Late Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great late Thanksgiving here with my family. The cousins got along well, as you can see on this sunny afternoon on the deck. Now I have a week ahead of Guild Christmas parties--two major holidays in less than a week.



For quilting, I am trying to finish some service quilts to hand off to the guilds in time to give away. I am concentrating on ufos, which are plentiful. In moving things around to clean out the guest room, I was forced to open a container that just happened to have some old small Christmas tops. Now is the time to finish these. One favorite is the old Garden Path table topper here. I raided Grandma Pam's stash for the back and some old Kona Bay for the binding.










Today's best....the pretty little Garden path and another sunny lunch outside.

Arbor Day

Because we don't have enough trees, the gardener is planting his first of many more trees. See the fall color on this red oak?






On this stunningly warm and sunny late November day, we also had another critter sighting--the great spotted sun squirrel.




The light and shadows have been so wonderful to watch around here, after a single dreary day Sunday, I can't seem to take myself away from simply watching out my windows or sitting on the sun on the deck. I've also felt the need to make a dent in the cleaning up and finding places for the heaps of stuff I have around here. I succeeded in getting rid of some piles and organizing some others, and feel I like a weight has been lifted. Plus, we can now at least accommodate one guest in the guest room.

As always, I still find time to quilt and sew. First, another variation on Patty Cakes using scraps of a decorator chintz and scrappy lights. This takes about an hour to sew--makes you feel like you really accomplished something.





Then, the Hawaiian Take 5, Scrap 5--where I subbed for my 5"squares and 5"x9 1/2" and 9 1/2" squares. While looking for something else, I came across a collection of Hawaiian print squares that I bought cheap online, and have used for other quilts. I added anything else I had that looked Hawaiian, African or just leafy to the mix. It came out busy and kooky--my kind of quilt.











Today's best....almost hot sunshine.

Clear Day

I spent yesterday afternoon in Roseville, mostly working on the antique mall booth. I have given notice there--it isn't working for me as I had hoped, though it is a great place. I'll have a sale these last couple weeks, so I had to pull out what I don't want to sell cheap and add things that I do want gone at any cost. It was a long afternoon in the rain to start with, but I did get to do some personal/Christmas shopping when I got done.

Today I had to run more quilts over to Crafters Cottage--Julie keeps selling my little quilts.

I quilted and added more remnants and quilts to the website.

I finished this quilt that has been sitting with a back ready. It's the Take 5 done completely scrappy, instead of the 5 fabrics the pattern calls for. And I realized that I converted it to my favorite sizes--5" squares, 5"x 9 1/2" rectangles, and 9 1/2" squares. So the block finishes 13 1/2" instead of 12", and I made just 12 blocks. With borders it finished 58"x 70".
Now I want to hit the scrap bag and precut drawers and make another. (You all know of course that scrap bag is never a singular term).






Today's best....a beautiful clear day after the rain, perfect for sunning, sewing, and selling quilts.

Little Quilts

My little quilts are selling well at Crafter's Cottage in PV. I needed to make another neutral baby quilt out of the Riley circus fabric. So I did--this afternoon, start to finish, quilted and bound.This time I did it in my Only One pattern, with the middle 2 blocks replaced with a little circus panel or medallion, as it were. This block is simply made up of one each, 3 1/2"x 3 1/2", 3 1/2"x 6 1/2", 6 1/2"x4 1/2" and 6 1/2"x 5 1/2" . The whole top is made only from a little bloom pack of 10 11"x 22".

Today's best....having to replace a quilt that sold.

Service Quilting

Most of the day was spent finishing community service quilts. I quilted the top I made yesterday from the 5x9 cake slices. This one is all of the homespun plaids in the drawers, alternated with blues in the middle, all plaid for the outside row. The plan was to give a denim and plaid look. The contrasts didn't show up well for the intended effect, but it is still another quilt done, another batch of fabric used up. Grandma Pam's stash supplied back and binding--2 more pieces used up. The 88 pieces--11 wide by 8 tall--made a nice 51"x68" size.










This second one was an orphan quilt top--unclaimed quilting work. A little quick quilting, some perky red binding from the 2 1/2" strip drawer, and another quilt is done and on the shelf ready to give.











I had fun with this last one. I pulled all of the 30's reproductions from the 5x9 and 5x9 1/2 drawers. I had plenty to make this charm quilt of 48 5"x9" slices, with 1 1/2" strips between.
I even had some 9" strips left from something--perfect to cut for the spacers. This one just worked all the way around, including how I envisioned it.Here are the numbers for this little Thirties quilt--it finished 42"x51"
48 5"x9" (or 5 x 9 1/2")
48 1 1/2"x 9" (or 1 1/2"x 9 1/2")
Add the little spacer strip to the right of each of the slices
Lay out the rows 8 across by 6 down
Sew the rows
To get the jog--cut 2 3/4" off the right side of rows 1,3,5--cut 2 3/4" off the left side of rows 2,4,6
Sew the rows together

Today's best....the charming little 30's quilt.

Rain

We got some rain this evening at last. Thank you Washington for sending some our way. Daytime it was nice and warm and sunny--how great was our timing.

Another great idea from Washington is another quilt using the panel squares in the Yellow Brick Road. This one is Christie's.









I got my green quilt finished. Don't know why this one intrigued me so, but I love how the fabrics worked.






Also I finished the binding on this service quilt. It's made from some orphan blocks that I surrounded with little blocks, borders, and binding made from binding scraps. I pulled mostly tone on tone blues to try to give the denim look. I felt very accomplished for making use of stuff from the scrap boxes. I even found a very cool back in Grandma Pam's old fabric--and it was 60" wide--perfect score.











Today's best....finishing my new favorite green quilt.

Greenery

We've been marveling at how green our grass looks, even with just the least bit of rain. Plus we've got a bit of fall all around.

Meanwhile, inside the house, I am totally jazzed about my little green number here. It's my original Rosette pattern number 1, (to be renamed later) done with scrappy spacers. I started with a little Bloom pack of 10 green Kaffe Fassett and friends. My first thought was to use batik spacers, but my batiks were just a little too quiet. But wait---I have these wonderful bundles of light limey greens in Amy Butler's Midwest Modern and Daisy Chain! One nearly leaped onto the cutting table to go with the green Kaffes.Now to get it quilted and properly photographed.











Today's best....my little green quilt top to go with my green landscape.