Machine Quilting

On Saturday, after some pin-basting and handbasting of the quilt sandwich, I was ready to start machine quilting!  I think this is the first time I've used my machine's walking foot.

It did exactly what it's supposed to do--keep all the layers moving through the machine smoothly without any fabrics stretching or bunching.

I machine quilted using green thread to match the sashing in a simple grid pattern, stitching 1/4 inch away from the squares vertically and horizontally.

It doesn't show up too much on the backing which is fine with me! Now I'm ready to handbaste around the edge of the quilt top, trim the batting/backing, and apply the binding. I haven't decided whether or not to stitch 1/4 inch inside the squares--what do you think?

By midafternoon the sky got very dark and it began to pour!  We need some rain, and by the time the storm passed, our rain gauge had over one inch. There was a little thunder but no lightning. Kita was happy to stay in the basement until it was over. Our dog trainer always said that some dogs are very sensitive to the buildup of electricity in the air from lightning and those dogs are the ones that hate thunderstorms. Kita is definitely bothered more by lightning than by thunder. I'm glad she's discovered that the basement feels safe, and we do keep the door open and a light on 24/7 so she can go there whenever she wants.

PIP*

*Project in Progress

I've been busy working on the quilt for C's baby shower. First I serged all the fabric edges before washing to prevent ravelling. After drying and then pressing the fabrics, I began to cut the squares.

This included some "fussy-cutting" since I need two of the same design for this puzzle quilt.

Finding the right arrangement of the squares for light/dark and small/large designs took some experimenting!

After cutting the green sashing fabric to the correct sizes, I began to sew the strips together.

The top went together quickly and I'm glad I selected an easy quilt design to sew. Today I washed and dried the batting so it's time to make the "quilt sandwich" (top, batting, bottom). So far so good! After pinning the 3 layers together, I'll be ready to start machine-quilting. If all goes according to plan, the quilt will be completely finished a week before the shower--early for me!

Weekend Project

The paint has been peeling from our cheap little cast aluminum table and matching pair of chairs for a few years now so I decided it was time to fix them.

Armed with a steel brush, paint scraper and screwdriver, I spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons trying to get rid of all the loose paint.  As often happens with home improvement projects, it was a lot more work than I had anticipated. Some of the paint flaked off in huge chunks, leaving behind a powdery substance. With enough scrubbing, the surfaces were finally ready for washing.

Mark tried to convince me to leave them as is--when wet, the surface looked like zinc.  As they dried, they began to look like aluminum again and still had quite a bit of their old paint firmly adhered despite our using paint stripper and sandpaper.

The weather was perfect for painting and the primer dried quickly. Mark helped me with the spray paint. He's not convinced the price of the paint is worth it--the old paint that seems fine now may continue to peel under the new paint.  We'll have to wait and see what happens...

The "antique brass" spray paint I selected looks a little more gold in color than I expected but I think it will be OK.  After two light coats, the set needs one more coat to be finished.  We ran out of spray paint and this week's weather looks unsettled, so I think this project will get finished on Saturday! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Book Binge!

Happy summer--I think I've been reading a book and a half per week since school ended and have been a regular visitor to my local library!

I loved The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.  Beautifully written, I think she did a wonderful job of bringing old Greek myths to life and exploring the special relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. Who would think that reading a novel based upon The Iliad would be so enjoyable?

At first I thought The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was quite original, but then I realized it had elements of magic with good and evil like the Harry Potter series and a romance succeeding against all odds like the Twilight series.  Some books just read as if they are written with a movie deal in mind and this was one of them.  Didn't love it after all...but I'd go see the movie!

Proceed with caution--told from the heavenly viewpoint of a 14-year-old girl who was brutally raped and murdered, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is a disturbing book.  When it was first published, a book group member read it and told the rest of us we did not need to read it. I followed her advice until a respected coworker said the book is more spiritual than gory and recommended it highly. While I love the idea of a heaven complete with dogs, I hate the idea that people can and do get away with murder.  I've even had nightmares since reading this book. It's powerful--make your own decision.

