I Like Thursday #106 - Welcome, November!

Just like everyone else, I am surprised to find that it's November already!  Where did September and October go?  Do the weeks just go by faster this time of year, or what?!

I gave myself a goal of finishing my Rainbow Scrap Challenge Bowtie quilt this week, and I'm almost there!  I like finishing projects - especially larger quilts, on which I am typically pretty slow.

I finished the quilting this afternoon (Wednesday) and have been working away on the binding!  Planning a finished post for Saturday!

We enjoyed a day out in Boulder last Friday.  Lunch at Mod Pizza (in spite of their name, they also make really good salads which were our choice that day!) and then a hike up in the hills west of town.

Bald Mountain Scenic Area

It was a short hike with wonderful views!

To the east - the plains

And to the west - 

It was the perfect after lunch walk.  And we topped it off with a visit to one of our favorite local wineries!

Another day this week, I was out for a walk by myself, and just had to crunch through a big pile of leaves.

I've always loved doing this, from childhood up into my 60s!  Fun!

And this week I really enjoyed this book!  

Evidently it was Reese Witherspoon's Book Club choice for September (I didn't know she had a book club, but now I'll pay a little more attention!) and I found a fun video on YouTube that she did to introduce it.  Click HERE if you'd like to see her video! 

Hope you're having a great week!  I'm joining in, as always, with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

October in my sewing room - DrEAMi's!

I've been crushing on orange this month!

It started with some orange strings and  a crumb block which turned into these pumpkins.

I finished the crumb block into this mini to decorate my front entry way.

The three string blocks became a little tablerunner that I gifted to a friend for her birthday.

I found a cute ceramic pumpkin to go with it!

And then I reversed the colors to make these fun pumpkins from Carole's Autumn Jubilee QAL.

I'm still trying to use up this dark orange leftover from a quilt I made long before I started blogging!

The pumpkins and a white star for the center became a tablerunner for my dining room table.  The (real) white pumpkin I found was the inspiration for this color combination!  This measures about 12.5 x 36.

Another good use of the stripe-y Halloween fabric I found at Joann's, too.

Okay, I think I'm done with orange...  Time to pull out the Christmas scraps!  :)

Sharing at mmmquilts for Sandra's October DrEAMi linky, and at

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

October in my sewing room - Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I was feeling like I hadn't accomplished much on my RSC projects this month, but then I started to look at photos for the month, and I felt much better!  :)

There was plenty of dark green goodness to be found!

Scrappy sprouts

Squared Away

Pieces and parts for a dark green rail block - almost there!

And Rainbow Bowties was pin basted and the quilting is in progress.  I love that 

sage-y green bowtie in the bottom left corner.  This weekend I'm pushing this one to a finish!  :)

Linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #105 - I Like Fall!

Welcome back for I Like Thursday!  Every week I share good things that are going on - some sewing related and some otherwise.  Lots of other bloggers do the same and we meet up at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.  Join us!

This week I have really been enjoying Fall!  After a short flirtation with winter, Colorado's usual lovely fall weather came back!   Sunday afternoon was so nice (and since there was no Bronco game) we got ourselves outdoors for a favorite hike.  I think it has been a year since we went on this one - it crosses through a very scenic golf course on the west side of town.

To the east of the trail you get views of our city, and to the west, this -

And the signs on the trail crack me up!

Watch for flying golf balls and talk only in a whisper!

Fall means soup in the crockpot, and I love that!

Fall is for baking pumpkin bread!  I used Carole's (From My Carolina Home) recipe for Pumpkin Orange bread, and it turned out to be delicious!

I bet you can tell what's for dinner at my house tonight - vegetable soup and pumpkin bread!

I don't buy very much novelty fabric, but I saw this at Joann's recently and decided I needed it. :)

I love the little tiny things in it - pumpkins and bats and leaves!  And that it has purple and lime green stripes along with the Halloween-y colors.

It made a great binding for one of my pumpkin projects!

And one more neat fall thing I came across - I was out for a walk yesterday afternoon and walked by this Milkweed plant with all its pods exploding!

Hope you're having a wonderful week!  Thanks for visiting!

Still Slow and Steady

I've been making some progress on a couple of my slower projects this week, and progress always feels good!

The last time I showed a photo of my hexie handstitching project was before our trip to California, and I was getting it ready to travel along with me.

Today it looks like this - 

Just three more hexies to sew on to complete the blue row on the last long side!  I know I'll be working on this today.

Next I have to bring the blue around the ends - here you can see what will happen there.

I'm still planning a final row of a neutral color going all the way around, and then I will have to figure out how to finish this tabletopper!  Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

I also finished sewing my Happy Birds quilt top together this week!  I started making these blocks back in the spring, and just made a few every now then when I was in the mood.

The 5 inch centers are cut from my (more extensive than I realized!) collection of bird fabrics, and they are bordered with 2.5 inch strips of darks and lights, all from my stash.

Some favorite blocks - 

A cardinal

and swallows!

Right now the quilt top measures 51.5 x 68.5, and I have to decide if I want to add a border.  It's going to be a couch quilt for my husband, and I'm sure he would like having it wider and longer!

Once I decide on the border (or not!) this one will be the next to be quilted.  Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Moving Forward

While cutting into these leftovers -

To make these for my dark green October Tiny Rails block - 

I decided this was the week to make some progress on another Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.

I finished my Rainbow Bowties quilt top in early August - 90 fun blocks made over several months of 2017 - 2018.  Then, as is typical for me, it sat in the "to be quilted" pile until a couple days ago when I finally got it basted and ready to quilt!

I used the pool noodle method for basting again and it worked really well!  I think the key is making sure you cut your backing and batting plenty big so there is lots of extra when you lay the quilt on top.  (I admit to having skimped on those things on some past projects, and it results in lots of frustration and do-overs!)

I got started with the quilting, and then discovered some problems - 

That thread color was all wrong for the royal blue backing fabric, and what's that loop in the stitching?  Argh!!!

So, I ripped out the rows of quilting I had done (thank you, Netflix!), found some dark blue Aurifil for the bobbin, and started over.  So far, so good, and so much better!

The frogs are smiling!  :)

Happy ScrapHappy Saturday, friends!  For lots of scrappy inspiration, check out all the Rainbow Scrap Challenge posts at SoScrappy.

I Like Thursday #104 - Two Years!

I just realized that this is my two year anniversary of posting on Thursdays all about things I enjoy, like, found interesting, love, or even just have to laugh about throughout each week!  Thanks go to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for getting me started on what has now become a weekly ritual.

Speaking of things you just have to laugh about - this was my view out the window this past Sunday morning...

That's Fall in Colorado, folks!  The birds didn't mind the snow at all!

The view out the front window was interesting, too - 

About 4 inches of snow fell overnight, and the big tree in our front yard dumped all of its leaves (all at once!) right on top.

Being cold and snowy, Sunday turned into the perfect sew day!  I enjoyed finishing up one of my pumpkin blocks into this piece for the little wooden chest that sits by our front door.

I added some 3 inch squares of fall fabrics to either side of it, did some machine quilting around the pumpkin and through the borders, and then some handquilting to give the pumpkin its shape.  This little piece measures 11 x 17.

It's perfect for helping dress up this spot for the season!

This weather has been good reading weather, too, and I have been giving our local library a lot of business!

That pile holds everything from a Bonnie Hunter quilting book, to a holiday romance by Debbie Macomber, to the latest in the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson.  I love to read!

A recent favorite that I checked out as an ebook so I could take it on our trip was The Zookeeper's Wife.

This book was quite an eye-opener for me - based on the true story of the Warsaw Zoo during WWII.  Now I'd like to see the movie, too!

And, finally, I liked this - found online the other day!

Well, and read a book, too!

Hope you're having a great week!  Be sure to visit all the other I Like Thursday posts at Not Afraid of Color! 

Playing with Pumpkins

I've been on a pumpkin kick the last few weeks - I wonder why?!  :)  I guess it's that time of year!

It started with an orange string block a few weeks ago that turned into a pumpkin.

And then there were a few more!

The three string blocks were pieced on phonebook paper and it worked out just fine!  I'm glad I tried it!  The fourth block is made from the little orange crumb pieces leftover from the string blocks.

Three of the pumpkins are becoming a table topper for a friend with a fall birthday.

The other will stay here at my house to dress up the little chest by the front door for October/November.

I'll add some additional blocks on either side of the pumpkin to make it about 18 inches wide.

And that's not all!  I made a couple of these pumpkins (Block A in Carole's Autumn Jubilee QAL).

We'll see what they become!

Hope you're enjoying some Sunday stitching!  

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!