... keeps the doctor away? Well I don't know about that! But it is one way to ensure the quilt gets completed in short order. I started making the blocks for my latest quilt on 11/22 and I finished the top on 12/22! 20 days to make 20 blocks and the remaining time to sew the connecting sashing and borders.
This quilt block is called "Picnic In The Park" and is several levels of difficulty below the "Celtic Solstice" that I finished in November. It was a very enjoyable sew, aided in no small part by all the wonderful colors I had to work with. I began with a roll of rainbow colored fabrics, sold as a single fat roll. Each piece was was about a quarter yard. I purchased it because it was pretty--I'm such a sucker for these things!--not knowing what I would eventually make with it. When I saw "Picnic In The Park" in a book I thought it would make a fine experiment to try the rainbow colors on, so I divided the fabrics into groups of 3 similar shades/hues to use in each block. There were enough distinct colors to make 7 different colored blocks. I wanted 10 distinct blocks so I popped on down to the quilt shop and purchased 3 sets of colors to augment what I had. I made 2 blocks in each color, giving me 20 total blocks, enough for a good sized quilt.
Likey, likey!
It is now down at the shop for quilting on the long arm. My "Celtic Solstice" came back from the long arm earlier this week. It looks fabulous! Now I need to put a binding on it and it will be completed. I have another quilt from earlier in the year (or was it last year!?) that still needs a binding so I think I will do that one now as well. When "Picnic" comes back from the shop, that will need a binding too. After those 3 projects are done I think I will tackle quilting the wool applique top I finished earlier this year. It cannot go on the long arm machine because of the wool applique. I practiced hand quilting a bit and realized that it's just not a possibility right now (it would take me forever!), so I'm going to have a go at free-motion quilting on my godmother's Singer Red Eye (thank you so much, Aunt R and P!!! :) ).
I hope everyone enjoyed--and continues to enjoy--a beautiful Christmas season! It was lovely here. We had a warm spell a few weeks ago and a lot of snow melted. It was going so fast I started to wonder if we were really going to have a white Christmas! If ever there was a year in which I was absolutely sure of a white Christmas it was this year. The snow came very early and we had goodly amounts of it. As is turns out, we did have a white Christmas, even had a new coating of fresh snow Christmas eve.
I spent Christmas eve at my neighbor's uncle's house about an hour south of here. She came to pick me up and as I was walking out to the car, I distinctly remember thinking that I had to be very careful about the patches of ice--left over from the thaw and subsequent re-freeze. I had barely finished the thought when my feet when flying forward and I was on my backside faster than you can say "santa"! I took a strong wallop to the back of my head as it slammed on the ice (or rock, I'm not sure which). A right smack that was; my head bounced back up from the ground. I got up, shook off the snow and proceeded to meet my neighbors. I decided to go to the party anyway as I didn't appear to have even a bump on my head. I never did develop a swelling, but my neck muscles well up into my head were very sore the following day and are still a bit stiff from it all. A few lower back muscles are reminding me of the fall as well. I say! I think I've fallen more since I moved here than I did during all those years in NY!
Christmas day was lovely. I really was feeling quite stiff and sore with a slight (very slight) headache so I decided not to accompany my neighbor to her mother's house. I stayed in and had some very beautiful visits with Ciello and the other birds. I had all the Christmas lights lit all day and listened to music, including excerpts from Handel's Messiah. We performed the Messiah the week before Christmas. It was grand. A quintet to accompany the arias and recitatives, the orchestra to accompany the chorus, and a church full of choir members singing their hearts out. When the quintet, orchestra, trumpets, timpani, and choir all resound together it's a mighty sound indeed! Gives me goosebumps. Performing in the Messiah has become one of the highlights of my holiday season. Here we are during the performance:
Early afternoon on Christmas day I made a tourtierre and it came out wonderfully, and ever so delicious! A definite Christmas pleasure. My seasonings are simple: black pepper, salt, and allspice. It is what I grew up with and I think that's why I'm so fond of this recipe.
In the days leading up to Christmas I made gingerbread cookies, chocolate fudge cookies, crunchy peanut filled chocolates, and cherry chocolates to bring around to neighbors. I have, since Christmas eve, been having my fill of sugar in all it's various forms. Oh dear.
I finished a quilt top just before Christmas. That's the next topic I'll post about.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! May your life be filled with blessings and peace and joy.
I am surprised to find that it's been over a month since my last post. My word the time has flown by. Here we are now officially in the holiday season! Golly!
Since the end of October, I finished a few projects: The hand-spun vest, and the Celtic Soltice quilt top.