Anne Enright is a master of the written word, and The Forgotten Waltz shows her skill.  The pacing is perfect and the characterizations are so complete and honest, I feel like I know these people--don't necessarily like them, but I really know them. Not a cheery book (the subject is marital infidelity) but written so beautifully!

With its narrator being a middle school girl, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker almost reads like a Young Adult novel.  The subject is dark:  the Earth's rotation slows and our resulting days and nights get longer and longer, causing all sorts of societal and individual problems.  This book is like Blindness lite...but I definitely would read anything else this author writes.

I'm also reading The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, which is our book group selection for this month.

Do you have any interesting book recommendations for me?

Essex

On our way back to Sandy's from The Pink Sleigh, we drove down Main Street in Essex, which is full of small shops and old colonial homes.

We stopped at the Griswold Inn's gift shop and browsed.  It has a nice collection of varied and unusual items but I only bought a couple of postcards.

We took a shortcut through the shipyard to get to Sandy's street.  A thunderstorm had passed through the area while we were at The Pink Sleigh and skies remained cloudy for the rest of the day.

Here is a view of Sandy's house from their new dock. They look out across the cove to Essex Island which separates the cove from the Connecticut River. Maybe the recent storm chased away the swans that usually float around here. It's a very peaceful setting.

Wishing you a relaxing weekend with plenty of time to do what you enjoy!

Day Trip

I spent Wednesday in the beautiful old sea-faring town of Essex at the mouth of the Connecticut River visiting my dear friend Sandy.

We made our traditional Pink Sleigh run!

It's such a magical little shop full of wonderful holiday items.  Sandy, bless her, looks the same as the day I met her nearly 25 years ago when our girls started nursery school. We still try to get together every couple of years.

As always, I found some charming Christmas ornaments to add to my collection--a blue popsicle and a creme-filled sandwich cookie to remind me of my favorite childhood treats, and a hedgehog (just because I think hedgehogs are cute).

On a day when temperatures approached 100, it was fun to spend time inside a cool, air-conditioned building full of Christmas trees and decorations!

Good Eats

Nothing says summer like locally grown sweet corn!  It's always a treat to find the first ears at a farmstand. Just look at these beauties:

Bring a large pan of water to a full boil, add the shucked ears with a little salt, turn off the heat and let sit for five minutes.  Take the ears out of the water and rinse under cold water until slightly cooled.

Roll the ears in butter and enjoy!  Heavenly!  I like eating the leftovers cold for lunch.

This Chicken Salad with Nectarines in Mint Vinaigrette is one of my favorite summer meals.  To get the recipe, simply go to www.cookinglight.com and type the name in the search box.  I've made it with the white wine vinegar the recipe specifies and also with plain white vinegar.  I think I prefer the latter since its flavor is milder.

Last weekend Malima helped me make a new recipe that I found at www.101cookbooks.com called Sesame Almond Brown Rice Balls.  They were quite good but the next time I would look for something to put in the middle, like tofu or avocado as the recipe suggests.  I had to buy the black sesame seeds from a specialty food store but this recipe would probably be fine with just white sesame seeds.  Mark loved these rice balls and wants me to make them again!

Pending Project

I decided to make a quilt for C's baby shower next month.  It's a simple design with thirty 4 1/2" finished size squares (set in a 5 x 6 design) with 2 1/4" sashing (the fabric between the squares).  Since C doesn't want to know if the baby is a boy or a girl, I decided to use a bright color scheme that will last through childhood.  Here are the fabrics I'm auditioning:

I am going to make a "puzzle quilt" with 2 each of the same block.  When the baby gets older, s/he can have fun trying to find the matching blocks.  The ABC fabric with the black background will also be the quilt backing.

I am going to "fussy cut" a few blocks from this colorful fabric.  Trying to find different and coordinating fabrics for this project was a lot of fun.  Now I have to prewash everything and get cracking!

