FALLING LEAVES CHAPTER ONE

I have this fall wall hanging that I have had for many years,  made easily a good 35 years ago.  It is a project I made when I first started my quilting journey.  It is time to retire it and make something new.  

While it appears to be appliquéd it is not.  It was just 2 printed panals that I joined and had quilted.  The quilting is really lovely with leaves and vines.  

I have used this table runner patten a couple of times.  I now have decided to use it again but increase the size by making three rows of of flowers and vines using a fat quarter bundle by Jason Yenter called Falling Leaves, along with some additional yardage of that fabric as well and some background fabrics in my stash.  

I have pulled these fabrics for the center of the quilt.  Of course I have had to order more of a couple of them as well.  I will be modifying the size of the center pieces from the pattern's 3.5"cuts to 6.5" cuts and the center portion of the quilt will be 36" square.  The plan is for the completed quilt to be 50" square once it has a small and larger borders.  

I have prepared the first 5 of the 15 large flowers for the center of the quilt.

And this is 4 of the 12 smaller flowers needed.  

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  The handsome guy above and his two ladies here belong to our youngest daughter.  She lives out in the country on 8 acres and has loads of pets.  Chickens, ducks, geese, and yes this guy along with the his ladies.  Not to worry, all three have been pardon for life and will spend many years pampered and taken care of.   

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THIS AND THAT

 No much accomplished at all this past week.  A good deal of time on the phone back and forth with Thanksgiving dinner plans.  Our youngest daughter's family and husband and I share the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner's hosting.  Depending on her work schedule, she is in the medical field and required to work each year one or the other of those holidays.  The one of us that is hosting organizes an assigned pot luck.  Our other daughter and our granddaughter along with the one not hosting are assigned various dishes and items to bring.  With four families that amount to 12 and sometimes an extra one or two people, sharing the menu means no one has to do all the cooking and grocery purchases.  We all live within a 30 minute drive.  It works very well, other than the fact that we end up with way more food than we needed, but the leftovers are handed out as well.

Our little dog Zoey now has two Christmas placemats all ready for the holidays.  

I fussed around with this storage bag.  It is supposed to have a velcro closure, but I am thinking more like putting a button and button hole on it instead.  The idea was to make a few for my guild's quilt show boutique.  I am not very excited about that idea.

I did finish the charity quilt top.  Once done I think it is really nice.  The idea was to use up all the fabric from the original 45 piece, never ending fat quarter bundle.  I cut up everything leftover and came. up with more than 72 squares cut at 6.5".  Another charity quilt I guess.  The left overs are in a bag and they are going to my friend Michelle.  She can make wheel chair lap quilts for Hospice out of them. 

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BOUTIQUE AND CHARITY PROJECTS CONTINUED

It is a crazy week around here, but thank goodness my cold is much better.  It has been raining here most of the week.  So not able to get out much and do anything outdoors.  I did work for several hours at our quilt show boutique storage unit last Thursday and rolled and priced three huge bins of fabric yardage to sell at the show.  Plus I brought home a couple of donated items that had to be bound. 

Currently I have this scrap quilt up on the design wall to finish.  It is going to my charity group once the top is done and a binding prepared for it.  I try to knock out 2 a month for them.

Unfortunately ridding myself of these scraps doesn't look good, there is at least another quilt top here before I can be done with them.

I did do some extra binding on this boutique runner.  It was donated to us with just quilt as you go quilting, but I did decide to add some serpentine quilting to it and was able to find a binding for it in my stash. 

I still need to shop for a binding for this boutique item.  It really just needs a solid light pink or turquoise binding which I do not have in my stash.

A least one personal item was completed this week.  Our little dog Zoey has a new fall placemat for her meals and I am just finishing the binding on another like it for her.  Have two Christmas ones that have to be bound as well.  Yes, very cute and spoiled dog!!!!!

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PUMPKINS, LEAVES AND STARS

This past week I really have not accomplished much of anything.  I came down with a sour throat, coughing, and very congested cold and have not felt good about doing much of anything.

Last week on Monday I finally finished up this project and it went off to my quilter.  A bit late in the season, but at least it is finished. 

I machine appliquéd the pumpkins down.  