The vest is a success! It fits--comfortably so. And considering I was making up the design as I went along, it looks pretty decent too, in my opinion. Yes, I definitely feel good about this one. It was my first steeked vest and my first hand-spun stranded vest.
Here it is laid out on my sofa back, and me wearing it at the quilt guild meeting a few weeks back ...
I currently have a pair of mittens in the works. Wool/linen blend--a surprising blend that feels like wool/silk! Very soft and warm. Doing these stranded means extra warmth:
The other completed object is the quilt top that has been in the works for at least a year an a half! I got discouraged a few times so I put it away, always returning to it in time. It was a challenge and I learned a lot. Very glad it is finished. The Celtic Solstice quilt top is done! (Click pics to enlarge)
I love holding new quilt tops in the light because they look like stained glass...
The top will be off to the quilt shop to be quilted on the long arm machine next week. It is 82" x 73".
I have already started a new quilt, albeit not as challenging. I'm trying to construct one block a day. It needs 20 blocks so theoretically I can get it done before Christmas. The block is called "Picnic in the Park". I have several rainbow colors and will make each block in a different colorway. They will all be sashed with red and white squares. I've made 4 blocks so far over this long weekend.
So we went from autumn to winter overnight up here! Yesterday, Thanksgiving, we had about a foot of snow on the ground at 15 degree temperatures! Well. Maybe December and January will be mild, who knows? Maybe this is a case of get it over with up front. Wishful thinking! :)
Today's escapade:
I heard a noise in the central part of the house this afternoon where the staircase, closet, and pantry are located. I figured a mouse--isn't the first time and won't be the last. Then I thought it was too big a noise for a mouse to make. What? So I thought maybe a squirrel had found it's way into the house (I had flying squirrels in here 3-4 years ago!), so I decided to open the closet door thinking it might be looking for a way out. I figured if it came out of the closet I could open the outside door and try to get it to go outside. I went back in to sew. The noise persisted, what the... So I walk back into the music room where I left the closet door open and find a *dead* rat(!) on the floor 2' from the closet door--not a mouse, a rat!! Dead!? Then I notice a white nose sticking itself out of the closet (I'd seen it earlier and thought it was the nose of a field mouse). It was a freakin' white weasel!!! An ermine! Geez! I'm glad the rat is gone, but now I don't know if the weasel is still in the house or out. I have to make a thorough inspection now to see how it got in. It's all happening here! I will leave a live trap out hoping that if it's still in here I'll trap it. I suspect it followed the rat into the house.
I have learned this evening that having an ermine around is not a bad thing ... they will rid the place of all vermin then move on. As long as the bird room remains secure I have no problem if Irma the ermine wants to do some pest control around here. It is a very pretty little creature, all white, sleek, not too big.
Well the skein I dyed for the armhole bands and collarband soaked up too much dyestuff and came out very deep, deep brown. Much too brown for this vest. I left it in the pot too long. But there was still a goodly amount of dye in the pot and I have 3 or 4 more skeins of white/off-white, so I put another skein on to simmer for an hour then plopped it in the dyepot. Turned the heat on under the dyepot and brought it up to simmer but didn't leave this skein in for as long a time and it came out perfect! A very good match for the vest. I hope I will have enough of this skein to do both armholes and collar, but if not I'll throw another skein in to soak up some color. Shown here next to the first--very dark--skein:
The car had to take an emergency trip to the mechanics this afternoon due to some washing machine agitation sounds coming from the rear wheels. It started a few weeks ago, but has only gotten worse. I need to go down to Belmont, a nearby town, tomorrow and didn't feel comfortable about it without a professional look-see. The problem is a wearing wheel bearing. Mechanic said I could go to Belmost and it should be OK because there is not yet any play in the bearing, but the car has an appointment for next Thursday to have that fixed.
So when the car is in the car hospital, I need to occupy myself in downtown Plymouth and I did so today by stopping at the trendy coffee-shop and knitting over a cup of green tea and a brownie. The brownie was dessert after the fabulous meal of vegetable Tom Yum , spring rolls, and Thai salad at the local--and very good--Thai restaurant. I finished the collar band last night and I was able to get most of the right armhole band done this afternoon at the coffee shop. I finished it this evening. Tomorrow: The left armhold band.
Getting close to a finished vest. After the left armhole band is done I need to weave in a multitude of loose ends. Two loose ends for every color change! There are a lot of them. But it will be a nice task. I have learned in this craft and others (weaving comes to mind) that these "dreaded" "dreary" tasks are as important and vital as the actual making of stitches and bring their own sense of joy and satisfaction to the making of the whole.
