Hexies #42, #43, #44, #45, and #46

Even though I was pretty busy in September, I didn't miss a beat with my hexagon blocks. I finished five more and started the next one this evening. I am determined to get these blocks done and get this quilt on my bed in my lifetime!

I haven't done much knitting all summer though, and I think the one-pair-a-month challenge has gone by the wayside. I have two different socks on the needles right now, but I've had so many other more pressing things to do that I've only knit a few rows here and there. In another week or so, I expect things will get back to a slower pace, and I hope to get back to my knitting. I have a new scarf and a sweater I want to start, but not until I get those socks done!

Ladder of Success

September is a busy month for most folks, and it was a busy month for me too. My son goes back to college, all my annual doctor's appointments occur this month, there's yard work to get done before the weather turns, window air conditioners get pulled and stored, window kits are prepared to keep winter's wind out, quilt group re-starts after the summer.... and there's always quilting.

I finished my raffle quilt last Thursday and sent it in to work with my husband the day after. Their raffle was supposed to be held yesterday, so maybe I'll hear how they made out later this week.

I was happy how it turned out; and I really like it, enough to want to make another some time. The quilt, called Ladder of Success, was designed by Judy Martin and appeared in the May/June issue of Quiltmaker magazine. It finishes to 72-1/2" x 92-1/2", so it's at least a twin size, maybe a double, unless you have one of those thick mattresses. I now have to make quilts for my queen-sized bed about 95" x 95" to accommodate a thick mattress plus a 2" topper. I practically have to have a step stool to get up into the bed.

I love the way the sky and the landscape looks in this photo--it's typical fall weather for us. It looks to me like the leaves have already peaked, so no leaf peeping tours this year. Saturday it drizzled all day, and today it poured for most of the day, so I went to a small local quilt show Saturday and hunkered down in the sewing room all day today. It'll be nicer this week.

Raffle Quilt Progress

Hubby realized that he gave me the wrong deadline for the raffle quilt, so I've gotten a bit of a reprieve. Good thing too, because I haven't made much headway the last week and a half.

All the blocks, sashing units, and the checkerboard borders have been assembled, and all the blocks and sashing units have been sewn into rows. Now I'm sewing the rows together, but it's taking an inordinate amount of time because every square across the row has to be matched and pinned. That's about 20 intersections for each row of sashings and blocks.

My son really likes this quilt, so I guess after I finish this one, I'll start another one for him. 

Last Finish for August

At long last, my Christmas Lights quilt is finished. I'd only used that Poinsettia pantograph once before; but I'm crazy about it on this quilt, so I'll use it again on another Christmas quilt.

At the Mancuso show in New Hampshire a couple weeks ago, I found a new King Tut thread, variegated in red and green. Wish I'd had that before I started quilting this quilt. Gorgeous thread, King Tut, but pricey.

The backing is a flannel sheet, and I think it's perfect for the quilt. I intend for this to be a sofa quilt, and flannel is warm and snuggly. I don't know why I didn't think to use flannel sheets years ago. A queen- or king-sized sheet is large enough to eliminate piecing the back, and they're available in all cotton. A good quality flannel will not pill; and depending on where you shop, the price can be less expensive than buying backing from a quilt shop.

Credit where credit is due: Christmas Lights designed by Bonnie Hunter, Quiltmaker Nov/Dec 2009.

Hexie #41

This hexagon block was the one for last week, I just didn't get it posted because we were on travel. I've already finished the one for this week, but I'll wait til Sunday to post it. Half way there--41 blocks left to go.

This past Wednesday I went to Busy Thimble to look for some purple civil war repros. I was kicking around adding some purples, and Purple Pam convinced me to do it. I found a few, but purple didn't seem to be a popular color back then. But I'm very partial to Jo Morton fabrics, and she's come out with a new collection that features oranges and yellow greens. I really liked them, so I thought, why not? I found some salmon colors I liked too. You'll be seeing all those in upcoming blocks. You know how some quilters say to "let the quilt speak to you"? Well, this quilt is really speaking to me. I'm not sure how much it will look like the original at this point, but I think I'll really like it.

Trip to New York

We left for New York last Friday morning to visit with my son and his wife and came home late Monday afternoon. It was hot, hot, hot  in Saratoga Springs--and that's why I live in Maine. I was really dragging by the time we got home. The heat takes a lot out of me.

