Slow stitching for an October Sunday...

Crow and his pumpkin are finished - not fully finished, but stitched.  I'll try to squeeze that finish in this week.  Halloween is coming!

I also made some progress on the mini apple sampler, too.  Not too much more to stitch - just a few apples!

Of course, that makes me want to start something new, and Melisa at PinkernPunkin has lots of choices.  This one is really calling to me -  the Little Hoot Halloween stamp.  I would love to stitch an owl!

But, first I was thinking I should finish up an older project.  I worked on the Woven Wreaths project from Kathy Schmitz all last year and hand quilted it earlier this year.  I couldn't quite decide how I wanted to finish it, so I put it in the closet and there it has stayed for several months!  I finally found a blue fabric that seemed like a good fit for the binding, so that's what I'm going to work on today.  It is machine stitched on and needs the hand stitching step.

That will be a good project for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

Gameboard Blocks

Since progress has been made on each of my other two Rainbow Scrap Challenge block projects this month, this seemed like a good week to evaluate where I am with the Gameboard blocks.  So far, I've made ten of them.  I think I'll need at least 30 for a quilt, so this will continue into next year's RSC.  

The first step for these blocks is the center sixteen patch which I sew as a leader/ender.  There are two pinks, a light blue from September, and goldish/light brown that came from my October scraps.

Those two pink blocks have been hanging around for awhile, so I chose one of them to sew into a block first.  And in looking for pieces for the outside sections, I came across this selvage.  Isn't that perfect?

All this was happening in between sewing together more larger four patches of the quarter stars.  I've reached the center block of the star!

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 #454

Happy Birthday to my DH, whose favorite activity when we are on a trip somewhere is to have his camera up to his eyes and be looking through it for the best shot!  I have pictures of him like this in all kinds of places.  This one is taken in a little cove down below our favorite hotel in our favorite Oregon town of Depoe Bay.

We've had some great fall weather in recent days, so I am still enjoying being out on the golf course.  Such a beautiful view!

I'm not sharing pictures of my son and his girlfriend on the blog for their privacy, but I can show you their very handsome tuxedo cat brothers, Rio and Pepe.  Rio is very shy, apparently, but Pepe was friendly to me, and cuddled up while the humans visited and let me pet him.

Rio ⬆️ and Pepe ⬆️

Our route to North Platte where our son lives takes us through the small northeastern Colorado town of Julesburg, population 1304.  There isn't anything much exciting there except a nice rest area with picnic tables, so we always stop there for a bathroom break and this time brought a picnic lunch to eat.  What turned out to be exciting was the garden they had there that had attracted several monarch butterflies!  It was quite a treat to see them!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about dishes we like to take or enjoy eating at fall potluck gatherings.  We used to have quite a few of those with Mike's family, but now that his parents and two siblings have passed away, the rest have scattered and don't get together very often anymore.  I miss them and the get togethers!  His oldest sister, in particular, loved potlucks and would bring a ton of food to them.  My favorite dish is probably homemade macaroni and cheese.  Yum!  (Now I'm going to have to make some, lol!)

Happy Thursday!

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

Midweek Update

 It's been a busy week here, without a lot of time for sewing.  We went to Nebraska to visit our son - about a 4 hour drive from where we live in Colorado.  It was a nice drive and a great visit with him.

I hosted my book club on Monday, which is always an enjoyable afternoon, except when you are hosting, it means housework!  😜  And treats!

I found these at Trader Joe's and they were yummy!

I did manage to sew another two rows of the quarter star blocks together, so that there are now ten groups of four.

I've been really happy with how these blocks are going together, especially with the back side of the block.  All of the seams are spinning nicely and laying flat when pressed.  Since this quilt will have lots of seams, laying flat is important!

And, just for fun, I decided to see if I could make a 16 patch star block with 2.5 inch squares (instead of 3.5 inch squares as in my other RSC project), and yes, I could!

What could this turn into?

More about this one at the end of the month!

Hope you're having a great week!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Slow stitching this week...

I finished up "Celebrate Fall" this week.  This was a sweet one to work on.  It's going to become the center block for my next Stay at Home Round Robin project.   Each year for the SAHRR, I've been finishing an embroidered center block with pieced borders for a seasonal wall-hanging.  I've made winter, spring, and summer.  My 2026 project will be for fall!

Meanwhile, the little crow finally has his pumpkin, now the pumpkin just needs its stem and leaves!

I'll be working on this little stitch later on today after we drive home from Nebraska!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

  

16 Patch Star Progress

While also getting started on the construction of my quarter star quilt top, I did some fabric sorting this week.  Angela called for browns and blacks for our October blocks, so I was specifically looking for scraps in those colorways to make two more 16 patch stars.  

So, how about some light browns and grays?  That's in the vicinity, right?!

These grays were hard to photograph - much prettier in person!

And they did work to make the last two blocks that I needed.

So now there are twenty 16 patch stars!  I'm not sure yet about the final layout for these, but will figure that out in the coming weeks.  I'm planning to send these to Many Hands, Many Hearts, but will send them as a sewn together quilt top.

We're headed on a quick road trip up to Nebraska to visit our older son for a couple days, so I may not have time to reply to comments for a day or two.   But I'll be back!

