violence, hard work, many horses, and love along the way. Even though all the dialog lacks punctuation, there's lots of untranslated Spanish, and it is fairly depressing, the language is quite poetic and the mood sticks.

- My favorite new-found author is Erin Hart, whose three mysteries are mostly set in Ireland. In the first novel, Haunted Ground, pathologist Nora Gavin and anthropologist Cormac Maguire investigate the discovery of a Centuries-old severed head in the peat bogs. Romance and intrigue ensue, and I'm already looking forward to the next book.

- Because so many others have raved, I finally got around to reading The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larson last week. It was slow going at first and I almost set it aside a few times. But it really got going toward the middle. I was dismayed at the violence toward women, however, and don't plan to read the other two books in the series.

- But another book that "everyone" has been reading, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, turned out to be great. It has been marketed for young adults but adults will like it, too, as it is told from the point of view of Death and a young girl during the Holocaust. The author has an unusual way of telling the story we are fairly familiar with.

- The Union Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini was pretty good, not literary, but interesting Civil War fiction about what women were doing in the north while the men were at war or captured in prison. Since I've been handling antique quilts at the Vermont Historical Society every week, I have a greater appreciation for the women who made quilts to send to the front and to raffle off to raise funds for needed items to send the soldiers. This book also deals with the frustration black men felt when they were not allowed to serve in the Union army until late in the war.

- Finally, I plugged along with The Tea Lords by Halle Haase because it felt as if I was reading Roots. Haase based her novel on diaries and letters of Dutch tea planters in Indonesia and it could have been more gracefully written. Still, this story of one such plantation owner from youth to death mirrors the lives of many of my forebears.

May "Basket" Arrives

2011-04-15T13:57:00.004-04:00

The "Friendship Block Swap" group I belong to organized a secret May swap. Rather than filling a basket, each of us filled a small flat rate postal box with a handmade item as well as other goodies. I sent a box to Debbie last week and thoroughly enjoyed filling it. Today's mail brought my "basket" and it was from... Debbie! Since the assignments were made randomly, it was a great surprise to us both.

My package included a sweet wallhanging with appliqued and embroidered pansies, six coasters in my favorite color (purple), some chocolates in an organdy bag, and a little book of tips for quilters. I think I'm going to hang the pansies on our front door because the wallhanging that's there now is very faded from the sun at our old house. It is nice to start the season with a "fresh" door hanging! I'm going to put the coasters in the living room away and put Debbie's out in the purple basket I have from a past secret pal.

Today I shopped for fabric for some of my ongoing projects - more pink, some Civil War prints, and more blues for my Little Amsterdam table runners. My sister, Jenny, was here last week and took one of the table runners home with her to give to Mom for Mother's Day. I was glad she could squeeze it into her suitcase, although I need to mail Jenny a package anyway. I have a pair of sturdy shoes for walking in the woods that fit her better than they do me. We had a nice visit with her last week although it was much too short.

What I'm working on

2011-04-05T12:29:00.003-04:00

Last night Polly asked me what I've been working on, and the number of works in progress I have is staggering!
* pink and brown 6" block a week "virtual bee" with Friendship Swap group
* black, white, and a hint of color 6" block quilt (including swap blocks with Friendship Swap group to arrive mid-summer)
* green and floral Friendship Swap blocks - 20 made so far and due at end of summer
* "Little Amsterdam" table runners - 1 made, 1 put together, a few more to go
* Civil War 9" squares, including those in guild "square robin"
* Friendship swap group row robin - a new one comes every 6 weeks until next January

Several of these WIPs are in large pizza boxes which I shuffle around as the mood strikes. The pink and brown is in a small plastic tub, and the Friendship Swap blocks are in a large plastic bag. Polly limits herself to one project at a time, but I obviously like a little variety in my life.

I also have to hand sew a binding down on my "Candy Land" wallhanging and a hanging sleeve on "Asian Jane" for the May 6 Central Vermont Quilt Show. I also need to create a "Bra Bag for Cancer" for the show. Have an idea for one with very traditional quilt blocks but need to find a sports bra to start.

Today I pulled a 14" batik appliqued block with flowers in a vase out of the closet. Future tote bag?