Where things stand this evening:
The table I chose at the coffee shop--a table I have often made my vantage point--looks out at this beautiful tree across the street. It is always beautiful: Spring, summer, fall, and winter.
I decided to add the securing stitches with my sewing machine, stitch length at 1mm--very small indeed. My steeks were 7 stitches wide making the 4th stitch the middle one--the one that would get cut. To keep things clear in my mind, I ran a piece of white yarn up this stich so there could be no mistaking where I would cut.
I ran 2 lines of machine stitching up and down the 3rd and 5th stitches thereby isolating the impending cut. Since I wanted the feed dogs on my sewing machine to create a consistent 1mm stitch length, I didn't want to lower them out of the way, therefore I placed a sheet of tissue between the feed dogs and the knitting so the knitting wouldn't get tangled in the feed dogs which could end in disaster.
All set for the first line of stitching:
The back side after the 2 lines of stitching. The lines are quite close to each other:
That made it a small task to remove the tissue from between the lines. Tweezers and a porcupine quill did the job:
The machine sewing all in place:
Let the cutting begin!
I used my left hand to ensure that I was only cutting the fabric I wanted cut. I read that some people place a piece of cardboard under the cutting area to make sure it's the only layer to get the scissors, but I trusted my hand better.
With all 3 steeks finished, I laid out the vest and pinned down the yoke so I could get a better look:
All that remains is sewing up the shoulders and knitting the collar band and armhole bands. I discovered that I don't have enough of the dark brown which I used for the waist band to do the yoke bands! I thought I might get some more brown wool and spin it, but I have plenty of spun up white wool so this evening I dyed some of it brown. I didn't have brown dye but with a little testing I discovered that burgandy mixed with half as much teal and a smidge of burnt umber makes a nice deep brown. That yarn is now drying and I should be able to start the final bands this week.
I took a quick trip up to the mountains this afternoon. I intended to go the craft fair in Lincoln but as I approached the exit from the highway I could see the traffic backed up all the way onto the highway and it was not moving. Very crowded. So I decided not to stop and drove by, deciding to head on up to Littleton to do a bit of antiquing instead.
The foliage is turning now. Lot's of beautiful color up in Franconia/Sugar Hill past the notch. Franconia Notch, itself, was clocked in fog but north and south of it was clear.
This sure is a vibrantly colorful time of year. Some pics from the road I take to Rumney (Halls Brook Road), some pics from the notch and points north, and a few pics from the back yard:
My road leading to Rumney (Halls Brook Road):
The Notch and Franconia--all ablaze:
Pics from the back and front yard. The flower is a Japanese Anemone, one of my favorite fall flowers.:
Work on the stranded vest continues, it has been knitting up nicely. Ever so satisfying to knit with my own handspun yarn as always. I have noticed some unbalanced yarn slipping through my fingers which leaves me with mixed feelings. I love the look it creates--lots of character, but it makes knitting a little harder because of the extra twist. I think a good hot soak after I'm done knitting will relax the fibers a bit more.
I am employing "steeks" in this vest for my first time ever. I've never done them before. To "steek" means to cut, I believe. When knitting in the round, as I am doing on this vest, 7 extra stitches were cast on across each armhole (after the underarm stitches were placed on a holder for later) and 7 extra stitches were cast on across the v-neck opening. When I am done knitting, I will sew a line of stitches with needle and thread along both sides of the center stitch in each of these steeks. Then I will take a scissors and cut ("to steek") right down the center stitch, opening up the armholes and v-neck. The 3.5 stitch flaps will get turned in and stitched down inside the vest.
Steeks allow the entire vest to be knitted as one tube, whereas without steeks, the back and left- and right- front sides would each have to be knitted back and forth once the underarm has been reached. Knitting in the round is so much easier when doing stranded work. An ingenious idea and I'm thankful to the person who thought of it.
It won't be long before the knitting is finished. In this picture the steeks make the top part look narrower than it really is because the v-neck and arm holes are being pulled in by the steeks.
I'll try to catch-up with all that's gone on since mid-summer, having arrived at the end of summer--for real; we are officially in autumn now. Some leaves--the early birds--are showing color. It gets dark between six and half-six. Our temperatures dipped into the 30s last night. And it seems like just a few weeks ago I was waiting for daffodils to sprout. It has moved quickly, this summer. Faster than many I can remember. I attribute it in part to the large, time-consuming projects I tackled.
No matter. I love autumn probably a smidge more than the other seasons so I'm happy. There are more than a handful of months ahead in which to plan big projects for next year.
Where to begin? There's the wind mills to show, some fiber work in progress, the deck is in the midst of being stained and sealed, a few garden pics, my new phonograph, and my Phragmipedium come back to say hello once again ...
