I love a mystery!

My kids make fun of me for reading cozy mysteries.  Since I am forever protesting about violence and graphic words or scenes in modern media, they think it is ironic that I read books with "murder" in the title.  What they don't seem to understand is that cozy mysteries aren't about the murder - in fact, rarely does the reader "witness" the crime.  Cozies are all about following clues to figure out "whodunit," usually while following along with an amateur sleuth working outside the law.  This wonderful week of summer included THREE cozies for me: Boiled Over, the second Maine Clambake Mystery by Barbara Ross (I'm from Maine); Gone But Knot Forgotten, the third Quilting Mystery by Mary Marks (I LOVE this series!);

and Deadly Nightshade, the first Martha's Vineyard Mystery by Cynthia Riggs (because we spent three days at Martha's Vineyard this week). Next up on my bedside table is Taken In, the ninth Southern Sewing Circle mystery and my current audiobook is The Cranefly Orchard Murders, the second Martha's Vineyard Mystery by Cynthia Riggs.

But it isn't just in my reading that I like mysteries.  I love the idea of a mystery quilt, although, in truth, I've never actually finished one.  I'm still working on my first, On Ringo Lake by Bonnie Hunter, but the truth is, once the big reveal happens, I usually lose interest.  I haven't worked on that quilt in months!

My 2018 Temperature Quilt is a bit of a mystery quilt since the daily weather dictates what it will ultimately look like.  I think the not knowing is part of what keeps me motivated to make new blocks for that quilt every day (well, that and how easy the block I chose to make is).  Here it is from January 1 through June 11 - I have all the blocks done through June 30, but the next row includes the block with the average temperatures for July, so I can't add any more rows until July is over.

Blocks signify high and low temps for each day of the year (through June 11 so far)

As I mentioned, we spent a few days at Martha's Vineyard this week.  Beforehand, I took my dog up to NH to stay with my sister.  Visiting my sister means time with my nieces and nephew,

One of my nieces - the only thing cuter than a two year old is a two year old wearing a sweater you knit for her!

but it also means getting to see my handiwork all over their house, from sweaters and hats and socks that I have knit for them to quilts that I have made on their walls and on their beds.  They are THE BEST recipients of handmade stuff - they actually USE it!!

My mom was out of town, so I slept in her bed under one of the first bed sized quilts I ever made, a Scrappy Mountain Majesties from Bonnie Hunter's pattern

Once at the Vineyard, I stayed busy with knitting, at the beach

and on the ferry.  Sock knitting is such a perfect travel/vacation project!

And while on vacation, I stumbled upon the Friendship Album, 1933 podcast by Frances O'Roark Dowell, author of Birds in the Air (which I own and have read) and Margaret Goes Modern (which I don't yet own).  I've finished listening to the first four episodes and I am anxiously awaiting future installments of this story.  I've said it so many times, but when I'm not quilting, I love being able to read about quilts, whether in fiction or on blogs or even just scanning photos on Instagram and Pinterest.  What on earth did I do with my time before I started quilting?

I'm linking up with Oh, Scrap and Monday Making.

Vacation Sewing

I know that there are some folks out there who can knock out a quilt in a weekend, but I'm not one of them.  I am S...L...O...W...

But I'm having a great time sewing away on my school vacation so far!  Saturday was a no-sew day because I took my boys snowboarding and then had dinner at my twin sister's house.  On Sunday, I finished adding the hexies I'd made so far to my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  Time to prep some more hexies for travel and meetings.

Monday didn't include much sewing, as my younger sister taught her final yoga class before my new niece or nephew arrives (yeah, she's 9 months pregnant and still WAY more flexible than I am) so I drove to NH to take her class.  By the time I got home, I was in need of a nap, and then I had to (gasp!) cook.  The only drawback to vacation is that the dining hall is closed.  I am SO SPOILED not having to cook for my family anymore.  Well, except for vacations. (sigh)

But today, I went in to work for a couple hours in the morning, and sewed ALL AFTERNOON while binge watching Psych.  I thought I was getting a lot done, but when I laid out my blocks, the total seemed a bit paltry for the hours of sewing I put in.  Maybe I should listen to a story instead of watching a show...

Oh well.  There are many days of sewing left in this vacation.

I am linking up with Monday Making and Oh Scrap.

Thankful for time to sew!

Working at a boarding school is SO DIFFERENT than running a yarn shop!  For the past four years, I closed the shop early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, enjoyed a day of food and family, and then started the holiday retail season bright and early on Friday morning.  There never seemed to be enough time to enjoy the holiday.

