My cross stitch project for this year is the Fabulous House Series by Cottage Garden Samplings . I have been mentioning complaining about it in just about every post this year. Keeping up with it is taxing to me, it’s not a race, or even a contest, it has become a personal goal. I feel like I am never going to finish this piece, is the “thrill” gone? This year is the first in a long time that I have not done a BOM quilt, I do have two to finish from previous years and the reunion quilt has yet to be quilted, I digress. Anyway, what is my problem here? I am stubborn, I signed up for this cross stitch SAL and even belong to a Facebook group. There is not much going on there though, 1.6K members, and only one has posted a finish of the most recent house. Not shaming any one either, but if I were the designer of these houses, I think I’d be sad, because everyone starts these SALs with such enthusiasm, then reality and life happens. Squirrels too, don’t forget the squirrels. I am stubbornly refusing to quit this one, even if it takes me four more months to finish.

In quilt making news, I was able to quilt up the latest customer quilt. It was a quick project, I didn’t even take any photos. The maker is like 9 ½ months pregnant and trying to finish it up for a wedding present. It was a modern landscape top, very pretty, with a simple diamond and circle panto called Diamond fields. She is going to bind it and send me a picture when she’s finished. This is what it looked like before quilting, and after.

Getting back to my Halloween quilting is easier now. I popped the Chill Cabin top on and need one more row to get this one finished. I am hoping to get it in the store and sold in the next week or so. I managed to get the other one in earlier this week, might be a little late. The two pumpkin quilts I made earlier this season sold and had over 150 views. Probably the most ever for one of my quilts. I will admit that these Mad Masquerade fabric quilts aren’t as mainstream, but there are J Wecker Frisch fans out there, besides me (I hope).

Speaking of Etsy, I had a nice message from a former client asking for 2 – 4 custom Christmas quilts. She found some pretty fabrics from Robin Pickens called Winterly.

There will be lots of this in my future, I hope. Last year I made a bunch of quilts from the Nocturnal fabric line from Gingiber. By the end of those quilts I was ready to do something different. Looking back, it seems I went on to do a few Christmas tops and some bright dog and cat quilts. Variety is the spice of life ( see above rant lol) and quilting.

I really should get moving on the Tilda appliqué quilt. Time is growing short, and before I know it the recipient will be here. Next week my DH is out of town, so I’ll have a few days to do some catching up and moving that project along. I am working on the second Peacock quilt, it has become more of a design as you go type of top. The panel is printed horizontally, so that changes a lot for the placement of the borders and blocks. I am looking at this pattern on the left, and modifying it.

The diamond shapes are actually four Kitty cornered blocks with a folded triangle on them. Not the easiest blocks, but the Creative grids Kitty Cornered ruler helps a lot. The finished size of them its 5 ½ inches, I had to work out the size most conducive to the panel size. Some working backwards and math was involved. I need to find just the right blue to make those skinny borders.

Be Kind.

This week has been hotter than normal around here. Since Monday the temps have been in the high nineties, and dry, not conducive to outdoor activities. One would think that a lot of sewing has been done, but alas, no. Well, some, but strangely not a lot. Partly because I took my machine in for servicing, its yearly maintenance and deep cleaning. I looked and I have about 2.5 million stitches on it, I guess thats a lot, I need to compare it to the longarm. The sewing machine tech said it had a lot of lint in it. I do try to clean it with every bobbin change, maybe a little vacuuming would help. I got it back quickly, in three days, during that time I pulled out my Singer 404, old school, sturdy and simple. I kept reaching for the thread cutting button and threading the needle is a bear. I managed to get the binding on to the Curiouser and Curiouser quilt. I need to get some (better) pictures of it, and post it to the store, before Halloween is over.

I’ve been working on the first of the peacock quilt tops. This is the Chong A Hwang fabric, Glow, version, with some black solid added. I had to do three revisions on the pattern, as I had made a cutting error with the pin wheels. Then I had to adjust the centre panel size, and then the amount of blocks I needed. Hopefully all these issues won’t reappear with the next two. The fabric for the Pretty as a Peacock version arrived yesterday, much lighter and with a touch of gold metallic. Still awaiting the Plume fabrics to come for the third version, it should be delivered later today.

I have been making lots of X’s on the Floating house stitchery. I think I have about another five days of work on it. I started the roof last night, it has three colors to juggle, but the pattern repeats are easy. The next house #11 has been posted, the Haunted House. It looks pretty spooky, lots of tree branching to do, less full coverage YAY! While sitting and waiting for the temps to drop I stitched up another felt Christmas ornament. This is from a set of three, the first one I made last year and it is with the Christmas ornaments. As I was stitching it I was reminded of the Halloween one I got two years ago, it is in a bin with two other kits I bought recently. I have always had a fondness for these felt appliqué ornaments. When I was a kid, my grandmother made a set of Dorothy (wizard of Oz) and friends for us one Christmas. She also made us felt stockings, I still have mine, and my sister has the Dorothy set. Over the years I have made quite a few sets for my tree, I would like to keep up the tradition.

Be Kind.

In searching for another project to make, I came across a stash of peacock prints. Figured it was time to work with them, and I need a break from orange and black. I have three panels, and some fabrics that match them, and two pieces that I thought matched, but are no where near the others. I have enough of the Glow line from Timeless Treasures to make a throw. The other two panels don’t have enough companion prints. I went shopping and found some of each, and ordered. This is the picture I want to emulate with these quilts. I did a quick work up in EQ8 and got it all figured out as to how many blocks and pieces I needed and then proceeded to cut them too small. I cut them for 6 inch blocks, not 6 inch finished size. I can still make it work, I just need to figure out the correct center panel size. The next two will be cut correctly. In other news, I finished the Cabin Chills top, it went together easily, I even did machine appliqué around the windows and moons.

