What I Did When I Wasn't Blogging - Part 1

I made progress on a few things during my March and April blogging hiatus.  I finished a couple of quilt tops I'd been working on.  Here is my Scrappy Trip Around the World.

I usually got a better sense of this quilt from a side view as I was putting it together.  Not sure why that is, maybe just the greater distance as I stood in the laundry room door versus straight in front of it.

And here's the Hole in the Barn Door quilt top.  I love the colorful scrappiness of both of these.

I wasn't sure how to border this quilt at first, but it seemed to be asking for more color beyond the blocks themselves, so I sandwiched a strip of scraps between an inner and outer gray border.

I've sent these to local longarm quilter Sandy and I'll probably see them back in a few months for binding.  There's no rush as I will probably be keeping these, at least for the time being.

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A few weeks ago, I sent some quilts to Rachael and Becky of Quilted Twins.  Becky has been  heading up a massive relief effort for Ukranian refugees in Poland.  She and her husband and team of helpers have been doing great work providing supplies and other essentials to Ukranians displaced and otherwise affected by the war.  Her sister Rachael in Florida was gathering quilt donations to be shipped to Becky through the end of April.

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The hubs and I enjoyed some nice nature walks, even though winter seemed to be taking her sweet time leaving.  We caught some early spring migration as we walked the marsh trail one cold but sunny March day.  It was fun to see and hear gorgeous trumpeter swans, as well as other swan species, geese, and red wing blackbirds.

A pair of trumpeters flew so low over our heads we could hear the "zizz-zizz" of their wing feathers vibrating.  Who knew their beating wings made such a neat sound!  Their trumpeting sounded like the honking of an antique car horn to me, but that was really cool too!  (Click the link to listen to a sample.)

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I read and/or listened to some interesting biographies and memoirs, including the audiobook versions of Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper, The Boys by Ron Howard and Clint Howard, and Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci.  Two thumbs up on all of them!  

The audiobook versions were narrated by the authors, which I enjoyed.  I will say that on Vanderbilt, though, I also got the hard copy of the book from the library to read some of the chapters myself.  While Anderson Cooper does a fine job overall, he read a little too fast for my liking on some of the more descriptive chapters about Gilded Age parties and opulent decor and who wore what, etc.  I needed to imagine those scenes at a more leisurely pace.  (I also found it a bit odd, to be honest, that he pronounced "satin" like "sadden"—and there was a whole lot of satin in one chapter in particular, which, incidentally, did not sadden me one bit!)

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My sister came over to sew with me, and we made some throw pillows together.  Probably 10 or more years ago, she gave me some Debbie Mumm Christmas fabric of six different Santa panels.  She'd bought it for herself in the 1990s but didn't make anything with it.  I didn't do anything with it either after she gave it to me, just put it away in a drawer.  When I was decluttering the sewing room in the beginning of the year, I showed it to her again and we decided to make a day of it and sew the panels up as pillows for her.  This fabric was truly "old enough to vote," as my dad used to say.  (I say: Can we procrastinate or what!)

As it happened, I had some nice coordinating fabrics in my stash for an assortment of different borders and pillow backs, so we sewed up all six pillows over the course of what ended up being couple afternoons together.  It was fun to have a sewing partner and to finally get them done—months before next Christmas, I might add!  ;)

I'm going to break this catch-up post into two parts.  Stay tuned!

~Paulette