I Like Thursday: Happy Right Here

Most of my evenings have been spent in the yard.  I planted my seedlings and seeds; admired various plants that have sprouted.  Said hello to the hummingbirds zipping around the garden.  (And unfortunately sprayed the dozen or so hornets nest that have popped up around the eaves and gutters.)

That has slowed progress on the quilt.  I'm trying to get a feel for the dark diamonds on this quilt.  Once I get these pieced together I can do my last layout checks and stitch it all together.  I can't wait - things will cruise at that point!

I Like Thursday: Desk

Welcome to I Like Thursday, where we share the good things of the week.

I headed up to Newbury on Sunday to help pack up the old roll top desk to ship back to Minnesota with my Dad's brother.  We detached the top from the bottom to help get it out of the house, and in doing so discovered a note wrapped in plastic glued to the top of the cubbyholes.  What a fun discovery!  The note came with two bicentennial coins.  It was signed by my dad and dated 1/23/1976.  It said -

To Whom it may concern:
This desk was rebuilt in 1975-1976 after being removed from Luke's Confectionery in LeSueur, Minnesota.  I believe the street address was 203 South Main Street.  Luke, my father, owned the business from about 1952 until 1974.  Before then it was known as McCall's.  To the best of my knowledge the building was constructed in the 1870's or 1880's.  This desk was probably original equipment.  Almost all the glue joints failed in transportation to Minneapolis where I refinished it.  I used mostly a glue called Mastic, diluted with laquer thinner, to put it back together after stripping it and restaining it with Char Oak stain by Colony Paints.  The final finish is two coats of Masur Oil by the Masury Paint Co.  All parts are original with the following exceptions

Ahhh, Yes!

This quilt has been a long time coming to get from fabric pull to a first piece on my wall.  I had picked a pattern and pulled fabric over a month ago.  Then it stalled.  I'm still not sure how I want to put it all together, but I needed to start somewhere.  I put together a strip and see how it looks.  I suspect this quilt will be a plan-as-I-go (more than usual).

Part of the delay was lack of a design wall.  I had used all my big pieces of batting and the little chunk that was left wasn't even two feet wide.  My packaged batting says it doesn't require pre-washing, but I still do it to shrink it before quilting.  I had a package of king sized batting I hadn't wanted to tackle.  However, we've had wonderfully sunny, windy and very dry days lately, so I took the time to soak it and spread it across the clothes lines.  It dried completely in just a few hours.  Amazing!

Now that I have a design wall, and my first row on it, I'm hoping to dive in to the project.  After this, I'll get to do some projects of my own.  Then I've agreed to do a king-sized quilt.  That will be a challenge!

I Like Thursday: Celebrating May Day

Nothing to share last week on I Like Thursday and this week I had so many photos I had to combine them into collages.  Feast or famine I guess.

First up are my May Day flowers.  Aren't they pretty?  I was really taken by the calla lilies.  My mom convinced me to get the big red flowers.  I had to add in a tulip, some roses and a carnation.  

The flowers came from the Montague May Day celebration.  My sister and mother came again this year.  Music!  Morris dancers!  A May pole!  There was also buckets of flowers to choose from to make garlands.  As you can see below, I decorated my floppy hat.  It went quite nice with my flower dress. 

I Like Thursday: Contras, Quilts and Cheese

For this week's I Like Thursday I'm going to kick off with the latest addition to the neighborhood.  This guy appeared in my neighbor's yard yesterday - he must be five feet tall.  Quite striking!

NEFFA!  The New England Folk Festival.  I've written about this in the past: a weekend filled with music and dancing.  This year, alas, I only got there on Sunday.  It was a challenge finding a balance between catching up with people I hadn't seen in years and dancing as much as possible.  One day was not nearly enough (although my pedometer claimed I did 12 miles of dancing).  Next year I'll attend more of it.

Since I didn't attend NEFFA on Saturday, I attended the Hands All Around quilt show in Amherst with my sister.  So many amazing quilts.  I'm only showing a few photos of the beautiful items.

I Like Thursday: A Paddle, Some Honey, and Good China

Welcome to this week's post.  These seem to be my only posts lately - not much on the sewing/guinea pig front.  On the other hand, I've snagged a bit of restful, quiet time.  I'll roll with that until I get creative again.

I kayaked on Friday!  Couldn't let the warm weather go by without a paddle.  No one was parked at the entrance, but I came across a trio of paddleboarders on the water.  Otherwise I had the pond to myself. 

Kayaking is calming.  I don't know if it's the water, the view, or the rhythm of the paddling, but I have a better mindset when I'm done.

I Like Thursday: Artistic Eggs

Our neighbors invited us over on Friday afternoon to make Ukrainian eggs.  My sister came with me.  There were six of us, engrossed in eggs, wax and dye.  What fun!  I haven't done this in a long, long time, but the process came back pretty quickly.  I got to know my neighbors better, which was lovely, too!  The smell of the beeswax lingered all evening bringing back good memories.

I Like Thursday: Easter and Quilt Prep

I picked up some daffodils last week.  They fit nicely in this cute little vase I picked up a few years ago.  A little sunlight, a little green and yellow - it makes me happy!

I've spent the last few days working on Easter candy, a little at a time.  Candy centers.  Almond buttercrunch.  I'm still working solo, so I'm doing small batches and experimenting.  Last year's coffee buttercreams were good, so I'm trying it again  year.  I intended to make chai buttercreams, but instead I added some chai spice to some of the cookie dough truffles.  I'll be curious how they taste.