Fall has arrived in the Bay Area of California. My two trees that show color are doing so, and I have amassed a collection of squash-es to last the winter. We are looking at a 50% chance of rain tomorrow, the first in a very long while. I finally finished the cardigan last night. So fiddly, not just the seaming together, but the button holes, then sewing on the buttons and weaving in the ends, I was ready to be finished. These little booties are quick enough to knit up though. Garter stitch and a bit of picot on the edge, the second one is going a bit faster. I just hope I have enough blue yarn left over. I found this cute onesie pattern from Coco Knits, called Baby Bear, I’m going to dig through the yarn stash to see if I have anything soft enough in the right weight. I like Coco knits patterns because they are usually one piece and very little seaming. They design clever shaping with decreases and increases, plus make it all understandable with videos and concise details.

I did a quick turn around quilt Monday, a local lady contacted me to see if I could finish her baby quilt for her by the weekend. I was able to do so, as I had just finished the Spot on quilt and it was off the frame. This little quilt was 35″ square, two and a half rows of quilting and it was done. I got it back to her yesterday, it’d be great to do more like that, but everything has to line up. When I finished the Spot on quilt I had enough left over backing to quilt this banner panel that I got on sale. The trees, hearts and stars are supposed to be double sided stuffed ornaments, but I am going to hang them in-between the letter flags. I want to try to cut them with pinking shears around the edges. I might have a rotary pinking blade, I have to look through my collection.

I started on making the HST’s for the first Winterly quilt top. Then realized I made them with the wrong background color, 128 of them. I think I will be able to use them in one of the other quilts. In the meantime I feel a little stalled on this project. I ordered a few yards of the dark (called for) background fabrics. Once it gets here, I will make up the two blocks, and see if they still work using the lighter background. I may just have to change 64 of them, I used my Accuquilt die to cut them, so it’ll be easy to recut the pieces quickly. I got my new dies in the mail yesterday, I will be using the 1 ½” strip die for this project too. I have never been comfortable cutting narrow strips from yardage. The ruler just doesn’t have enough grip on the fabric and they eventually get wonky. The plus to using the die is being able to cut five at a time.

Cross stitch time has been sporadic, lately it is every other day, but I am making progress. At 18 days in, I’m about 30% done. The roof tiles require much counting and I don’t like concentrating that much some nights.

Be Kind.

Just like that I am busy. I feel like I have been coasting along this fall, then yesterday I received the fabric for the five custom quilts I contracted for. I feel like I should have a few more holiday quilts ready for the shop. Then I am realizing that I need to finish a few baby things, as the arrival grows ever closer. Plus I want to make a few knitted hats for giving. Then I am thinking that Christmas gifting will be a bit earlier this year, as I am traveling in December. Okay, calm down, breathe, and make a list on the white board.

I am happy to report that the Chill Cabins quilt sold within an hour of me posting it to the shop. Phew! fastest sale ever, and to a previous customer to boot. The other Halloween quilt, a Mad Masquerade/Alice theme is in two carts, but the season is quickly drawing to an end. I would really (wishfully) like to see it shipped out of here by the end of the week.

I finished the quilting on the customer quilt, shipping that one back today. I used aurifil variegated 50 weight on the top and solid 50 weight in the bobbin. Such nice thread to quilt with, very little lint, and the only breakage was when I ran out of bobbin. I liked the combo so much I am using it to quilt this top I made earlier this year. I can’t remember the name of the pattern, I think is from Connecting threads. Spot On is the name, it went together fairly quickly, then languished in the TBQ pile, for lack of a backing. I went with a pepper shot cotton in oyster, the bobbin thread is medium blue, so the circular panto quilting shows up nicely.

I am steadily working on the Fairy house, got the door done and working on the purple gills of the mushroom. The roof is next, lots of tiles and counting. I am also sewing up and finishing the baby sweater, yesterday I got a sleeve sewn on and the button band done. Might attempt the button hole band today, it requires full concentration. I realized that the buttons I got for it are too big, for some reason I got it in my head that they were 7/8″, but that’s too big. I ordered some ½” sized that should work, hope they get here soon. I made a little headway on the Tilda Quilt appliqué, and as I was sewing, I wondered why I hadn’t done any work on it since June ?!? I am leaving it out and accessible, even just one or two flowers a day would help get it done.

I caved to an Accuquilt sale this week too, a blogger who I read, posted about their annual 40% off sale -ends 10/23. So I bought three dies, a multi sized circle cutter, an 1 ½” strip cutter and a signature circles die. That last one cuts sort of a drunkards path block with four arcs to it, it makes for a meandering curvy line when the blocks are joined or two layer circles. I like the little notches that it cuts to help line up the pieces. Note to self: use Accquilt Cutter more often.

Be Kind.

Working on a few things this week. I finished a few things too.

Firstly, I finished the Floating house.

Secondly, I finished the Chill Cabins quilt

Thirdly, I finished the second Peacock panel quilt. Looking at it here, I notice that the diamond on the right needs to be turned. I think it needs more blue, this photo doesn’t show the colors right though.

I thought about starting the third Peacock top, but I am going to set it aside for a week to get some appliqué done on my Tilda quilt. I will clear the table and get all the fabrics and my “special” appliqué thread/tool box out. I will be set up for appliqué mode for the next few days. Back baste-ing as many flowers as I can on to this top will set me up for a few days of stitching. I figure I can multitask while the LA machine is running.

My client has decided on five quilts for the Winterly fabric collection. A package of fabric arrived yesterday, not enough to get started, but it is a really pretty line. The colors are blue based, soft greens and mellow reds. After five quilts ask me how I like it though. These are the five, some will be bigger than the pattern calls for.

A friend and I are attending a Makers Faire on Friday. I am curious to see if there will be any stitchery or fabric crafting featured. I am comfortable in my little fabric and needle crafty world, but I have always been amazed by glass blowing or metal crafting. I have always wanted to try welding. I have done stained glass crafting and pottery, wood working and painting. Not that I need another hobby, but it is fun for me to watch others.

Be Kind.

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.