The Season Moves Onward

Thanksgiving was wonderful, but the preparation, clean up and recovery from it has largely kept me out of the studio.  I have, however, been diligently working on my thimble/tumbler project in the evenings while “watching” television with my hubby.  Perhaps I should call it my “Formula1-baseball-college-and-pro-football-and-golf” quilt.  Anyway, here is what it currently looks like and I have six more rows that are waiting to be added.  After that, I’ll decide how much more I want to push forward on it.  It’s large enough now, that it’s no longer comfortable to work on in my lap.

I have also managed to launder, document and store the quilts I removed from my quilt ladder.

Two of my cacti are in bloom.

 

And Fred and Ethel, a mated pair of Egyptian geese, have returned for this year's acorn crop. 

 

The State of ...

...the Cynthia England project.  

I’ve delayed posting progress on the Cynthia England piece I am working on because it is moving so slowly and doesn’t lend itself to being photographed while in process.

 

Here is a picture from the pattern. 

 

And, here is the largest completed section of what I have done.  Some of the freezer paper templates must be left in place until units are joined together, and I’m afraid to try to do a better job pressing it for fear that I might loose some of them.  So, it looks pretty sloppy.

The instructions divide the project into 25 units that have pieces approximately totaling 400. I have pieced 16 units with approximately 255 pieces, so about 64% of the piecing is done. 

 It’s a real struggle to keep working on this as the busyness of the holidays approaches and I hear the call of other, less intense, projects.  I’m trying to focus all of my machine-work time on this because I’m pretty sure if I set it aside, it will never be finished.

Meanwhile, I will be getting the house ready for the Thanksgiving meal Thursday.  I have dates with the vacuum, dust cloth and mop.  Hubby brought home an 18-pound turkey for the four of us.  I was relieved to find that it fits (just barely) in my largest pan.  Julia will bring dessert and has volunteered to make the gravy (but she’s bringing store-brought gravy as a backup).

 I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.  I know I have much to be thankful for.

Something red this way comes...

 

When hubby decided he wanted to get a bigger television requiring a bigger piece of furniture to support it, my quilt ladder had to move.  No more excuses, I needed to change out the quilts.  This is an assortment of the red and mostly red quilts I have made over the last several years.  I was surprised when they went up to see that three of the five had been hand pieced using the English paper piecing method.  When I took that guild workshop with Mickey Depre in 2014, I never expected to use the technique again!  The quilt that came out of that retreat is the one at the top. 

 

The two at the bottom are also English paper pieced.  I am working on another EPP red and white quilt which can be added, if it is ever finished… Progress on it is exceedingly slow these days.

 

Much as I love spring, I think fall is becoming my favorite season, especially after the summer we had.  We’ve had an inch of rain in the last 48 hours and the high today did not get out of the 50s.  I treated myself to a chrysanthemum plant a few weeks ago and it is approaching its peak.

 

Changes

Sometimes, things just work out for the best.

A group I have been quilting with since 2007 has a new location.

 

Our New Sit and Sew Place

We got our start during “Sit and Sew” Tuesdays at a quilt shop.  When that shop closed, we started renting any space we could afford.  Even during Covid lockdown, when we couldn’t gather, our core group continued to pay rent. 

This August, after eight years, we lost our lease.  Other tenants had vacated the building and the owner felt, probably correctly, that he could make more money renting out the entire building to one business rather than trying to rent bits and pieces of it around us. 

 But the rest of the story is all good news.  Almost immediately, a property became available that would work for us.  It only adds 10 minutes to the drive, mostly on rural highways.  The building is all on one story.  And, although smaller, we can all sew in one big room rather than having to split into smaller groups. 

 Making the move happen took a tremendous amount of effort.  Over the years we had become a dumping ground for quilters getting rid of their stash.   A LOT of purging was required.  Logistics for the move came together surprisingly fast.  One of the longarmers used by our group also has a landscape business.  We were able to hire her crew to move the heavy items including a refrigerator to the new site on October 3.  Our new landlord helped us install our big design wall. And we have been happily organizing and sewing ever since. 

This is my nest.  When I’m not there, I tuck my machine away so the space is available for my “table mate” who sews on other days.

 

My Nest on Tuesdays