Slow stitching this week...

The sweet and simple "Giving Thanks" stitch from PinkernPunkin was a quick finish this week, and I even fully finished it to put with my November display.  

I added a little bit of the pumpkins on aqua fabric to the side to make this a rectangular pillow.   It fits right in with the November heart!

Seeing lots of people working with hexies out in blogland got me inspired to pull out my set of Quilt As You Go hexie templates and make a few with my fall scraps.

Those two, above, turned into seven over the week and maybe I will stop there for a little mat.  They sure are pleasant to stitch up!  I think it takes longer to cut all the pieces and prep them for stitching than it does to sew them.

I've been wanting a new embroidery project, and a friend shared this Gail Pan book with me.  There are several in here that I'm considering starting.  I hope to get going on one this week!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

More with quarter stars...

Since my midweek post, I've gotten some quilting done on the RSC 2025 quilt that I've decided to call Starburst.

I wanted to quilt in radiating lines out from the center star.  

This next picture shows what it looks like so far.

When I'm quilting along, my mind wanders and I start thinking about new projects.  Does that happen to you?  I started making these quarter star blocks last December with light neutral backgrounds and some were made out of scraps from a Christmas gift project.  So my mind was wandering to - what could I do with these leftovers?

I just happened to get an email newsletter from Diane Harris of Stash Bandit that was all about quarter star blocks!  Reading through her ideas helped me decide to make one more block from the Christmas scraps for a nine block setting.  And then adding a consistent sashing and cornerstones will tie everything together.  

This will eventually turn into a little Christmas mini quilt, about 18 inches square.

But for now, back to quilting!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #457

Hello from Mom, sis, and me!  We were visiting Mom together last week on Halloween.  I don't know if you can tell, but she has a little witch's hat on.  It was a fun day there with kids coming in to trick or treat.  In the background there is Jerry.  He is a younger (than the typical resident) handicapped man who also lives in my mom's house.  He loves to do puzzles and is always sitting right there working on one.

I have found a new author that I like - this is the second book I've read by Pam Jenoff and I have another one waiting.  If you enjoy historical fiction, she might be a good choice for you, too.  This one is about British women who were spies in WWII.  

Speaking of reading, LeeAnna's question of the week is about podcasts.  Do we listen, and what do we recommend?  Although I know many people who love podcasts and listen to many, I have never been into them too much.  But one that I have enjoyed off and on over the years is "What Should I Read Next?"  The host talks to guests about their favorite kinds of books and titles and recommends more for them.  I've gotten good book ideas from listening.

We've been doing some more fall yard clean-up and took a load down to our city's recycling center.  Driving in, you're met by this sign.  Someone found a tree stump in the shape of a heart and painted it like this!

And finally, last week someone commented about the bread that younger son had baked and wanted the recipe.  This is an old recipe that a blogging friend sent me as photographs of magazine pages, so that the best I can do to share it here in that same way.  Hope this works for you!  If you click on these photos, you can enlarge them.

Joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

 

Midweek Update

Since I finished up those small projects towards the end of last week, I've been focused on getting the pile of 8.5 inch quarter star blocks into a quilt top.

I webbed them all together with only one boo-boo that required a bit of surgery!

Oops!  This one is facing the ⬆️ wrong direction!

Then there was lots of pressing to get all those seam allowances to go in the right direction!

Monday afternoon - adding the outer borders.  I wanted borders that matched my blue Grunge background so that the exploding star would be floating in the dark sky.  And here it is - hot off the ironing board!

Tuesday's job was to prep the backing and get the layers sprayed basted together.  Look at this great backing fabric I found - it's called "Head in the Clouds."  It's a wide backing from Missouri Star Quilt Co.  Isn't it perfect for this quilt?!

Finally, I cleaned my machine, put in a new needle and filled up a bobbin.  Now I'm ready to quilt!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And I'm going to add this to Melva's Sew and Tell post from Monday because she featured my progress as it was on this quilt a couple weeks ago. 

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

A week for small finishes...

I've been on a roll with some small finishes this week, starting with an unplanned detour to make this hexagon tabletopper.

And then there was my Table Scraps project for October - Denim and Pumpkins.

Finally I got to the November heart embroidery - and since the leftovers from the hexagon topper were still sitting out, I decided that pretty turquoise pumpkin print would make a good border for the embroidery.

Finishing that meant it was time to change over the little chest of drawers from October to November!  This is always fun to do because I can pull various things out of the drawers and see what I have to go with the seasonal theme.  I found "Gobble, gobble," but where are my little pilgrim figuerines?  I'll have to dig around a bit more for them.

I stitched a lot of binding during my evening slow stitching time this week, but I did also manage to finish Little Hoot.  He needs to be fully finished into a bowl filler that can join the others for November.

And speaking of scraps, I found one smallish scrap of Aida cloth, about 5 x 8 inches and decided Melisa's Give Thanks design would be a good one to get started on for November.

So I have now run out of Aida cloth for cross-stitching.  My go-to place for buying it was always Joann's.  Where do all of you buy (or order) it from?  I haven't ventured into stitching on linen yet, but that could be something I'll try in the new year.  Maybe in the meantime, I'll prep a new embroidery or hand-piecing project.  I don't want to run out of things to stitch on!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching!

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

Denim and Pumpkins

 A Table Scraps project for October...

When I saw on The Joyful Quilter's post that the challenge theme for October would be denim, I was a little stumped at first.  I didn't have any denim scraps or even old jeans to cut up.  My favorite denim project ever was repurposing a teacher jumper that I loved into a tote bag, and I used that for a long time!

In thinking about what I could use to represent denim for this month's challenge, I realized that the blue Grunge that is the background color for the quarter star blocks resembles denim.  Okay - a place to start!  What could I make with some neutrals and the blue Grunge?

I shared this photo a few weeks ago - a 16 patch star based on 2.5 inch squares and HSTs in light neutrals and some "denim" for the star.

But then I did this!  (It is October after all!)

I added the one-sided border to bring the block to 10 inches square.

Some blue "denim" pearl cotton was used to hand quilt this little pumpkin and I used the same dark brown print for the binding as for the stem.

So - Denim and Pumpkins for October!

Linking up with The Joyful Quilter for the October Table Scraps Challenge and

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

And at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #456

 

Good morning!  

It's the time of year for seeing beautiful sunrises 

out our front window.

Even though we've had some freezing overnight temperatures recently, I still have some flowers blooming - alyssum and marigolds.  They're a fun sight at this time of year!

Indoors, the hexagon topper is finished and on our table.  I'm happy with how it turned out - it was a fun project!

I forgot to share this last week.  Younger son baked some tasty bread - it's called "Ugly Bread!"  (I don't know why!)  The recipe came from Cathie's Craftworks.  I asked her for the recipe and she was so kind to share it.

It turned out kind of like a French bread loaf.

Happy almost Halloween!  We don't get many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood anymore, definitely not like when our kids were growing up.  But just in case, I'll put on my costume - 

And get out some candy - 

And maybe someone will ring our doorbell!

Joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.