Keep on keeping on

2011-03-31T09:09:00.004-04:00

Keeping busy helps me stop worrying about things I can't do anything about, so today I vaccuumed and mopped the floors downstairs, did a load of laundry, ordered some fabric online (Civil War - out of my comfort zone but inspired by time at the historical society), and took photos of various quilt projects.

Later I have to go down to the post office to mail my row robin to Nancy, first stop in a year-long project in which each quilter will create a row to go with it. I decided on a flower garden theme, so my first row included four patch posies in various colors.I love doing these round robin projects because they are so challenging. Everyone has different taste in terms of fabrics and styles. The row was a little difficult to photograph because it's 6" x 36". When it comes home, I will decide how to put the rows together and, perhaps, add an appliqued border all around. We'll have to see how it "speaks" to me!

I also made my "virtual swap block" for the week in my usual brown and pink as well as black, white, and another color (pink this week).

Yesterday I also machine sewed a binding on an appliqued wallhanging I've been hand quilting for far too many years. I'll save sewing the binding down until my sister Jenny is here. It will be nice hand work for sitting and chatting.

Unsettled

2011-03-30T18:35:00.007-04:00

The last few days have been a bit "off." The weather has been gloomy, very cold and windy - about 10 degrees below normal which should be 45. The snow is receding, albeit slowly. I've been rattling around the house, reading, doing a little sewing, and not quite myself.

Chris has been on and off again for the last few weeks about joining the Army, mainly because he wants to become an officer and wasn't sure if he could be at his age (29). He went up to Burlington to see a different recruiter yesterday and then had another meeting with the local recruiter today. Looks like he can, indeed, try for OCS. Now he has all sorts of stuff to gather including transcripts, birth certificate, some papers to fill out for National Security Clearance, and 3 letters of reference. Tomorrow is his ASVAB test and then he has to go for a physical. So it looks more certain as the days go by. I don't know when he'll be off for basic training or even where he'll be going, but I am glad that his path is more and more clear. As a bit of a peacenik, it is hard for me to think about, but it is his choice and, I think, he is actually well-suited for a military career.

Sunday was a busy day, helping with a program at the Old Labor Hall, and today I volunteered at the Vermont Historical Society. I've been going every Wednesday morning to help sew hanging sleeves onto antique quilts, and it has provided 5 of us an opportunity to see these gems up close and personal. Nancy is even making a copy of one of them, and Sandra has made templates to make another herself. Today we had a session on repairing tears and worn parts with bridal illusion (tulle). Because it was difficult for me to see what I was doing, I hope I can continue to help. I'll give it another try next week before I decide. It's been fun so far but I don't want to damage anything. I also got some hints today on repairing Paul's old Bellows family quilt. It will be quite a job but maybe I can persuade one of the nieces - with better eyesight - to help.

Perhaps more than anything, my cousin Rick's death has sent me into a spin. He lived in Curacao with his wife and 3 kids, ages 10-18?, and I feel so bad for them. He had had cancer of the esophagus and had been in Holland for treatment this winter. After he came home, he began to feel sick again, couldn't swallow, and then all his organs began shutting down, one by one. Only 53, he was a successful businessman with a great deal of energy, creativity, and likeability. His passing reminds me of how fleeting life is. I am so happy that they could visit us in the summer of 2009, particularly since we hadn't seen each other since 1976. It was good to reconnect with him.

Another finish!

2011-03-27T09:38:00.005-04:00

I love making this sort of scrap quilt! I love batiks anyway, so gathering these scraps was easy, and I still have quite a few more to use one of these days. To the left is the front of the quilt that's headed to the Mad River charity quilt auction this fall. The back, below, has batiks from Dee's "sale" area as well as three strips that were rejected borders. The binding was made of scraps, too!

So much for spring!

2011-03-21T11:43:00.006-04:00

As I write this, it is snowing hard, and 5-9" is predicted. The weekend was so nice that I even thought about putting my boots away. Good thing I didn't!

Snow or bad weather is no problem, really. I'm reading a good book (Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart) and have plenty of sewing to do. I am almost finished sewing the binding down on a batik throw, and I'm getting a head start on Friendship Swap blocks. So far, 16 people have already signed up for the 9" blocks, made in cream, green on green, and floral prints. I expect more will join in, and although the deadline isn't until the end of the summer, I have a couple of ideas for future quilts that I'd like to work on. I guess I am still "in-box" oriented, even after two years of retirement.