My quilter also dropped off my Autumn Nights quilt that she did custom quilting on.  My policy with my quilter is that I'm the artist that made the top, she's the artist that is going to quilt it.  Almost 100% of the time I just hand it to her and say go for it. I am never disappointed.

I think she did a fabulous job on this one.  

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CANDY CANE TWIIRL AND INTEREST QUILTING FAILURE

 I finished the very last of my quilt show boutique table runners last week.  I am done!!!!!!  Off to sewing for myself and finishing a couple of fall items that were left in the dust this last month or so.

This little beauty is Candy Cane Twirl.  Not for the faint of heart for sure.  All those points and joints just waiting for a seam that is one thread width off to cut them off or cause a gap.  I got this first one done, and thought should I attempt number two.

The second block is always easier than the first.  It is 20" by 36", I skipped a third one.  Not enough Christmas scraps to do the third one.  Love it, off to the quilter tomorrow, goes on the Christmas table this year.  

I had an interesting  issue with quilting this table runner I was doing for my quilt guild's quilt show boutique.  The white border fabric became a major quilting issue for me.  The white dots are a rubbery material.  While running a serpentine stitch through them I was leaving puncture holes and breaking the thread.  Cute fabric, but a complete failure to quilt on it.  I ended up scrapping the entire runner along with another using that same fabric.  Yes, I did try a couple sizes of different needles, no success, and impressions did not iron out and marks at the needle entry do not go away.  Word of warning, pay attention in the future that I do not buy fabric with this type of material. 

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TABLE RUNNERS AND DOGGY PLACEMATS

 I have spent this past week doing pretty much just making table runners for my guild's January quilt show boutique.  Nothing really new just major sewing, quilting, and binding them.  

I have a bit of an assembly line going.  I really want to get this chore done and move on.  

This is the pile of completed ones waiting for me to finish them by hand sew the binding down.  Unfortunately I also another 7 left to start putting together.  But then I am done.  

This is our little Yorkshire Terrier Zoey.  My next project is for her to make some placemats.  Earlier in the year our area had an overtake of ants.  Everyone had issues with them, outside and inside.  Pest control did no good what so ever for anyone.  Zoey's didn't gobble up her breakfast, she liked to come and go all day with a nibbles here and there.  Unfortunately the ants decided her food was yummy.  Zoey found her bowl full of ants and declared she was never going to eat out of a bowl again.  The ant issue has since been eliminated, but Zoey refuses to eat anything out of a bowl now.  We usually put her bowl on a placemat, so found that if we just dumped the kibble on the placemat she would eat it, and she did decide to eat it all up right then and there to avoid the ants.

OK, yes she is a spoiled dog.  At a recent Hobby Lobby fabric shopping trip, husband saw these dog themed fabrics, and I have been assigned to make some placemats for Zoey.  We have had a few special themed mats for her in the past, but now mats have to be washed everyday rather than only changing them every few days.  That is 7 mats a week, I had better start sewing.      

   
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BOUTIQUE TABLE RUNNERS AGAIN

I am back to making table runners for my guild's quilt show boutique coming up in January.  Earlier in the year I finished up a pretty good stack of them for them, but they are asking for more.  Table runners are a big hit at the boutique and sell like hotcakes.

Last week I made up a charity quilt with these fabrics left over from a fat quarter bundle.  I still ended up with lots of them still in the scrap bin.  They are now ending up in table runner for the boutique.  There seems to be no end to them, as I have multiple squares cut and lots more of these runner to make with them.  

At our guild meetings there is a free table each month that offers all sorts of odds and ends of things we want to rid ourselves of.  It is a treasure trove of patterns, magazines, sewing tools and scraps of fabric.  I grabbed this fabric off the table and managed to get this one table runner put together with it.

And this fabric on the table too.  I have 2 more of these ready to sew up into table runners as well for the boutique.

My thanksgiving table runner is finished.  I got the binding on it this week and am so pleased with it.  Those floating leaf point were a challenge but so worth it.  Makes that leaf block center just really stand out.  

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FALL PROJECT FINISH & MOVING INTO THE NEW CHARITY QUILT YEAR

I am just finishing up the second of the last of my fall quilting projects.  My charity group distributed all 325 finished quilts to 6 different agencies this past week.  Now it is back to filling the storage container for next year.

