Slow stitching this week...

November is moving right along, and there is another week of my daily stitching to show.

You might notice that my book club met this week, 

and so did my quilt group!

But what I stitched to represent the quilt group was not a quilt, it was a delicious cake that our hostess made for the refreshments.  Pumpkin chocolate chip cake - yummy!  And so pretty with its perfect bundt cake pan shape, too.

And one evening, there was a beautiful sunset, so here is my interpretation of that.

Each evening, after I finish my daily stitching calendar section, I've been putting a few stitches into this piece - "Oh Christmas Tree" designed by Melisa at PinkernPunkin.

It's very close to being done - just needs some...

Christmas trees!  

One of them is started - eventually there will be two.

Plenty to work on here!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Gameboard Blocks

It's been another week with not much sewing time, but I did manage to sew up the last two blocks I needed for the Gameboard quilt.  The last time I shared this project, I had pretty much figured out a layout I liked, but was missing two blocks.  After reading everyone's suggestions for what colors were needed, and hunting around in my stash, I ended up with these two.

Brick red and "pinky-orange!"

And here are my 30 blocks.

Then I got as far as clipping them together in groups of four or two for sewing, and putting them in a basket next to the sewing machine.

Hopefully there will be time to get going on 

sewing the quilt top together this weekend!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #509

Happy Veterans Day to my veteran!  We were out on the golf course, enjoying this gorgeous November weather we're having.

This last week, we also went to a good movie.  "Jimmy" is about Jimmy Stewart and the years he spent as a pilot for the Army Air Corps during WWII.   We learned a lot about him, and came home wanting to know more.  He experienced PTSD after flying 20 bombing raids over Germany - and people didn't understand what that was back them.  

My book club met this week, and I always enjoy that.  This month we read The Boy from the Sea, an interesting story about life in an Irish fishing village in the 1980s and one family in particular.  The story has sort of a melancholy feel to it.

I tried a new vegetable dish this week, as a request from Mike (who is not generally a very good vegetable eater, lol)!   He saw it on a Facebook reel, so I watched that and then googled a recipe.  It turns out there are many out there!  Here's a link to one: Smashed Broccoli with Parmesan

I liked it!  Not sure the other family members did, 

but that's okay!

😜

Hope you're having a great week!

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

Midweek Update

This week:

Continuing on with a little of this and a little of that - I finished up the last two gameboard blocks I need for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

Along the way I have also been experimenting with the little 3.5 inch plus blocks that Nancy at Grace and Peace quilting shared a while back.  Just a few made so far.  I especially like the ones made with strips from my solid scraps drawer.  Most of these are actually made with some Grunge scraps from that drawer as those are the first I pulled out to work with.

These will become my leader/ender blocks now that I've 

made all the gameboard blocks I need for that quilt top.

And then I started thinking about a scrappy placemat for November.  In October, I made three placemats with some leftover jelly roll strips I was trying to use up.  But, of course, I didn't use them all up, so I decided I wanted to try to get one more placemat out of them!

The last of the jelly roll strips and 

some chunks of other fall prints.

Remembering the turquoise placemat I made in July, I started cutting the strips into 2.5 x 4.5 inch bricks, and combining them with a leafy neutral.

And a plan is emerging!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Also at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

It's time for some turkeys!

I stitched this Turkey Mini Sampler last November, and then put it away to fully finish this year.

Yesterday I changed out the decor on my little chest for November, and set the turkey sampler out with Gobble Gobble and Give Thanks.  These are all PinkernPunkin designs.

Thank you, Melisa!

In my daily stitching, here's how I ended October.

And then I started on November!  This month's shapes are completely different than last month's, so they will be a fun challenge. 

The purple flowers I stitched there are to celebrate that I still have purple alyssum blooming in my garden!  See my photo of them in my Thursday post.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

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.

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

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

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.

All four seasons...

That's not a reference to our October weather here in Colorado, although it could be.  We often have heat, wind, rain, and snow all within a day or two.  But this time it refers to an embroidery project.  I've finished the Autumn design for Gail Pan's Changing Seasons.

So... all four seasons are stitched!  For some reason I cut the fabric for Autumn quite a bit smaller than the other three seasons - but they can be trimmed to match.

I'm working on an idea to fully finish these into a small quilt, but it will be a 2027 project. 

Meanwhile, I did continue on my daily stitching this week.  Last Sunday's design was lots of little bird feet, because we are so entertained by all the birds at our feeders.  On Thursday this past week, we drove by some pretty sunflowers in someone's yard - still blooming!

Other days were just "doodle" stitching!

There's only one week left in October - that's hard to believe!  I'm ready to start something new in addition to my daily embroidery, but haven't decided what it is yet.  Maybe I'll have something new to share next Sunday!

Linking up with all the slow stitchers at Kathy's Quilts!