To make matters worse, we realized Saturday evening that the air conditioning in the car wasn't working. Hubby bought a can of freon Sunday morning, but it all leaked out by the time we got back to the hotel Sunday evening. Monday morning we bought two more cans of freon for the trip home. I held out without the A/C until about noon, then hubby added one can of freon, and that got us home, thankfully. 

The only other bad part of the trip was that I had an allergic reaction to some lotion I used on my face and neck, which translated to lots of redness, some swelling around my eyes, and intense itching. Several months ago, I made a departure from my regular lotion and bought a different kind--same company, different formula--and had a reaction. I contacted the company and threw away the bottle, but I forgot I also filled up my tiny travel bottle with the same stuff. I used it Saturday morning without a problem; but when we got back to the hotel Saturday evening,  I washed my face and reapplied the lotion, then woke up in the middle of the night itching.

Those two things aside, we really enjoyed the trip and seeing the kids. We went to the Crossgate Mall one day (over 400 stores), and walked around downtown one day. Other than that, we visited at the house. We haven't seen our son in over a year, so it was really nice just to just spend some time together. That's hubby and son, goofing off in the park downtown.

Part of the downtown area. There were some really interesting buildings downtown. At times I felt more like we were in the deep south instead of upstate New York.










Downtown areas tend to be more expensive, particularly during tourist season, so we only went into one shop. My daughter-in-law visited the Saratoga Olive Oil Co. previously and purchased a bottle of oil, so she wanted to show me the store. Sometimes when she's in Portland, we go to Macaroni Grill to eat, and they always serve crusty Italian bread with a plate of herbed olive oil for dipping. We love that, so we bought a bottle of Tuscan herb olive oil to take home. Yummy!

I was amazed how many olive oils and balsamic vinegars they had. There were covered plates of bread chunks and little plastic cups all over the store, so you could taste some of the different oils. There were some odd ones, like olive oil with blood orange.  Nope, didn't try that one!

A yarn bombing, I think. First one I've seen, other than in photos.













Saratoga Springs, in upstate New York, is home to the the printers of Time Magazine, Newsweek, People Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. The mason jar people, Ball Corporation, also reside there, as well as some aluminum can manufacturers that work for companies like Pepsi. But mostly, Saratoga Springs is a horse racing town, and this is horse racing season, so the city is really busy from the beginning of July through the Labor Day weekend. The Saratoga Race Course, a track for thoroughbred racing, is the oldest continuously-operating sporting event of any kind in the United States. We never did find the Course, but we did find the Saratoga Casino and Raceway, which is for harness racing.  Too bad the track wasn't in use when I took the photo.

Because Saratoga is a horse racing town, there are things all over the city that advertise it. On the way into town, we saw billboards with paintings of horse races, a motel called Thoroughbred Motel, hitching posts at convenience stores and gas stations, and a variety of horse statues. I took photos of all the ones we saw, and some of these are really kinda cool. 

A hitching post in downtown, and my daughter-in-law in the background.

A racing panel on the wall in the local grocery store.

Hexie #40

There has been no let up around here with my schedule lately. This is the hexagon block for last week, but this is the first opportunity I've had to get it posted. I do like the color of that outer ring, sort of a salmon color. One more hexagon block, and I'll hit my halfway point. Yay!

The original hexagon quilt I was trying to replicate appeared to me to be reds, pinks, blues, browns, and tans--and I tried to maintain that color scheme for a while. But I found I wanted more color, so I added greens and yellows. Before I'm all done, I may have to throw a few purples in there too.

My Christmas Lights quilt is off the frame now, and I'm trying to finish up the binding before the end of the month. I won't be loading another quilt until I get the raffle quilt done, and then I'll load that one. My deadline is looming.

It's been three weeks since Maine Quilts, my state guild's annual quilt show, and I still haven't gotten any photos posted from that show; and I went to another quilt show last Thursday. We went to the Mancuso show in Manchester, New Hampshire. I had a great time but didn't take many photos because the great majority of quilts in the show were art quilts. While I appreciate the effort and workmanship in many of those quilts, I am a traditional quilter through and through, so there are very few art quilts that inspire me enough to take a photo. My favorite though was an Asian themed crazy quilt that had tons of handwork and embellishments. I'll try to get those photos posted in the next couple days. I know I have some emails to answer too, and I'm trying to get to those as well.