FNSI, RSC, & Retreat

I've been off the grid this week due to the arrival of my best friend last Saturday. We left for retreat Sunday afternoon and spent some glorious girlfriend time. Sure wish I'd taken some pictures of my friend but I did get a picture of one of the three (?) wool applique projects Vickie completed while there.

Acorn pillow not quite finished here.
Buttermilk Basin design

Here's a picture of a sweet Christmas quilt sewn together by my friend, Amy. I'm not sure of the pattern name. Sorry about that.

Table buddy Sharon was in the Halloween mode. She finished this one:

And this one she had just about finished with the exception of two sides. She got it finished when she got home and sent me this picture.

F

For the first time ever, we had a married couple sewing with us. Mike hasn't been quilting all that long but is he ever into it and he's always thinking of better ways. Here's the quilt he put together at retreat.

Obviously (probably) it's being held sideways so it didn't hang on the floor. Wouldn't it be perfect for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge?? Sorry, but again I don't know the name of the pattern. I'm sure I could get it for you if you want it though.

So what did I do? I made this adorable table mat that was a kit from Timeless Traditions by Norma Whaley. It was strip-cut and fabrics were already pre-matched so that made it easier to put together. However, pieces still had to be cut and sewn. This little mat finishes at 15".

The striped fabric in the top of the picture is the binding and the fabric that it is laying on is the backing. They were also included in the kit.

We left retreat Thursday morning and headed into St. Louis to Batiks Plus. Besides being an authorized Bernina dealer, they also have all sorts of Hoffman batiks and I knew Vickie would love it. I was not wrong especially since I'd given her a gift certificate for her retirement. Batiks Plus does an incredible business online because of all their batiks which includes ALL THE HOFFMAN 1895 FABRICS! You can visit HERE. We spent a little over three hours. So.Many.Batiks!

On Friday we decided to go to Itch'n to be Stitch'n in Staunton IL. This is another quilt shop that you should visit if ever in the St. Louis metro area. We shopped some more and had loads of fun there too.

During the evening hours we settled in for some handwork and rest. Vickie was working on a crocheted tablecloth and she made great progress there. I worked some more on my knitted socks. The pattern is Caramel Sauce by Joji Designs, which you can find on Ravelry. Here's where I am right now. Just a couple more rows and I'll be turning the heel. All the while I was also sewing with Wendy & friends during Friday Night Sew-In. You can see what all got accomplished HERE.

Vickie left this morning. I have a Zoom TAS (The Applique Society) meeting this afternoon with Janice Vaine. I'm looking forward to her trunk show. If you like applique, you really should join TAS. We get a lot of 1st rate teachers lined up to speak to us & teach classes. You can learn more HERE. I've already started the laundry and will finish up during the meeting. Then we take Gracie to the kennel because we (meaning Fred, Mom, & me) leave tomorrow for almost two weeks. We will be in NC visiting my brother and on to MD/VA to visit my son and daughter. Of course we'll also be seeing BRODY!

I'm letting you in on this because I'll be hit-or-miss for a while longer. In the meantime, have yourself a wonderful rest of October!

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy and all the other RSC quilters HERE. Happy stitching!

No Lime For Me ... Yet!

While I didn't get any light/lime green scraps sewn, I did make some RSC progress. If you recall from a previous post I noticed that I had forgotten to make the Lotus Bloom blocks for dark blue month and also the orange month. So here they are!

I also noticed some missing parts on one of the Afternoon Delight applique blocks. I went to work and the block went from this in July:

To this now:

I also finished this block:

And then I started and finished this one! I was on a roll! This completes all 40 of the applique blocks! YIPPEE!

In between the stitching, I found time to get inside our house ready for Fall. Want to take a peek at a few quilty decorations?

Of course, you met BOO recently. It hangs in the dining room.

I took out the patriotic middle of this painted wooden wreath and replaced it with the pumpkin. My BFF made this for me a long time ago. It hangs in the kitchen.

Just inside the front door is this little shelf with a changeable quilty cross stitch framed. Next to it is a monthly cross stitch pillow that my cousin got me one year for Christmas. The black frame is one of those wireless thermometer things.

Witch's Boot hangs in the kitchen over Gracie's food bowl.

This little Buttermilk Pattern hangs over the downstairs toilet to greet Fall.

These little wool pillows sit on the back of the downstairs toilet covered with a tiny 10-minute Autumnal runner.

This embroidery with wool applique hangs on the bathroom wall. The buttons were from my grandmother's button collection.

Let's get a little closer so you can read it.

My wool kitchen "curtain".