Look at my little helper!  Amber spent Wednesday at the vet's for dental surgery to remove two teeth affected by "feline tooth resorption".  I'm glad to have worked recently to pay for my pets' expenses.  ;-) 

Deer Candy

For the past few weeks we've been enjoying these daylilies near the front walk and were looking forward to another week or two of blooms.

They coordinate so nicely with the nearby coneflowers.

During the night, Kita started growling and barking which woke me from a deep sleep.  I told her to be quiet and rolled over, being far too lazy to get out of bed to see why she might be barking.

This is how the daylilies look in the morning light.  All the buds have been chomped--no more blossoms this season!

The red daylilies around the back of the house are coming into bloom so I ran out to get a photo.  Historically these have been the deer's favorite so they might not last too long either!

I Love Musical Theater!

After living in Connecticut for more years than I care to think about, we finally went to see a show at The Goodspeed Opera House.

This beautiful building dates to 1876 and is located on the Connecticut River in East Haddam.  On the right in this photo you can see the outdoor dining area of the Gelston House restaurant--maybe next time we'll plan to eat there before the show.   

We had tickets for Mame and it was fabulous!  We're so happy Malima and Ross could join us for this very special evening.

This lovely antique wallpaper is in a small room beyond the gift shop.  The theater itself is quite small and intimate--I just love seeing live musical theater!  Our tickets were for the last performance of Mame and I think it was extra special because of that.  It seemed like the actors were giving their best perfomances because the show was closing that evening. 

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!



Delightful Daylilies

Daylilies begin to bloom with the start of summer and bring welcome color to the garden.

In the early morning shade, these blossoms are a very pale peach color.

These daylilies near our front walk are divisions from a friend who used to live in Avon and who moved to Houston many years ago. I always think of Laura when they bloom.

I love the saturated color and velvety texture of these daylilies near the deck!

Our clear yellow daylilies have already finished blooming for the season, and the rich red ones near the deck should begin to bloom soon.  These hardy perennials are some of my favorite flowers.

Wishing you beautiful sights today!

Recent Reads, Etc.

I still like to read a little before sleep, so I finished some books during my job in spite of going to bed so early.

Our book group had read and enjoyed A Change of Climate, so I was happy to see that Ms. Mantel's Wolf Hall was awarded the 2009 Man Booker Prize. I like historical fiction and have been intrigued by Tudor England ever since watching the BBC miniseries "The Six Wives of Henry the VIII", so I rushed out to buy it. Well, I just couldn't get into it and after several tries I put it aside. What initially put me off was the writing style--after 3 or 4 characters are speaking in the first person, I'd suddenly read something like "he left the room" and get confused as to who actually left. This happened so often that I lost patience.

When I picked up the book again recently, I persisted and really became engaged with the story of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power under Henry VIII and his continued successes under Henry's favor.  The political machinations are quite interesting to read about during our current election year!

As soon as I finished Wolf Hall, I read its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies.  With tighter editing and 150 fewer pages, I flew through this story of Anne Boleyn's downfall.  Now I can't wait for the last book in the trilogy to be published!

Our book group's selection this month was John Irving's latest novel, In One Person. I didn't like it--I never cared about the main character or his life as a bisexual man. It's supposed to be autobiographical but I think it suffers from TMI and oversharing.  Perhaps a LGBTQ person would read this book and shout, "Yes! Finally a book for me!" I don't consider myself a prude, but I do think some things should be private--graphic sex scenes just don't make a story for me. And graphic gay, bi, or transgendered sex scenes just make me think of pedophiles.

On a happier note, one rainy day when Adria was here we drove past these beautiful gardens. The homeowner puts umbrellas over her fragile annuals when it rains--what a colorful sight!

Yesterday while I was guiding during Hill-Stead's First Sunday Open House, our governor and his entourage breezed through!  Apparently they had stopped at the Farmers' Market which is held on the grounds during the summer months and decided to come inside.  Gov. Malloy has a good memory--apparently the museum's director has taken him around a couple of times, and he was able to provide lots of information to his guests!