Slow Sunday Stitching

This week I finished up the September heart for my Year of Hearts project, hosted by Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  It was a pleasure to stitch and I think it turned out so cute!  At the link ⬆️ to Melisa's post, you will find the new October heart and some bonus blocks, too, as well as the hearts from all the previous months.  

Remember the tiny apple I shared last week?  I had my tall son pick a basket full of them so that I could make some applesauce.

I cooked them down until they were soft and used my mom's (vintage now!) food mill to make the applesauce.

That basket of apples made quite a bit of applesauce, and it turned out yummy.  No sugar needed at all, just season to taste with some cinnamon.

I've stitched ten of the heart blocks now, a sweet group of blocks!

What will I stitch on today for my slow Sunday stitching?  It's time for the October section of the Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths project.  It's a jack o'lantern filled with oak leaves and blueberries - should be fun to work on!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Bits and Pieces

My September darks and October lights are finished for the patchwork heart project.  It has been really enjoyable to work with fall colors - browns, tans, golds, and whatever else fit in!

This group of blocks still needs one more heart and one more alternate block.  So I decided to make an additional four patch block in greens since there are two green hearts.  The four patches are made for it.  I used some very light greens for this one.

And then it was decision making time for the final heart.  And here's what I came up with -  a very random mixture of all the colors!  I'm seeing this as the center heart with all the other colors coming out from it.  It's not sewn together yet, but you can get the idea.  Those HSTs that look black are actually a dark green.

Hopefully in the next week, I can get these last two blocks sewn up and try some layout ideas for these blocks!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Sew and Tell Monday at Melva Loves Scraps 

I Like Thursday #408

I like October!  I like the Colorado landscape this time of year.

Saturday we went up to a mountain park west of us and took a picnic lunch.

Such a beautiful day!

I enjoy seeing flowers still blooming at our sculpture park.

I love pumpkins and especially baked things made out of pumpkin, and especially when I actually grew the pumpkin!  Yesterday, I roasted one of the little pie pumpkins that I grew in my garden this summer - 

And made some pumpkin bread out of it!  Yum!

I use a recipe that I got from Carole at From My Carolina Home.

It has orange zest in it - I love the fresh flavor it gives to the bread.

Carole, thinking of you and your husband and neighbors 

as you deal with the destruction of Hurricane Helene.  🩷

LeeAnna's question of the week is about corn mazes- do we like them, have we done one?  And I have to admit that I have not ever been in a corn maze.  I've always been a little afraid that I would never find my way out, lol!  We did love hiking around in the redwood forests in California on our trip last month, and they feel a bit like mazes!

We did eventually find our way out, although there were a few moments when we weren't quite sure where we were!

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

 

Midweek Update

Back in July, I posted that I decided to make Bonnie Hunter's County Clare blocks as leaders and enders this second half of the year, and I've continued to work on them.  They're really cute blocks, but have lots of little parts!  Consequently,  I am making them very slowly.

They do work well as leaders and enders, though, so I make a few parts of a block whenever I have some scraps that will work.

I'm up to nine of these little blocks now.  😜  

Linking up with Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Slow stitching this week...

My big basket of tiny samplers is filling up!

I added the Little Red Schoolhouse Mini Sampler to the collection this week.  Thank you, Melisa, for offering so many fun freebies to keep me stitching!

I realized that before I start anymore cross-stitch projects, I need to work on the September heart for my Year of Hearts collection.  So I got it prepped and traced, and I've stitched the outer borders.

I need to color in some sections on this one, too.

Melisa has the apples in different colors on hers - 

green, yellow, and red - so cute!

Meanwhile our apple tree is covered in tiny apples, the size of a golf ball at the most.  I haven't even tried to do anything with them.  I think it would take about a thousand to get enough to feed anyone!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Table Scraps for September

Over the last few years, I have had the best time using up scraps to make a rainbow of quilted placemats, both to give away and to use on our table.   This is just a fraction of them for the photo, but you can tell they are used, washed, and used again!

One color combination that I've never made into a placemats is browns - or the Fall colors as I like to think of them - dark and light browns, golds, and sandy tones.  Since I had those out this month to make some patchwork hearts, it was the perfect timing to make a new placemat, too.

I started with strips and rectangles, and pieced them in columns.

Zooming in - there are leaves in some of these prints, too.  (That's our extra challenge for the month, from Joy)!

Next I connected the columns with some strips of a gold print that has been in my stash for a long time.  It started as a wide backing that I used for a quilt I made several years ago, and now the leftovers are in the scrap bin, waiting to be used up!

Some simple quilting of a curvy grid, plus backing, and binding, and it's ready to use!

The backing comes from a piece of fabric Nann included in her goody box 

that she sent to me last month.  Perfect for the "brown" theme!

So now there is a placemat to get out for Fall.  Maybe I need to make a few more?!

Linking up at all my favorite scrappy places:

Joyful Quilter

Alycia Quilts

SoScrappy

Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Melva Loves Scraps

I Like Thursday #407

Autumn seems to have arrived in our neck of the woods!  The leaves are already turning. (Although I have to say, afternoon highs of upper 80s are not very fall-like, but I am enjoying the cool mornings!)

LeeAnna asks - what is our favorite fall scent?  Mine is the scent you get while crunching through a pile of fallen leaves - kind of spicy, earthy - do you know what I mean?  I have had a couple of pumpkin spice lattes over the years and, of course, delicious spiced cider, but my favorite pumpkin or apple scent is the baking kind - pumpkin bread, apple pie, lots of cinnamon!  Yum! 

Or how about a peach pie?  My thoughtful sister brought one over to me yesterday afternoon - right out of the oven!  Definitely yummy!

I've been enjoying this book this week, recommended by Nann at With Strings Attached.  It's so enjoyable to read all kinds of interesting things about our national parks, from history to animals to architecture.  And if you hunt a little bit on YouTube, you can find the author's clips from the CBS Sunday Morning TV show where he shares his year of visiting all the national parks.

Thanks for the recommendation,

Nann!

Hope you're having a great week!  Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.