Contentment

I had such a lovely week! Monday I got tons of work done around the house. The rest of the week I chose to do the things I really enjoy. Tuesday I worked on the "Spring" wall hanging, and now need only to sew three more seams and the front of the wall hanging is complete. Then, of course, I have to make the three-layer sandwich (front, batting and back) and do the machine quilting. And after that, the binding. I want to have this wall hanging ready by the 21st of March, i.e., on time for SPRING!!!

Thursday evening we had a rehearsal of the small ensemble that will accompany the Faure Requiem on the 20th and 21st of this month. When I arrived Ben was dragging music stands out of his car to take them into the Maxwell Centre. He also had made all the arrangements for the rehearsal, including finding the venue and reminding all the players. It was such a treat for me to just go there and play, instead of having to make it all happen!

Thursday at our country quilting group I finished this inset hearts table runner that I started last summer when I made a whole series of them to give away as "hostess" gifts to my cousins. This one never made it to the finish line, but now it's completed. The colours are very different from the other runners, and I like them very much. They look good in our home, as we have quite a bit of blue in our living room furniture.

When that was finished I started on a new project: a scrappy top. About a year ago Bonnie Hunter (of quiltville.com) had a good article in Quiltmaker on using up your scraps. She follows a system of immediately cutting up leftovers into standard size squares, ones that she uses often. Inspired, I attacked my big bag of scraps, and did oodles of cutting. I cut the largest squares I could (mainly about 4" sq.) and then smaller and smaller, until the scrap was all cut up. I bought seven clear containers and labelled them: 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", etc. up to 4", plus one container labelled "triangles" (for any size triangle). I didn't quite clear up all my scraps, but made a pretty big dent in the pile.

For my new scrappy top I took out the 4"

squares, and a pile of 2 1/2" squares that I had cut from some teal fabric leftover from

a string quilt I made for grandson #3 in '03.

The teal was the unifying fabric. The others were leftovers from his baby quilt. Because I made both of those without a pattern, I didn't know how much material to buy, and had a fair bit left over.

I took the bag of 4" squares and the pile of 2 1/2 " squares and applied the 2 1/2" squares

diagonally to the corners of the 4" squares.

You are seeing the wrong side of the 2 1/2" teal squares. Draw a line diagonally across the smaller squares, and sew just to the right of that line (toward the outside of the 4" square). Sewing just beside the line gives the material the needed room to fold over.

Trim away the outside half of the small squares and press from the center toward the corners.

I used up all the 4" and 2 1/2" squares that

I had already cut. So this is how far I got this afternoon: Just sixteen complete blocks. I think I'll cut some more 4" squares and more of the teal squares, hoping to get enough for a lap quilt at least. Yesterday I had only 6 of these blocks made (a block has four of the squares in it), and this afternoon made the other ten. I can see that I'll have to replace the two blue squares in the bottom row. They just don't have enough contrast with the teal, and fade into the background.

As I sewed Glenn Gould played the Bach Two and Three-Part Inventions for my enjoyment, and then Helmut Walcha played Bach's trio sonatas for organ on the great organ in St. Laurenskerk, Alkmaar, recordings, of course, while the sun streamed through the windows. Such a peaceful afternoon!