Feeling Grateful

For Joanie’s birthday present, I promised to sew together the paper-pieced pine tree blocks Julie, Janet and I helped her make.

They had been sitting in her craft room. Joanie has had a difficult year, health wise, and hadn’t been able to sew them together. She wants to embroider wild grasses over the cornerstones, and that is a project she can work on while sitting on the couch or carry with her. to doctors’ visits. I presented the completed top to her at Common Threads, which met at Ellen’s on Thursday morning..

The design (other than the construction of the paper-pieced pine tree block) was Joanie’s, as was the selection of fabrics and the layout. Everyone enjoyed seeing it, even the nonquilters in the group.

We had a good meeting, and it was great to have Ellen back from Florida, even for just a couple of weeks.

Georgette is almost done with her afghan:

Margareth is working on a fox hat from the pattern “Foxy & Wolfie.” 

Our newest member, Birna, who is an excellent knitter, is making a hat.

Park City Quilt Guild met Thursday evening. We talked about fabric storage. Some people use wooden shoe storage units or nice cabinets. Bins are usually a last resort, because it’s hard to see what you have. 

Then we had show-and-tell. Here are some of the quilts and quilt tops we got to see.

A hexagon quilt:

I don’t know what to call this block design, but it’s sort of a cross between Delectable Mountains and Log Cabin:

This miniature quilt was a kit, but there wasn’t enough of the binding. Members of the guild suggested she substitute one of the dark colors from the little blocks for binding, and the quilt maker loved the idea. Before a few minutes had passed, she had the binding off.

One of my favorites was this great flannel appliqué bunny quilt:

This huge quilt sports bright, large-motif fabrics and a flower quilting design.

Jill always has something amazing to show us. Here are some modern pine trees, and she made pillow shams with some of the scraps.

I think Lynn called this quilt her “Santabaum.” Half tree and half Santa:

Another quilter showed us a mini quilt she had made from a photo of her mother when she was younger. Her mother made one of her at the same time. A great mother-daughter project.

I have a Tumbler quilt, but it looks nothing like this one, even though the tumblers are exactly the same size. The fabrics make such a difference. Mine is a charm quilt, but this one uses the same fabrics over and over and has a much more modern look.

Saturday we had a work party to make a quilt to commemorate the life of Sam Jackenthal, who died in a ski accident in Australia, where he had gone to compete.

Ellen’s grandson skied and competed with and was friends with Sam. A teacher at the Park City Winter Sports School, where they were students together, found out that Ellen was a quilter and asked her to put together the hand-painted fabric squares fellow students at the school had made as a way to deal with their grief at losing their friend.

Davidene allowed us to set up our machines in her shop, and Patti, who was working that day, cut our fabric strips for sashing between waiting on customers.

Several volunteers from Common Threads and the Park City Quilt Guild came with their machines to help put the blocks together into four-patch blocks and sew together with sashing.

We were finished with the top by 2:00 PM. Now it goes to Julie, who has promised to quilt it for us.

When I look at all the misfortunes of others, I feel grateful for all I have. Life hasn’t always been easy, but I have my health. All three of my children, their spouses and all five of our grandchildren are alive and healthy. I have a DH who dotes on me in his strange and intriguing way and doesn’t mind that I take up half the house with my fiber fun or that I cook vegetarian. We have two delightful pups who remain healthy and continue to entertain us as they enter their older years. I don't always know what my next meal will be, but I know there will be good food. My house may be colder than I like, but it's warmer than outside. I have adequate health insurance.I have friends (local, far away and online) who knit, quilt, crochet, weave and embroider and who continue to inspire me. There is a nice shop full of yarn and spinning fiber and another full of quilting fabrics, patterns and notions within a few minutes' drive. I get to enjoy singing in two choral groups, both led by great vocal directors. Squeeky and Jay-Jay and their friends and relatives keep us entertained. Yes, I’m feeling very grateful this week. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

And just to show I can still dress a turkey….

What's on my needles:  Still hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways (aka "Peggy's Sistine Chapel"), some progress made. Still knitting the Trickle Brick Socks and dishcloths almost finished.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt, two blocks to go, and then I can put them together. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listened to Eva Ibbotson’s Magic Flutes from Audible. Now listening to If You Find Me, which was a Deal of the Day from Audible awhile back. Finished Three Silver Doves by Deborah Garn on the Kindle app. Now reading The Murder at Sissingham Hall by Clara Benson, a murder mystery set in 1920s-era England.

What's in my wine glass: Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot. Very nice, and worth the big bottle.

What's my tip of the week: Corrugated ribbing is often used in Fair Isle or other stranded knitting, but why? Here is an example of Fair Isle knitting with corrugated ribbing at the bottom of the photo:

Aside from the added color (corrugated ribbing uses two colors, one for the knit sts and one for the purl sts), the stranded ribbing is thicker and somewhat less stretchy than the traditional K1, P1 or K2, P2 rib all in one color, which might seem flimsy when used to anchor a knitted item that is also thicker and less stretchy than plain knit because of the strands across the back. I’m planning on using this when I CO the March of the Fibres Cardigan for DH.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.