Some more wonderful ...

Be Friends with Failure

Something wonderful ...

Quilt sampler in it's third week ... and goings on ...

Wednesday was our third class and we tackled 3 new patterns ... Hrmmmppph! I can't recall their names and just discovered that I left my book in the car. I don't feel like going out to get it because it's 10:20 pm and 10 degrees outside. It's all toasty in here; why spoil a good thing? I'll post the pattern names tomorrow.

Two of the patterns are slightly higher on the challenge scale. Feeling pretty good about the modified 9-patch square (hey, I think that's what it's called after all!), but the star (not the correct name) needs practice. I would have put the seam ripper to use and re-done a few of the connections but teacher advised against it, so they remain in place to remind me of the tricky bits.

The third new square was a piece of cake and it's become the vehicle for my 'signature' in this quilt. It contains the image of a bird.

Continuing to play around with placements as I add new blocks.



No walks last week as I'm back in painting mode. Most relieved and happy to report that the bulk of the painting is now done; I tackled my own room last week. Color scheme:


The prior owner's daughter painted a mural behind the door of what's now my room when she was the occupant and I've decided to keep it. I think it's a charming work of art and it melds in nicely with my new paint colors.


The office is now in a corner of the old bird's room. The loom is in there, and so is the harpsichord but that is just temporary. It will end up in my room by the end of next week. For the time being the spare bed will be a futon. When I can scrounge up the money I'd like to install a murphy bed.


I was planning to warp the loom for my stair treads today but ran out of time. That's OK because I took the afternoon to attend a wonderful concert in Plymouth by the New Hampshire Master Chorale. They do great work. You may recall I heard them perform Bach's Mass in B minor earlier this year, which was splendid. They did not disappoint this afternoon either. The program opened with Arva Part's Te Deum, a stunning piece and I leave a link to a Youtube performance here at the bottom. Sit back and enjoy. The concert featured projected photography by NH artist Christopher M. Georgia. How very special. He gave a lecture on his work before the concert began. He specializes in night time photography. Beautiful work. There's a video on his site worth watching.

A beautiful and fulfilling afternoon.

Me in the walking hat, and other poses ...

The hat in use on this rather chilly (18 degree) morning, not too long after getting out of bed. On my way out to fetch some much needed wood for the stove. Looks like the veil of sleep hasn't entirely lifted!


The stove is now lit and the cozy warmth is finding it's way around. The house stays quite comfortable while the embers glow, the stove heating both the main and second floors of the house. I have the oil set at 56 and it must come on over night because when I awake in the mornings, although it's chilly, it's not really cold.

My dear friend Bobbie (Distinctive Garden Designs), a landscape designer and daylily hybridizer from Cape Ann (whose garden is drop dead gorgeous!!) stopped by to visit this week and she snapped several pictures of dear old moi. Here are a few:

Quilt sampler ... week two ...

In this week's class we made our nine-patch blocks. Still to go are nine-patch variations, log cabin, square dance, friendship star, and flying geese blocks.

I'm continuing to play around with placement, seeing how different arrangements change the overall look. When it came to picking out fabrics, it was suggested that we look into batiks, but since I just made Triple Around The World in batiks I strayed. Besides, this sampler will have several different block patterns in it and I want to highlight the patterns, so I picked strong--mostly solid--colors. Batiks, to my inexperienced eye, would meld the whole into less discernible patterns.

One of the arrangements I like so far:


Of course nothing is definite until all the blocks are constructed.

I need a new knitting project! What will it be?

A walking hat ...

Some of the "walking yarn" has ended up in a hat I can wear while walking and spinning more walking yarn. :)

The band of color is wool I dyed and spun a few years ago. If I recall correctly I gave it the name "Mountain Sunset". Handpainted with acid dyes.

Afternoon walk ...

It was lovely and invigorating to walk in the cool temps today. The feel and smell of it reminded me of my youth.

For the record, this was this morning's view from the dining room. The picture says it all:


I spent the day puttering around taking care of odds and ends, including some mending of a few woolens that the moths had taken for snacks.

Lovely day.