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 #453

It's really feeling like fall here the last few days and that includes falling leaves and baking pumpkin things!  I roasted up one of my garden pumpkins and younger son and I made my favorite pumpkin bread recipe from Carole at From My Carolina Home.  Yum!

He has also been making some yummy things he calls "donut holes" in the air fryer, and they used up some pumpkin, too.

I found a new favorite tea at the Celestial Seasonings tea shop in Boulder.   

We're all about the yummy and cozy around here, lol!

I enjoyed this book this week.  I had previously read another book by Monica Wood, so decided to try another, and liked this one, too!

Amazon Link

LeeAnna's question of the week is about favorite cold weather clothes.  When the weather turns fall-like, my uniform becomes fleece and hooded sweatshirts.  I buy them in favorite places we like to visit and have a closet full!  Even though it wasn't officially fall when we were on our Oregon trip, it felt like it on some days, and I brought my favorite purple hoodie for just that purpose.

Cheers!

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

Midweek Update

"Some assembly required"... that's where I am with the quarter star blocks.  You can see the full set of 100 blocks in my weekend post here.   I want to be really careful when sewing these together so that I don't get any blocks turned around the wrong way!  This is when I'm really happy that blogging makes me take pictures of my projects so that I can refer back to them for quilt construction.

I started by laying out just the first two rows of blocks at the top of the design.

I decided that I would sew them first in pairs and then in fours to keep the length of seams manageable for as long as I could.   A fun side note is that these larger blocks show a blue quarter star coming together where the blocks touch!

This simple sewing process works well as a leader/ender when working on other blocks.

Progress!  I'm going to continue this process until all the rest of the blocks are sewn into fours, and then combine them into bigger blocks.  

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

October means pumpkins!

And black cats!

This week I finished the October heart for my display stand.   It was one of my favorites to stitch last year, so I'm happy to have it ready to show this year!

When you finish a project, it means you can start something new, right?!  So I did start a new stitch, but just a little one.  This is Melisa's Pumpkin Crow design - it will be about 3 x 3 when finished.

You can see the pumpkin starting to form!

And I stitched the pumpkins on the Gail Pan piece, too!

It's been all pumpkins around here this week!

I do have to show the finished orange peel quilt one more time to my Sunday slow stitching friends - it was finished earlier in the week, but you may not have seen it.

Happy to have this one finished!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

100 Blocks!

I've been on a mission this week to finish up the quarter star blocks that I need for my Exploding Star project.  Back in September, I figured out that I just needed 32 more blocks in the eight colors we had worked on already  this year, but then realized I was going to run out of my background fabric, the Grunge in Sea. 

I got that ordered and it came last week.  So it was time to get back to work on the remaining blocks I needed to finish up my planned layout.  And, remember I didn't want to use any fabric more than once throughout the quilt?  (Well, except for the center star!)  An infusion of pretty scraps from a quilty friend helped with this goal, too.

As of Thursday afternoon, I had made 24 of the 32 new blocks.

Just eight blocks left for the 32 I need to get to 100!  So I did a little more cutting and a little more chain piecing, and I was almost there.

Now it's Friday afternoon, and look!

100 Blocks!

So, you know what I had to do, right?!  Here they all are!

Next stop - quilt top!  But first I think I'll work on the last few 16 Patch Stars that are needed for that project.  That will give me a chance to sort through some brown and tan scraps and see what can be used up.

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 #452

I had a birthday earlier this week, and older son sent me this card that made me laugh out loud!  

My sister made me a peach pie - so yummy!  We joke about how she got the pie-making "gene" from our mom and I got the sewing "gene."  I always give her something quilty that I've made.

I bought myself a present when we were in Oregon.  My new favorite mug -

I just finished a really good book!  It's for my October book club meeting.  I usually enjoy historical fiction, but this is a different time period than I usually read.  Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval lived in France in the 1500s, so not a lot is known about her, but her story as told by this author is fascinating!  The title, Isola, refers to an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that Marguerite was marooned on.  

LeeAnna's question of the week is about gingerbread recipes - do we have a favorite to share?  I do love cut out gingerbread cookies, and have made them before - probably just the recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. 

But what I am really craving is something made with pumpkin, so I think I'll make some pumpkin bread this weekend.  Or how about something that combines pumpkin and ginger?  This one sounds good!   Pumpkin Gingerbread Cookies

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

Midweek Update

It's a bit anti-climactic because I have shared so much during the making of the orange peel quilt, but it is now finished!  Whoop, whoop!

It was a long time in the making because so much of it was hand stitched - the applique and then the quilting - and I am definitely a slow stitcher.  But I am very happy with this finish.

I enjoyed participating in the Orange Peel SAL at the Crafty Quilter 

last spring where lots of tips and inspiration were offered for the project.

You can see all the finishes from the sew along at this link.

Including the binding for the orange peels, I feel like I've spent all week sewing bindings!  Last week's placemat finish, the Table Scraps Challenge runner, and finally the binding for the October heart.   More about that one in my Sunday Slow Stitching post.

Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to work on the quarter star blocks for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects!

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday!