Hello, again, my friend....

Wow...

Has it really been that long since I last posted here? I seem to post more things on my Facebook page, my PbPQ blog, or my PbPQ FB page. Sorry, I didn't mean to neglect you.

I just returned last Sunday from VT. You remember, the cabin? VVV? Vermont Venison Villa? It's a cabin that has belonged in the family for ever. Or at least as long as I can remember. I have pictures of my dad walking up the hill, hand in hand, when I was three and my mom was pregnant with my younge brother.(that would be in 1957). I usually drive up towards the end of the week and help my mom close up the cabin (sister usually goes up to start the cabin up). It's only a one room cabin, so not much to do, but this year my sister has a new job and couldn't take the time off. I was on an extended layoff from Century Color so I went for the whole week.  I also decided this was the year I'd drive my mom UP in my car so she wouldn't have to drive (follow) at all. It worked out fine, but I may have to do this every year as she's 85 now and getting VERY forgetful!! We only had one 'kerflufful" all week,... I couldn't get the broiler gas pilot light lit and didn't shut the gas OFF while running up and down the street (only two houses around) to see if anyone was available to help. Finally got Don Wood from the farm down the hill to help although he said he probably shouldn't have lit the grill lighter before he bent down o the floor as he could smell gas pretty strong! (I could have blown up the whole cabin!)

We survived the 'opening' and had the most perfect week (weather-wise) I can EVER remember. There may have been two days where we started to perspire (humidity) a little more than 'comfortable', and one day when the rain came on Thurs at dinnertime, but no lightning and only distant rumble of thunder, and it was gone in the morning.

This is the storm a'coming....from the northeast.

This is real early in the am....5:45-ish

The clouds are starting to part.... Yea!

Woke up to puffy rumbling clouds LEAVING quickly....and the sun trying to force it's way onto our back field. Then it finished the week with a very cool breeze that was so refreshing, I almost didn't want to go home.

Saw the usual deer in the back field, one with spots still vaguely on her back side and a few down the road. A few turkeys...

I even got to work on some quilts (brought my sewing machine in case of rain).  Named one of them "Pawlet Mountain Trails" (finished the top on i VT) and the other "Cycling in VT" (still in the' design as I go' stage). They are charity quilts so I'll post them here when I get them done, but here are some photos of them in progress.

The design process of "Cycling in VT"

 

Pawlet Mountain Trails

 Nice to have some company... my brother, Bob, his son Jonathan and wife Paula...They showed up real late the night we got there, and stayed over. We went for a hike the next morning (my first hike up this mountain).

Loved this freak of nature. Wonder where the tree thought HE was going...

 It was a full moon the night we got there...beautiful.

 This was the start of our dinner.....Loved this wine.

 Took off on a day trip to Castleton, VT via the back roads(aren't ALL roads inVT 'back roads'?). We had such a nice trip... got corn at a stand.

Heading to Castleton, VT

 

Great to just enjoy the peace and quiet of the mountain peaks... dinner on the deck.

 

Taking a walk to my mom's good friend, Vivian Waite. Known each other for years. The fram in the background used to be Vivian's, now is her daughter Joyce's and husband, Don Wood.

 

Mom & Vivian... she is so sweet. I think she's 83.

 

See the hummingbird under the cross of the lines? They were so prevelant!!

This is the view from Viian's house (livingroom).

This is how we spent most every morning....then by 10:30am, the sun would move around the cabin putting us ithe shade for the rest of the day.

Our buddy the chipmunk! Love his shadow...

 This is the pond way down in the backyard....

 Turning around after the last photo, you see the cabin from the pond.

Love the water lilies by the pond at old Michael's house (former, RIP- house is no longer there).

Last night at the cabin.... Lee came up on Sat afternoon, and followed us (or didn't--lost us going around the rotary in Manchester, VT) home. Last walk we took there. Nite VVV.

Fabrics and organizing= relieve stress

If you don't think so, go organize your sewing room (actually, I organized the church group's sewing closets. BUT STILL!!...) and see how light you feel!! Don't these look great???!! Wish I'd taken a 'before' photo, but I really didn't think I'd do what I did. And this doesn't even show you the cupboards with our sewing machines in them.

I actually went there to get some strings to send to a lady in CA (on Heartstrings yahoo group) and just decided to make sure our records on what UFOs we have there are accurate. What I didn't realize was that I'd have so much sense of accomplishment by sorting through what we will be working on at our Feb event, what tops are done (and which need backings/bindings), and what quilts are in lesser stages (needs borders, sashing finished, blocks put together, etc).
AND, I found our record books that I'd thought I'd lost!!! They were tucked in the cupboards with the sewing machines, not the fabrics. Now I can get them organized, too!! (Oh, this is TOO much!)

I cut battings and matched them up to the quilts ready to be tied. I also, figured out that when these (many) quilts are finished, we have some great projects to 'start'. And I don't want to think of starting them until we are pretty cleared up with the UFOs.

There were a few backings that I have taken home to play with and make wider. Two quilts needed a border, so I took material to match and bought some at the quilt store.
AND...
Lo and behold, I found my monster fabric that I'd thought I'd bought, but couldn't find in my sewing room at all!! It was bought at Marden's in Sanford ME and I'd given that to the church and kept the dinosaurs. Well, gang, today I switched them. The monster fabric is going for my 6th grandchild!! (That's the theme).

 This is one I'd forgotten we'd had.... Creamy Rust is how I describe this one.

 And this on, C brought back. She didn't get a chance to make the backing for it, but we'll put it aside until another time. We have many more needing to be done first.

