The start of Bear Paw Wanderings... Bear Tracks in the woods?

 Not sure that either name will stick, but I did show Aidan a non-traditional bear paw setting that I'd like to try and he is considering it. He can't picture it with his colors, so once I get a few made we'll test it out.

I know I didn't want tiny ones, as he indicated his quilt is for 'after college' so a bigger size is needed - double bed size. 

I found this pattern at FQ shop for a finished 6 inch single paw and a 14 inch finished standard block. Better than the much smaller ones I have in my books. That should help with the amount of blocks needed!

I showed him some arrangements from this page where I pulled these photo's from. This is the layout they called Bear Tracks. Now picture it in civil war type fabrics of cream, green and blues.

As opposed to a more standard layout... although I really like this RSC type scrappy one!

I really liked this one as well with the different sizes.

and the chain in this one is nice too. I love the little touch of color at the middle of each block by the sashing.

The girl was dropped off to school before 6AM this morning for her school trip to a few neighboring states to learn about the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Shout out to the 9 teachers taking 90 students under their care for the next 5 days. 

Time to go make some cuts into the fabric and see if I can get some paws made today. 

A gobble start

 I ordered some Aida cloth and it arrived yesterday. I got a start on Gobble Gobble from Melissa at Pinkern Punkin Quilting and Stitching. My honey comb is my needle minder for cross stitch. I had to search for colors to work with but found a good mix. I had transferred the pattern onto a notepad of squares, since my print out was too tiny to read. Good thing I grabbed it from hubby when he was done with his math classes. It will come in handy for making patterns easier to read!

 

I got another squishy in the mail as well from Pieces of the Past. I had ordered 3 of the mini applique quilts that were marked down. They came to just under $25 each and include the pattern and all fabrics for the top and back. Not bad. I think notions are marked down this week.

Slow Sunday in November.

 As November is a new month, I'm going to be stitching one of these hexagons each day! I finished prepping these yesterday, so they are easy to grab at lunch and get one stitched up. These will be grouped into fours and added to my QAYG hexagon quilt from a few years ago that insists on being bigger. I have 2 additional rows already stitched and need 2 more to make it the 88x88 that it wants to be. Each row needs 12 sets of 4, so this will be a long term project over the next couple of months. The blues were at the top of the scrap bins, as you can tell from the pull of fabrics. 

I have not made progress on adding the last 8 circles onto the String of Beads but hope to get it completed this week. 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Marching season is officially over with the long practices. They go down to just a couple hours after school on Fridays until the 2 December parades are done. They got an overall Exceptional rating - one step down from Superior they got the last two years. The guard and visual did get Superior ratings. The music was not as spot on as their Thursday performance at the football game. It was a great show, and they should be very proud of all their hard work this season. Would you believe I didn't even take a photo? It was a long ride to get to the venue - Greg and I headed 45 minutes to pick up Grandma and then continued 40 minutes further to the venue. Same route back, and around 8, we decided to do dinner out with Grandma before returning her home and chatting for a bit. It was nice to have adult chats without the kids! Greg and I got home just before 11 and Emily rolled in about 11:15. Aidan put the outside light on for us, as he stayed home and finished applying to colleges, which were due by midnight last night for the early applications. Fingers crossed he gets what he wants in January!

Winter Guard try outs are this week. Emily will do that at the first one, and then she heads off on the Junior class Civil Rights trip for 5 days to Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. 

Looks like I should have lots of time to 'play' this week, if only I would put down my phone and stop scrolling and playing games!

The county Pre MPA from October 21,2025.

This is all the bands. I think we are about halfway through, Belleview HS.

RSC and Table Scrap Challenge

 The TSC for October was Denim. The RSC was light or dark neutrals. Linking up to both on Saturday!

Hmmmm.

Looking at fabrics as I was attempting to tidy up my working area this week (photo's later as it might scare people!), I saw some cowboys riding horses on a black background with lots of browns. Darks, checked. Cowboys wear denim jeans. Check! I have a winner.

Since I have finished a quilt or two in the last bit, I actually have batting extra's again, so it was the perfect time to prep more hexagon blocks to add a couple more rows to the hexagon quilt. I started this in 2021 and it is asking to be made a bit bigger. Since it is a quilt as you go style, I am able to accommodate it's wishes!

My finished edges are 2 inches with the templates I have. I use the outer two - the 3 inch and 2 inch. I cut backgrounds using the 3 inch and then batting and eventually more fabrics with the 2 inch. I do need to find the box of clips I bought a month ago so I can prep all of these. 

I prepped this one.

Got it stitched up this morning after walking the dog. Technically a finished little quilt. It will be added to 3 more for a grouping of 4, and then I think 12 groups of 4 make a row. 