The wind mills. For the past year I have been on our town's citizen's planning committee, charged with the task of fielding our fellow townspeople and gathering what we learn into recommendations for the planning board so that we may implement an official town zoning ordinance. It's been wildly educational, if difficult at times. We are nearing the end of our task, the ordinance will be voted on next spring at town meeting. Last month, while we were discussing how to zone the ridges where the wind farm is situated, we were taken on a tour of the area so that we could have a better idea of the possibilities it might be suitable for. It's very beautiful up there, overlooking Rumney and Plymouth to the North and East, and Groton to the South and West. I snapped a bunch of pictures...
From the west ridge I could see the location of my house. Although it's not visible, it is where I have circled. I live in the country!
The garden was a mixed bag this year; when it comes to gardening we are at the mercy of the weather aren't we. It was dry early on and I was doing quite a bit of watering to keep things growing. But it all normalized and I then let mother nature take over. As we know, my chard was hit by leaf miners and I lost most of it, and the green peppers were a complete failure (but that's nothing new--I have yet to be successful growing green peppers!). I ended being unhappy with the seed I purchased from an online site. It all germinated quite well but failed to produce any fruit. I harvested 4 zucchini and just a few cucumbers. But my tomatoes have done well, and the spring crops were plentiful. The flowers have been ablaze as well.
Huge disappointment a few weeks ago. I have a sunflower that sprouted itself--must have been from last year's flowers, and it was growing really really tall. The flower bud developed and was making great progress and then one day I went out and found this:
Something (I suspect a red squirrel) had climbed up the stalk and chewed away the developing bud! Oh!! I have other sunflowers and they have blossomed, but that plant was the tallest and grandest. Alas.
Last week was Plymouth's town-wide yard sale. I found up a cuckoo clock for $1. The woman who sold it said it didn't work, hence the price. It was missing a weight and the deer and antlers were missing as well. But I bought it anyway figuring there was little to lose. I put some fishing weights (which I use to weigh down freshly washed hand spun yarn--I don't fish) on the chain missing it's weight. It works! It works perfectly!! $1. My neighbor had a spare weight and he gave it to me. I'm ordering a deer and antlers online. The same neighbor knew I was looking for an old phonograph. They also went to the town-wide sale and phoned me a few days after. He said they found a phonograph there and wanted to know if I was interested in it. So I drove down to their place--just at the bottom of the hill--and was presented with a very nice Victrola for the grand sum of $50. I have seen several in worse shape going for two to three hundred dollars, and I consider $50 something of a steal! I made a little video after I got it in my living room.
My new phonograph. Warning: There is quite a bit of bird chatter because I forgot to close the bird room door and Ciello was on my shoulder!
My sweet Phragmipedium Manzur la Aldea, which I rescued last year from arid conditions at the nursery (These orchids need to be wet all the time, they grow by streams and need their feet in the water; the nursery where I bought it had not taken the tape off the top of the pot--which was put on for shipping--resulting in it's inability to get any water at all.) is blossoming once again. It's a pretty little flower...
Off the wheel, on the needles, through the heddles. I have 4 projects in the works: some knitted mittens, a vest I'm knitting with my own hand spun yarn, some kitchen towels on the loom, and more spinning for the vest. The mittens and vest are stranded. I'm making my own pattern for the vest, using a book "Traditional Fair Isle Knitting by Sheila McGregor for individual patterns. The mitten pattern is from a book "Mostly Mittens (Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia)" by Charlene Schurch. Both projects are progressing nicely. I am teaching my neighbor more about weaving by working on some kitchen towels on the 8-shaft loom. We wound a 10-yard warp which should be enough to make 6 towels for each of us, 12 in all. The draft is a pinwheel. She chose the colors and I like them.
Last but not least by any means: I'm sealing and staining the deck at last! It is two years old this year and I really didn't want to wait any longer. It's a painstaking, lengthy process of washing every inch with a mildrew remover, sometimes using a bit of bleach, sometimes a bit of Dawn dish detergent (great at cutting grease) and then rinsing it off with the jet stream of my hose. After it dries for at least 4 hours I apply the stain to each and every baluster and all the nooks and crannies above, below, and to the side of every square inch of every board. I've been at it at least two weeks already and have almost finished the first coat on the railing. I'm using a water-based stain so two coats are required! When that's all done, I will do the floor of the deck. It's worth it--looks so much better with this redwood stain.
I just snapped this pic half hour ago and as you can see, I have reached the far stairs. I hope to get the rest of the rail finished this week--coat 1.