Not so this year!  The students left for home yesterday, and I have an entire week off!  Woo hoo!  I spent quite a bit of time doing housework yesterday, but I also found time to sew!  I've been itching to start new quilts (a desk job means more time on the computer which means more time for me to be inspired by what everyone else in the quilting blogosphere is doing), but I've been pretty strict with myself about not cutting into any new fabric, just tackling the UFOs and orphan blocks that I already have overwhelming my sewing room.

Perhaps it is a function of being back in New England, but I really want to dive headfirst into the holiday spirit this year.  I want to decorate.  I want to bake.  I want to watch holiday movies while cuddled up under a holiday quilt.  Except I don't have a holiday quilt...

And then I remembered the Twelve Days of Christmas Quilt Along I joined back in July 2016, the one where I only made it through Day 3 before getting distracted by finishing off my county fair quilt show entry.  

By Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, tutorial found here

I hauled it out and got to work!  I already had most of the fabric cut, and the centers of the four big blocks pieced.

I made these on July 15, 2016

Non-pattern follower that I am, I set to work constructing a block from the inside out.

CUTE!  But I'm doing it wrong...

When I actually looked at the pattern, though, I realized that the block is built as a nine-patch, not from the inside out.  Oops!  I can make that block work.  But I'm making the other three blocks the correct way.

Not sewn together yet, obviously, since I need to buy more Kona Natural to finish the block

Except I never cut the 4" strips or the sashing and borders, and since I sold my shop, I no longer have a bolt of Kona naturals to cut from.  Luckily, the Textile Company is less than 3 miles from here, and I'm pretty sure they have a full selection of Kona solids.  Unfortunately, they are closed today, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to complete any one block, but I am determined to do all the other piecing that I can do today.

As I said when I first started this quilt in the summer of 2016, working with just three fabrics is hard for me - my scrappy nature wants more variety.  The fact that there are only four blocks using big (4.5" squares, big for me, anyway) squares of fabric is the only reason I think I can stay on track with this quilt.  Maybe I can go scrappy for the back, piecing a bunch of large chunks of Christmas fabrics together...

And I'm SERIOUSLY considering tackling Bonnie Hunter's Mystery, On Ringo Lake, this season.  It's not a UFO, but having already completed one UFO top in the past two weeks and well on my way to completing another, I think I'm going to treat myself!

Lest you think I've skipped over Thanksgiving to get to Christmas, I used my turkey potholder this morning when I pulled the morning's muffins out of the oven.  Fun, fun, fun!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Lazy Week at the Beach & Getting Inspired Online

I'm had a GREAT TIME in Cancun with my husband!  We walked miles and miles every day.  We swam in the wonderfully warm and clear water.  We lounged - in hammocks, in beach chairs, on our balcony looking out over the water.  We read and read and read (I finished 4 books).  We ate delicious tacos at the 24 hour taco stand down the street.  We visited Chichen Itza, which, for me, an archaeological anthropology major with a concentration in Mesoamerica in college, was a dream come true.

We did a lot of beach sitting

We visited Chichen Itza on the Equinox - a big day for a culture that reveres the sun.

The view from our hotel room

We stopped to eat at a restaurant/artisan center/hotel on our way to Chichen Itza.  This is one of the hotel rooms - no beach, but I would LOVE to stay in something like this!

And I took the time to do something I don't do nearly as much of as I'd like to do - cruise quilt blogs!  It feels so good to not have something else I SHOULD be doing so I can enjoy doing what I WANT to do!  And look what I found!  A Scrap Quilt Challenge!  I love scrap quilts and I love challenges, so I'm IN!  Is anyone else doing this one?

One thing I looked for online was shadow quilts.  Remember that I made one but it just didn't excite me?

I just can't get excited about this quilt.

I want to make another, and these excite me much more:

Wouldn't this look cool with some orphan blocks? Photo credit 

Those double shadows and geese make it so much more interesting! Photo credit

Love that the shadow extends to the border and the diagonal edges on the shadows! Photo credit

Now that I am home, I just want to go down into my sewing room and SEW!

I thought I was done...

On Sunday, I finished reconciling my books for my business so I could turn everything over to the accountant.  What a weight off my shoulders but, UGH!  Hours of looking at numbers on a computer screen!  The perfect remedy for the malaise that brought on was, of course, quilting!  I finished piecing my Star Sampler top!

At least, I THOUGHT I was finished, but the darned thing is screaming for some kind of border to me.  I'm thinking continuing the Irish Chain out half a block more around the whole thing.  What do you think?

Then, despite the fact that I am a hand quilter, I am sending this out to a long armer.  There is NO WAY I'm going to try to hand quilt through all of those batiks!

