Practice

 I've taken some stitches in the frame, but needed a little piece for practice. This little four patch is perfect to practice on. 

It's also on my ufo list. Looking for a quick finish. We will see.

Some green circles prepped for string of beads. 

Now, off to watch a symphonic band concert.

Fall 2025 UFO list for Ravelry group challenge

It has not been a year of finishes for me but I have 3 months to add a few I think. Wish me luck! I went back to my spring list so I had a few more things to select from. We will see how the next 3 months goes. I need to change the mindset on what quilts need 'hand quilting' to finish.... although, there is no rush so I guess it is ok?

I did get one finish last quarter, the Arkansas Traveller quilt. 

The list of UFO's -

 1.) I know I have at least one more cut somewhere to fill that open spot for a 7x6 setting. *** found the parts in a baggie!  These are hand pieced.... and might need a little fixing along the way on some of those middle joins. From Inklingo lemoyne stars.  The blocks are 4.5 inches.

 

2.)  I think it's a 6.5 inch cut center of greys and 2.5 inch strips. Finishes 10 inches. 

3.) Midget Applique quilt from Sentimental Stitches. I need to add more flowers and leaves and the vines... and the last border. Hand pieced and hand appliqued. Started January 2015 as a car line project. One block a week.

4.) triangle pyramids. started June 2024. I need to find these!

5.) little packs of 2.5 inch squares turned into this little top while I was stitching something together.

6.) Midget block collection - I started these in Vermont in 2010! I have a light blue for sashing.

7.)  Baby quilt with a Dr. Seuss Panel of ABC. This will get started today =) Especially if the baby shower is Sunday =). They will get cut out and framed and then sewn back together somehow!

8.) Erin's Butterfly - I made the wings in 2021.  Need to add one more set of wings... thinking 9 is a nice number? These have been machine stitched onto the background. Need to add body and antenna to each. Also need to add 1 block in another color.

9.) Flying Snowballs - hand pieced shoo fly and flowering snowball blocks in blue, purple and green from 2025. Will plan to machine piece them together into a top about 84x84.

10.) mostly cut out and some 9 patches are made. Hehe... from the first quilting book I had and made a quilt from. Introduction to Quilting 101 - the basics by Sharon Hultgren. I think this was Sunrise Surprise! The four patch from this book is at my Mom's hanging over a crib still! This might get morphed into a donation quilt of some sort to get it done.

11.) I forgot I had this. It is a cute birdhouse wall hanging but is foundation pieced, which I dislike. Maybe I can deal with it enough to get this done? Or rework it?

12,) This is a kit I purchased mid-90s - butterfly's. I think all the parts are there and I did start arranging them.

13.) Quilters Patch. A sew along that I completely did not meet my goals on in 2022. One block is done.

14.) Alternate BITA blocks from RSC 2025 collection

15.) 16 patch blocks from 2.5 inch squares

16.) chicken blocks... these have not had much love this year.

17.) Bittersweet Briar - pattern in Kim Deihl's book and kit of fabric.

18) Brimfield Awakening EPP. I did start this and have the first fabric thread basted in purple!

19.) Bonnie Hunter Mystery - On Ringo Lake - maybe step #2?

20) Bonnie Hunter Mystery - Grassy Creek (2020) Think I am on step #4.

21.) 30's log cabin tulip quilt.

Quilt Tops: 

22.) Birds in the Air block collection - this is now a top and loaded onto the quilting frame at a 90x90 size.

 23) Ella Maria Deacon Blocks. Hand pieced, machine stitched together into a top. Patterns from Sentimental Stitches.

 I need to measure and see if it is happy with it's size or now. All my quilts seem to have a mind of their own!

24) Vermont Quilt Festival Booth Hop from either 2008 or 2009.  it is 71x71.

25.) Y2K Joann's BOM - quilt top

26.) 1857 Quilt Along Top - This one is in the hoop for hand quilting as of December 2024. ** Might unpin this one so it doesn't rust and do something smaller first with the big BITA on the frame...

27.) Spring Hexagons - not sure if this wants to be bigger or not.... 

28.) Triple Irish Chain - green. 80x80 I think. I did find both fabrics extra with it... Might need a green or cream border first or both... Made in the early 2000's. circular feathers in open spaces.

