Monday Miscellany

Taking a few minutes to corral my free ranging thoughts and make sense of where the past week or so went.

We have had such beautiful fall days.  It's a great time to go for a ride or walk and enjoy the change in seasons, maybe pick some apples or pears.

My sister and I recently visited an old stage coach stop known as Wade House.  A horse-drawn wagon took us down a wooded path and pulled up in front of the old inn, which is a museum with guided tours.

Back then you could wet your whistle on whiskey at three cents a glass or lemonade at six cents.   Rooms were 25 cents or 50 cents a night, depending on size.  By comparison, the daily wage for a laborer (say, chopping wood all day) was 35 cents.

Lots of cool things to see, including the quilts on the beds.  Most were reproductions, but there was an old one or two among them.

I loved the old handmade rugs too.  They're 150 years old and tattered, but still interesting.

Think of the number of people who have crossed their paths.

Here, the guide is telling us that to preserve jam or jelly, one would place a round cut piece of stationery paper, soaked in brandy, directly on top of the jam.  

This was then followed by three layers of tissue paper brushed with egg white to seal the jar.  They still use this method at the museum and have eaten two-year-old jams preserved this way (which apparently still tasted fine, and, more importantly, nobody died).

And now for a palate cleanser, I finished the small memory wall quilt.  I did an overall meander in variegated thread.  

It's hanging on the wall in the sewing room for now.

I also experimented with a block I found via Pinterest, called Anita's Arrowhead.  Two charm squares (and 11 seams later!) yields one 5.25 inch block.  The original instructions have you using 9-inch squares for starters, so that probably wouldn't seem as fiddly as working with charm squares, and/or chain piecing would help it go faster as well.  Interesting technique and a cute finished block, though.  I have a Christmas charm pack and am floating ideas for it.

Migrating geese have me thinking of flying geese quilts.  I was going to experiment with a couple different techniques for making flying geese, but only got as far as making four the usual way before getting distracted.  Do you have a favorite flying geese technique?