This quilt makes me happy.  Know what else makes me happy?  This month, my husband and I finally paid off our student loans, 24 years after graduating from college!!!  We're headed to Cancun this weekend for a 5-day "Spring Break" to celebrate, just the two of us.  I'm dancing the happy dance!  I plan to eat, sleep, read, sit on the beach and knit and that's IT!

WOW! (and free books)

I've been amazed by a lot of things lately.  Bermuda was amazing - I don't remember ever being in water so clear and warm; I spent HOURS floating on my back in the ocean.

That's me in the black cover-up.  This was day 1, the first beach we hit.  We went to at least one beach a day, every day.

I'm not usually much of a fan of the beach, mainly because I don't like sand or sharks (!), but since the water was so nice, I didn't spend any time in the sand, and since the island is surrounded by coral reefs, they don't have sharks there (at least, that's what they told me, and I chose to believe them).

The kids enjoyed the waves,

the sand,

dressing up in costumes at the world heritage center in St. George,

jetskiing, riding the bus all around the island, taking ferries from port to port, and riding in the limo that my MIL hired to take everyone back to her house from the airport.  It was definitely a memorable vacation.

But I was also amazed by the prices - why didn't anyone tell me how EXPENSIVE everything is there!?!  All I could think was, "Thank goodness I just got paid!"  :)

I was also amazed to learn when I stopped by the farm store today that I had my first sale (YAY!) and that the proprietor had gotten lots of positive comments about my items for sale, and she specifically asked that I make some of my pillowcase shopping bags to bring in to sell because she's interested in buying some and thinks others will be, too.  Validation makes me so happy!

And surprisingly, yesterday I got bitten by the PURGING bug.  I am a nester and a collector by nature, so when I am moved to get rid of something, I do it fast before the feeling passes.  I took a load to the dump, 4 boxes to Goodwill, and I cleaned out my sewing/quilting books because my bookcase was overflowing.  I was so proud of myself for pulling about 30 books out to get rid of, but my quilting books STILL don't fit.  Gonna have to get another bookcase, I guess.

Anyway, I wanted to offer those books free to anyone who wants them.  I was going to list them here and on Paperbackswap.com.  I listed them on Paperbackswap.com first, and by the time I had finished listing all of them, 3 had already been requested.  I went to cub scouts with the boys, and by the time we were done, 9 more had been requested and 7 were placed on hold.  Holy cow!  I had no idea they would move that fast! 

I'll list what is left, and if you see a book you want, list it in a comment.  If it hasn't been snapped up through Paperbackswap.com yet when I receive your comment by email, I'll put it in the mail to you.  I'm just going to list titles and ISBN numbers - you'll have to look them up to see what they are actually all about.  They are mostly older books, but all in very good condition.

Quilts for Chocolate Lovers - Janet Jones Worley - 1574327607
Quilts from Simple Shapes: Squares - Mary Coyne Penders - 0913327336
PS I Love You Two: A Sequel - Nancy J Smith & Lynda S Milligan - 1880972263
Osage County Quilt Factory - Virginia Robertson - 1564770133
Singer Sewing Reference Library Quilting by Machine - 086573254x
The New Sampler Quilt - Diana Leone - 0942786416
Scrap Happy: Quick Pieced Scrap Quilts - Sally Schneider - 0943574730
In The Beginning - Sharon Evans Yenter - 1564770052
Better Homes and Gardens Patchwork & Quilting - 0696001756
American Patchwork Quilt Designs - 0870407449
The Shade Book - Judy Lindahl - 0960303227

I'm happy to be back, and looking forward to catching up on what y'all were doing while I was lounging about in paradise!

Too much to report!

I'll finish this post the same way I started my last one - I LOVE VACATION!  I had a marvelous 2+ weeks, cavorting around the Northeast, visiting family and having fun.  Too bad this is the last day of freedom for me.  There's too much to report in just one post, so I'm just going to pick out a couple of things to share for now.

