National Parks revisited, etc.

I was thrilled to finish up the National Parks quilt for Youngest Son last week. This will go under the tree for him, since he will be spending Christmas with us. It was a little large for hubby to stretch it out all by himself, but you get the idea. I took the shot off-center because I wanted a bit of the mountain backdrop to be visible, to emphasize the nature theme. 

I did the flange binding, or it wouldn't have been under the tree until next year. And as usual, my quilter did an excellent job. Maybe enlarging the photo above will give you an idea of her quilting in the panels, but I highlighted the panel of Yellowstone Park below. This park is about 3 hours away from us. Aside from being the first National Park, it was the first National Park we went to on a family vacation, and the one we have returned to the most often.

Lori at Humble Quilts blog had a doll quilt SAL that started the last week of September--while I was in Norway. When I got home it took me a little while to get back into my routine, which included reading blogs. So I didn't learn about the SAL until she was having her linky party for the finished quilts.  I usually try to do Lori's doll quilt SALs, and since I happened to have some time that day, I decided to give it a try.

This didn't make it into the linky party, but I can share it here. A few things to tell you about this little flimsy (not a finished product yet).  In order to speed the process, I told myself that I could only use what was in my scrap baskets. I was surprised to find that tan check, but it took the place of the stripes. Also, I had enough of the green used in most of the blocks to do all of the blocks, but I wanted it to look more "make do". So I found another green to use in a couple of the blocks, and I made sure the stripes in that green did NOT end up all going in the same direction. And lest you think I have really big pieces of fabrics in my scrap basket--I cut my blocks half the size of the instructions. so this finishes at just over 13 inches, instead of the 25" the pattern indicated. That's how I roll. ;)

Also back in September, Grace (at citymouse quilter blog) offered a stack of basket blocks for the cost of postage. We quibbled a bit about them being worth more, but I ended up getting 26 hand appliqued 6" basket blocks for the $10 postage cost. I feel like a thief, but I love these blocks.

You can see that I was auditioning setting square fabric and setting triangle fabric. You can get a better look below. These are the ones I think I will use. They are each from a "Collection for a Cause" line of fabrics.

Thank you, Grace. I am so happy to own these appliqued baskets, that I would never have made if I lived to be a hundred (because I don't applique). I think they will make a lovely wall hanging. And it will be very special because you made the baskets!

Just a closing note about an experience hubby and I had Friday night. I don't know how many of you have ever heard of the Giving Machines. They have been around for a few years, but we finally got them this year in the nearby town.

It is a unique vending machine that represents needs of local and worldwide charities. They are up for a limited time during the Christmas season. You can choose from many options as to where your donation will be used, and 100% of your donation goes to the charity. We read through all the options and hubby and I each chose something different. 

I took the picture above after the crowd had thinned out a bit, and the sun was setting (which means it was getting cold--I don't know about the kid in the t-shirt and shorts).

There are 100 Giving Machine locations in North America, and 18 more in places around the world. You can find a map at this link that can give you exact locations, and more information about the program.  

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you are able to find quiet time to ponder on the Savior, who is the Light of the World.

Until next time,

Be creative, and be kind--and Merry Christmas!

Janet O.

Just thought I would share this photo of the live nativity at our neighbor's barn--complete with a camel for the wise men.

Retreat and Other Adventures

It felt so good to attend a retreat again, and it felt great to make progress on a few projects.

First up, I completed the center blocks for our Mini Club with Lynn. Each block will finish at 4".

This will be finished off with three rounds of borders, one of which is pieced. I probably won't get back to those steps until next year. There are priorities for Christmas gifts that need my attention now.

I also finished the blocks for the Barbara Brackman "Hands All Around" BOM that I joined during 2021. It was a set of 12 patterns, and I made two blocks from each pattern, using the same fabrics for both blocks, but switching the fabric placement on the second one.

I had been saving brown and pink Civil War fabrics for years, and decided this was the time to use them. I kept up while making the first 9 sets of blocks--I only had the last 3 patterns (6 blocks) to finish at retreat. The border stripes on either side of the blocks had been acquired along the way, and I hope to incorporate one or both of them into the layout. It has been such a long time since I actually completed a BOM. This felt good--even though it isn't truly finished.

The last real progress made was on the "National Parks" quilt I have promised my youngest son. I had cut out a slew of flying geese with my AccuQuilt cutter, and spent time sewing up a bunch of them in order to make progress on this. This is one of those "make-it-up-as-you-go-along" quilts. It won't win any beauty pageants, but it will make a nice throw for my very tall youngest son who LOVES spending time in the parks.

The center strips of FG are the only ones sewn into strips. I need to get going on the others, after I figure out exactly how many I will need down each side. I think the brown in the upper right corner will form the final border around the quilt. It is the same brown bordering the center map.

