Red Circles on Green, Palace Theater, AireGirl Again

This top is finished, unless I decide to add a border.  I began sewing red circles on green after seeing masses of roses blooming in pots at a garden market many years ago.  There was no particular plan for the blocks.  I just sewed circles thinking of them as roses.
I think the two rows of blocks with dark backgrounds around the outside are enough of a border and the binding will be a good finish, but I could change my mind.

When it came time to sew the blocks together I realized that the quilt would be too small for a bed unless I sewed more circles or used sashing.  I didn't have any more of the medium greens in the center so decided to use 3/4" sashing and cornerstones.  I found a shot cotton and cut and sewed and cut and sewed etc....  At some point in that process I realized that I probably could have cut the 50+ squares and circles and appliqued them in less time that it took to cut and sew the sashing and cornerstones.  But I didn't and the quilt is what it is.

It's different than I thought it might be when I began but I like it.  I think it's much better in person than in photos. Some of the reds just pop against the green backgrounds, which delights me.

Outside in the shade.  I think the above photo captures the colors better.

Last weekend we toured the Palace Theater.  It was built in 1926 as a vaudeville theater but when vaudeville died out a few years later, it became a movie theater.  It is not as large or grand as the Ohio Theater but I think it is just as beautiful.  This tour included the whole theater, not just the public areas.  Backstage and the lower levels were a warren of halls and doors.

This is the main part of the theater looking from the stage toward the back.  They tour guide told us the acoustics are exceptional.
Looking toward the stage--well, looking sideways toward the stage--from a side aisle on the balcony.
Backstage, it was fun to see the "posters" of performances painted on the walls.  
And lastly, our AireGirl is settling in and starting to feel more comfortable, though still refuses to look at the camera. I'm having trouble finding her name.  We try out a different one every few days.  I think Pippa would be the perfect name but one of my daughter's cats is Pippa and it would be just too confusing for them to have the same name. 

She still likes to be near me but she's beginning to feel more confident and interested in exploring.  She was Miss Sobersides when she came--I've never known such a serious Airedale--but we're beginning to see a change.  She's added tuckbuttruns, playbows, and the occasional smile to her behaviors.  And oh, the greetings to welcome us home!

I'm linking this post to
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

I hope you have a good weekend.
--Nancy.

This and That--Quilt, Bird, Theater, AireGirl

I'm up to my elbows in green.  I think I'm slow because this quilt seems to go on and on with more and more and more sewing.  And interruptions slow my the progress, too.  Maybe by the end of the month I'll have it sewn into a top.  Maybe....

I've had these blocks laid out on the floor in the living room and see them when I pass by.  I'm generally delighted with what I see.  The whole is red and green but there are bits of white in some of the red circles.  I'm glad I added those fabrics.

One day last week when I went into the breezeway on my way to the car to run an errand, there on the sidewalk was this little tyke.  Oh my goodness, how cute!

I could just see the beginning of his crest and a touch of blue on the tips of his wing feathers.  I hesitated to open the door because I didn't want to frighten him.  I was surprised that he stayed even after he saw me.  Then I saw the shadow of one of his parents flying around just above him.  After a few minutes he flew, just above the ground, to a pine tree in our neighbor's back yard.  I breathed a sigh of relief that he was able to fly and made it to the tree.

Later in the afternoon I heard a ruckus from the adult blue jays and wondered what was going on.  They were at the pine tree, squawking and flapping their wings.  I walked over to see what the commotion was about.  It took me a few minutes to spot the cat in the weeds and branches under the tree.  We made eye contact and the cat ran off.  The jays calmed down after that.  I hope the little fellow in the photo was not harmed.

On July 1st, my daughter and I took a tour of the Ohio Theater, the State Theater of Ohio.  These first two photos are the foyer.

The theater was built in 1928 and was set to be demolished in 1969.  A group of people raised funds and saved it.  My photos hardly do justice to its beauty.  The idea when it was built was for people to be able to leave their troubles behind and spend the day at the theater.  Almost everything is original, including the curtains. 

In the theater proper there is a chandelier hanging from the center of a star on the ceiling.  We were surprised to learn that it is 20' tall and weights several tons.  One of the people giving the tour had photos of it lowered and people cleaning it.  For me, the bigger the building, the more I underestimate the size of something.

And this is the Mighty Morton organ.  It is original to the theater and sits on a platform that raises and lowers, low enough that it completely disappears.  The organist gave us a "tour" of the organ's capabilities, including many sounds that would have been used during the silent film era.  Its pipes are at the front and side of the stage, hidden behind structural details.

The tour did not include the stage or back stage.  A video here has better photos and shows backstage.  This Saturday we're planning to tour the Palace Theater.

The best part of the last two weeks is this Airegirl who came to live with us at the end of June.  (She's not keen on being photographed--at least not yet--something I hope to change with exposure.)