This morning, I also made a couple of blocks for the "Virtual Bee" I'm in. One is for the pink and brown quilt and the other for the black and white with a hint of color quilt. I'm expecting a batch of black, white, and red 6" blocks toward the beginning of July, and will add them to the blocks I have already made with various bright accent colors.

Irish Chain quilt

2011-03-17T13:03:00.004-04:00

I finished sewing the binding down on this Irish Chain quilt, made with swap blocks from my Friendship Block swap group. The original pattern, from http://www.quilterscache.com/ called for appliqued shamrocks in the plain blocks, but I quilted a little flower and leaf motif in bright green in them. I like the way it turned out! It's going to Vee for the charity quilt auction this fall in the Mad River Valley.

Home from Naples

2011-03-10T19:18:00.009-05:00

We had a wonderful, albeit too short vacation last week. Paul's sister and her husband rent a condo in Naples, Florida, for a few months each winter. We were finally able to visit, and they were amazing hosts, showing us all the highlights:

- the Naples pier, where we saw dolphins swimming

- a tour of the Everglades, through mangroves and grasslands, with beautiful birds and a grumpy alligator, followed by lunch at the Everglade City Rod & Gun Club, a funky must-see

- the Baker Museum of Art in Naples, with its Chihuli glass chandeliers and Persian ceiling as well as a special exhibit by Robert Rauschenberg

- a concert by three Irish tenors and the Naples Philharmonic, in the concert hall next to the art museum

- a community band concert featuring a ten year old trumpet prodigy and attracting thousands to the city park

- lunch at the Turtle Club on Vanderbilt Beach

- a tour of Palm Cottage, built in the 1880's when Naples was wilderness. The gardens were especially interesting because palm trees and flowers were labeled. There was a shady spot that I couldn't photograph just full of various beautiful orchids. It's amazing to see so many flowering plants in winter. - English tea and shopping for Carole and me, while Paul and John went to a baseball game

- several gorgeous sunsets and plenty of beach time. The weather was perfect, and we were happy that daylight lasts a little longer down there. At home it's dark by 5:30 these days, but in Naples, sunset was at about 6:30 each night. Paul chatted with a lady on the beach who has been coming to the area for over 30 years. She was impressed by all we had seen in our week. And there's still more for another time!

On the way to the airport, we stopped for breakfast at Paul's sister Pat's in Bonita Springs. There, we celebrated a little Mardi Gras with some local "characters" who seem to be especially fond of Cabot (Vermont) Cheese!

It was a little tough to come home to 24" of new snow and then more today, but we have pleasant memories and fading tans to keep us going.

Just a taste...

2011-03-09T17:16:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful time in Naples, Florida!

Some recent quilt blocks

2011-03-01T08:43:00.003-05:00

...for the virtual block of the week! I love this pink and brown combination.

Spring seems a long way off

2011-02-24T19:23:00.003-05:00

A year ago, we packed for a trip south, only to be delayed over and over again by bad weather. In the end, we stayed home and endured the removal of wall-to-wall carpeting and installation of hard wood floors on the first floor. Six days of agony! The result is lovely, though. Now we are planning another exodus and keeping our fingers crossed. Heavy, wet snow - 8-12" of it - is predicted for tomorrow. In fact, something is already falling and the town sand truck as made an initial tour of the neighborhood. We will hope it is all out of "its" system by Tuesday.

Today, I worked on my state taxes, lined up several vendors for the Central Vermont Quilt Show, sent email reminders to other possible vendors, and made binding for two quilts I hope to sandwich at the retreat on Saturday - all before noon! Chris was working on a project for his last class (we hope), so we went to Mr. Z's for pizza. Paul was out jaunting about the countryside with his friend Chet from the Old Labor Hall. They were meeting with some folks from Bread & Puppet Circus who will be doing a program at the hall in March.

