Happy Thanksgiving!

This is our Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, so time for the pumpkins to shine. Usually the leaves on the trees have a spectacular showing this time of year, but it's been so dry of late that many have already fallen. Regardless, the weekend weather is beautiful and I hope that all of those who are celebrating are enjoying your fill of turkey and pumpkin pie.

Planning to start sewing the rows for my Turkey Trot together today - lots of pumpkins, leaves, turkeys and fall colours in this one. Because our Quilts for Survivors shipment went north sooner than I had expected, it missed getting included in this year's bundle, but I'll get it together and it can be the start of next year's. One more thing to be thankful for....M

Just Pinch Me!

Finally! Miss P (a.k.a. Posh Penelope) has emerged from the laundry room, freshly pressed and ready for her debut.

She's just about as lovely as can be, almost shimmering in the sunlight with all of those different prints at play, and so much fun to look at.

This one was a long, long time in the making but I'm thrilled with the final product and will now turn my head to how she might be quilted.

I think that I have the backing selected but after quickly tossing her on our bed to see how she fits I'm starting to wonder if there's going to be a need for a border. I don't like a skimpy quilt. This one fits, but just, and I like them to land at the bottom of the mattress. 

It will have to be just the right fabric because I do love the clean graphic lines of the quilt and don't want to interfere with that.

Obviously more time to think about that but today I'll just revel in the finish, and smile at those tiny 1/2" squares at the centre of each blossom.

The corner triangles are equally interesting.

This one will definitely be a favourite....M

Rollin' Out My Pumpkins

I've teased about sharing my Miss P flimsy with you, but she's still sitting in the laundry room waiting for a good press, in large part because of these boxes. We've been busy pulling together this year's Quilts for Survivors shipment. Last Sunday they were displayed in the church along with a garland of some of the blocks that we'd made and this week everything came down and was boxed for Jean and her husband to drive them north to Timmins. Big job! Simultaneously, I was organizing a special 100th anniversary dinner at our church so things have been just a tad off the rails.

Needless to say, my house could use a little attention. It's wonderful to have all of those quilts and flimsies (41) and the 34 quilt blocks packaged up and out of the house but it's already October and there's nary a sign of a mum or a pumpkin on my front porch. 

So, I pulled out my rustic Cinderella Pumpkin placemats for a quick seasonal fix. These were finished up in November/December last year so this autumn will be their inaugural run. Still really love them.

In part because each pumpkin is made from a different fabric thanks to a very generous Roberta who let me raid her beautiful stash. It's hard to pick a favourite, but that's part of the fun.

You will recall that they were originally supposed to be all in one runner but I changed that to placemats and added that little picot 'shelf' for each pumpkin to sit upon. It's made from the same brown that I backed them in and is a nice touch; they needed a little something extra. 

And you know that I just love those little pumpkins quilted throughout - such a terrific panto. Roberta used a variegated thread and it adds to much depth.

This will be a great way to start getting me into the mood for Thanksgiving - next weekend, yikes!....M

Hello Minnie My Old Friend

This time of year there's always a lot on my plate, to the point that I seem to start losing time in one-week chunks, and this year is no exception, which is why I love to have some hand quilting to help calm things down a bit. Minnie to the rescue!

She has been in the hoop for some time now but I don't honestly know that I've picked up a needle all year, until recently. It's so good to be back.

Reacquainting myself with all of the different diamond hexies in this quilt and their colour combinations is so much fun. It's becomes a bit of a game to see how many I can quilt in one sitting. She is by no means close to being finished so that means many more hours of enjoyment for me.

Another project that has been keeping me busy is Miss P. Spoiler alert: she's all together now. Miracle of miracles! I will give it a good press and have something to show you pretty soon, hopefully in the my next post....M

The Joy of a Slow Sunday

The Wonder Clips at the top of this photo tell the story of my day today: slow stitching binding on Falling Leaves.

When the calendar flips over into September I'm always on high alert because it's time to get some Holly Bazaar projects under way. But this year it also means finishing up this raffle quilt for the church.

The binding was cut and pressed yesterday and I managed to get it sewn on before hitting the sack (it's a large quilt - 88" x 100" - so there was a fair bit of gratuitous wrestling to get that job done). And that put me in good shape for today. This is the beautiful backing fabric.

That's what I'm binding it with, and it's looking really nice against that piano key border. It's currently about half finished so I'm happy with that. Linking up with Kathy and the slow stitchers who are joining her today...M

My Need For Speed

You know me, I rarely work on one project at a time, often motivated by the last thing I pass in the sewing room or see on my TO DO list, and often by the need to feel that progress is able to be made more quickly somewhere else. Well, here is proof positive that I am consistent.