My Autumn Nights quilt is finished.  Wished I had managed to get it finished sooner, it is off to the quilter this week and not sure it will get back before the end of this month.  No issue I may just hang it up in my sewing room and enjoy it through November anyway.  

This is my first finished top to start off the first quilt for me into the new charity group's collection for next October.  It measures 50" by 60".  

Now if someone could please tell me how this much of a 45 piece  fat quarter bundle and that quilt above along with 4 placemats, my Rosemary and Thyme quilt and a Tulip and Vine runner can be leftover.  It is a mystery to me.   

I'm off to making up a few more charity quilts for the group.  Cleaning out some of my grey scraps.  Men's and boys quilts are hard to manage.  I think this one does the trick in that department. 

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FROM PUMPKINS TO FALLING LEAVES

I have spent this last week just working on my own projects.  Making some good headway with fall seasonal items.  This is my favorite time of year and I love the new fall seasonal fabrics available now.  I am pretty sure the Fat Quarter Shop loves me.   

I finally started work on my November holiday table runner.  The Falling Leaves fat quarter bundle I ordered is just beautiful and came with a panel that I cut and used on each side of the center pieced block.

I got the pattern for the center block, must admit it was a bit complicated with all the HST's and I did not make life easy for myself as I wanted the leaf points to float to avoid cutting them off when sewing the sides pieces on and binding the runner.  I know a quilter does have to have some math skills, but no one said geometry was needed as well.  

Sure appreciate this Quilter's Select quilting ruler, which helps tons quilting this piece without having to use marking pens.

Binding all prepped and ready to add.

I finished the last of my pumpkin runners, it is off as a gift for one of our daughters.

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PUMPKINS AND AUTUMN LEAVES

I was really busy this past week.  I joined several members of my charity group and we sorted and bagged up 325 quilts for six different local agencies in our area and deliver them.  My grandson brought me a pair of firemen's uniform pants to hem.  Good thing I love him as alternations and mending is definitely not a favorite thing I  care to do.  These were complicated in that they have a buckle and velcro strap that is used to chinch the leg around their boots so the end of the pant legs don't catch on fire.  These were too long, they wear them sorter than normal length and had to be hemmed up 4 inches, which required the buckle and strap to be removed and moved up.  Sewing through multiple layers of heavy fabric, taking off the buckle and strap and getting it back on in the right position was a bit scary.         

I finally finished my first Delft Blue block #1.  Compared to the pattern I have drastically limited the leaves and flowers.   Not sure where I plan to go with this project.  I have sort of fallen out of love with it.  Have to see where I do with it.

I did a bit of cutting table clean up this week. I happened onto this rotating storage container on Amazon.  It has replaced multiple containers that I used to stash little rulers, marking pens, glue and other small tools.  I can finally stop searching all over the table for small items, all in one place now.

I am back to working on week two's blocks of Autumn Nights.  I have one more to go and then can put the small quilt together.  These little guys are buggers.  Not fun at all!

  

I have gone a bit pumpkin crazy this past week.  These little guys are fun and will be making a few more of them for our guild's quilt show boutique coming up in January.  I might keep this bottom one for myself.  Working on one with black fabrics that I really like too.

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AUTUMN NIGHTS & DELFT BLUE

I have continued to work on my own projects this week.  It is normal for me to always have multiple project going, I tend to get bored so switch back and forth between them.

I finished Week 1 of my Autumn Nights Mystery Quilt Along this week.  These are fun and the Fat Quarter Shop offers the patterns free along with Youtube tutorials.

The points on these stars are fussy and small finishing at 1".  If one pins on the star fabric piece they often shift while sewing them on the drawn line.  I discovered that if you use a glue stick it holds so much better and you are going to trim off that underside anyway so it doesn't cause any sticky issues.

My second project I just  have just started, again is a free pattern and instructions at suzyssitcom.com.  The pattern is a monthly offering and there are several different appliqué patterns offered.

This is  block number 1, where I am so far.  I do not plan to add the cup and tea bag and probably not as many of the flowers either.  I have a good deal of experience doing appliqué projects.  My method is machine appliqué with a small buttonhole stitch with matching colors of thread.  Suzy's patterns are wonderful, but they are not beginner friendly to my way of thinking either.  Instructions and layouts are sometimes scant and a bit confusing at times.  But if you do enjoy appliqué by what ever method you prefer it is definitely worth taking advantage of them.

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