When we left for lunch, the sun was waning, but by the time we went home there was a cold, gray cast to the sky. Definitely, it felt ominously like snow. I went to the grocery store to get dog food and a few other items - can't get snowed in with a hungry dog. Everyone in town seemed to be there, and the checker told me it had been busy all day. Tomorrow I plan to hunker down at home - reading and sewing. I have one more black, white, and red Grandmother's Fan block to make for a swap and will make a few more black and white blocks for the quilt I'll put together when the swap blocks come. I love the way they are turning out. Maybe I'll get Jennifer Chiaverini's new book finished before we head south, too.

The Friends dinner/auction

2011-02-22T19:21:00.005-05:00

I have had a cold since Friday, so am seeing life through a bit of smog. It is improving, thank goodness. Saturday was a busy day so I just went through it as best I could, and Sunday I spent most of the day goofing off. Saturday was the annual Friends of the Library winter banquet and auction at the Knights of Columbus hall. We gathered at the library at noon to load up all the auction items and had a caravan up to the hall where we set them out in numerical order. They had all been packed as well as possible, so the organization took a bit of concentration. We had 70 silent auction items and 12 "live" ones, including an original etching, greens fees, a cruise on Lake Champlain, a lovely granite bench. While we were doing that, other Friends were setting the 16 tables and decorating with Pinocchios, historical photos, and other Italian goodies.

After we got things set up, Paul and I headed home for a nap before Pauline and Bob arrived. It was very cold and the wind was blowing terribly, but we saw some of the snow sculptures being made downtown as we headed back to the hall. The dinner was excellent - Northern Italian fare with tiramisu for dessert - and with lovely music by the former HS music teacher, everything seemed very relaxed. People bid on everything but one item, and for the most part, the prices were very fair. Pauline was determined to get my Wonky Cats quilt, and I promised to make her a bed-sized one for the lake house this year. We bought the cruise tickets and will take Bob and Pauline with us this summer, and Bob promised to take us all to dinner at Soup 'n' Greens with the gift certificate he "won." So it was a successful event, and I hope the bottom line reflects that, too. We'll find out at our next meeting on the 8th. All the funds we raise go to library materials and programs like the summer author programs and monthly events for seniors and young adults.

So Sunday we crashed, and even Monday was a little slow. Today I put together two quilt backs so that I can sandwich two quilts at Saturday's day-long retreat. I hope we can get downtown tomorrow to see the snow sculptures - they look fabulous. Will try to remember the camera.

A busy week

2011-02-11T17:06:00.003-05:00

The middle of the month always brings lots of activities for Paul and me. Last Tues. we each had two meetings, but fortunately his were in the morning and mine were in the afternoon and evening. We had pizza for dinner between my quilt show and library Friends meetings.

Plans for the Central Vermont Quilt Show May 6 and 7 are going well, and entries are beginning to come in. We are still tracking down vendors, but everyone is pitching in. The committee is also being really kind to me by taking on so many of the things I did the last two years (the first two of the show). It is pretty nice, just doing the webmaster and treasurer's duties. Because we realize May will be here before we know it, we are going to meet every other week from now on. That way, too, the meetings don't have to be as long.

The Friends of the Library's annual winter banquet and auction is Feb. 19, so we are hustling for auction items and volunteers. I made several follow up calls for items, and Karen, our librarian, and I organized the library's display case to hold some of them. Late this coming week, I'll put together the bid sheets, and we'll decide which things will go in the live auction and which will go "silent." Our old friends Pauline and Bob are planning to come up for the weekend, which is always fun. The menu is a gourmet Northern Italian one including wedding soup, salad with polenta croutons, chicken cacciatore, and tiramisu. Yum! The list of auction items will soon be on the library's website.

Wednesday morning, I went over to the Vermont Historical Society to help begin putting hanging sleeves on about 30 antique quilts that will be in this year's Vermont Quilt Festival. Last summer, when I helped with the quilt re-rolling project, we noted which ones had sleeves and which didn't. I also noticed that most of the ones with sleeves had them attached with a special cross stitch. But Mary, the registrar, says that a blind hem stitch will be fine and to make our stitches fairly large so that they could be removed if necessary. It was a really fun morning. The people - 5 volunteers and Mary - are all so nice, and the work is relaxed enough to chat while sewing. I especially enjoy talking with Sandy about her various quilting projects. She is great at redwork.