To break up my date with the pincushion in assembling the Miss P blocks (so close!) I started another Quilts for Survivors project. I'd been mulling this one for a while as an experiment for how to use this cute autumn-themed print with funky little turkeys, 

pumpkins and leaves,

and a nattily dressed squirrel.

It's fairly simple but I think it does a good job of showing off the fabrics. I raided my 2.5" remnants and also cut several additional 2.5" squares - many of which are remnants from the Falling Leaves charity quilt - for scrappy 16-patch blocks. 

Once I had pairs sewn together I set out sets of 8 so that I would be sure to get the colour distribution that I wanted and then it was easy to work through the pile.

And then I framed 4.5" squares of my larger print with a tiny polka dot in coordinating colours. Very fun, I must say.

The framed blocks came together very quickly and the 16-patch blocks followed a few days later. I am loving the combination of prints - very autumnal, which is timely as our weather has suddenly turned cooler. 

It's not together quite yet but it's now time to return to my pins and finish getting Miss P together....M

There's Gonna Be Pinning

Final assembly on Miss P has begun, and true to form for this pattern, it's slow going for me, but it will be so worth it.

There are 6 seams along each side of of each block that are not conducive to nesting so use of the pincushion is in full swing. By the time I sew the rows together there will be 36 pins per row!

Because the blocks have been sitting around for so long, I've been giving each a good press to help re-establish crisp seams and hopefully make for better joins along the way. That includes pressing the corner seams open so that they lie flatter.

It's been so much fun revisiting every block.

And coming across wee surprises like this little bee (I'm easily entertained).

And even more fun to see actual progress. The two rows to the left are together now but not yet sewn to each other....M

Finally!

Well, Miss P's time has finally come. The blocks have been sitting at the end of the small ironing board that is to the right of my sewing table, most of them for the better part of a year, and I've had a few on a small design wall behind it to enjoy as I worked on other stuff. After the Homespun stars came down off the wall I wasted no time in putting them up before some unsuspecting squirrel butted into line.

There wasn't a lot of thinking, I just wanted to get them up and then see what might need to be moved around. LUV. My design wall is wider than it is tall so I've been having to crane my neck to imagine what it will look like vertically, but I am really liking what I see. And it also received high praise from The Official Cookie Tester, so that was good too.

It has had a bit of time to 'steep' which has allowed for the odd block twirl or switch-up to ensure that all of the darker backgrounds are well distributed. The one block that is giving me a bit of grief is the deep purple in the upper right corner, and it has since the day that I sewed it. I feel that it's just too dark. In hindsight, I probably would have been smarter to make the background on it in a lighter fabric so that it didn't carry so much weight. I'll live with it for now but if it really starts to bug me I might just make a replacement.

Time to start stitching!....M

Homespun Happiness

Often when I'm closing in on a finish the blocks stay up on the wall for seemingly forever, but not this time!

I wasn't thrilled with having to pin all of the connecting seams in these Homespun blocks, but there were stretches that allowed for a good 6 - 8" straight run so I just decided that a little patience would get me a long way. And so it did.

Happy, happy, happy! Once it came upstairs into the natural light I liked it even more than I did while working on it. All of those bright colours just make me happy. 

I'm still really happy with my decision to stagger the blocks.

I like it so much that it has me wondering if this one will stay at home, but I have some time to think about that.

The remainder of this mauve was made into a binding right away. Love using up a piece of fabric.

It needs a good press and then it will be ready for quilting.

On to Miss P!....M

Homespun is Getting Close to Coming Off the Wall

My mission to clear the design wall continues. Remember back in January when I started playing with the scrappy Homespun stars? Well, I just kept playing with them off and on. 

I really enjoy the pattern and liked seeing the result of new colour combinations.

Slowly they added up to enough for another Quilts for Survivors flimsy, but how to lay them out? I had just made blocks in colours that I liked with no real plan, and when I started to lay them out I wasn't that keen on butting them up squarely to each other. Ah, the joys of just starting to sew without a plan!

How about staggering them? I liked that. 

So I ripped two blocks into halves, and made a few more half blocks to fill in the gaps along the top and bottom.

But there is still the question of colour placement. I tried transitioning from pink to yellow to green to blue but ultimately decided that it wasn't working for me. 

So on a whim I nestled all of the pink/yellow blocks in the centre and moved the blues and greens to the top and bottom, and I liked that. Stay tuned!....M