Anticipation begins ...

These came home with me the other day ...



Several racks of seed are on display at the local superstore, I could not resist. It's unrealistic to think I can do anything with them for several weeks, but just the sight of them releases endorphins. Seeing them on the counter lifts my mood and sparks hope. It's won't be too long now, I figure in another month we'll be getting close.

I must resist the temptation to start them indoors. Every time I've started seed early, I was way too early. After last year's experiment of starting several seeds indoors, I've come to the realization that it's best to wait and plant most of them directly in the soil. 1) Transplanting is a lot of work, 2) I don't think the plants like it, 3) several of them seem to do better without the disruption in their growth. So I don't think there will be much indoor sowing this year. Maybe a few seeds.

The quilt is progressing quicker than I thought it would. The pattern turns out to be somewhat forgiving, much more so than other patterns I've made. The 9 blocks which make up the inner part of the quilt are done. I need to make 16 more for the outside blocks; they will be very similar to these only slight variations because they will be on the edge of the quilt. To my astonishment I'm making approximately 1 block a day, not something I expected. These 9 blocks are not sewn together yet, I simply laid them down on the floor to see how they look...



It snowed all day today--this is the reality in contrast to the visions and dreams of the first few paragraphs above. So I stayed in all day. Ran out of bread so I decided to try a recipe I saw in a vlog I follow on YouTube for some stove top soda bread. It's amazingly simple, and amazingly good! I will be making this recipe frequently I think.

Progress on the new quilt ...

I got all 1200 triangles and squares cut last week and I've started sewing triangles together to make squares... lot's of them.



But before proceeding too far I wanted to construct one sample block to determine if there were any gotchas I need to be aware of when sewing the triangles together. It came out nice and I'm well pleased with it.



I'll be making 25 of these blocks. Each one has 48 pieces in it x 25 blocks = 1200 pieces. Yup, the math works out!

And I keep coming across new projects I'd like to make. Better start a list so I don't forget them all.

I stopped at a local thrift shop this afternoon and found a bag of fabric along with a finished, pieced top all for $15. The top is very attractive and quite well made. It alone is worth hundreds. I wonder who made it? I wonder why it was never finished? One thing's for sure, I'm going to have it finished. It measures 58" square. The fabric is very beautiful.



Oddball weather here lately. Thaws and freezes. Snow and ice. Lot's of ice. Not as much snow. It's February 8th; I figure in 2 months time we'll be greeting spring full heartedly, albeit impatiently. Of course, officially, spring arrives next month but we all know that she and the calendar don't communicate all that well. But I am starting to dream of warm weather and gardens and flowers and bugs. ... I think this year I will build some sort of screen enclosed area on my deck so I can bring the cello outside without getting bitten to death.

At this time of year I look back at pictures I took last summer and it doesn't seem possible that the vegetation could ever be that lush and rampant. These days I can see clearly through the forest tops and beyond to summits behind them. Most certainly not so in the summer.

The New Year ...

It has just occurred to me that I have yet to write a post in this year of 2019.

Since Christmas, I have recovered from my head-rock impact from that fall on the ice Chrismas Eve. I have (finally) taken my holiday decorations down, though they await being brought upstairs and stored for another year. I waited longer to take them down this year--I was getting much enjoyment from having them around. But as always, there comes a time of struggle when a part of me would like to keep them up longer but part of me wants to feel lighter again, to reclaim my spaces. I'm thinking that since I just took them down this week it might make spring feel like it's coming a little sooner. Maybe? Who knows.

My Christmas cactus blossomed for the first time, albeit slightly after the New Year. It was a gift (you know who you are, and again, thank you so much!). It has very pretty two-tone flowers. There have been 3 blossoms so far and there are at least 3 more buds.



I have decided my next project will be another quilt! I wasn't expecting to start work on another so soon after the last but I'm in the mood. I went through some of my scraps and laid these out on the sofa. They'll become "Ties That Bind" quilt.



I need to cut the fabric into hundreds of squares in 3 sizes. I have a good start on the colored fabrics, will need to repeat with the white/neutral colors.



I finished weaving the remainder of my kitchen towels. The remaining half warp is on the loom awaiting my neighbor to get hers woven. I made only 5 for now because I want to make sure there is enough warp so she can make 6 towels. If there's warp left after her towels are done, I'll make another one. I experimented with different tie ups and made one with a different weft color. They are all from the same warp and the same threading, and the same treadling sequence, just different tie ups (refers to which pedals are tied to which frames). It's amazing how many different patterns can be made simply by varying the tie up.

Here are the towels just after I removed them from the loom. Not yet cut apart, or washed, or hemmed.



And the finished towels.



On the music front, orchestra rehearsals have begun for Beethoven's 2nd Symphony and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #4. I adore them both. I remember hearing the Brandenburg Concertos when I was a child.... heaven! They are divine.

Lastly, I'm going to share this video I stumbled upon this evening. It's really, really good, and very relevant to these times.

A block a day ...

... 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!!! :) ).

After that's all done? Hm. What's next?

A Christmas report ...

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.

A few finished objects ... And new projects ...

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.

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Dyeing ...

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.