Stuck!

October in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is for working with neutrals or figuring out what your block sets need and finishing them up.  So my goal this week has been to get out the Gameboard Blocks and work out what is needed.  But I seem to be stuck!

Here are the 28 blocks I've made, laid out in color groups.  There are three of every color except blue (4 of those), plus two light neutral blocks, and a black one.

Having four blue blocks and then 

those three neutrals/black has me thrown a bit.

How to use them in a layout?

Inspired by a layout I saw on someone's blog, I tried this one next.  What it's supposed to be is cool colors flowing to warm colors flowing back to cool colors.  That helped me work in the black block and the extra blue one.

But what is needed for those two empty spaces?

Then I just switched the yellow and orange blocks - and I think I'm finally getting somewhere!

So... two more orange blocks?

Or should they be red? Pink? One each?

Opinions welcomed!

Then my brain was tired so I decided to go back to working on my October squirrel project - the fall tablerunner!  Using more of the pieces from the fat quarter bundle, I pieced a backing.

That center section is these adorable owls! 

And quilting is underway.  

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #506

Happy birthday to my favorite guy!

Cheboygan, Michigan, by Lake Huron, in September

To celebrate, I took him out for breakfast and to play a round of golf.  It was a beautiful fall day!

I voted last week, and I'm very happy to have done so.  I always enjoy seeing what each year's voting sticker looks like - they're much more creative than they used to be!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about favorite fall comfort foods.  Besides soup, which I shared about last week, for me it is anything made with pumpkin!  In recent years, I've been successfully growing a few pumpkins in my garden, and have been roasting them to get my own pumpkin for baking.  

And then the resident baker (younger son!) turns the pumpkin into something delicious.  This week it was sourdough pumpkin bread!  Yum!

Have a great Thursday, friends!

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

Midweek Update

One of my most favorite quilting activities is to play with a coordinated fat quarter bundle and see what I can make with it.  Back in September I visited a quilt shop in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and brought home this fun bundle.

Fast forward to this past week, and Carole at From My Carolina Home has been hosting her annual Fall Fortnight event.  Along with the placemat blog hop that I participated in, there has also been a quilt-along where Carole made a beautiful 60 inch square quilt in all the fall colors.  I knew I wouldn't be making the full project, but wanted to make a few blocks.  So I did!

I especially love this star!

Carole's quilt is set on point, but I was running out of background fabric for that, so decided to make a straight set tablerunner by connecting the three blocks I made with sashing and borders out of the golden brown print.  

42 x 14

I used up every bit of the golden brown fat quarter, but there's quite a bit of some of the other prints left for a backing and binding.  Hopefully I can finish this up quickly because now is the perfect time to use this on the table.  Check out Carole's beautifil tablescape with her 60 inch quilt used as the table cloth here!  

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Slow stitching this week...

Broom Hilda is finished, and ready to hang out with her Halloween friends!

And a little something was added to my daily stitching calendar each evening, too.  Can you tell that lots of leaves fell from the trees, it was windy, and we also got some rain this week?  On other days I just played with a design or tried a new stitch.  

I also made some good progress on the Gail Pan Autumn embroidery.  There's not too much left to finish up on this one now!

This week there'll be daily calendar stitching each evening, plus there's usually time for an additional project, either embroidery or cross-stitch.  Maybe I'll finish the Autumn embroidery!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Scrappy placemats for October

My main scrappy placemat project for this month was finished earlier this week for the blog hop at From My Carolina Home.  You can also read my post about these placemats here.

Of course, there were still bits and pieces from that original jelly roll left, so I couldn't stop there!  Cutting what was left into 2.5 inch squares seemed like the way to go.  Plus, there were lots of smaller leftover pieces of the light neutral ecru backgrounds that I've used all year for the Jacob's Ladder blocks that could be included in another project, too.

I made a bunch of four patches - 

And ended up with... another placemat!

And look who came to dinner!

These cute little Ikea penguins with their orange beaks and feet on a turquoise background seemed perfect to back the fun fall prints.

Thank you again to Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilting 

who sent me her penguin scraps!

The two strippy placemats will be sent to Carole for her Meals on Wheels donation, but this new one is staying here!

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.

Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This! 

I Like Thursday #505

It's a cool rainy day here - the first in a very long time!

This kind of weather always makes me want soup or chili in the crockpot.  It smells good cooking all day, and tastes so good for dinner.  Plus there are always leftovers - win, win!

It's good reading weather, too.  I just finished this book, and it was fascinating!  I've read other books by Chanel Cleeton, and most have been historical fiction set in Cuba or Florida with Cuban immigrants as the main characters.  This one is very different - it is set in the 1960s in the early days of the space program, and focuses on the astronauts' wives and their experiences.

Earlier in the week when we went to the library, we ran into our favorite downtown flock of turkeys.  Right on somebody's door step!  I'm thinking maybe these people leave food out for them.

Hope you're having a great week!

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

 

Fall Fortnight Placemat Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Fall Fortnight blog hop, and thanks for visiting!  Check out Carole's blog at From My Carolina Home for lots of fun fall sewing, crafting, and cooking ideas.

One of my most favorite projects to work on as a quilter is making placemats out of scrappy leftovers.  I especially enjoy trying to use up the leftover jelly roll strips after making a quilt. 

After participating in the 2025 Fall Fortnight, I won this jelly roll in Carole's giveaway. 

Earlier this year, I used that jelly roll to make this quilt top during the Little House on the Prairie sew-along at Melva Loves Scraps.

Of course, not all of the strips were used up in the construction of the quilt top, so I decided to see how many I could use up to make some fall placemats.  Using a quilt-as-you-go technique is a fun and quick way to sew these together.

Carole recommended that the placemats made for the blog hop be 12 x 18 in size.  So I layered a piece of backing and a piece of batting, cut at 14 x 21, and fused them together with a bit of basting spray.

Quilting as you go means you layer two strips right sides together and sew them together right through the batting and backing.

Press to the batting and add some

 quilting along the seam line 

to anchor the strip down.

You can even add some additional quilting

with a decorative stitch on your machine.

Then just keep going until you get the width you want!

I trimmed to 12 x 18, added binding, and voila!  (The plaid strips in the jelly roll were perfect for the binding!)

Carole is coordinating a placemat donation drive for her local Meals on Wheels organization in coordination with this blog hop, so I made two.  I'll be sending these off to Carole later this week.

If you feel inspired to make some placemats for Carole's charity collection, too, I know she would appreciate your contribution!  

Be sure to visit the other bloggers who are participating in this blog hop!  You can also find this list with links at From My Carolina Home! 

Carole at From My Carolina Home - Placemat Blog Hop and Charity Project

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts - Fall Fortnight Placemat Blog Hop - you are here!

Mary Ellen at Quilt Mouse - A Blog Hop with Fall Fortnight 2026

Vicki at Colorways by Vicki -Placemats for a Cause

Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl - Fall Leaf Block & Placemat Tutorial

Kathy at Sewing Etc - Fall Placemats

Mary at Stitchin’ Grandma - Fall Placemat Tutorial

Kathleen McMusing - Maple Leaf Placemats

Alycia Quilts - Fall Fortnight Placemat Hop

Also sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This.

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.