I have always liked October, it’s a “full” month, 31 days, two minor holidays, four solid weeks. A good time to get things together and blast into the holiday season. This week I have been thinking about my goal list. I visited my beginning of the year post, most of those goals have been completed. Below is a bit of a post from late December 2019, which seems about a century ago.

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End of the year compilations are starting to appear on some of the Quilter’s blogs I follow.  I am impressed with the amount of finishes, but also the numbers of UFO’s (completed and resting).  I’m trying to get a list together of what I want to accomplish next year.  I get stymied though, it’s like an avalanche of images that crashes in my mind.  Too much input.  I’m going to start small, how about January goals:

1. Frolic
2. Mrs. Millers Apprentice
3. Live Simply (log cabin)
4. 4 Baby quilts – commissions
5. Finish peppermint poinsettia quilting
6. Quilt Feathered star

That’s easier.  Goals for the next six months, rather general:

1. Quilt tops that were completed last year, and before
2. Keep on top of current BOM, Botanica Park
3. Start wedding quilt (sept. wedding)
4. One UFO from Last List 
5. Construct quilt kits bought in 2019

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So the January goals were all completed, well, except for number five. The next six months listed goals (so these were for January to June), I got 4 out of 5 complete or started – BOMs and kits. None of the UFOs got touched.

This brings us to October goals, which are going to clean up the beginning of the year list. Optimistically.

1. Finish SQP – secret quilting project
2. Finish Peppermint Poinsettia quilting – list on Etsy
3. Finish Meeting of the Geese (kit from 2019)
4. Finish quilting Costumers Ball – BEFORE 10/31 and Hang up
5. October BOM blocks
6. Get Growing Up Odd on the frame
7. Make so Christmas items for Etsy

Four to be finished, one continue on, one start and one non committal (7). Yesterday I finished the paper pieced blocks for the SQP. YAY!! Now to put them all together into a top. Tuesday I started the Meeting of the Geese top. It was a kit I bought from Craftsy/Bluprint/Craftsy, it was basically 6 yards of fabric and a printout of the free pattern that is linked in number 3 above. I spent Tuesday cutting all the pieces and sewing the HSTs (used the Accuquilt cutter for the HSTs).

I have been sewing with the Singer 404, I think this is the longest time I have continuously sewn with it. I took it with me to Alsilomar two years ago and used it for four days there. It seems to be purring along now, sounding much smoother and like a well-oiled machine. My Bernina probably won’t be back for another 4 weeks. Sigh. I keep seeing things I want to make with it – embroidery, or embellishments or experiments. must be patient. I need to start thinking about serger projects, talk about itchy fingers, for when the L890 gets here. When I got the MDC1300 serger, three years ago, I bought a bunch of knit fabric and ribbing thinking I would make some shirts and pajamas. I made one shirt, and hemmed a bunch of sweat pants. I need to look through the patterns I bought with my subscription to Seamworks. Plenty of inspiration there. This could be an addendum to the goals above. It may get pushed to January though depending on the holiday schedule.

Finally, a quilt I made last month and gifted to a friend has taken up residence in an AirBnB rental. If you need a place to stay in Taos NM, this is it Stella Blue.

Be kind.

September is gone by, I feel like I didn’t accomplish much. It seems like I was in a distracted state of mind for most of the month. I had three quilt finishes, Alaska, BOO, and Paper boats. I started knitting and ripped the Peacock shawl SIX times, exasperating. I started and ripped three times the Juneteenth shawl, which is coming along nicely now TYVM.

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I finished the cross stitch florals and started on the outline stitching. This is becoming tedious stitching for me. It really makes the flowers look like flowers, but, so many lengths of thread have been used. It takes me about an hour to out line the larger flowers, like the lilies. The “fluffy” looking flowers (celosia?) in the center are just hell. It’s very difficult to follow the diagram and stitch, there no real rhyme or reason to it. I might try to enlarge the diagram and see if that helps.

I have been working on the SQP (secret quilting project) everyday. I have 28 more blocks to go. I can complete four blocks in about 90 minutes, I have to have this done by the end of this month. I wonder if I can get it done by the end of this week. Challenge (?) yeah, maybe not. Our friends at PG&E have decided that the pole and transformer behind our house needs to be replaced. They kindly sent a note last week informing us that we will be without power for most of the day today. I’m pretty sure that its going to take them longer than a day to do this work. The pole is not easy to access, there is a narrow dirt road-like area around it, but its too small to drive a truck through. I am having trouble imagining them carrying a full size wooden utility pole to and from the area. Plus it’s a major poison oak habitat. Sorry guys. Coincidentally we have a contractor installing a whole house generator at our home this month. The generator isn’t here yet though, so there will be no machine use today. Although, they did say 9am to 5pm, I could go stitch a bit.

I have been sewing on my Singer 404 since last Sunday. I sent my Bernina to Sacramento for repairs. I have a friend who’s mom lives there, and she kindly took it there with her this past weekend. The place is called Meissners Sewing and Vacuum Center they have four stores, but the one in Sacramento has the factory trained and certified techs. You may recall that I had tried to get the 790 fixed earlier this summer, but that just made it less than repaired. I was saddened that the repair guy, the shop owner that I have bought all my machines from, couldn’t fix it. He tried, but, other than sending it to Chicago, he did his best.

In other sewing machine news, I have purchased the new Bernina serger, the L890, it should be here next week. I’m very excited, this machine is so, so, um, awesome. If you’ve ever struggled with a serger, threading, tensions, differential feed, argh, you know the frustration factor. This new model is computerized, threads itself, has tension sensors and onboard step by step tutorials on how to use each stitch (there are 27). It has a free arm which makes shortening sleeve and leg hems so much easier. It also does a coverstitch, my current serger, a Bernina MDC1300 does too. But it takes me about an hour to get it set up for a 30 second seam. Needless to say, I am trading it in for the L890.

I worked for a bit on the Halloween quilt yesterday. Some ruler work and free handing around the motifs and such.

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Linking up with Denise at For The Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #70 today.

I just realized that I didn’t write down any goals for October in this post. Tomorrow is another day.

Be kind

I worked on the Halloween Wall hanging yesterday, I need to think up a good name for it. The kit was called Costume Makers Ball or something like that, doesn’t really sound like Halloween to me.

Tuesday night I finished the cross stitching part of my floral piece. On to the outlining. I am using Superior Threads Kimono silk, doubled to sew with. Its slow going though, about an hour per flower.

I want to start knitting something now that the weather is cooling a bit. I have given up on the peacock shawl. After starting and restarting six times, I called it quits. I think I am going to use a stole design instead, seems a little more functional too. There was something about knitting a circle that wasn’t working for me, I kept loosing stitches, or yarn overs, or counting wrong – chalk it up to experience.

I ordered two new cutting dies for the Accuquilt cutter. A pineapple block on board and a 2 ½” strip cutter. I want to use the strip cutter to cross cut strip sets, and the pineapple quilt is a kit I bought from Bluprint/craftsy. I’d rather not cut all the pieces separately. I should check to see what size “logs” are used.

I have been diligently working on the SQP quilt, an hour a day, well except yesterday. I’m procrastinating today writing this post, it is early in the day yet.

Be Kind

The title to this post was created by “Onyx” my DD’s new puppy. I think its quite stylized, sort of a ‘W’. He jumped up and hit the keys with his little paw.

I want to share this photo from our trip to Napa two weeks ago. It is taken in the vineyard/sculpture garden called Domun . The heart is all polished stainless steel, a visual impact for sure. It was made by Richard Hudson and its called “Love Me”. It is an image that really stuck with me, simple, yet complex, and singular. Art for arts sake.

I have been sewing everyday this week, either on my secret quilting project, my cross stitch flowers, or the Halloween quilt on the long arm. Yesterday, after doing my one hour of sewing on the SQP, I pulled out the Botanica Park BOM. This months fabric pack came on Friday, so as my reward for doing the SQP, I worked on it. I didn’t get very far though, as I realized that I didn’t finish last months assignment. I had made the blocks, but the whole center of the quilt needed to be assembled as well. This method of assembling as you go seems more logical to me, plus it helps keep all the blocks from getting mixed up and turned around. Remember the Mrs. Miller quilt, where the final put together involved lots of re-working? I got the BP center sewn together, and this months required hour glass blocks, did them the next day.

The cross stitch floral piece, is coming along, the end is in sight. I have two more flowers to stitch and then the back stitching. Huh, the spell checker had highlighted ‘piece’ and suggested ‘peace’, life should be so easy. I switched back to the hand held hoop, although the lap quilt is easier to stitch with, it gets tedious and awkward flipping it over changing out the threads. The leaves in this pattern chart are so many colors, in the long run, I wonder if it really matters and if the shading will show up once it is finished. Possibly the linen count cloth is too small to let it be seen, the design would look much different on, say, 18 count Aida cloth.

The Halloween quilt is calling me, I am looking at a version from Instagram poster Ruby Blue Quilting Studio . The one she quilted was done last year, Insta post here . I remember seeing it and then seeing the kit at PIQF, the fabric designs are unique (?) kinda weird, and steam punk. I bought it and quickly sewed it together and just as quickly forgot about it. I went with a computerized panto for the first two borders and I think I’m gong to do a string of ovals in the black sashing. I like how Rebecca Silbaugh did the lines behind the figures in the next border, they remind me of wainscoting, seems appropriate for the era of the rest of the art on this quilt, Victorian? My top is pictured below, its slightly different than RBQ’s version.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll quilts for Design Wall Monday.

Be Kind

Our air quality is terrible lately. AQI’s in the high 100’s the air is thick with tiny particles of ashes and dust. It seems like you could cut it with a knife, or rotary cutter. What it means for me is staying in and sewing. I did venture out last weekend, my DH and I went to Napa California for the Labor Day weekend. We did lots of wine tasting and gourmet food eating, no fabric or quilting related activities. I feel like I should mention that all anti-COVID related procedures were in effect and strictly followed. Although there is a winery tasting room in downtown Napa called Quilt and Co. There are no quilts, the name symbolizes the nature of estate wine making, bringing pieces (grapes?) together to make a complete project (wine?). If it sells wine, I guess its okay with me.

I’m still working on my hour-a-day sewing project, I am really going to finish a part today. Or close to it, just keep sewing. Yesterday I put the halloween panel quilt on the frame. I am trying to decide if I just want to do a panto, or free hand/ruler work. It’s not too big, maybe a hybrid is in order, do panto borders and freehand the center.

I am still having intermittent problems with my machine. It stops sewing in mid-stitch, I haven’t figured out the trigger for what causes it. It may be related to the presser foot mechanism, or the bobbin sensor. I have the bobbin sensor turned off, because it wasn’t sensing the bobbin and giving me an error screen. I was hoping that I could bring it down to the Bernina dealer in San Jose, and see if they could fix it. But they only have a certified Bernina repair tech in their Sacramento store. My dealer no longer has a certified tech, and would send it out to Chicago. As one can imagine, this would be costly for shipping and take lots of time. The drive to Sacramento is about two hours from here. I would still be without my machine for a few weeks, but I’d save on the shipping.

My hand stitching time is making a difference on the cross stitch project. I have been stitching nightly before going to bed. I’m about 75% done, starting to think about all the back stitching. I’m thinking I may go with #100 black silk instead of the DMC. The flowers are delicate and I think that they may be overwhelmed by the thicker thread. Plus I would be able to add some half stitches and slightly curved lines to it.

Off to sew, be kind.