She was owned by a breeder and is a retired mama.   She's very sweet and gentle, walks well on a lead, and is respectful of humans and cats.  She is somewhat un-Airedale-like with her calm demeanor and is a little hesitant and uncertain--ears to the side and tail down.  I'm waiting for her sense of humor to appear and to see her smile.  I suspect her freedom was fairly restricted.  I think we can give her a happy life.  I would tell you her name but we haven't chosen it yet.  (You know, new home and life, new name.)

Our weather has been mostly hot and humid with high dew points, but yesterday was only in the mid-80s with a wonderful breeze.  I sat outside with AireGirl for a bit and read while she sniffed around and investigated the yard.

I hope things are good for you!
--Nancy.

A Bibbie, Blogger Changes (Again), and Out and About

Making a Bibbie

For Christmas my granddaughter received an adorable little apron which her mom calls a bibbie.  It covers her front, meets at center back, and ties at the neck.   It is made of two layers of fabric quilted with thin batting between.  Before we visited a few weeks ago my daughter ask if I might be able to make another one, so I took along some large paper and traced a pattern.  It's a simple pattern but I'd never machine quilted and wasn't sure how it would go on my mom's old black 201 Singer. 

This week I spent several days making another, just as a trial to see if I could.  The fabric for both sides came from thrift clothing:  a woman's blouse, a skirt, and the back of a shirt for the binding.  Before layering and sewing I marked diagonal quilting lines at 1½" with a grey Crayola washable marker.  After layering I pinned the heck out of the layers, just to be sure there was no shifting.  And it worked just fine.  There were no puckers in the fabric.  Surprise!

It took hours and hours and I can see why the company who made her first bibbie went out of business.  There couldn't have been much profit when they sold them for $35.00!

The back is a plaid with similar colors to the fabric on the front.  I would have used a darker fabric had I had enough of one that worked with the colors on the front.

This is the finished bibbie.  My daughter liked it and Sophia was happy to wear it.  Somehow, it's not nearly as sweet as the little blue one which, I think, makes her look like she walked about of the 1940s.  If I make another, I'll buy fabric for it instead of using what I have on hand.

We drove down to my daughter's on Thursday, stayed overnight, then came home yesterday.  It was great to spend time with both our daughters, our grandchildren, and our son-in-law.  I don't have much energy today but I'm working on the bow tie quilt (which I'll post when it's done).

More Blogger Challenges
I do wish Blogger would leave well enough alone.  I've been getting emails from Google Analytics for several months telling me that Universal Analytics will be going away in July and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will become the default data collection tool.  I'd been putting off checking into it because, well, who wants more changes, but finally decided to check into it a week or so ago.  They suggest it's an easy change to set up but then they are tech savvy and I'm not.  They'd included the beginning of changes for this blog but not for my others.  And even their set-up wizard was not especially helpful.  What it seems to come down to is making a coding change.behind the scenes where all the coding for your whole blog is.  To a non-tech person like me it's scary stuff and just thinking about it makes me nervous.  What are you doing about this change to GA4?  (It's not that I love numbers per se, but I do like to see how many people have visited my blog, whether it's 12, 180, or however many.)

Out and About
We drove up to Malabar Farm a few weeks ago and toured the Big House. We had an excellent tour guide who casually added of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes information about Louis Bromfield and his family.  Below is about half the house and below that, the barn and other farm buildings.

The property is owned by Ohio's Department of Natural Resources which keeps the buildings and grounds in beautiful condition.  I loved the columbines!

There should be more to this post but my memory fails me just now....

I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend, remembering those who gave their lives to help the United States of America keep the freedoms we have.

--Nancy.

Quilt Blocks, Out and About, Christmas Movies

I'm making progress on Burgoyne Surrounded blocks.  These are six of the last eight blocks. 

The pattern for this quilt is so strong that I it would look fine if it were really scrappy, with lights/darks only.  I think that was my original intention.  But I admit that the colors add a lot of interest.  Below are pieces of the last two blocks I'll stitch.  Maybe I will get them made before Christmas.  (Or maybe not.)

My daughter and I went to a trolley hop in the city last weekend.  Kelton House is usually our first stop.  I always look forward to seeing how they've decorated, always with Victorian pieces, some original to the house.  One of the Christmas displays was of small houses made from cardboard. 
They looked so festive.  I think my mom had some cardboard houses she used to put out at Christmas, too, but I doubt they were from the Victorian era.  A few days ago I was surprised to see a wreath made of paper houses and was pleased to see that patterns were included in the post.  I think the wreath houses are about a third the size of the ones at Kelton House.  The patterns could easily be enlarged.  

A day or so ago Ann Wood posted a pattern for scrappy Christmas tree ornaments.  I made one, then two, then three.  They finished at about 4 3/4" high.

