Comforts

Its a miserable day today - rainy, breezy, damp and chilly - making it one of those days to sit inside, happily distracted by creature comforts, including needle and thread. There will be lots of time to sit and quilt on Candied Hexagons and watch a little football.

I'm happy to report that I've been able to stick with my quilting since I got back to it and feel that ever so slowly the finish line is appearing on the horizon.

Sometimes I've had the company of the Official Cookie Tester sitting next to me in his chair and other times we've had a little guest who quite likes that seat as well. Both are great company.

This is one of the first blocks that I made for this quilt and I quite like the way the print created a secondary pattern. There was only a small bit of fabric so some piecing was required to make it work - can you see it?

There's something about this purple print that I just love.

Every now and then I get a glimpse of the backing as I stitch and its fun to see the quilting coming through on it too.

This will be a perfect day to enjoy comfort foods as well, including fresh apple crisp. I have to say though that I was mightily distracted at one point when it was coming together because once it was in the oven I discovered that there was an apple still sitting on the counter that should have been included in the mix. Ah well, that just means that there's lots of crumble on this one (my favourite part!)....M

Colours of the Harvest

With the dying days of October the Holly Bazaar comes closer into view so it's been a full court press to get myself organized to finish up a few items for the craft table and something for the Silent Auction. Happily, these placemats are now quilted and bound and ready to go. I love the colours and hope that someone else will too.

Nothing overly fancy in the quilting department, just evenly placed diagonal lines of stitching with a blue/green variegated thread. Its what I used when I made a set of Christmas placemats using a similar pattern and I quite liked it.

They are bound and backed with the same deep orange print - its a deep colour and yet soft at the same time.

I had strips galore to work with so I made two pairs of pot holders to match. The gals will be able to decide if they want to sell them all together as a set or as three separate items. If they like the thought of them as a complete set maybe they will go into the Silent Auction - they can decide what works best. More bazaar projects to come!....M

Caramel or Café au Lait?

Jane also made great progress on a project at our girls getaway a few weeks ago. She started it in the spring when she was surrounded by water and looking for something else to think about other than the flood.

Its a beautiful palette - almost café au lait (or is that caramel?) with a little pink and green tossed in for good measure. Again, a simple but very effective nine patch that lets the prints do much of the heavy lifting.

It will be a throw as it is not overly large, but it will be a lovely accent piece. She's adding a border of large squares and then it will be ready to quilt. It is just so soft and creamy.

She's saving the drama for the back - this huge floral print that she discovered in her stash. It is as though the colours were made for her quilt!..M

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere

You don't have to look far this time of year to find lots and lots of pumpkin inspiration. Karen at Moose Bay Muses found herself down a pumpkin rabbit hole recently, so I decided that maybe I'd join her.















I started playing with this little block that finishes at 5" using a free pattern that she found on Annette's blog.

They are cute as could be, but you know me and scrappy - just have to loosen things up a bit. So I tried a couple where the stems were less chunky and the odd strip was made of a couple of fabrics. Cute, but still a little predictable.

I think you know where this is going. Given my love of improv blocks/made fabric, I decided to see what totally random would look like. Out came the orange scraps, including the last bits of this black spider print, and I was off. LUV!

I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with them but they all look great together and I do have to say that they are a ton of fun to make. I suspect that there will be more on the pile before the orange scraps get put away....M

Pippi Rides Again

Last year around this time I made a scrappy pumpkin topper with great little wonky black stars scattered throughout and a crow happily perched on top. Roberta thought that it was the cutest thing (particularly the bird, which she name Pippi Longstocking because of the little stripey legs) so I promised to cut one for her.

Its been cut and sitting on a shelf for the better part of a year so I thought I'd just go ahead and put it together because the pattern was in my head. Good thing I did because there were a few pieces missing from the stack!

Its a fun little piece for the harvest season.

The tiny green border is still a favourite of mine - it brighten things up just right.

I was obviously on my game when I cut it out because I also had the binding cut and ready to go - who knew? All she has to do is quilt it and sew on the binding, and since she is such a little speed demon I expect that it is already finished and in use.

Pumpkins were in the oven this weekend too, as we celebrated Thanksgiving with lots of delicious food including pumpkin pies for dessert. The Official Cookie Tester was in seventh heaven - pumpkin is his fave.

Okay, there might have been butterscotch pie too 😉. So much to be thankful for. If you celebrated this weekend I hope that you enjoyed the bounty of the season to its fullest...M

Winter Is Just Around the Corner

You saw a hint of the Country Cabins quilt that Linda and Jane worked on during our recent girls getaway, but today you're in for a treat - pics of the whole quilt top (well, just about the whole thing).

They started collaborating at the last getaway in February. It is a gift for Linda's grandson whose birthday is mid December and I can only imagine his reaction when it is unwrapped. He will never close his eyes while sleeping under it, there is just too much to look at.

Those patchwork cabins set among the trees are so wonderful. Placing the trees and cabins atop a strip of white really creates the idea of a snowy winter night,

and those starry blue night skies tie in perfectly with the reindeer border.

When they started out he was in a twin bed but he's a growing boy and recently moved up to a double so that meant some additions that they hadn't anticipated, but they rose to the challenge, incorporating leftover stars that Jane had made for another quilt - they were perfect, especially when bordered with that green check. It was as though they were made to order.

There were a few glitches with the borders, but Jane fixed that up in no time (most of the quilt is hand stitched). The last bit was to add a chunky border of 6" blocks, which I look forward to seeing.

Yesterday Linda delivered it to Roberta to be quilted. Apparently she is using a snowflake pattern in variegated blue thread - could it be any more perfect? Little wonder that Linda is giddy with the thought of having it finished for her precious little boy. So stinkin' cute!....M

A Return to the Hoop

Candied Hexagons has been in my hoop for - wait for it - going on three years now (yikes!). Work in the hoop tends to be done in the cooler months so that I'm not boiling under it in the heat, but I don't think that I picked the needle up even once this past winter. This week seemed like a good time to change that.

It was such a treat. There really is something wonderful about the rhythmic feel of running needle and thread through layers of fabric and batting. Getting to revisit all of these lovely fabrics was a bonus.

I thought at one point that maybe this one would never be finished, but over the last several days I've quilted three hexie blocks and am well on my way to finishing off a fourth, so there is hope that it will see the top of a bed some day.

I didn't lay it out on the floor but it looks like I have at least half of it finished and with the pace that I kept this week it feels very doable. Things will be busy now with Holly Bazaar prep but I'm determined to keep at it.

Speaking of which, yesterday we started our annual apple pie making at the church (we made 110 of them), the proceeds of which go to the bazaar. In chatting with another quilter about how long I have let this one languish in the hoop I was advised not to fret - she had one in the hoop in her living room for 20 years. I have to say, I felt much better after that!....M