November

 It has been an amazing month.  I can't believe how nice the weather started out.  Having warm sunny days for Wisconsin in November are usually not phrases put together. And I would remember as it is my birthday month. 

As it was a big birthday, it was again hard to not be able to have a get together with all the family.  But we made it work. I did go out to my favorite restaurant as a splurge. And on Saturday, my spouse and I went up to Cedarberg to walk the streets. This was a gorgeous view along the river. And I visited 2 quilt stores for some treasures. 

                                          

And while I have continued to quilt almost daily, I have not blogged.  Oh dear.

Here is a finish: a small doll quilt with matching pillow and mattress pad. 

Our guild coordinates with a wood working guild to make the doll beds to go with these. 

And November means new quilt alongs.  I have looked at Bonnie Hunter's for this year called Grassy Creek.  I love the fall colors.  But after last year's  I just don't know if  I will try.

But I whole heartedly am jumping into Corinne et Cecile quilt along:  https://ateliercocopatch.com/2020/11/04/annonce-du-corinne-et-cecile-quilt-along/

I have done this for 3 years and truly 2 have become my favorite quilts.  ( Well one is in the quilting stage and I still love the colors and the pattern. ) Each year is a theme: previous ones were 9 patch, flowers, and stars. This year's theme is curves.  

I had a great time searching books and patterns an online.  Ah, the inspiration, so energizing.

I have decided to do the following quilt  of Karen Stone's.

This is the book it is from and has been patiently waiting on my shelf.  My color combination will be reds, browns, golds, and blacks, with an off white. 

So January's blocks await. I need to get the pattern pieces copied. 

And while working on last year's quilt: I did layer it. and got down to trying to quilt it. 

This is something I don't have much experience with. And I love this quilt too much to just willy nilly it. No, I don't own a mid or long arm. 

So I did do the sides of all the lattice. It went very well with the new walking foot I had acquired in the spring. And then what to quilt in each block?  Hmmm  I purchased this dry erase pocket, and placed a copy of the block inside. Using dry erase markers, I tried out designs. 2nd step done.

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Now I need to practice my ruler quilting to get it done.

Lastly I finished piecing my daughter's quilt: This went fairly quickly Each pinwheel is comprised of 6 triangles. And although I did not have the designated ruler/template for the pattern. I did have a             60 degree ruler to make it work. fabrics are a combination of  a bundle of Tula Pink fabrics and some Kaffe Fassett added to make the right size.  She likes orange, and this has lots of it.    It is off the to quilter but waiting for backing and batting. 

Little Progress

 I can say I have done some limited quilting.

My biggest accomplishment this past couple of weeks is to say I finished  the top for this quilt.

Sorry to say, I do not have an updated photo.  But to the edges I had added a one inch blue border. And then I gave up on the pieced border of Bonnie Hunter's Frolic and just added a larger blue piece of the same fabric. I caved.  I just couldn't visualize and mathematically figure out how to  add the half square triangles. I had them made and even pieced into sides. It was too busy and it was off with the measurements. I did not want to stretch or adapt the sides to fit and therefore have waves. 

These colors are blah compared to the brown carpet.  

But it is at the quilters.  Hooray! One Christmas present off .

In the past couple weeks, we have had a large variation of fall weather.  The beautiful leaves turned and impressed us with its grand colors next to beautiful blue skies. And then it rained and rained and the colors dropped leaving a few trees with leaves, but not the sparkling reds and oranges. So early only October 25. 

 

     

I have continued to make a 2nd wool tree for Christmas.  It is funny how much easier the 2nd one was and how much quicker I was able to finish it.  One for sister and one for me. Easy to do but tedious. 

The base is a DollarTree pine tree. The needles are all cut off ( in a paper or plastic bag).  Then you fringe the wool strips and wrap around the branches from the center out gluing with Tacky Glue. Sorry, I do not have photos.  The differences in the 2 trees are the color of the green wool. 

 

Additional progress on my row by row Halloween quilt. 

Here is what I have together so far.

This is the cute witch and frog without buttons for eyes. It is a Kimberbell booklet pattern. So cute!

 Next is a pieced row of flying geese using 2 triangles with a balanced color on each side from the center square.

The next row, I just played around with pieced pumpkins and black and white background. These stages were done last year. What is new about the pumpkins is the addition of ricrac which I actually made dimensional. I may add some lime green leaves. 

Then I have another pieced border of piano keys but with offset black squares.

And there it is.  I need 2 additional rows one with I think will be a cat, bat, and spider

and some wording and lastly a border.  Tentative plans: the creative process goes on. 

I have been missing blogging, but not having the time to do so. 

Retreat

 I was so happy to get away for a sewing weekend.  It felt good to talk with PEOPLE! And it was wonderful to share ideas and get some concentrated sewing done.   We went to Oshkosh, and stayed at a hotel which also included a room for the 8 of us to sew in. We brought a lot of our own food and prey much stayed put. No shopping or excursions. But that was fine. 

I was thrilled to get this finished.  It has been a struggle to get the blocks done for my last row. This was a row by row for my guild.  I had started the top one and then passed it to 4 other quilters. I decided to redo the bottom row. I searched Pinterest for images and then printed and sized them for piecing. 

The final block is the one in the middle of the row and was redone completely. 