I don't love these particular trees but I may make a few more with other fabrics.  Lighter colors would stand out better against our fir-green tree.

I'm sharing some Christmas movies we watch and love, sharing mostly because some of these are ones I don't see on others' lists.  The first three are comedies from about the 1940s, as is White Christmas. 

• It Happened on Fifth Avenue
• Christmas in Connecticut
• Bachelor Mother
• Home Alone
• The Santa Clause
• The Forgotten Carols
• Mixed Nuts
• White Christmas
• While You Were Sleeping
• A Child's Christmas in Wales
  
• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, which was new to me this year.  I expect I'll watch it again next year.

And these are three of the Christmas books I love.

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.  (Listen on audio of you can.) 
• Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope

For some reason I'm not feeling very Christmasy yet.  I don't know what that's about but I hope it changes soon.   And I hope that's not so for you, if you celebrate Christmas.

I'm linking this post to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Judy.

--Nancy.

Here and There - Saturday Snapshots

On a neighborhood walk a few weeks ago we were surprised to see these maple helicoptors/samaras in shades of red.  We've only ever seen green ones before.  Nature often surprises and delights.

One very grey day in May we went to a park for a walk and found this glade, with trees just beginning to leaf out, and with a rich, green ground cover.  It was everywhere in the park, dense and thick. 

From a phone photo Google identified it as Lesser Celandine, an invasive plant.  It provided such a beautiful carpet to the glade but I was surprised that the MetroPark would give way to a plant that could take over the park.

I was looking for more information online and came upon the metropark's phone number so called to ask if we'd identified the plant correctly.   We had.  The naturalist said it had come down the waterways from northern Ohio and that eliminating it would be risky:  it would pollute the local waters.  He said they work to keep it contained to the park.  

A dandelion clock.  I love these but not the flowers.  My daughter admires their tenacity: we sometimes see them with their bright yellow heads on snowless winter days. Tenacious, indeed!
On Memorial Day a nearby cemetery opened one of the mausoleums for visitors.   I admired the architecture.

The white arch and the columns and molding are all painted.  The rest are mosaics.  There were also Tiffany glass windows but my photos didn't do them justice.

In our yard we have several honeysuckle vines.  I enjoy its sweet fragrance as it wafts through our open windows.  I wish you could smell it.  It's one of my favorite flowers.  (But I am NOT a fan of the wild, invasive honeysuckle shrubs!)

Last fall my daughter persuaded me to buy a little end-of-the-season lavender plant.   I told her there was nowhere to plant it where it would get enough sun but I bought it anyway.  She put it in the ground to keep it over the winter and this week I transferred it to a large pot, making it moveable when necessary.   It's doing very well so far and has 19 stems on it.  Enough for a lavender basket!  Lavender is another of my favorite flowers, not so much for its appearance but for its fragrance. 

It is a blessing that these two flowers I love so much do not cause a rash on my hands.

I hope you're having a good weekend.
--Nancy.

Oh, What a June!

Early in the month our trusty, old, 1998 Honda CR-V (we call her R-V-etta) died.  When we learned she needed a new transmission we decided it would be better to buy a newer car instead of having R-V-etta repaired.  Oh, sad day.  She has over 311,000 miles and she's taken us to and from work, on trips around Ohio, and safely across the U.S. several times for over 200,000 of those miles.  How I love that car.  We're a one-car family so there was a bit of stress involved in getting a rental, then shopping for a car.  (Car shopping is always stressful for us, no matter the situation.)  We found a 2006 CR-V with 151,000 miles.  I hope it lasts as long as R-V-etta! 

Three days after buying the 2006 CR-V (yet unnamed) we drove to Lexington, Kentucky, to visit with our daughters and grandchildren and take them and our son-in-law out to dinner.  Fun times (but no great photos).

While our younger daughter has been home, she and I drove to Malabar Farm, home of author Louis Bromfield.  It's currently a state park, still operating as a farm. 

The silo with some of the barns behind.  The animals at the farm include horses, ponies, sheep, pigs, chickens, cows, and a cat or two.

The Big House.  We didn't tour it this time but from previous visits I know it feels very homey and comfortable.  This is the home where Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married.  Many other Hollywood stars, friends of Bromfield, visited.  We understand that anyone who came to stay was asked to help with the farm chores.

On the way up to Mount Jeez and views from the top.  It was a beautiful day, cool for June, with mostly clear blue skies and a lively breeze.  We understand you can see three counties from the top of Mount Jeez, one of Ohio's highest elevations.  This is a wonderfully green June in Ohio.  We have a friend who grew up out west.  When he was living here he  complained about how many trees there were and that there was too much green!

The Produce Market Stand. 