Do you visit, or have you visited many National Parks? There are a lot of them in the west and we visited several on family vacations over the years. Most recently hubby and I saw Acadia in Maine last year, and the year before that we visited Glacier Bay in Alaska, but all of the other ones we have seen are in the western states. I'd like to branch out a bit.

I also worked a "little bit" on my Every Little Bit quilt by Pam Buda, but I didn't get much done, so I will share that another time when I've made visible progress.

Our retreat venue was the same as it has been for the last few years before COVID shut us down, the beautiful Academy Conference Center in Brigham City, Utah. The above photo was taken at a time when most everyone was attending one of the optional classes.

The retreat is sponsored by the shop over the mountain, Village Dry Goods.

This is owner Fran on the left, her girl Friday (Liz) on the right--and me squished in the middle. You couldn't ask for better people. And if you want to get to know them, go to the Village Dry Goods Facebook page on Tuesday mornings at 9:30 MST for Village Vibes, where these two fun ladies teach, chat, inform, and bring in guests. If you miss it live, you can catch it on their YouTube channel.

I shared my table at the retreat with two good friends from my guild, Ruth, and Andrea.

We had a grand time together. This was the first time either of them have attended the retreat, and I hope they will come back. I did miss Kim, my usual retreat buddy, but she was unable to attend this year.

That is the end of the quilty content. Just wanted to share a handful of favorite shots from our trip to Amsterdam and Norway in September. Loved seeing another part of the world. In Amsterdam we did a canal cruise (of course), and I got a kick out of the Dancing Houses. Can you see how off kilter they are?

I also thoroughly enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum, and seeing some of his amazing works in person. There were a few pieces by Claude Monet,  Paul Gauguin, and several other artists, but it was mostly Van Gogh. Can't put my finger on why, exactly, but his Almond Blossom painting has long been a favorite of mine, and I was excited to find it there.

He explored such a wide range of styles in his art, and this is just a smidgen of it. Definitely the highlight for me in Amsterdam.

In Norway, this was probably the highlight.

Kayaking in a couple of Fjords was amazing. The first time was sunny and calm and magical. This was a 5 mile trip--loved every minute of it.

Hubby accompanied me on this excursion, but two days later I went again without him. It was a completely different experience, but still made for incredible memories.

It poured on us the whole time, but we were a hardy crew, and the scenery was amazing! This journey was just over 4 miles, and other than my hands being extremely cold, I enjoyed it, too.

On other days we wandered through quaint villages, and strolled along city streets, even hiked up over 400 stairs to get to an observatory for a sunset view of Alesund. Well worth it.

Hubby always promised me we would travel after he retired, and I am holding him to it. We have our trip for next year booked, and think we may have picked out our destination for the following year.  I don't take for granted the privilege it is to get to experience these places. My parents were simple, humble people, but my father traveled the world for his work the last 10 years of his employment. Mom didn't love traveling, but accompanied him a few places--Hawaii, Israel, New Zealand. In their waning years they both told me that travel broadens your perspective, and gives you a greater appreciation for the fact that we are all God's children, and that He created a beautiful world for us. They encouraged me to travel if I got the opportunity. So I am trying to help keep hubby an honest man, honor my parents' counsel, and fulfill some dreams I've had for over half a century. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

But it is always good to be home, and our sunsets are pretty incredible, too.

I just remembered some other quilty content I forgot to include, so I may actually get another post up this month...but don't hold your breath. :)

Until next time,

Be creative and be kind.

Janet O.

Just a Smidgen of Stitchen'

I can't really claim more than that since my last post. The sum total of my sewing can be seen in this photo of the progress on the 4" blocks for Lynn's class. 

The color is off in this photo. I tried to correct it, but not sure I improved it much. Interesting story about the tree block in the center--Lynn gave us a chance to take a photo of his tree block, then told us he wasn't going to give us a pattern.  That is Lynn's block below.

Just wanted us to go home and try making it, and report back on what we decided and how it worked. I love a challenge, so even though I should have been doing a hundred other things, I went right home and dug into it.

 

I decided to construct my tree as a 9-patch block.  So I printed out the photo, drew a grid to create the 9-patches and went to work. I knew I wanted a little more green in my tree, but I also wanted to retain the original design. My first attempt involved a soft green replacing the background in the 4-patches. When that didn't click for me, the second attempt was removing the plain background blocks and replacing them with a medium green, as shown below, right.

Attempt #3 (below, left) was scaling back the medium green to just the blocks that touched the trunk, and I liked it better than numbers 1 or 2, but wasn't quite sure it was the answer.

So I added two more medium green blocks to the third row of that color of block (above, right), and decided to call it final.

Got this sewn together and started second guessing, but was done playing with it. This is the final answer, and that's final!!