29.) Harmony - hand pieced project started March 2021-

2/5/24 it is a top!

30.) Hexagon flowers on a black background. These are a stack of blocks I hand pieced a few years ago then hand appliqued to the black background a couple years after that!  

31.) String of Beads is a top. I do want to add green circles to the meeting points of the green peels I think as well. The yellow ones really helped the colored parts of the peel flowers. I need a new photo of this one as I did get it to a top on 10/5/25. I promise!

A finished project.

 The little basket of apples is now a little pillow.  I think he needs company.

These are the wood projects from the 2 sessions of cookie decorating and crafting event the last 2 months. Cider was August and the fox and mushroom was September. 

Sunday and a new week

 Well, I missed a few days this week. Turns out I got a stomach bug and it was a good one! 2 days in bed. I finally got up and stayed up today and was able to eat a little and drink fluids. The cats are a little sad, as they had me captive in bed for a couple of days. 

I tried watching a movie yesterday - Hocus Pocus, one of my October favorites. It took me almost 7 hours and a couple of naps in between to get through it yesterday. Hocus Pocus 2 went much smoother today and I was able to do a little stitching while watching. I had planned to start a new one from PinkernPunkin Quilting and Stitching, the Clementine and baby Jack, but when I opened the cross stitch bag, I found a started basket of apples stamp from her site as well. Only, this one had an error I noticed after I added another apple, so both needed to be unstitched. Note to self, leave more space when cutting out cloth so it can fit in a little hoop. I found some really old needles. Anyone remember the store Ames? or was it a New England thing? General Department store - before Walmart. We had Ames, Zayers and Harry's in the Barre/Montpelier area of Vermont. Vermont was a hard sell on allowing Walmart in for years. I think our Ames went out of business in the early 2000's. It was after I got my house in 2001 and before I sold it in 2006. 

Ames - $1.17 for 4 cross stitch needles. Wish we had those prices now!

After a movie and a couple of shows, I'm nearly done. I just need to add a few stems and some leaves to the apples.

 

Finished. 

Unfortunately, no progress on putting either of these two RSC block collections together into a top yet. I hope to be in the sewing area tomorrow and get these blocks trimmed to the same size and sewn together. I will probably need to make some green circles where the blocks meet as well. The yellow circles sure did make the colored peels look at lot better! I believe this is 48x48 for a size or will be.

Hand appliqued String of Beads blocks

Hand pieced Flying Snowballs (Flowering Snoball and Shoo Fly blocks) These are also 12 inch finished blocks, so this one should be 84x84.

We have a rose in bloom this week.

The night blooming Jasmine is looking in full bloom so it should smell nice tonight. Since my screens are fixed, I might even be able to open a window for a little bit to get some of the pretty smell in there once it cools down tonight into the lower 70's.

Both kids were home late on Friday. Emily had a football game, so marching practice after school, dinner there and then the game. It was homecoming week, so they did their show after the game. She got home a bit after 10:30PM.  Aidan had Academic club and then was planning to go to the football game. He and his friends went out to eat at a Thai restaurant then went to the game. He was peopled out, so did not stay and watch Emily perform after the game. He did say the band and cheerleaders were great. The football team, not so much. I think it was 44 to 6, and we had the 6. He was home around 9:30. Aidan, being Senior year is going to his first Homecoming dance with a bunch of friends. This year, Emily decided not to go. They got jipped last year with two hurricanes and a reschedule for 2 hours after a football game last year. I'm guessing she will go next year for her senior year. We will see.

Linking up to RSC on Saturday and Slow Sunday Stitching. 

October 1

 In light of things happening in this country, I'm going with some nature and progress on projects.

I poked around the mess of a sewing room and managed to find my Applipops! If you saw the room, you would be extremely impressed! I then cut 16 yellows and found my starch and got 16 little circles made. Last night, they were appliqued to the middle of the blocks while watching episode 2 of High Potential and then the latest episode of Only Murders in the Building and then the podcast on Hulu.  