I finished sewing the binding down on my applique sampler and then did a little handquilting on the Red Red Robin quilt. Today I sewed the first side of the binding down to the back. Tomorrow I have a Town Democrats meeting in the morning and a Calico County Quilters meeting in the afternoon, along with guests coming for dinner. Next week should be quieter, and I'll get back to sewing.

Little Amsterdam

2011-02-08T08:11:00.003-05:00

I'm having so much fun making these Dutch houses! Each is different, with mix-and-matched the roof lines. I got the pattern this fall from North Sea Quilters and have been adding to my dark blues ever since. The pattern calls for the doors to be made out of the same fabric as the windows, but many Dutch doors are distinctive and gorgeous, so I am mixing them up a bit, too. Each house is to have some "bling" across the top, which is fun to figure out, too. Jacqueline gave me several pieces of tile fabric, so I will use that to border this piece which will be a table runner for someone in the family. It's so much fun that I will probably make a few more.

Productive days

2011-02-05T10:23:00.006-05:00

Snow days have been alternating with bitterly cold days, so I haven't been out much. It is a gorgeous sunny day today, but the sun belies the near-zero temperature. Over the last few days, I've put bindings on the Red Red Robin and big applique blocks quilts, and made a baby quilt, two placemats, and a mug rug. Quite a quilting machine!

The baby quilt is for Jovianne, Paul's niece Meg's new baby. It's hard to see, but the red fabric has dogs, dog houses, and bones. I hope they like dogs! The snowball with nine patch pattern is easy, and I've used it before for a quick baby quilt. Each nine patch block has a center of black with red polka dots. I love that fabric and have used it in a lot of quilts. Need to get more!

The placemats were scraps from my Chinese coins quilt, using black and scraps of Asian fabrics. They have gone right into an Asian-themed basket for the Friends of the Library's silent auction Feb. 19. Along with the placemats are tea, chopsticks, Chinese bowls, a lovely address book, cute purse, and, we hope, a gift certificate to Chinatown restaurant.

"Mug rugs" are over-sized coasters, for a mug and a little snack. Mine was made out of an "orphan" block, a trial block I made last year, just to see how it would turn out. It's about 6" x 9", and I found that the most onerous part of making it was sewing the binding down to the back. Next time I make one, I think I'll just cut the back fabric a little larger and fold it over to the front. I used it last night for a glass of wine and am keeping it right next to my reading/applique chair in the living room.

Today I started a new project that should last a while. Before Christmas I bought a pattern from the North Sea Quilters in the Netherlands. It is a variety of Dutch houses, with mix-and-match roof lines. Some are the familiar "step gables" and some are more rounded. The pattern book is quite complex but I think I can adapt them to suit. For example, it calls for fusible applique for the step gables when some basic piecing will work just as well. I thought I'd make some table runners for family, but I need to get a little more white for the skies before I go too far.

I love this picture!

2011-02-02T06:40:00.005-05:00

Today is Groundhog Day. When I was a kid, we lived in Delaware and then Maryland. The "six more weeks of winter" or not if Punxatawny Phil saw his shadow made sense then. Since living farther north, first in the snowbelt around Syracuse and, for the last 33 years, in Vermont, six more weeks of winter sounds just great as winter would only last until mid-March. But winters here usually last well into April. My old friend Arnold shared this photo on Facebook. The caption: "Thousands protest global warming."

A lazy winter Sunday

2011-01-30T12:27:00.005-05:00

Today Paul and I drove down to Mad River Quilting to pick up my Red Red Robin quilt which Lisa had quilted beautifully. Before leaving home, I checked and was relieved to see that I had already made binding for it. I was thinking of giving it away, but when we spread it out, Paul said it would be a shame to give away. That's the way it is - the new quilt is always the favorite. We'll see after I get the binding on. Maybe it will be our spring quilt since it is in purples and pinks, very scrappy. Lisa said it was no problem quilting through the scrappy back, too, which is good.