The back.

We have one last marching band performance to go see today for their MPA. Their time was set back an hour so it will be a little cooler when they perform. We are having cooler weather in Florida this week, I'm not complaining though. I much prefer cooler temps - in the 60's when they perform tonight.

The girls are molting - at least the 2 Barred Rocks (black and white ones) and they look so funny without their feathers. No eggs for a while as they are building their feathers right now. I think I get about 1 egg a day now. I put a couple dozen in the fridge so they will last a little longer before I need to buy some. 

You can see all the feathers in their big run. The coop looks like something was plucking all the feathers out! Just a natural occurrence.

A close up shot of the girls. Their feather pins are blue, which makes me chuckle when I see them. So far it looks like just these two, but I think Poppy will soon. I think the two younger ones molted in the spring, so I'm not sure if they will again in the fall this year. 

I mentioned I finally went into the sewing area and attempted to pick it up a bit. You might want to stop now, if cluttered mess gives you hives! I did the side section, that I did not photograph first and got that tidied up a bit. Lots of papers into the big shredding box and old suitcases went through and will be tossed out. These are from the 80's and 90's so old without wheels. Then I tackled all the bins of overflowing fabrics. Not a great solution, but 3 contained bins instead of all over the floor helped. I did manage to find the missing colorful Flowering snowball parts I was cutting out a few years ago each month! Still a lot more to go, but I can move around in there now. 

The mess!

Slightly better mess! 

I'd better start lunch. I made chicken stock with a carcass yesterday and will be using that in a potato leek soup today. Chilly temps call for soup and this is a favorite of ours.

Enjoy your weekend.

squishy mail

This is package #2 of squishy mail. The first (which is not where I remember putting it) was some yard cuts of KT line Wheatland. I think about 6 different fabrics in blues and greens. This below photo is half yard cuts (mostly) from Pieces of the past which is doing a 20% off through December as they close down that part of the business. I have neutrals to go with this already in the stash.  I suppose that means I need to start making bear paw blocks for the boy's graduation quilt.

I have one more package in transit. Pieces of the past had 30% off their applique kits last week. I looked. Then went back later in the week and picked up 3 of them. For 17x17 quilts - provided the pattern, all fabrics for the front and the back and I think the binding to complete it. Just needs a batting. The discount brought it down to about $25 each. Reasonable for all that I thought. Not that I needed more projects....

I've added a few more circles to this one. I just have 8 circles to go and it will be a top. I think I will carefully add a little white border - one that fits a stencil I have so maybe 3 inches? Then a green binding. That will make it about 53 or 54 inches square.

One kid has Academic meet today. They have won the 2 they have had so far with their new captain - my kid! Who would have thunk it? The girl is actually home on time today - a rarity. Hubby has a Dr. appt with the VA this afternoon. 

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I was adding green circles to the green peel joins yesterday, until a big black dog decided he wanted to be a lap dog and take a nap with me! Spoiled Bear.

I have added stitches to finish off the inner part of the hoop on this cross stitch I started over 20 years ago. Time to get it finished off. This is in a book Quilts for All Seasons by Paula Vaughan. January. I've done both September and August years ago.

I also got mail this week! The Jenny's Christmas box for 2025 arrived this week. I believe there are a few still available for sale at Missouri Quilt Company. I can't wait for December 1 to start opening one present a day through Christmas! It's my present to me -  this is my 3rd year and I ordered it around December 27, 2024. I still have lots of projects from previous years to do, like this embroidery that I pulled out. I'll be adding stitches to these projects throughout the week.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitches. Sit back, relax and remember to breathe this week. 

 

Saturday

 

I had a finish this week and used a brown binding to finish it off. 20x20 four patch was hand quilted. 

Last night was a football game the band played at. They have one more football game before their music performance evaluation for their Stranger Things show. The views at sunset are always amazing. 

There was some drama. Seems the lights were flickering in the band room after practice, then filled with smoke and the lights in the locker room went out. Electrical.  They moved to the chorus room. Other buildings on campus were affected. By the end of the game, all power to the school buildings were off. The electric company was on site waiting for everyone to be off campus.  The sheriff was kind enough to drive over and point the headlights on the door to the band room. We will see if electric and the ac units are fixed for Monday. 

Today, I want the kids to finally fix the porch screens and then we will trim bushes out front. That's my plan anyway!

Linking up with the RSC. 

Oh, if you are in need of fabrics or kits - Pieces of the Past is closing down that part of her business. I grabbed a bunch of fabrics over there for Aidan's graduation quilt and just got a few applique kits - that come with everything but batting. Not that I needed them, but at 30% off, I had to do it!