Happy Birthday to me!

 My long time quilting buddy and I went for a drive to Cedarburg and our favorite quilt shops. We  bought each other a lunch as presents for both our birthdays.  We have been friends so long. 

So besides the company, we had a great time at Ye Olde Schoolhouse. It has lots of stitchery and wool as well as a great assortment of reproduction fabrics.  Oh, the inspiration! I only bought some yardage to fill in some holes in the stash.  I need to start my half square triangles into something. 

But then we also found the new location for My Material Matters. And I fell for some Tilda fabrics as a gift to myself. The fabrics are made in Norway and they have an awesome feel to them. 

I found a pattern from Coriander Quilts and made my first block:

Christmas sewing started: 

Last year I deocorated 2 stockings for my daughter and her beau.

This year I made 2 little ones for their pets to go along with them.

Knitted stockings from Target , trim and wool embroidery added. 

And for in front of the tv at night, I have a new cross stitch:

It is a Primrose cottage pattern:

My progress so far:

No quilts this year for Christmas and that is ok. 

Birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant:

Finishing little and big

 I have been finishing things: old and new.

1)  So happy to finally get the binding on my navy Chandelier Quilt.  I really love the  colors and design as it sets all of those leftover quarter square triangles. The patchwork is in reproduction fabrics and it is twin sized. 

I sent it to my quilting with a no rush request and she held it for a while.  No big deal.  and then when I got it back, I put it on a back burner especially since I went on retreat and visited the grandkids. 

She elected to quilt with an interesting lightning bolt all over stipple. So appropriate!

2) I finished my cross stitch for fall which I have been doing for the past 6 weeks.  It is a Lori Holt design, but I used her colors from another pattern and kit I have of hers.  My first work on evenweave.  I like the results, and it was a challenge to count. but I am so happy with the result. 

3) I worked on quilting some small projects.  I did a rough straight line quilt around the blocks for a July 4th piece.  In the middle, I knocked off the thread stand and spent an hour searching for it.   So I ended up organizing some projects. And that was an accomplishment.  And then I found the thread stand.  YEAH.

So I then attached a 30 inch square of exchange blocks I whipped together at retreat.  Not a great quilt design, but I just wanted to get it off my pile.  So donation quilt it is.  My muscle memory was pretty good for the large free motion stipple.  My foot however, was inconsistent on speeds changing stitch length as I sewed.   It was good to practice again.

The back was an old Deb Strain flannel, perfectfor the colors AND I had a spool of a light orange. A perfect thread for the quilting. the edge of the binding fabric is sticking out. Good enough.

These were churn dash blocks cut into fourths, which I then reassembled. 

Retreat time!

 Delighted to get away and have some time just to sew and chat with friends.  Our group went to a former church camp location.  We had fewer quilters than usual, but maybe that is good not to have too much noise and such.  I, myself, get a little overwhelmed after a while and need some good old quiet time. 

But all in all, it was great to have someone else cook and clean.  And the best part was sharing ideas and shout outs to things I forgot to pack.  I was so rushed this time. 

So what was I able to accomplish:

First: lots of acorn mug rugs/ candle mats/ door decoration or whatever you want to call it.  I was only able to finish about 16 of them due to lack of planning. I ran out of backing and batting. This group is going to Indiana in gift baskets for my Mom's caregivers. 

Second, I was able to get my Fig Tree pumpkin top together.   It took a while to strip piece in seminole style for the borders in between the rows.  I am glad to have this accomplished. 

Third, I made a donation block for an exchange.  All we had to do was use teal, black and gray.

My friend was the receiver of the drawing.  

And lastly once I got home, I completed my row for the next part of the round robin.  I just made all the quarter square units.  Interesting, the fabric is from an old Wisconsin fabric line from several years ago.

My sewing machine is getting a good work out and has needed to be cleaned twice lately. 

November is here!

 I don't know about your area, but we have had the most beautiful fall colors  this year.  Oh my, especially the oak trees which are normally just boring brown.  It took a long time for the colors to turn as we are in a drought and have not had much rain which is needed to turn them. And the wind we had yesterday whisked all the remaining leaves somewhere else.

Anyway, I have had time to sew as well as to organize a little of my sewing area. (Cleaning creates chaos first, at least for me.) 

I am the queen for Stash Bee this month and so I needed to make directions and samples for my 1/4 log cabin. Photo contains 3 sample blocks each with different sized logs, but all in red, white, and blue.

I had another delightful visit with my Mom and Sister in Indianapolis. 

She is doing so well for being almost 93 and in an a memory care unit for 5 years.

Here is my dear husband leading a drum circle for the unit she lives on: 

I can never get him to be still so photos are interesting.