The next block we had been assigned has been named by Lynn "The Martian Block". Lynn's current iteration of this pattern is being made in very bright fabrics. Here is a shot of the photo of Lynn's block next to my block laid out and ready to be stitched. You may notice a slight variation in the way I am doing it.

The above photo makes my fabrics look brighter than they actually are, but the finished block in the photo below looks darker than it really is.

The flying geese in blue and green don't have enough contrast, though I thought they did before I sewed it all together. I am going to deconstruct this block and use a lighter green for the goose body, and then hopefully get a photo in truer light. I hope that brings the block to life.

This is a rather rushed post, without much variety, but it is all that has happened in the sewing room. 

Fall is in the air, and hubby and I are headed out on another adventure--we are not sun-seekers, so we go when and where there is a nip in the air, if we have a choice. 

Village Dry Goods, the shop over the mountain, is finally able to have a retreat again, for the first time since COVID hit. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it! They used to be January events, but this one is the middle of October. After that I should have some quilting that I can share. I stay pretty focused at retreat, so I actually get something accomplished. Are you a talker or a sewer when you attend a retreat--or are you able to attain that elusive balance, and accomplish both?

Until next time, be creative and be kind!

Janet O.

p.s. Blogger's messing with my font size again. I give up. You don't need glasses--the letter size varies in the last few paragraphs.

The smoke from forest fires in states north and west of us makes for really dirty air at times, but also beautiful colors at sunset.

"What I did this Summer"

Trying to catch you up on the past 1 1/2 months, I felt like I was writing the typical report for the elementary school student returning to class each fall.

I've done very little sewing since my last post, but I'll share those few things first.

For the class I am taking from Lynn to make this quilt (those are Lynn's hands holding up his finished quilt)....

...I completed the June assignment.

These are the four blocks that radiate out diagonally from the center tree block. They will be 4" finished in the quilt top.

We were also to make 40 of the blocks used in the border. I think there are 160 of those blocks needed, so in theory, if we do 40 each of the four months we have class, we would have them all completed when we finish the class. 

I'm not sure, but I think we were assigned 12 or 16 blocks to make for this month. Class is in another 1 1/2 weeks, and I haven't made a single one of the assigned blocks, let alone the border blocks.  Looks like I am going to flunk July's homework.

What I have done this month (and very little of it, at that) is piddle around with the parts for the National Parks quilt I promised youngest son I would make for him. It has only been 2 1/2 years since I made that promise, so I thought I'd better get around to it.

What you see on my design wall are the parts I have so far. The map panel at the top is what started it all. Then I added the four poster panels (which are not trimmed yet, and will probably get bordered) of the first four National Parks he visited. They are obviously not placed in the final layout, because I have no clue.  After a FaceTime conversation with Wendy Reed a while ago where I shared my dilemma, she made a couple of suggestions I really liked. I toyed with different color combos for the flying geese she suggested, but didn't act until I received the little pattern card below with an online order.

I really liked the way the flying geese in this little design are all in earthy colors. So I gathered a bunch of fabrics in the earth tones from the National Parks panels. Today I finally used my die cutter to cut out a bunch of large flying geese from those fabrics.

I don't know how many of these I will need, or the size to which I will ultimately trim them--or even if I will like all of those colors once they are made and placed next to the panels, as that short row you can already see in the photo above. But it is a start--and it is about time!

Aside from that, my sewing room has been very quiet since you last heard from me many weeks ago. But I did have an adventure this summer I'd like to share. If you only want quilty content, go no further.

This is where I was the first week of July. My first time ever off the North American continent!

We spent July 4th in Normandy, visiting Point du Hoc, Omaha Beach, and The American Cemetery. It was a very emotional experience for me.

American Cemetery

Omaha Beach

Point du Hoc

We also visited Rouen (where Joan of Arc was executed), and Mont Saint Michel (the inspiration for the royal castle in Disney's "Tangled") while in the Normandy region for 3 days.

We spent four days in Paris, and saw many Olympic venues being prepared, and Olympic banners on buildings, and hanging from light poles. 

 You can see the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower in that earlier photo, and on the Arc de Triomphe they had the emblem for the Paralympic Games.

This is the view from atop the Arc. We never got a chance to go up the Eiffel Tower, but I think I went up anywhere from 300-500 steps almost every day to get to the top of one tall thing or another.

Cathedral of Notre Dame (left), and the Basilica of the Sacred      Heart (yes, I climbed to the windows up in the tallest dome)

We took in so many other sites in the four days we were in Paris, but we were actually there for a choral presentation by members of nine choirs from the United States (one of which includes hubby), commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The concert was held our last night there, in the Cathedral Madeleine.

My apologies for the travelogue, and the overabundance of selfies. It was just such an amazing experience, and I couldn't help gushing about it. And even though I couldn't eat the French pastries, I did eat more than my share of the macarons, and I had gelato with chantilly cream when I didn't trust choosing a menu item for lunch that would be gluten free. It was tough. ;)

But it was good to be back home again, even if the fires in nearby states were leaving our air very hazy. On the bright side, it makes for some colorful sunsets. 