Like the MOUNTAIN of mail that was awaiting me upon my return Monday night.  I spent a ridiculous amount of time on Tuesday opening mail, paying bills, and shredding paper.  The only thing that made opening all of it bearable was the squishy mail interspersed with all the bills and solicitations.  June was my month for Let's Bee Together, and I asked the other Bee Members to make 2 HST blocks from a WOW and some scrappy strips that I sent.  I have received blocks back from 5 members so far, and I love the way the quilt is coming along (with the 4 or 6 blocks I've made):

Monday itself was a long, but fun day, with the exception of the fright I suffered early on.  We started the day in Easton, PA, where the kids and I had spent the night with my MIL on our way south from New Hampshire.  Getting out of town was a challenge because I packed everything into the car, stopped for gas, cash and iced coffee, but before getting on the highway, something prompted me to double-check to make sure my quilt that I've been working on was in the car.  I couldn't find it anywhere, so back to MIL's house we went to see if I had left it there.  I thought I remembered taking it out of the car there the night before, mistakenly thinking I was going to put a few stitches in in the morning, but I was so punch-drunk tired when we arrived late the night before that I wasn't completely sure I wasn't imagining that.  We searched the house but couldn't find it anywhere.  I emptied the car again, wondering if I had overlooked it.  Nope.  Then, on a whim, I checked the garage.  There it was, in the plastic bag that I had been carrying it around in, leaning up against the trashcans.  Apparently, Granny, who just celebrated her 93rd birthday, was cleaning her room while I was in the shower, and decided it was trash.  I am SO GLAD I had that premonition to check for the quilt and to look in the garage.  Can you imagine my heartbreak if I would have lost it forever?

Needless to say, I didn't get any quilting done on that quilt on that day, but I did do a spot of quilting, and so did the kids.  We stopped at the Kutztown Folk Festival on our way south.  For years, I've been wanting to go, but the timing never worked out.  It was mostly craft vendors, and let me tell you, if I had deeper pockets and went without the kids, I'd have bought LOADS of stuff!  There are some really talented and creative people out there!

The kids weren't all that interested in the vendors, particularly when they realized that I wasn't going to buy them anything, so we sought out the interactive things.  My favorite, of course, was the Visitor Quilt, just outside the Quilt Barn (that had 2000 beautiful quilts for sale!) where visitors could quilt a square and sign his/her name.  My square:

Donald's square - he was hilarious - kept asking if there were supposed to be huge knots on the bottom part of the quilt:

And Jason's square - I'm not sure what happened here, he started off fine, but ended up making stitches ACROSS the line like a surgeon rather than along the line:

 

I think the quilters were glad when we finished because Jason and Donald talked a constant stream while quilting.

They also talked the ear off the guy giving guitar lessons:

And the gal helping them make Apple Cider:

And the guys showing them how to use an old-fashioned laundry wringer:



I had to laugh at the sign!

I know they sure talked MY ear off all day long!  But they are such great travel and adventure companions, I really can't complain.

(By the way, the Kutztown Folk Festival continues through July 8 if you live in or are passing through Pennsylvania.  Adult admission is $14, but there are $3 off coupons all over the place - that's what I used - and kids under 13 are FREE!). 

Sewing on the road

I left home on Friday morning, not to return until the beginning of July.  While I brought a quilt that needs hand quilting, I wasn't convinced I wanted to be away from my sewing machine for that long.

Solution:  I brought it with me! 

And since I couldn't bring my whole stash with me, I collected up all of my Goodwill pillowcase purchases (OMG!  How did I end up with 19 pillowcases?  Especially considering that I've already upcycled 16 of them into reuseable grocery bags and aprons?) as well as some of my 2" squares to play with.

17 of the 19 pillowcases I have amassed through my pillowcase purchase addiction.

I spent Friday and Saturday at Princeton University where I presented at a conference and was interviewed on camera for publication online - nervewracking!

 

On Saturday night, I drove up to my MILs in Easton, PA where my kids were waiting for me.  I surprised them with an all day trip to Dorney Park (an amusement park) on Sunday.  I conquered my fear of rollercoasters and had a ball!  I even went on the ones where you go upside down!

Today, I walked my niece's dog while the boys rode their bikes all over the neighborhood (we live on a dirt road that goes straight up a mountain, so riding on paved roads is a treat for them), then went to the movies to catch Madagascar 3.  Needless to say, my kids have not stopped chanting "Circus, Afro, Circus, Afro, Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Afro!"  Heaven help me!

After the movie, I decided to channel my inner Em and brought my sewing machine outside onto the deck to sew.  Time to tackle those pillowcases! 

Sewing on the deck

Two down!  Someone in my family will be getting some reuseable, washable grocery totes. 

Why is it so hard to photograph stripes?  The one on the left is red, white and blue stripes.

I love the 5 I made for myself, and use them every time I go shopping, whether for groceries or anything else.  Maybe tomorrow I'll make aprons.

I love vacation!

Sure sign of a GREAT vacation

(note: I started this post on June 29, but didn't publish until July 4 - hence the discrepancy between dates - sorry if you find my post to be confusing!)