Now I will add some vehicles, trees, cars, etc. to add more details to the blocks. I had originally thought wool, but am just going to add cotton fabric. 

Then this little buddy has taken over a week to complete.  This started out as a dollar tree Christmas tree in a box.   All the little needles were cut off, and that was a project in itself.  This was started a year ago. I missed the demonstration for gluing the wool to the branches.  I recently sought out my friend who showed me how to attach the wool with Tacky glue.  It took 3 evenings including football games and lots of extra cuttings of the wool. I guess it is about 12 inches or so tall. 

I thought I would share my front porch fall decorations. I have enjoyed some Youtube videos and fall crafting.  The leaves are turning and the weather has gotten considerably colder. Even the heat has come on in the house and I switched over to my winter quilt. My husband has raked his first batch of leaves. There will be more; the colors around here are beautiful. 

                

I am so thrilled to be featured on Quiltfabrication's blog today. https://www.quiltfabrication.com/

Susan always has such wonderful projects herself, but I love her Midweek Makers. 

September finishes

It has been hard for me to adjust to being home ( and with my spouse). 

I haven't gotten into a schedule or routine. And while I have done a lot of cleaning and decorating and such, I have wasted time as well. 

But I did turn on my mojo of late: here are some projects that have been laying around waiting to be finished. First off, I had admired some fall pillows at Hobby Lobby. But found their plaid fabric and decided to make my own. 

These are designs from an Edyta Sitar book I was able to borrow from a friend.

I loved using the batiks, and playing around with the arrangements.

This one I actually wove the basket with 2 different browns. 

Love how it turned out, except for the fact that it is off center. Oh well. 

Done is better than perfect.

Last year, I purchased some strips of fabric from Primitive Gatherings summer sale.

It was great fun to play around with the strips.

I made 4 different designs at the time.

I finally got around to finishing them yesterday.

I pillowcased the top and back. Then inserted an iron on batting.

It gave it a little stability and padding for the table.

Lastly,  I have been stitching away each night while we watch tv. 

I love Crabapple Hill designs. This is an oldie I found in my stash of patterns.

I think I will finish the design, but then applique the pumpkin onto a gray background. 

It feels good to be finishing and sewing again.

And I get to go on a retreat this weekend.  Just 8 of us. 

 

Labor Day

 As usual, my spouse and I went up north to Door County in Wisconsin.  It was a whole new experience without the normal festivities of Labor Day: no music, no art fairs, no outdoor food trucks, and no used book sale. Yet there were many, many people. We remained distant and ate outdoors. For the most part people were very good wearing masks. 

And as always, being with nature is restorative and so beautiful. 

We love visiting parks and walking beaches and trails.

We even visited a lighthouse at the Coast Guard Station. 

             

The weather was a combination of cool and at times very windy.  But it was a great getaway.

We did visit a small outdoor art fair, maybe 8 venders. But this is the top of one I really liked:

If you look closely these are batik fabrics made into these banners. So easy: no seams on the edges and the top is just folded over the hanging string.  I thought it would be great for outdoors. 

I have not done much sewing of late, but have decided to complete my row by row from a couple years ago completed from the guild. 

This is the status of where I began the final stage. So many wonderful houses and buildings made by friends. 

I removed the bottom row and have decided to make additional house blocks to balance the top out.

I have searched for inspiration from the internet for house blocks.  Then I print off pictures and make my own calculations for measurements. 

Here are some of the ones I have finished thus far. 

          

This ones needs an appliqued door and door frame 

I hope to get all together this week.

Hope your weekend was enjoyable a well.

Pillows

 Finishing up projects/ pillows this week. The first set goes with my newly decorated bedroom. These pillows are made from leftover Thimbleberries squares I had. They are completed at 20 inches. 

Here is the pair of pillows on my back porch with leaves falling after our rain storm. 

The quilting is a combination stitch in the ditch and templates for the circles as well as Golden Threads paper for inside the square in a square. 

And here are the backs. I just lined them and overlapped the 2 sides. 

The second set is to match the quilt I had made from Meadow Mist designs a few years ago as a mystery quilt. I used the same design and basic fabrics as the quilt. 

Here is the pair of them at 18 inches; they are 2 different oranges which is her favorite color.

No quilting on these. 

And the back has the required Minky dots for the cat to sit on. She likes them. 

Jensen and his 4K quilt

 My cute grandson is so excited. He finally gets to go to school like his big brother.  Yeah for 4 year old kindergarten! He is so much fun; and is Grandpa's little buddy. We get a kick out of him looking so much like his daddy. 

 

So a week ago, my daughter in law mentioned she hadn't purchased a nap blanket for this guy.  I had made one for the older brother 2 years ago. And all I needed was this comment to immediately volunteer to make one. But he needs it for September 1. 

So to the fabric stash I went.  I found a great construction vehicle print. And then searched Pinterest for boy quilts. I have always wanted to make this one. 

   But I found an easy peasy one that would work better. 

I had a selection of solids and added a couple from my favorite local quilt shop. And worked a plan out. After a day of math mistakes, I made the correction without re-cutting all the blocks. 

I appliqued five of the vehicles to the road and then added the borders. Quilting was just done to outline the roads and the vertical seams with a walking foot. The back is a might crooked.  Oh well!

And last is his name.   Love this guy to bits. This is only his 3rd quilt I have made for him. 

Binding is the same fabric.