Bear is holding them in place for me right now! They need a trim up and then I'll machine stitch them together. It should be 48 inches square when done. So.... probably a white 2.5 inch strip will be added all around. We will see if the green peels in a border decide they are necessary or not. It might be happy with that and the green as a binding. I really wish it would make up it's mind. As it will hang in my office, this size might be just fine as is (if I say it enough, it might agree with me!).

Now from the morning walk. The girl did head to school today. I think a full day of sleeping helped with her humidifier on all day. The boy was fixing his lunch when I headed out the door with Bear for his walk.

We met 7 turkeys on the lawn up the street from us. There must have been a real bear nearby at some point as their trash can was knocked over and trash all over an area of their lawn. We are one street away from a nature preserve/forest area.

Isn't this a pretty sight? I do love watching as the sun comes up in the morning. Yesterday and Monday it was gloomy and all grey clouds with the Imelda storm off the Florida coast.

The neighbors one street over are all decorated for Halloween. My neighbor across the street has not put his up yet, but I expect that to happen today. The carriage is new this year and the flying witch. The basilisk has a head that is just out of the photo. 

This is a new house that was built this year and they decorated up a bit as well. Love the purple spider on her web.

On tap today - trimming so the blocks are the same size and then getting them stitched together. I have a baby panel that needs to get started. It is the ABC of Dr. Seuss, so I'm going to cut them and make each block a little bigger and then sew them back together again into a little baby throw. I'll have to pop out and grab the book to go with it. We were discussing a baby shower and it will either be the 12th or the 2nd of November. If it is the 12th, I've got to get it done quick!

Last String of Beads block is completed.

 Well, the peels are all completed. I still need to make 16 circles to pop on the middle of the block! I know I have the applipops somewhere in my sewing area. This is the second teal one. I guess I'll need to decide if the middles are all the same color (thinking yellow) or a color coordinating with each block. 

All 16 blocks. I just hope I don't lose the peel points when I stitch them together! Circles need to go on first though.

One kid is home today. She got home late after marching practice yesterday (6:40ish) and said she was not feeling great - sore throat and stuffy. Today is the only day she 'could' take off from school so this morning I was not surprised when she was in jammies on the couch when I got up at 6:30 and she asked if she should stay home today or not. I told her yes, go back to bed as rest is best. She had a crazy weekend - I just did the pick ups and it threw me all off with the late times. 

Last night was taco meat - one did soft taco's, I did mine as a salad with tortilla chips and one other did similar. I think Greg just did a taco salad. Tonight - I pulled a 2 pound chuck roast, so will either pop that in a crock pot or the oven (depending on if I do it after I post this) with root veggies for dinner tonight.

Sunday Stitching

There will be some Sunday stitching, but I really do need to do a bunch of things I did not do yesterday. Yesterday, I put the frame into my new office space and started hand quilting on the Birds in the Air. Turns out, I was not in the mood to do curves on the big triangle so I think it will be just free handed straight lines! Much easier to do on the frame.

I have 4 of the 8 peels appliqued onto this block. The four outer green ones will get added this week. This is the last of the 16 String of Beads blocks to get completed.

All the Flowering snowballs and shoo fly blocks have been hand pieced for the Flying Snowball quilt. I'll probably machine stitch these together into a top. I pulled blues, teals, purples and greens for this one.

Friday I went to the away football game at The Villages as a band chaperone. The band performed after the game. So we got home about 11:30PM that night. Then, Saturday I dropped Emily to school for 10:45 AM for practice before they headed to Tampa for a competition that evening. They placed 2nd in their division. Not bad. It was a late night/morning. The bussed arrived back at the school around 1:45AM. I think I headed to bed at 2:30AM. She is still sleeping, and I'm not going to wake her or check until at least 2PM. She does have homework to get done today and wash to do! The boy had a night out for a friends birthdays and was about 40 minutes from home. He got in about 11:30 and stayed up chatting with me until about 1AM, when I headed out to get Emily from school. Greg and I went out to dinner last night, as a late anniversary date since both kids were gone. 

I'll do some housework that needs to get done and then try and figure out how the rest of my new office room will be set up. I've got a new desk (Emily put it together for me Wednesday night) and my hand quilting frame is in there. I need to figure out where things will go, so I can put quilts and pictures up on the walls. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.