The El Camino Hex quilt needs a name, I am thinking Fiesta time. Or maybe Fiesta tiles or Talavera. The quilting is almost done, just the top and side borders and few more fill in spots in the centers. This week I got orders for two LA quilted tops. One looks simple and the other is simple but complicated. The complicated one has to be straight on the frame, as it is to be quilted with a very linear panto. The other one is a simple quilt design but I have no idea how the maker wants to finish it, maybe something less linear.

I have been making head way on the floating house, but I doubt I’ll be finished by 10/1. I started this house on about 9/7, so I kinda have another week to make it a full month of stitching. I was hoping to catch up, but maybe next month. The patterning on the house is getting easier, I stitch the darker parts and then fill in with the lighter floss. The roof is going to be a slog, more solid stitching with the Caribbean blue classic color works. With dyed floss I tend to make each square completely as I stitch. I feel it makes the color variations show up better. In the past, I have treaded two needles and stitched the first leg and then the second leg with the second thread. This is easier when stitching straight rows, but can be confusing if you aren’t paying attention.

This little sweater is getting closer to finished too. I was finishing the right front side and realized that I did the neck shaping on the sleeve hole side. Then of course I did the same on the left front piece. Last night I fixed them both and started on the first sleeve. I am thankful that this is not a full size sweater, as I know if it was it would be in the UFO pile.

Be Kind.

I think today is the equinox, or maybe it was yesterday < pause > Google says tomorrow at 5:43 am. So today is the last day of summer, sigh. There were 94 days of summer this year, I don’t know if that is the normal amount or not, but it may vary. I had a good summer, got a lot of stuff finished and accomplished. I could make a list, but I am too lazy today.

Last night I finished the underwater part of the Floating house. Not including the house parts, dog and plants above it, there are 4200 stitches in this little scene. I started working on it 9/8/24, so about 325 stitches a day on average.

I am waiting for more fabric I ordered to come in to start yet another Halloween themed quilt. I want to do a version of Cabin Chills by J. Wecker Frisch – Riley Blake Designs. Instead of using the old maid panel called for in the panel, I am going to use the Mad Masquerade panel I have. It is used for all the little doors in each house, and since I didn’t have enough variety, I had to order a few more FQ pieces from the line.

I finished quilting the Bessie quilt yesterday, next up is the Curiouser & Curiouser quilt. Maybe I can get the Cabin Chills quilt top done by the time the C&C quilt is quilted. It would be advantageous to have them both listed in the shop for October. The two Pumpkin patch quilts are generating a lot of “likes”, hoping to sell one soon. I really should get a few more Christmas things started too.

I also have been making a little progress on the baby cardigan, I’m about half way through the left front side, yay ducks!

Just like that we are headed to the Christmas season, 91 days until the Winter solstice, for those who are counting.

Be Kind.

Thursday afternoon I was putting the orange blocks together for the next Halloween themed quilt, when my DH stopped by the sewing room to check in. The power went off, as we were speaking, it takes twenty seconds for the generator to kick in, so we continued the conversation as I turned my machine off. Sigh. The power was off for about 22 hours, unspecified reason, and only on our road. I am wary about using my machines on the generators power, it’s fine for the refrigerators and lights though. I ended up getting a lot of little X’es made, and finally finished the binding on the everyday/everyway bag. Between the power outage and the guests from earlier this week I feel like I got very little done. That being said, it was really fun to hang out with everyone and eat lots of good food.

This Halloween quilt is a free pattern from Riley Blake, but I added a row to use up the sixth print from the panel. I am going to change the borders a bit too, and add in the “& Curiouser” words. It’ll be a throw quilt rather than a wall hanging. I think I may do one more Halloween themed quilt for the store, as I sold the other two I made earlier this summer. I did a photo shoot of the Pumpkin Patch quilts and a few others yesterday. Plus I up-dated a few photos from some older listings. Now I need to spend a few hours creatively describing the quilts and posting them. Sometimes I wonder if I am wasting my time writing up the descriptions. I think that if I were buying a quilt, and spending the money, I would like to know all about it. A picture is worth a thousand words though, and a hundred words makes a sale.

I did finish the Light house late last week (9/7). The Floating house has some water under it and a base to float on. I try to do at least three strands of floss in the Caribbean blue color each stitching session. I’ve been loading three needles at a time, so I can just pick up the next one after ending the last. Mindless stitching, once I got the fishes and otter done. I am trying to figure out a plan for the siding of the house part. It is almost an argyle pattern, maybe just go horizontally row by row, rather than trying to stitch the pattern and background separately. Or maybe on the diagonal, sort of like how some stitchers do full coverage pieces. The Tree house had a little of this type of patterning, but in smaller sections due to all the windows and angles.

The Shine quilt got finished and bound. This was from a kit I got at a clearance sale, so it is off the shelf and into the shop. It is pretty cute, and even though it is mostly a panel type quilt, the sections of piecing and borders make it interesting. I thought the instructions could have been written better. I did end up playing binding chicken, I won by ½ inch.

Today I am hoping to get a start on the Bessie quilt, it is relaxing on the LA frame right now. I haven’t picked a panto or block design for it yet. Maybe something southwest or feathery or flowery, but geometric could work too. The sashings could use something, must think on it some more.

Be Kind.