I bought a variety of smaller pieces while at Lisa's, some just 'cause, and some to make various upcoming projects with. I have very little tone-on-tone green for this year's Friendship Block swap, so I got some of that. The block we will be swapping: is called Prairie Flower, with signed cream centers, green corners, and florals. When finished, our quilts will be mini-gardens. I also picked up some fabric for kids' quilts, since Meg's little Jovianne Elise just arrived and caught me by surprise. I think Jovianne will get a little windowpane quilt that I can run up fairly quickly.

I'm hoping to have the binding on the Red Red Robin quilt ready to sew down to the back by Feb. 26 when the Heart of Vermont Quilt Guild will be having a retreat day. I hope a few more people will sign up because we need 20 for it to be a "go."

This afternoon, I'm going to work a little bit on borders for the appliqued quilt I've been putting together. I ran out of the dark green tonal I thought I could use around the edge, so I am piecing together a few things to make it work out. I wish I hadn't been "smart" and cut the binding strips before finishing the border. Oh well! I'm also planning to read the book group book, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, a little more (it drags terribly) and make some mushroom barley soup for dinner.

Some winter photos

2011-01-24T09:36:00.004-05:00

Everybody's doing it - throwing boiling water out into the cold. At 22 below, it turns immediately to steam, as Paul demonstrated this morning. We have about two feet of snow on the ground, and every house looks like Marilyn's next door - icicles abound!

Brrrr!

2011-01-23T15:52:00.003-05:00

I haven't left the house since Thursday when I went grocery shopping first thing in the morning, and to A Quilter's Garden and JoAnn Fabrics for supplies. It is just too cold. Tonight the temperature is predicted to go down to 30 below, and tomorrow the high is predicted to be zero. Poor Max wants to go out because the sun is shining, but when he gets out, he tries to walk on 3 feet at a time. He moves from room to room, trying to stay in the sun, and I don't blame him. Having been house-bound for so long, I thought very briefly about going out for brunch today, but made multi-grain waffles for lunch instead. I can't remember when I last made waffles, but whenever I do, I realize how easy they really are and pledge to make them more often. If Pauline and Bob come for their traditional Valentine's weekend, I will try to remember.

Today I'm appliqueing the last of nine 16" blocks, this one with a fall oak leaf motif. This morning I made a test block for the Friendship Block Swap beginning soon. It's called "Prairie Flower" from Quilters Cache and, while a little tricky, isn't too hard. I think the final result will be very nice since everyone participating will autograph the center. This test block will find a home in my black, white, and a hint of red quilt, a work in progress.

In the deep mid-winter

2011-01-22T07:25:00.006-05:00

When we got up this morning at 5:30, the thermometer read -0.4 degrees, but now it is -3. I don't think it's going to warm up much today, either, and all the houses in the neighborhood have large icicles hanging from them. We must have about two feet of snow on the ground, which is less than "down country," but enough for anyone! I regularly shovel the garage out after the car has dripped globs of snow from its wheelwells. I've been making soups a lot recently - pea soup early in the week and French onion yesterday when I also made a loaf of oat/wheat bread.

This week, I've been working steadily on my 16" appliqued blocks. I have the last one all prepared to applique and am half-way through another. I started machine quilting the blocks, too, and am having fun doing each block a little differently. When I finish quilting the blocks, I'll put them together with dark green sashing, pieced cornerstones, and a pieced border. I also made two fabric Valentines for my nieces and a card for Lori, the departing treasurer of the library Friends. I will be sorry to see her go - she's done a great job. We will especially miss her as cashier of the Annual Winter Banquet/Auction. This year's dinner features a gourmet Northern Italian menu, but we make the bulk of our funds in the auction. It is a madhouse as people try to pay before leaving, and Lori has always been so calm.

I've also been keeping up with the Friendship group's Virtual Bee. This week's block was fun to do. The pink and brown combination is really pretty.

On Sunday, I started reading our book group book for the past month and finished right before Wednesday night's meeting. The True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley was an interesting look at 1850's Kansas Territory and the conflict between pro-slave settlers from Missouri and abolitionish settlers from the northeast. I should get busy on Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White for February and not leave it til the last minute, but I've been distracted by Jo-Ann Mapson's Bad Girl Creek. My stack of to-be-read keeps growing, too!

