October PHD Report

I'm taking the liberty of sounding positive with the title of this post. I don't have much to share since I was gone for the last two weeks of the month but I will share what I did manage to finish/work on. First the quilty things.

I did get ALL of the applique blocks finished up for Afternoon Delight. This was the last block of forty total. Pshew! 

I also got a start on the Double 9-Patch blocks. There's a ton of these to do and will make fabulous leaders & enders. *wink*

I made progress on Twisted 2020 blocks. The blocks on the left will join the ones on the right that I finished last month.

This adorable project from Timeless Traditions was started and finished at quilt retreat this month. Score that one for me!

Now for the knitting ...

I started AND FINISHED this new hat. The pattern is called "Change Your Mind" by Joji Locatelli. You can see the details on Ravelry HERE.

Fits just right! I actually wore it this morning due to frosty temperatures on my walk this morning with Gracie. (The new header picture at the top of the post was taken this morning.)

I started knitting Caramel Sauce Socks (also by Joji Locatelli) but only got this far.

These will get finished shortly.

So what will I be working on this month?

1. Caramel Sauce Socks - need to be finished
2. Afternoon Delight - more Double 9-Patch blocks sewn
3. Twisted 2020 - more blocks sewn together to make progress on the quilt center. Then a decision will need to be made on how much more to add
4. Christmas Pillow - zippered back needs to be added along with a pillow form
5. Timeless Traditions Fall Mat - quilted and finished
6. Hope - let the quilting begin!
7. Twisted 2021 - progress ... any progress ... would be good!

So there you have it. October is over for this year and November is upon us. I don't feel like I made much progress last month. I plan on changing that for this month! I hope you made lots of progress last month with lots to come in November.

Have a great month!

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.

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?

RSC Aqua

Let me start by saying I had a wonderful time at retreat this week. I'm looking forward to the October one and hope that we'll be able to get together then. While at retreat, I squeezed out an aqua block. I used the opportunity to make it my leader & ender. The others were quite impressed with my L & E. I even got another one started but I'll save that another time.

I cut out enough pieces to make 5+ of these complete blocks. I say "plus" because I've got enough of some of the pieces to make 8 but only had a chance to sew together these two. Scrappy but no aqua.

These blocks use the Corner Beam ruler from Deb Tucker & Studio 180 Design. It is a WONDERFUL ruler and I'm looking forward to using it more in the future.

I got about half the binding sewn down for my Positivity quilt which has now been completed. Needs a  washing and a photo shoot which will take place today hopefully.

While at retreat I also worked on a little applique. I got the top half done on this block.

There was also a little stash enhancement done while I was away but some much needed rest, eating, and (most of all) laughter & chatting with friends. I hadn't been on this retreat for about 4 years. Maybe even longer than that so there was a lot of catching up to do with friends that I hadn't seen in that long!

I'm already looking forward to next retreat but I'll sign off for now. Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Angela at Sew Scrappy to see how other RSC quilters have progressed this week.

What a Great Friday!

What a great Friday I had! Things started off with lunch out for hubby's birthday. We went to one of our favorite local hole-in-the-walls and enjoyed a tasty meal. Then it was off to St. Louis to pick up Roger!! Yippee! The reason my sewing machine was making a clunking noise was a part was worn out. Got the new one installed, then cleaned up ready for pickup. Check out the stitching under the foot -- TURQUOISE! Perfect timing for Rainbow Scrap Challenge's August color!!!

With the turquoise thread used to run his through the stitches, I just knew he would be purring right along, even though Aaron said it's not quite as good as new. Aaron thought I'd still be quite pleased. So, in between Olympic events last night, I got Roger set up for sewing, cut a couple of large squares, and produced these HSTs for a Lotus Flower block.

Then I just had to get back to watching the Cardinals baseball game and Olympics so applique it was for Friday Night with Friends. This is the block I started working on.

You can just barely see that the right hand, outside part of the circle has been sewn. That was pretty much all I could manage last night but I thoroughly enjoyed rooting on the Cardinals and rooting on Team USA in girls indoor volleyball and the men's platform diving!

Earlier in the week I did finish up another applique block for Afternoon Delight. I'm really starting to see the end of the applique for this quilt.

Kind of looks like "rolling eyes" all around that star, doesn't it? Guess I might have been a little more careful and fussy-cut that fabric but I didn't and I am done.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Cheryll for FNwF and Angela for RSC.

Last RSC & WOOFA

This being the last Saturday of July, I'm sure Angela, our fearless RSC leader, will be announcing our color for August. According to my fellow RSC bloggers, it will either be orange or turquoise. I'm good with either of those colors and will be happy with either choice!

Just did a check on the Lotus blocks. Oops! Didn't make a dark blue version so the design floor looks this for the time being.

The Irish Courthouse Steps still need one more dark blue block. Guess I'll do that one at the same time as the  Lotus Flower block. I think these are looking pretty good so far.

As for the July WOOFA (Working On Or Finishing A ....), I was going to really get a move on the Mini Wool Christmas project. It needed to be quilted & bound & labeled. I managed to get it pin basted and quilted. The binding has been chosen and is being prepared. Here's the project as it stands right now.

Wasn't that the perfect backing fabric? This was a really fun project from two years ago, I believe. At that time, my friend Katie & I decided to (sort of) make it together. We would push each other to the finish. I think she still has the borders to embroider and then piece the whole thing together. We decided it wasn't a race but we each wanted to be done by this December. Mine was on my 2021 UFO Challenge List with my LQS. It's due August 10th for show 'n' tell. I've got this!

I also wanted to give a good push to the applique blocks left on Afternoon Delight. There are a total of 40 blocks I think and I was getting down to the last 10 or so, maybe 12? I actually did make good progress this month. This block went from this ...

to this!

I then went on to finish these.

I'm currently working on this one.

And I finished my socks last night!

What a good month I've had. Now if only I had BOTH my machines to sew on. The one I named Roger is still in the shop. Sure hope I hear some good news next week!

Linking up for Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela HERE and with Cheryll and my fellow WOOFA quilters HERE!