A fun quilt hangs over the couch. Spooky pillow sits on the back of the couch to keep the little black kitty company. Ha!

Hanging in the hallway, this looks very Fall-ish to me. I love how I quilted the background with different motifs in sections.

I absolutely LOVE this wool applique wall hanging. I took a class with my sister quite a few years ago. Our instructors were The Quilted Crows from Australia. We were supposed to use a 1/4 yard of wool for background but I accidentally bought a fat quarter. I had to redesign the original pattern from a long table runner to this square wall hanging. My sister's project is beautiful too and she managed to keep to the pattern. When I see my wall hanging or her table runner, it makes me smile every time. We enjoyed that class a lot.

That's the trip around my house all decked out for the new season. I'm leaving for retreat tomorrow so I had to hustle to get the decorations up. I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as I'll be enjoying sewing with friends!

Here's a peek at what one of the projects I plan working on at retreat. Autumn Jubilee is well underway and the first sewing steps landed yesterday. It's not too late to join. All you have to do is go HERE!

Top of Photo: My starched and ready-to-go Fall fabrics

Bottom of Photo: Cut and ready-to-sew pieces for the Maple Leaf blocks.

 Look out retreat friends! Here I come and I'm ready to start sewing the first set of blocks!

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy.

I Like Thursday #53

I Like Thursday blog post #53? That number always reminds me of Randy Gradishar, a Denver Bronco professional football player from WAAAAY back. So long ago, it was before the NFL got too political for us. Oh well, I still like the number 53.

I know I sound like a broken record but Gracie & I are still enjoying the sunrises. We have more opportunity to do so since the sun doesn't come up until close to 7am now. We are already out walking by that time.

No picture but I cooked Lamb Barley Soup the other day. One word -- YUMMY! You can find the recipe HERE. It was shared to me by my local grocery store. It's easy to make with lots of cans (which I usually shy away from but it sounded too good to pass up!).

We've got a new family collage picture on the wall. The three on the left are older ones. On top is my father-in-law with all seven of his children. The middle one is all the relatives that joined in for my mother's 80th birthday eight years ago. The lower left one is a picture of my family taken 20-ish years ago. The big one on the right is my family now, taken just last May. I finally got off my duff and had it blown up. I really like how easy it is to order pictures online and then they arrive at my doorstep!

I also like how my daughter is so smart and thoughtful to order a tripod specifically to take family pictures. BONUS: It came with a clicker so we don't have to set up the camera, then someone has to hit the timer and run back into place before it goes off. That's how the lower left picture was taken! Haha! Prehistoric times!

Have you had a chance to check out Carole's Autumn Jubilee 2021 yet? We haven't started the pieced project yet but she's already shared some Fall books to read and began an embroidery project and a wool applique project. Click on the picture below to visit her blog. Gonna be fun!

As for TV this week, I am still enjoying Survivor (of course) and have recently liked Law & Order: Organized Crime. It's new. I WAS enjoying the Cardinal baseball games but that all came to an end last night when we gave up a homerun in the bottom of the 9th inning to the LA Dodgers. Our season is over but my husband reminded me that the St. Louis Blues hockey will be starting up again real soon.

Please join my I Like Thursday blogging friends over at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color, where we all share fun stuff! See you next week!

October is HERE!!!

Hello to all my quilty friends and welcome to Fall. The leaves have started falling and we've got a storm on the horizon. That means plenty of warm, sticky breezes blowing the leaves off the trees. I was just up on the roof this morning blowing out the gutters in preparation. But enough of that, let's talk quilts!

I managed to finish up all the orange Irish Courthouse Steps and was thinking I was done with RSC September Orange.

All of a sudden it dawned on me that I hadn't done an orange Lotus block. When I looked in my pile of those blocks, I saw that not only was there not a September orange block, there wasn't a turquoise/aqua Lotus block either! Oh brother! Where was my head???

Last night was Friday Night with Friends. I joined Cheryll at Gone Stitchin' and other quilty friends virtually for the fun. First up -- find a nice square of aqua, another one of orange, and two background squares. Then I took them to my starching table to dry overnight. I'll be attacking those sometime this weekend. If I was smart, I would have also starched up an extra background square and a light, bright green for the RSC color for October. Guess I'll do that later this week while I also look for candidates for the October Irish Courthouse blocks.

So what did I work on after I played in the starch? I finished the last three Falling Star blocks for Twisted 2020. I shared all of them HERE yesterday if you need to take a peek as a reminder. Then I pulled out all the pieces for the Star Power of Twisted 2020. Because it's scrappy, I had to sort the block parts to at least try for no repeats when I sew the blocks together. Here's the pile for the 1st eight blocks ready to be sewn.

