Rob had been telling me of a covered bridge in Greenfield (after our
covered bridge adventure
last December). Friday's weather was so nice, he took me on a quick tour
along the Green River. We came across a lot of people enjoying the
sunshine and the cool water. I can certainly imagine plunking myself
down by the water for a quiet afternoon.
I'm still working on Mom's headboard. It's been really difficult figuring out how to quilt this two color mystery quilt. Even after deciding to straight line quilt it, I changed my mind about the pattern at least twice.
I got started last week. It looks alright, but not inspired. I'm hating the process though.
Save me. I haven't used a walking foot in ages, so the first two sections are all ripply. Probably need to rip those and do it again. I don't like the machine I'm quilting on (it's the only one with a walking foot). There's so many stops and starts. I can't wait to have
it done and I'm only halfway through it. Ugh.
May! Already so chock-a-block full I'm writing my Like post before
the end of the month! Time to share with LeeAnna and friends at I Like Thursday.
Ahhh... first kayak outing of the year. A beautiful evening, and early enough in the season the pond wasn't choked with weeds. I love being able to explore the nooks and crannies along the edge of the pond (and check out the beaver lodges).
I'm close to wrapping up a couple of projects.
Getting this jacket finished has been rough. I wanted to put pockets on the front of it, but I decided it was too short - the pockets would be just too high to use. So I've sewed up the sides and have most of it bound. I need to pick a binding for the sleeves since I ran out of the purple I used for the rest (oops). I plan to add toggle buttons, hoping to find some at Swanson's. Then that will be done.
This is becoming a thing: I find things on Freecycle, Craigslist or Nextdoor that come home with me to be refinished. I like the results, but oof - I keep getting sidetracked with impromptu projects.
My latest was a drop leaf table. Rob brought it to my attention and I thought it could replace the trestle table I'm currently using in my sewing room.
I could drop the leaves when not in use, but bring them up when I'm doing a
big project. The table was good solid wood, but in rough shape when I
brought it home. I don't think the wood had ever been finished - water
spots, dirt, spots of paint all over, a bit of mildew, too.
I removed all the hardware (after carefully labeling all of it) then gave everything a good sanding. It was impressive how much just the sanding improved things. The legs lightened up considerably, and I managed to clean off some of the paint and water marks. The only bummer was that the wood was soft and marred easily - so I ended up adding a few more dents and dings in the process.
I've finished my two color mystery blocks from Canuck Quilter's Two Colour Mystery. I originally made six blocks, but I really needed eight. The last two blocks were surprisingly difficult. Not sure why. I'm pretty sure I stitched them together the same way as the others. It would have been better if I made them with the rest. They're done now!
These blocks are pretty neat. I've been playing with layouts. So many combinations. I need the quilt to be slightly wider than four blocks. I will either add borders or sashing. Ha! Before I posted this, my mother has selected layout #4. Hmm... I could still do a border or sashing with that.
April! It's been another full-throttle month. Whew! Let's see what
I liked best...
It kicked off with April Fools Day. My local librarian celebrated the holiday with a sign that said "Please excuse the mess while I reorganize the collection by color!" Indeed, the first shelf is red, orange, green, white, blue and black. If you flipped the paper over it said "April Fools!"
The eclipse was pretty cool - no fooling! We chose not to drive up to Vermont to see the total eclipse, but instead hung out on our front steps to witness the 95% coverage. We played with the colander, marveled at the strange shadows and the drop in temperature (about 10℉).
We wished there had been more leaves on the tree to better see the funny
crescent shadows the sun produced. The pine trees gave us a bit of
little taste of it. And I had eclipse glasses, so we could look at the
sun. It reminded me of the Cheshire Cat as the slice of the sun got
bigger (a grin without a cat).
This week's clue for the two color mystery quilt was the block layout. It's a cool looking block. But boy, it was a struggle putting it together. Even when I had the pieces put the right direction, I still felt like I was doing it wrong. Lots of points. Matching point to point was straightforward, but some pieces aligned a straight edge with an angle. Those were trickier and it took me stitching (and ripping apart) a few pieces before I got the hang of it.
I'll leave that on the wall as contemplate layouts. I made the baby
quilt size, but this is to become a headboard for my mother's full sized
bed. I may need to make two more blocks to gain the width I want, which
I'm sure would also change the layout.