We've been on the road since Wednesday, June 22nd. We've been to New York state visiting colleges while my husband recruits. We've been to Pennsylvania visiting my husband's family. We spent a week in Massachusetts staying with my twin sister and her family while my husband and the boys worked/attended basketball camp. We spent a day and night visiting a college roommate on her farm in Vermont. For the last two days, we've been in New Hampshire at my younger sister's and mom's new house, celebrating not only their move, but also my sister's 34th birthday.

We have ridden bikes, gone swimming in ponds, exercised (ick!), eaten VERY well, played basketball and baseball and every board game ever made. We've gone to the movies. We've read books. We've driven seemingly every back road in New England with the music blaring and the windows rolled down. What we HAVEN'T done is get on the computer. Having too much fun to stop what I'm doing and write a blog post is a sure sign that I'm having a great vacation. And to top it off, I still have a week of fun left!

I have gotten some stitching done. I finished hand quilting my ELLA quilt for the daughter of a high school friend. I can't trim and bind it until I get home.

I've also about half completed the May Birdie Stitches BOM. but I don't have photos yet.

And now some photos from the week at my twin sister's house:

The kids wanted to wish their Grandpa a happy birthday, so they made signs and we posted this on his Facebook Wall (the new generation and all, you understand)

My knitting sister showed me some lovelies she has made for her daughter (hopefully just miniature versions of stuff she has in the works for me (hint, hint, hint):

a tank top

a lovely dress

and here is the said niece wearing that nightie I made her

Ericka also took me to the high school to see a community quilt that a class had produced.

Check out the clever 3-dimensional doorknobs:

And some of my favorite pictorial blocks - do you see the clever use of that red toile(?) fabric?

I think this is Emily Dickinson

Farms are perfect to render in patchwork

Anyway, I can smell bacon, a siren call to get me off the computer and back with the family. Today, we head back to Pennsylvania for a few days before making our way back to Virginia to see if my pets still recognize me. Happy 4th of July, fellow Americans! And happy belated Canada Day to my northern neighbors! And if you are reading from some other part of the world where you haven't been graced with a holiday weekend, happy Monday!

Another (mis)adventure!

Those of you who follow me know that most of my adventures have unexpected hiccups sprinkled in them to keep things interesting. This weekend with my twin sister on our 4th annual Twin Retreat promises to deliver more of the same.

I flew up to Boston on Thursday, gave a presentation on Thursday evening, then drove to Amherst, MA to spend the night in her home, arriving at 12:30 AM. Up at 6:30 AM to see her and the kids off before school, and then I spent a wonderful, lazy morning reading, visiting a coffeeshop, visiting my sister at her school where we laughed at everyone's doubletakes when they saw the two of us together, shopping, and then off to Deerfield Academy for a college fair. Once that was over, the Twin Retreat could officially begin. We packed up the car and headed off to Bennington, NH to spend the weekend in her new vacation home.

We took the scenic route up here, and stopped first at the New England Fabric store where I made some fun purchases.


(I see a cute little something for my niece being made with these pink owls - aren't they adorable!)

We also took the time to walk around downtown Keene to shop for trinkets for the kiddos (just because they weren't invited on this trip, we don't want them to think we don't think of them!) and to pick up some Thai food to bring back to the house for dinner. We arrived around 9:45 PM only to discover that we hadn't brought keys. Oops!

We found some flashlights and went around checking all the windows and doors to see if any had been unlocked, but no luck. We called her contractor to see if he was around to let us use his key, but no answer. We called her husband to see if he had hidden a key here somewhere. Nope. So, we arranged blankets in the back of the car and settled in for a Thai picnic, prepared to spend the night in the car.

A little after 10 PM, just as we were hooking my laptop up to the outlet in her car to watch a movie (gotta love modern technology) a truck pulled up. Apparently the contractor had received our message and had come to rescue us. Ericka hopped out of the car and rushed over to greet him, only to stop short when she discovered it was the cops. Apparently, a neighbor had seen us nosing around with flashlights and thought we were trying to break in (which we were). Luckily, this was a very good-natured cop with some time on his hands, so he hung around to see if he could help us find a way in. We found an enormous ladder, and he helped us move it around to get onto the porch roof to see if the upstairs windows were locked. I just had to take a photo of that!

But no luck. Then he found something in his car to help us jimmy open a window, and right after 11 PM, we finally made it inside. Here he is, our hero, whose name we forgot to learn. Gotta love the guys in blue!



So, it's late, and we've got a big day planned tomorrow, but can't go to sleep yet! Don't see her often enough to waste time sleeping. Stay tuned for more adventures with the Bobsey Twins!