Until next time, be creative, and be kind.

Janet O.

I'm Still Here!

Though I have given you no reason recently to think so. My thanks to those who have checked on me. I just don't know how life gets SO busy!! It has been so many weeks since my last post, and I am sorry for the delay. I haven't had much time to sew, but I can share a couple of projects with you that have seen a little progress.

Soon after my last post (weeks and weeks ago), we were off on a road trip to DD#1 and her family, in Oregon. This is the second time we were there at the right time to see the rhododendron park in bloom.

I took along my "Stars In The Garden" project, and got a start on the second-to-last full flower (there are still a lot of partial flowers to make).

This was in the Spring 2013 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects. I didn't start it until a few years later, and loving EPP as I do (NOT!!--but I do love the look), it will be a miracle if it is finished in my lifetime.

I used Bonnie Hunter's Floribunda pattern (click the link to see my finished top, and the link to Bonnie's pattern) to make a Jacob's Ladder quilt of what Bonnie termed "ugly florals." I really liked the finished top and donated it just a few years ago. Last month I was doing a deep dive in the sewing room and came across the leftover blocks. I am piecing a few more and making a smaller version, which I plan to call "Jacob's Stepladder".

I will make another row of blocks and intersperse those darker ones that are across the bottom throughout the quilt. But I have put this away for now. I have a promise to keep and that will be my focus the next time I can sit and stitch.

Lynn Hopkins has been up to his tricks again, but this time he has gone larger. This is the quilt he has designed, and the blocks are 4", not his usual 2". So if 2" frightened you, this may be your jam!

The magic of his exclusive rulers and patterns is that they allow you to create patterns that use a 3x3" or 6x6" grid in 2" or 4" blocks. You can't do that gracefully with standard rulers. 

Lynn is a lot of fun, and we get plenty of laugh therapy in our classes.  He is experimenting with the idea of Zoom classes, so let me know if you are interested, and I will pass your contact information along to him (but only if you have an email address attached to your blogger account, or you include your email in your comment. I can't give him what I don't have!)

September 21 is National Sew a Jelly Roll Day this year, and Lynn shared this pattern with us, that I think is one of the nicer looking Jelly Roll patterns I've seen. If I wasn't going to be out of the country that day, I would probably try to sew it up.

This is from justgetitdonequilts.com. You can find the free pattern here.

Another free pattern that caught my eye was on Taryn's reproquiltlover blog. This would make a great wall hanging or table topper.

Find it on Taryn's blog here. And thank her for the pattern. :)

That is it for quilty content, but I do have a couple of other things I would like to share. 

I started playing the violin at age 9, but after college I didn't do a whole lot with it--an occasional chamber group or duet, but nothing consistent. In these more recent years I could go for several years without getting out my instrument. And it was still the upgraded student violin my parents bought me at age 15.

Last year I was invited to play a duet in church with a young woman almost 50 years my junior, so I had my violin refurbished, and practiced daily for over 2 months to be ready. It was not as scary as I thought it would be after all those years (17 years since I had last played in church).

We were asked to play again in May, before the young gal left for a summer job. I felt it was about time I did something about the instrument I was playing. I finally upgraded to a master class violin--and it was a major upgrade. I spent almost twice as much as I had planned on, but when I heard the tone of this instrument, I knew it felt like home. Even though I only bought it the day before our duet, its warm, mellow tone was so soothing to me that this was the first time I have played a duet where I didn't have shaking knees and hands. 

This may explain why I am not getting much quilting done. When I am stressed and have a few minutes for a "therapy activity", I find myself more often in the music corner, than in my sewing room. I need to find a better balance.

This is the man who sold me the violin. It had been one of his personal instruments, and I feel honored to have it. If you do a google search for the man who played the violin for his nurses while intubated with COVID, you will get this.

From that link you will see that his story was picked up by CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, People online, even BBC. He is an incredible man, and incredibly humble. If you have time, watch a couple of the reports. 

Final thing--I don't know how many of you got to see the Northern Lights over Mother's Day weekend. I know I didn't. We were in Oregon, and just didn't have a great viewing opportunity where we were staying. But our son, back home on the farm, sent us a few photos he captured, and I wanted to share one.

This was taken with the 3-second exposure setting on his iPhone camera.

I did draw a name for my long ago giveaway, and I have notified the winner. I'm not sure if they wanted to be included or not. So the winner will know who they are, but you may not learn their name until my next post--and as busy as July is, I will try so hard not to go this long again.

Blogger has messed with my font size, randomly making some larger. I can't get it fixed, so I am letting it go.

Until next time,

Be creative, and be kind.

Janet O.