I have been admiring my neighbor’s cosmos for a while. It is one plant and it came all by itself. It wasn’t planted. I do wish that she would feed her visitors. They are nothing but skin and bones. He is even trying to catch a fish but has had no luck.

Thanksgiving is coming. The turkeys are on parade and stopped by for a rest. The Tom is so big when he lifts his feathers.

Is it Christmas yet? My Christmas cactus seem to think so. Two out of three are blossoming. The third one isn’t budded. Maybe, it will wait until December.

I’ve finished a small UFO. I don’t know who made the blocks, but they showed up in my sewing room. They are together now and will go in the give away bin.

Another UFO that I have been working on is a Mile A Minute Inch quilt. To make an Inch quilt, you slice a block and add a one inch strip between the cut sides. The block should be the same size as when you started. I rotated every other block and pieced without sashing.

The quilt is busy so the quilting doesn’t show on the front. It is much nicer on the back.

While I was free motion quilting the wall hanging, my machine started to act up and is waiting to go to the hospital tomorrow. I’ll finish the free motion quilting when it gets home. The seams were stitched in the ditch so I felt comfortable sewing the binding on before I finished the free motion quilting.

In the meantime, I have pulled out my little My Style 100. It is an awesome little work horse of a machine. I have pieced and quilted a table runner/wall hanging on it. It’s another one that was started and finished. All the scraps were cut into 1 1/2″ squares. Even the cut off backing was cut up. I’ll have that little four patch quilt finished in no time

Following my plan to finish at least three UFOs before I start a new quilt, I have to decide on the next three to work on. I already have the fabric picked out for the next new one, so it will be an inspiration for me to finish something.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I have been cleaning and organizing the attic. I found a big bin of small scraps that I forgot was up there. That bin, along with another bin in the sewing room are just too much. After finishing the Summer Sampler, I decided to use up all the scraps in every project that I made and not add any more to my stash. I had a lot of small leftover scraps from the Summer Sampler.

In the meantime, I read on a blog that I follow about making a Pandemic Round Robin. It is a Round Robin that never leaves your house. It should be a Medallion quilt. The center can be pieced, appliqued or a panel. The three borders are half square triangle, flying geese and a four patch. They can be in any order that you want. Adding a star would be a bonus. The quilt can be any size that you want.

I decided to put the two thoughts together and made a little table runner from the Summer Sampler scraps. This little quilt has all the criteria for the Pandemic Round Robin except for the bonus star. It was fun to make. I quilted it with the walking foot. It was a fast and easy project.

There were still pieces left over, so I cut them in 1 1/2 inch squares and made nine patches and four patches.

These pieces are set aside to wait for the remains of other projects. The center pieces in the box are 1 1/2 inch squares cut from the leftover fabric cut from the back of a little UFO quilt that I finished. If I feel like cutting 1 1/2 inch squares from the bin in the attic some day, I could make some more four patches and someday have enough for a large quilt.

After I read about the Pandemic quilt and made one, I realized that there is nothing new in quiltmaking. Over twenty years ago, I made a Round Robin with friends in a mini Guild. At that time, I made two center blocks. I sent one out and kept the other. As we passed the quilts around, I made a row for the quilt with the same criteria that we had for the one that traveled. It was fun to see how different they are.

The Morewood Mystery quilt has been fun to make. The instructions come once a month, so I have been able to keep up. The first month had cutting instructions.

The half square triangles were trimmed using a Clearly Perfect Trimmer by New Leaf Stitches. The block can be trimmed in two cuts and the dog ears can be trimmed at the same time.

The Strip Stick is one of the best gadgets that I have. Pressing seams open is easy. No burned fingers.

This block of the month project has been relaxing. There are a lot of blocks to make each month, but they are mostly the same. The cutting was done in the first month and the sewing is easy.

The pieces are in their own basket and awaiting final instructions.

I’m going to start a new project tomorrow. Maybe it will be another UFO or maybe, the start of another new quilt. Either way, it will be a fun day.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

This has been a busy few weeks . I didn’t have much time to sew, but when I did, it was if I had never sewn before. Mr. Seam Ripper was my constant companion. We are on a first name basis now.

I have sold my Maine house to one of my daughters. Moving, packing, and purging has taken a lot of my time. This is a good move for me at this time, but I’m glad that the two houses are finally combined into one. There are a lot of items left for a big yard sale next summer. Lots have gone to the Salvation Army and lots more to go.

In the meantime, I have gone a bit crazy and decided to refinish the office furniture and clean the attic. Half of the attic is purged and organized. I will have to finish the other half before the winter chill is up there. I’ve found items that I forgot I had. There is a whole bin of scraps and another bin of heavier fabric for making tote bags and pocketbooks. There is a bin of flannel pillowcases. Two pillow cases make the perfect size backing for a baby quilt. I’ll think about all the treasures again when the snow flies and I need something new to work on.

Two of the pieces of office furniture are finished and with only two more to go, I can see the end of that project.

My garden might have to wait until Spring. Maybe the weather will be nice for a while and I can find a day to go out there.

I have finished the Summer Splendor top. It was a block of the week Internet pattern. I finally finished the blocks and put them together. The quilt was fairly easy to make until I overloaded myself and tried to hurry and not enjoy the trip. If I had concentrated, I could have left Mr. Seam Ripper in the drawer.

Here are some of the blocks.

The original border in the pattern called for large yardage. There were several pieces of the Free Spirit fabric so I decided to make a piano key border and use it up.

When it was finished, I had just two complete fat quarters and a very small amount of scraps. The fat quarters can be used for the binding. I might be able to get a mini quilt from the scraps. Then I won’t have to add them to my never ending pile of small scraps.

I have been following several quilting blogs and have lots of ideas in my head. That’s for another day.

My oldest UFO is out to be hand quilted again. The quilt is at least 30 years old. It has had a lot of shelf life. Every stitch is progress at this point. As long as my under hand holds out, I’ll work on it in the evenings. I really need to finish it and get it on my bed.

Hopefully, I can slow down and start finishing some of the many quilts in my “waiting to be quilted” chest. At least, most of them are in the same place. I also want to play with the many tools and accessories that I bought because they looked interesting. It’s time to move on and enjoy quilting again.

Have a great day and happy quilting.