A busy week and birthdays

2011-01-15T11:07:00.002-05:00

Whenever we have a good old fashioned snow storm, it feels busy, even if we spend a lot of time inside. Living here in the condo we don't have to plow or shovel, which is great. But Wed. we did drive downtown during the storm to help set up and cook lunch for the Rotary Club at the Old Labor Hall. They have been very supportive over the years, and we want them to continue. So Paul drove us down the hill, and he and Chris set up chairs and tables while I helped Karen in the kitchen. We thought only a few Rotarians would brave the elements, but we had about 20 there.

All told, I think we received about 10" of snow. I shoveled off a bit of snow that landed on the porch so the dog wouldn't track it in after going out. Chris finally got his all-weather tires put on yesterday because more snow is predicted. He ended up staying here for a few nights last week, and he may be here again tonight since it's his birthday. It is hard to believe that he is already 29. I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday, and he was surprised when I told him that we had an earthquake the day after. The hospital walls were shaking, and at first I just thought it was regular hospital busy-ness. Later I learned that I was just a bit out of it. Anyway, if he doesn't spend this evening with friends in Burlington, I'll make his favorite - macaroni and cheese.

Tomorrow is Paul's birthday and some friends are coming for dinner. I'll make a simple dinner of baked chicken, wild rice, and salad. I have cake in the freezer left over from Chris' graduation party, so we'll either have it both nights, or I'll make an apple tart tomorrow.

We had a bit of a scare with Dad a few nights ago. He received one of those letters telling him that he was a winner of a large amount of money. They enclosed a bogus check and asked him to deposit it and then immediately wire them the amount to cover the taxes. He did deposit the check but didn't get to Western Union, thank goodness. I urged him to look into it further and said I was worried that it wasn't legitimate. Mom said the same, but he wasn't listening. So I called my brother Rob who was more forceful. The next day Mom went to the community center and learned that the police had just given a program on this very scam. She brought a handout home. Poor Dad relented and said he wouldn't do anything more. He is still a little hopeful that the check will clear, but I very much doubt that it will. Another crisis averted.

Block of the week

2011-01-12T06:38:00.003-05:00

There are a large number of blocks-of-the-week/month available online and through quilt shops. Barbara Brackman has a nice Civil War one going on, and many of the people on various Yahoo! groups that I frequent are participating. Since my Heart of Vermont guild "square robin" uses Civil War reproductions, I decided not to participate in that BOW.

But I am trying to keep up with the "Virtual Bee" on the Yahoo! Friendship Block Swap group. For this block of the week, I chose pink and brown for my colorway. The new block patterns are posted on Mondays, and I did mine right away. It is fun to see how the colors mix. I offered to trade some larger pieces of fabric for pinks and browns with members of my Calico County quilt group, but we didn't meet last week due to snow. Still, I have plenty to see me through until we do get together in February (or later depending on the weather).

Yesterday, I finished appliqueing a Celtic knot for the 16" block sampler I'm making. I started on another block with odd little flowers and I also made a few Grandmother's Fan blocks for the black, white, and a hint of red swap I'm participating in. Those blocks aren't due to late June, so I have plenty of time. I got my green and white Irish chain blocks ready to mail the swap mom, too. We're supposed to get a bit of that wintry weather that's moving up the coast, so I have to run to the store early today. Snow days are great for quilting, so I really don't mind them at all!

A new year, some new projects

2011-01-04T14:32:00.005-05:00

I started working on some new quilt projects during the last week or so.

One is based on some in the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Vol. 2. This magazine has 12" blocks designed by various famous quilt designers so there's something for everyone. I particularly like the appliqued blocks, and made a very nice scrappy purple quilt last year with many of the blocks from Vol. 1.

I decided to applique all the blocks onto pieced 16" blocks and to quilt them as I go. So far, I've made three blocks.

When I quilt the blocks, I will add some details. The magazine called for some embroidery in between the hearts in the block above, but I will add some texture with quilting. The basket will have quilted flowers in it.
Right now I'm working on a block with a house covered in snow on a yellow background. I have another block ready for a Celtic knot. I envision nine blocks in all with a print border and sashing. I will have to take a trip to a quilt shop with Polly who has a good eye for such things.

My other project is a virtual block of the week with the Friendship Swappers. I decided on a pink and brown pallette for those blocks which are 6".