Here are the remaining unorganized parts. Apparently they will make slightly different Star Power blocks. There is a total of 13 Star Power blocks.

When I finished that, I had to break from my sewing space because not only was the Cardinals baseball game on but the season opener for Magnum P.I. and Blue Bloods was starting up. Could I just sit and watch? Of course not! I pulled out the Afternoon Delight applique block that I had been working on a month ago. I made it around the third heart-shaped corner and more!

Only the bottom right-hand heart to go and then the center, inner circle.

Did you get a chance to visit Carole at My Carolina Home yet? She's running her annual Autumn Jubilee again this year. Click on the button on my right sidebar to check it out. I'm very excited and have done a little fabric pull in anticipation of the table topper. I picked most of these up at Rosemary's Fabrics & Quilts the other day at her garage sale. Perfect timing to find these!

What are your plans this weekend? Whatever you choose to do, I hope it's a good time! I'll be linking up and exploring the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters to see all the green goodness over at Super Scrappy.

WOOFA & PHD September Report

I looked back on last month's WOOFA & PHD post to see what I planned on working on in September. I pointed out how close I was to finishing the applique blocks for Afternoon Delight and that I wanted to work on the Twisted 2020 quilt. Checking my progress on each of these I've discovered that I never touched the applique! I was shocked! This is how I left it last month and this is how it still looks this month.

I think it was because September's handwork was my knitting project! I am happy to say that I finished these mittens. They are ready to be gifted. They were really fun to make but a bit intense. (Sadly this pattern is no longer available on Ravelry.)

Front Sides

Back Sides

So what did I sew during September besides my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks? I worked on getting the pieces sewn on Twisted 2020 and assembling the Falling Star blocks. Ta! Da! (As you can probably see, there are three blocks not 100% sewn together but I laid them out anyway. Wouldn't this make a stunning Quilts of Valor?)

During September I also prepped for Halloween by making an apron and finishing up BOO! (Pattern available at Sewing With Susan.)

Actually finished this at the end of August but never shared it.

What will I work on this month? Here's my list:

• As you can probably guess, I'll be working on actually getting the last of the Afternoon Delight applique blocks done.
• I'll also be working on the 2020 and the 2021 Twisted quilts.
• Did you happen to notice the new button on my sidebar for the 2021 Autumn Jubilee? I'll be working on all sorts of Autumnal projects there too. You should check it out and see if you would like to join in with Carole & friends!
• I've started another pair of socks with JojiKnits Fall knit-a-long. The socks are called Caramel Sauce.

I'll bet I find other fun stuff to work on too but I'll end my "official" list right there. What have you been working on? Are you ready for the Fall Season?

I Like Thursday #52

What a week! My cousin arrived in St. Louis Tuesday from New York. On her way through, she & her son did us the honors of stopping by for dinner. They also brought us a bottle of wine as a thank you. I'm excited to try this brand because my neighbors shared with us a bourbon barrel cabernet sauvignon but from Woodbridge.

Because all the excitement was going to happen here at my house Tuesday afternoon, Mom stayed past her usual Monday departure. We enjoyed sharing a meal with our guests but mostly I liked spending time with them. What a nice group that could share ideas and frustrations on current events without the conversation becoming heated. We are family and we respect each other's opinion. There was love and I liked that very much. (Forgot to take pictures though. Rats!)

I'm liking that my neighborhood is getting into the spirit of Fall and Halloween. Gracie & I spied these three houses all in a row on our walk the other morning.

This last house pictured also had this display as well.

We are really enjoying our St. Louis Cardinals this week and earlier. Besides clinching a spot in the playoffs, they won 17 games in a row! Love our Cardinals!

I'm enjoying another new season of Survivor. It's a shortened season so there are extra twists and tricks. So far I haven't figured out who my favorites are but one or two usually become apparent soon. As for NCIS, we're enjoying that as well and were happy to say that we enjoyed NCIS: Hawaii a lot better this week than the first week. Maybe there's hope for this one yet! Anyone know when Bull or Blue Bloods start up this year?

I liked the book sale at C&T last week. I ordered these books that arrived this week. There are so many quilts that I want to make!

We've been unseasonably warm here this week which was quite a contrast to last week's Fall chill. Gracie and I are looking forward to cooler walking weather that out meteorologists are promising is on the way next week. In the meantime, we been enjoying the sunrises, We've noticed that the nights are really getting longer.

Last year's crop was corn. This year is soybeans.

I hope your past week was great and that your upcoming week will be even better!

Enjoy other I Like Thursdays posts at Not Afraid of Color.