So I came home with my HUGE box of strings for Sarah, monster fabric and a few things to keep me out of trouble.

Organize, then sew?

I haven't been doing much sewing in my sewing room, because 1) I was given about 6 plastic tubs of fabrics (mostly batiks, tone-on-tone) and it's still sitting on my cutting table, because there isn't any room in my closets where I store my fabrics, 2) I haven't taken my sewing machine out of it's case since I went to sew with a friend in MA... AND I am attending a quilt-a-thon at our church in three days, so I might as well keep it in the case and really should bring it downstairs now (it's really heavy) and 3) I've been trying to get taxes finished and house decluttered (didn't I post a while ago that I needed to finish taxes??). Whew! One long sentence.

Well, I plan to go up after posting this and organize the space in the sewing room, at least. I'm working on some plaid (white centers) heartstring blocks so I thought I'd go finish those (have to count how many I need to finish a quilt- have 13 done).

I thought this was cool with a label from the inside of the neck showing...(I saved everything from the plaid shirts).

... or I could clear the cutting table so I could cut my outer border for the Alexa's quilt (swimmer with leukemia). I found some purple Hannah Montana fabric for the back (although I'll need to add Chinese coins to extend it- that's ok).

I did get to put the two inner borders on at Cricket's house last week, so I did get SOMETHING done. See? oh. I guess you don't see, since I didn't post any photos here. Here you go....



I even got the back finished.

I really wish I had enough time to put together a few tops (36"x 36" or 45" x 45") for the Project Linus quilt-a-thon on Tuesday, but I won't, ....I know it.

Sewing Plaids this time

I have to go to church this morning to help a lady check out the sewing machines we store there for an upcoming Quilt-a-thon in March (23rd). Then I get to come home and continue sewing on my heartstring blocks, plaids with a white center strip.

I even have the Izod label showing on one.

I really need to work on my taxes, so I may work a couple of hours on taxes, THEN play with plaids! I really like the way the plaids are looking. I wasn't sure since I wasn't gonna do them the way I'd seen them on someone's blog. Our version was much simpler (the other had cornerstones-4-patches- and white sashing).

Heartstring quilt for a 9-yr old swimmer with Leg Cancer

I finally had a chance to work on a heartstring quilt that our church group, Peace by Piece Quilters, has been asked to make for a little girl with leg/bone cancer. She loves swimming, Hanna Montana, Jonas Brothers and I thought of a pattern we made a while back that had a star in the center. The first photo isn't the correct color, but the 'sectioned' photos show it better. It was a heartstring that we didn't have enough blocks to make even a small one, so I figured it I put a square of fabric over the heartstring block, drew a diagonal line and sewed a quarter-inch seam on either side of the line (use this line as a cutting line), then I ended up with twice the blocks. With a border around it, it worked well.

Since my sewing machine has been in the repair shop for a 'nose job', I yanked my 42 yr old Kenmore out of the cellar and set it up on my grandson's little card table to use... Other than the burning oil smell (dust in the back?? it was covered in the cellar), and the initial ruuh, ruuh, ruuh, ruh, ruh, ruhruhruhruhruhruh... it ended up working okay (I think this is the next one for the service dept.). Little crowded in this area, but it seemed to work.

This little guy was a great 'fill-in' for my Janome. ... Of course, it HAD to be. There was nothing else!

Sew-In in NH

Finally!  A whole day of sewing!!! I finally got to go up to a sew-in. AND I brought my mom, who's almost 82, and lots of fun. We made a weekend out of it. Early Sat morning we headed for Lee NH, where Brenda ( in the first picture) had organized a great group of Heartstringers from all over New England to come together to sew heartstring blocks for a local shelter. Some of us had another project or two that needed to be worked on also, but Brenda got to collect a good amount of blocks to put together at a later date.

Here is my mom (far right), Marcella &  ? at one end of the hall...

I, personally, got to put on a "blueberry' border to one of our heartstring quilts (PbPQuilters), finish some of the Strips and Strings Log cabin blocks and trim them up (total of 50 blocks) and also make 10 heartstring blocks with blue centers (mom made 6 blocks). I gave them to Brenda for the 'cause' and gave her some of our blue center material so she could make enough for 8 more blocks (total of 24 with the same center fabric). It felt good to get that much done, although I never noticed a 'dent' in the strips pile...

Here is what I finished and left (with additional center strings) for Brenda to continue with. Thanks Brenda!

It was really nice to meet a lot of the ladies I see posting on the Heartstrings Quilt Project Group boards.... Mavie, Bev, Darlene in ME, Darlene in MA, (Cricket and Ginny from MA, of course-- and NO, Cricket, I didn't get to Marden's this time, but I WILL!).Here are some photos of the ladies....

I can't believe I have a photo of me!

The crew hard at work...

Notice the wood stove in the background.... nice smell.

Ginny & Darlene had way too much fun!

One quilt down for the count.

Darlene & Mavie...

Another one down....

Cricket working on blue centers...

Marcella and her crumbs!!

It was really nice to meet a lot of the ladies I see posting on the Heartstrings Quilt Project Group boards.... Mavie, Bev, Darlene in ME, Darlene in MA, (Cricket and Ginny from MA, of course-- and NO, Cricket, I didn't get to Marden's this time, but I WILL!).

 It was a comfortable place and the fact that it was heated with two wood stoves (the smell was wonderful), made it very nice to spend the day there. It also helped that the weather was wonderful, too!!

Had to post this sign as we were leaving town. Sorry it wassn't in focus. I was outside of my car on a busy route and didn't want people to see me taking a photo of this sign. My mom did a doubletake! LOL