Summertime - time

Where oh where does the time go?  It's coming down to the end of July and I feel like summer has just begun.  We did have a mighty cool, rainy spring so perhaps that's what has made the summer seem so short to me. 

Here in Brookline summer is time for gardening, swimming in the West River (or some other favorite swimming hole), bicycling and festivals. Oh my, festivals, there are so many.

Some of the coming fests "in the 'hood" are just around the corner.  Jamaica has "old home days" with all sorts of doings this weekend.  


Next, on August 6th, is Grace Cottage Hospital's Fair Days up in Townshend - an auction, parade of anyone born at the hospital, a tag sale, plant sale, pony rides, music and a barbeque - what more could anyone want?

The following weekend is the Windham County History Fair  on the  Newfane Common on August 13th - both the Brookline Round Schoolhouse and the Historic Brookline Church will have a tent there. Raffle tickets for the finished 2011 "Moonlight in Vermont" quilt will be for sale  and the quilt will be on display. Oh, and there will be lots of crafts demos and other historical organizations there too.

 

On August 28th, the last Sunday in August, is the 3rd Annual Sunflower Festival, right here in Brookline.  There will be food, music, face painting, the quilt raffle - of course - vendors and a silent auction and who knows what else... 

And that takes us to the end of August!  With all these festivals, and warm summer weather to enjoy, no wonder why I'm not busy blogging.  But before I sign off, here's a picture of the finished 2011 quilt in all it glory!

Come on out to a fair and see the actual quilt for yourself!

Tag sale tomorrow!

Has been awhile since I've posted a thing, so I'm back briefly.  Long enough to note, there's a big town-wide Tag Sale in Newfane tomorrow (Sat - July 2).  The Historic Brookline Church Preservation group will be there with lots of stuff to sell to raise funds for the building AND the quilt will be on display!  Raffle tickets for sale too - of course.

That's it for tonight - will put up some longer news in the coming week.

Quilt progress update

Several weeks ago the quilt was in separate squares and yesterday, when I showed up at Pat's house, it looked nearly done! I'm no seamstress, but it sure looks like speed sewing to me.

Here's Alice hemming part of the border.  And this is the BACK of the quilt.  You can't quite make out the wonderful white quilting stitches that loop around in patterns over the back. 

And here's a close up of the hem being blindstitched. 
The quilters graciously turned the quilt over so I could admire (and photograph) the front of the quilt too!  

I got some insight how it's all assembled:  Briefly, there are 20 quilt "sandwiches" made; each "sandwich" includes the top-piecework, batting, and a backing piece.  When each piece is done, they are joined together, then a border is added and all the finishing hemming is done.  

This is the 11th Moonlight in Vermont themed quilt the Ladies Benevolence group has made - there were many more quilts, but just 11 of these so far. 

One more picture of the group at work this week - then watch for pics of the finished quilt and some history in the weeks ahead!

Best place to begin is at the beginning.

Where to begin? 
Perhaps an introduction is in order.  My name is Somara and I moved to Brookline Vermont almost two years ago with my husband and our dogs.  What a change for us!  We left Chicago city-living and bright-lit night skies for a quiet country back road and soot-black night skies  (except for the countless stars which of course we can now see).  Our little community of Brookline, Vermont has a town hall, a historic round schoolhouse (perhaps the only one in the U.S.A) a small elementary school building and the Historic Church of Brookline - about which much more will be written.

After our belongings arrived via moving van -  no, actually before all our belongings arrived -  one of the first things we did was go looking for the closest library - which we found one town over in Newfane VT.  This is where we first met Judy, the current president of the Historic Brookline Church Preservation Initiative - or HBCPI for short.  Judy was one of the volunteers in the library that afternoon and she asked if I was interested in joining the HBCPI: I said yes,  we pass by this lovely place going to and from home, I'd be glad to help ensure it's continued existence.

And that was the very beginning of my involvement with this lovely group of folks, whose mission has been to preserve this lovely old historic building and to find new ways to make it available to the community.  There is much more to tell, so more posts will be up shortly --especially as the annual "Moonlight in Vermont" Quilt is well underway!