FNSI & a little RSC?

Happy Saturday before Thanksgiving. This time next week we'll be full of turkey sandwiches & stuffing. I hope all your plans are in place. This year the holiday falls right square on our 43rd anniversary and, yes, I'll still be cooking. After 43 years (and this coincidence has happened before already) I'm kind of used to it. I must confess that I did look into going out or picking up a pre-cooked meal at the grocery store but it didn't seem right. So next Thursday you'll find me in the kitchen cooking for Mom & Fred as usual and I'm pretty OK with that.

Last night was Friday Night Sew-In and I managed to get some time to myself. Yay! I knew what I wanted to get done so I got my fabric together.

I found the red snowflake fabric in my stash. Hope I didn't have different plans for it. Too late now! The adorable snowman fabric was a piece I picked up at Pineapple Fabrics when I met Joy @ The Joyful Quilter. I'll always think of her now when I see this fabric.

Fabric was cut and sewn together. Just needs the back handsewn down. Perfect timing because Friday is a good night for TV around here. First comes Magnum PI followed by Blue Bloods. So I stitched ... mostly on commercials! And finished! 

Ready for the back of my toilet after Thanksgiving, of course.

There was time for a little more handwork so I got out some cross stitch. The pattern is Gentle Words by La-D-Da. It started the evening like this ...

and progressed to this. Doesn't look like a whole lot but we cross stitchers know that  it's a slow process.

So that was my Friday night. A little of this, a little of that. Mostly just happily doing what I like!

Thank you to Wendy @ Sugarlane Designs for hosting FNSI. I'm linking up & sharing there with my friends. You should go too if only to see her new grandson Ryker. He's a cutie!

I'm also linking up with Angela @ So Scappy to share and see what my RSC friends have been up to as well.

Have a good weekend!

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.

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.

Got Some Orange Done!

This week I managed to get all three of my Irish Courthouse Step blocks done and they are so pretty, even though each is so different.

Yellow-orange with a pretty floral

Halloween-esque!

Who says you can't mix dots & stripes?!?!

See what I mean? Even the shades of orange are different and that last one? A bit wild, eh?

I also grabbed the remnants of Sew Spooky and squared up a couple of HSTs. There were leftover candy corn triangles that got sewn into semi-circles. Now what? Hahaha! They were going to be my table topper for Joy's Table Scraps Challenge but, as usual, my "process" takes so much longer than most.

I finished the knitted mittens and will share pictures of them after blocking. I love them! So with those done, I cast on a pair of socks. Look! Orange!

That's all I've got for this week. Orange you glad I didn't make more? Hahaha! C'mon, man, everyone's (over?) using that joke this month! Hahaha!

Linking up with my friend Angela and the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters HERE,

Have a great final week of September!

Friday Night with Friends & Rainbow Scraps

Our lovely hostess Wendy gathered us together for our monthly sew-in. We meet virtually every 3rd Saturday of the month and it's so much fun to see what everyone has been busy doing. Last night I worked on Irish Courthouse Steps, a pattern from Bonnie Hunter. I caught myself up on the last turquoise/aqua block. It's pretty blah in appearance but, wherever there's a party, there's bound to be a shrinking violet, right?

Using the above as leaders & enders, I worked on the 2021 Twisted project which is hosted by my friend LindaLee. I now have all ten of these blocks worked up. I'm really enjoying the Studio 180 rulers for this project.

Earlier this week I worked on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. September is orange, the perfect excuse for finishing up BOO. On Thursday's post I told how I found this really cool fabric on the Free Table at guild and knew it was perfect for BOO. This week I pieced the back, quilted, and bound BOO. Check out ALL THAT ORANGE!!!

A look at the front!

A look at the back!

Those owls just kill me!!! The striped fabric used to stretch the owls and also used for the sleeve were remnants from Sew Spooky top that I finished up earlier this year. The binding was a scrap that was earlier used for the "B" in BOO. If you like this easy, peasy pattern, you can pick it up at Susan Marth's website HERE. Her patterns are wonderful!

Earlier in the week I finished up the dark blue Irish Courthouse Steps. Finally caught up to ORANGE!

So I started an orange one. Here it is under the needle. So pretty!

And here are the other two waiting in the wings.

And because I have my hat in a lot of rings, here's the start of last month's BOM with my guild.

This week I plan on starting the quilting on this project. It's due at next month's 2021 UFO Challenge through my LQS. After quilting it, I'll turn it into a pillow. I plan on making a zippered back. If you know me at all, you know I'm shaking just at that thought!

I think I'll be busy for a while. How about you? Have a great week doing whatever you have planned!

Linking up with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs and Angela at Super Scrappy!