This and that...

This has been one of those weeks where you wonder where the time went!  Here is the sum total of my sewing in the last week...

I did finish the little snack mat, inspired by the dive into my orphan block drawer.

Along the way there was a tiny 16 patch made for another gameboard block, too.

And I bet you can see that I did make one more house for A Year in the Neighborhood.

My Christmas scraps didn't contain any Santas, 

but there was lots of this fun candy cane print.

When I laid out all 12 of the houses I've made (without any trees), I came up with this.  And now it looks like I might need a 13th house, lol!  Maybe Santa will make an appearance after all.

There's always something to think about with this project!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #508

It has been a busy week here, lots of adulting to be done - my annual wellness exam, blood draw, making appointments for a mammogram and bone density scan.  And some business to be done on my mom's finances.  But I have had a little fun!   😉

On Halloween, carving this little pumpkin from my garden last summer!

At Mom's place, they had everyone dressed up and trick or treaters came through.  The gals there did an amazing job figuring out costumes for everyone, and decorating for the event.

When I went back to visit again a couple days ago, everything was switched over to fall and Thanksgiving.  I think this little squirrel and his fire pit are so cute!

Here we are in November, and the alyssum in my flower garden are still blooming like crazy!

I just love these!

Hope you're having a great week!

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

Midweek Update

Sorting through the junk drawers...

I have one of those plastic 3 drawer units in my sewing room - it's probably something many of you have.  It's a convenient place to stash lots of things, and in my case, it had gotten a bit out of control!  I've sorted through and cleaned it out before, but it just got full again.  

After pulling everything out - one drawer at a time - and doing a bunch of sorting, here is what I found.

Lots of solid scraps:

Skinny strips up to fat quarter size.  

And some small pieces of Grunge.

Lots of orphan blocks in multiple sizes:

  

There is a big pile of leftover charm squares - all different colors, styles, and prints:

And Christmas scraps, all shapes and sizes:

So, the question is what to do with these scraps?

• I need some Christmas scraps for the last house I'm making for a Year in the Neighborhood - there are definitely possibilities for that in this bunch.
• At first the solid scraps didn't inspire me at all, but I realized later that they would be perfect to make a bunch of the little plus blocks that Nancy at Grace and Peace quilting introduced us to a few weeks ago. 
• I'm not sure what to do with most of the orphan blocks, but I did have a little fun this week making a snack mat out of the small red and white block.  It was made many years ago, and I think it was meant to be a "Polaroid" block.  Remember those?  The different widths of white sashing around the center square are the clue.  I think in this photo, it's upside down.

8.5 x 10.5

I added a red and white HST border to frame the cardinals, and then extended the block to 10.5 inches wide with the floral.  The binding isn't sewn yet, but you get the idea!

There are still plenty of scraps to find their way into projects, but my drawers look a lot better than they did when I started!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Slow stitching this week...

I have just about stitched the whole month of October!  There is one space left which I will fill in tonight (Saturday) - Halloween, Oct. 31st!

My favorite section for this week was yesterday's - I decided to see if I could stitch myself going for a walk on a beautiful fall day!  Do you see my curly gray hair?  

Along with my daily stitching, I did start a new project, but it's not very far along yet - just the border so far.

Someday this will be PinkernPunkin's "O' Christmas Tree."

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

A pumpkin house...

 Happy Halloween!

It has been all pumpkins all the time in my sewing room this month, with three placemats (here and here) and a tablerunner completed all having pumpkins in them.  So of course, when there was just enough of the pumpkin print left to make a house block for a Year in the Neighborhood, I had to do it!

This...

translated into this!

And of course we needed an autumn tree with falling leaves for the Neighborhood, too!

The Neighborhood is just about fully built now, one more house is planned, and then whatever is needed to even out the number of blocks.  Maybe the Neighborhood needs a park? 

Lots to think about!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at

Quilting Learning Combo for the October Quilters Cove link-up.

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday

I Like Thursday #507

Good morning!  It's that time of year when we get pretty sunrises right out our living room windows.  I loved the golden glow of this one!

This very persistent squirrel figured out how to get on our suet feeder by climbing up the trees and following the branches over to the roof of the house, and then sliding down the rope that is holding the feeder.  At first he made us laugh!  But then...

we couldn't get him to stop, no matter what we did,

so after five days of shooing him off, Mike had to finally

 take the suet out and put it away.

The sad thing about that is that now the birds can't visit either!

Has anyone read this book?  It's my current read, and I can't decide what to think about it.  It's equally fascinating and frustrating!

Image Source

LeeAnna's question of the week is about our favorite Halloween candy when we were kids.  I had to reach way far back into the deep dark recesses of my memory for this one!  What was that called, lol?!   I loved Baby Ruth candy bars - that was one - because my middle name is Ruth.  But then I remembered these - Sugar Babies!  And there were Sugar Daddies, too, but these little bite sized ones were the best.

Have a wonderful Thursday, friends!

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

Midweek Update

It's been a nice relaxed few days in my sewing room where I decided to stick with the tablerunner I started last week and now it's finished!

There was quilting...

and binding was sewn...

and it is now finished!

This has been a fun and quick project, and

I think I will give it to my sister as a gift for her Thanksgiving table,

since she is hosting is this year!

You might think I would be done with the pumpkin fabric, but not quite.  Next,  it's time to make the October house block for my Year in the Neighborhood, and here's the start of it.

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This!

Also Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.