This structure stands over a spring where the water is diverted into a trough that was used to hold fruits and vegetables to keep them fresh and cool.  It is said that Bacall and Bogart both worked at this stand.   Can you imagine stopping to buy vegetables and finding them there?!  See photos of the produce stand then and now here.

We also drove to Buckeye Lake.  A few weeks ago the wheat was green.  On the way to the lake we saw it was golden and looked like it was probably ready for harvest.
Because some aspects of quilting are portable I made progress on several quilts.  I pinned and sewed together hourglass blocks.  I thought this was a fun view of them folded after pinning.
And I finished quilting Autumn Maples.  Don't you love those windy curves?

Today my daughter and I collected some sweet clover.  It's really a weed--an untidy one--that grows wild in the countryside and sometimes in untended areas of the city.  When I was a child we used to visit my aunt who lived in rural Pennsylvania.  In summer it always smelled so fresh and sweet near her home.  I once asked my father what smelled so good.  He told me it was sweet clover.  At the time I thought white clover was sweet clover, which we had plenty of in our yard, and I couldn't understand why our yard didn't smell as wonderful as my aunt's.  I finally learned exactly what sweet clover is, and now I try to cut some every summer, weed or not. Sweet clover has a chemical called coumarin which produces the wonderful fragrance.  Other plants with coumarin that smell similar are sweet woodruff, meadowsweet, angelica, lady's bedstraw, and sometimes some kinds of fresh-mown hay.  The fragrance seems to come after the plant has been cut and is drying.

For all the reactions my skin has to plants I'm grateful that I don't get a rash from my favorite perennials:  sweet clover, lavender, honeysuckle, violets, and lilacs.

And that was my June.  I hope yours was a good one!

--Nancy.

A Sunday Afternoon Ride - Summer Kitchen, Schoolhouse, Barn Quilt

We took a Sunday afternoon ride last Tuesday.  You know the kind of ride where you drive with no particular destination, just to see the world around you?  It was a clear day and it sounded delightful.  These are dark, heavy times in America and I knew a break, even for a few hours, would lighten my outlook.  We headed south toward the tiny village of Harrisburg, then west.  We took no map and didn't use a phone for directions until we were ready to return home.  It was an aimless, leisurely drive.

A few miles south and west of Columbus we left the city behind and came to tiny towns surrounded by farmland.  The farmlands are dotted with farmsteads, many built before 1900.  I was surprised at how may of them had summer kitchens.  I took a photo of only one -- we whizzed by the others.

A summer kitchen is a small building about the size of a one-car garage which, in times past, had the accommodations of a regular kitchen.  They are situated near the house.  A summer kitchen was used when a farm wife didn't want the heat of kitchen work -- baking, cooking, heating water for laundry, etc. -- to heat the living space beyond that provided by the summer weather.  The kitchen stove from the farmhouse was often moved to the summer kitchen.

You can tell a summer kitchen by its placement near the house, by the regular doors and windows, and by the chimney.  They've gone into disuse and often look like small barns or garages these days but they don't have the wide doors required for a garage.  I've seen summer kitchens in both Ohio and Pennsylvania.  I always look for them when we're driving in the country.

It was wonderful to see the tractors harvesting hay, creating great round bales perhaps 5' tall.  We also saw one farm making the smaller, rectangular bales but I didn't get a photograph. 

The hay smelled fresh and sweet.  I wondered about the term hay fever but decided it probably wasn't related particularly to hay itself.  If it did, poor farmer with hay fever who needed to bale hay. 

I didn't want to ask my daughter to stop every five minutes for photos -- there were that many beautiful sights -- so I only took a few.

When we reached the corner of Burnett Perrill Road and Miami Trace there were two photos I wanted to take and my daughter willingly stopped.

There was an old schoolhouse.  Someone is taking care of this building.  Isn't it in grand condition, even without glass in the windows?! 

It sits on perhaps an acre of land.  It was easy to imagine the children of more than a decade ago walking or riding a horse to school.  Had there been glass in the windows I would have peeked inside.

From this photo you will guess that either the sign was crooked or the building was leaning precariously.

It was a barn with a a barn quilt securely affixed to the end.

We wondered how the barn continues to stand, it seems to be leaning so precariously.  It's true that a tornado would probably flatten it or scramble it to pieces in a quick minute, but I suspect demolishing it by hand would require lots of work.  I remember my brother telling me about a outbuilding, a small shed, on my parents' property that was leaning far to one side.  My father decided to take it down and he and my brother set to work.   My brother said it looked like it could be easily pushed over but it wasn't so.  It was very hard work to take it apart.  No doubt it would be the same with this barn.

Here's a closer look at the barn star.  I don't know why I didn't walk around to the side and take a photo of just it.

I hope you're doing whatever's necessary to keep your spirits up and not feel overwhelmed by the challenges America and its people are currently facing.

--Nancy.
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