What we find when emptying the camera

2011-01-04T14:22:00.005-05:00

While taking some photos of quilt blocks today, I came across some that were still in the camera. Paul must have taken them before Chris' graduation party Dec. 19. During the party, we were so busy socializing that we forgot to take any until after everyone left.

Here I am before the party, in the kitchen of the Old Labor Hall and getting the table ready. We had a lot of cake left, so I froze it when we got home. I think I'll get it out again for some birthdays coming up in January.

Projects for the new year

2011-01-02T08:27:00.002-05:00

I copied this from Pat's blog and she from Anne Ida. I am encouraged to make a semi-resolution since I have several quilts going at once. I have the following going:

1. Candy Land wallhanging - finish quilting, bind

2. Irish chain - swap blocks are ready to swap

3. Black and white - large medallion has been made, waiting for block swap to begin (blocks due in June)

4. Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, vol. 2 appliqued quilt - one block finished, two prepped for applique, others chosen

5. Batik squares - make back, quilt and bind

6. Civil War - guild square robin due back to me in June

7. Blue knitted vest - finished back and am on the two sides

There are two fairly certain new projects coming up, both from the Friendship Swap group on Yahoo! - a row robin and a virtual block a week in pink and brown. To be very realistic, I don't think I'm going to knit the second pink striped sock since I hate the way the first heel turned out. It's too holey to wear! I think I will chalk it all up to experience and maybe start over with something else after I finish the vest.

I said I would do a demo on trapunto for the March guild meeting and made my samples last week. Finishing Candy Land would be nice for that demo, too.

Two other possible projects that are smaller include making a jacket out of the Classic Auto Exchange sweatshirt I received after buying a used car in December and designing a bookshelf quilt as an autobiography. The former will use some Australian fabric I have in my stash and the other will take some time to design. Both should be fun!

And a happy new year to all

2010-12-31T15:27:00.003-05:00

It is beautiful out today - 47 degrees, sunny, with a clear blue sky. The snow is melting nicely, but I'm sure we'll get more in a day or so. It's an early January thaw I guess. I just rearranged our basement storage closet in preparation for untrimming the tree and putting away the Christmas village tomorrow. I am ready to have a little more room upstairs, but it is always so unfestive when all the decorations are down. I'll keep my Beanie bears with scarves around the necks in the kitchen with me for a while longer.

Wed. night we were invited to Ruth's for dinner. What an adventure - we hadn't been there before, and I had forgotten that she lives far into the hills of Northfield. After dark, all dirt roads begin to look alike, but we did finally make it up her steep driveway. Ruth had won a turkey dinner at the holiday farmer's market and needed friends to help her eat the 31 lb. bird and all its trimmings. Her son Jack did most of the cooking, and we had a nice pumpkin cheesecake for dessert from a new restaurant called The Square Biscuit. We'll have to try it (it's in "downtown" Northfield). Yum.

The driveway wasn't too bad to negotiate on the way down, and we headed back the way we came. Or so we thought. We came to a strange fork in the road with a sign that read "dead end," but it was unclear which way the arrow was pointing. I kept going straight and soon came to said dead end. The snowplow turns around there, and so did we, going down the other way. We did finally end up on Route 12A and then the interstate. The whole trip took about an hour, and we had new appreciation for Ruth's devotion to the Old Labor Hall and its monthly meetings in all weather.

I've been working on a feathered star block from Quilter's Cache in black and white with a hint of red. It ends up being about 21" square, and I hope to surround it with some blocks I'll be receiving later this year in a swap. It's quite a complicated block but, having never attempted one, I thought I'd see if I could. And it looks like a large snowflake, particularly with the white on black print. I will put it aside until after the swap in a pizza box with some other blocks I've made. Next up will be another pieced 16" block on which to applique from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, vol. 2. I don't know how large the finished product will be but I do like having some applique to do on a snowy afternoon.

We're staying in tonight, and I have a nice roast in the crockpot with carrots and potatoes. I will roast some acorn squash to go with it. Max starts to follow me around as the crock pot smell permeates the air. Every time I go into the kitchen, he races along and then looks a little disappointed to find it isn't for him. We will probably fall asleep long before midnight, but tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice as today. That's a great way to start 2011!