Octobers Achievements.

 Happy Halloween.

Or Hop-Tu-Naa as we say on the Isle of Man.

A festival much older than Halloween.

So it must be 31st October, another month has come to an end and what do I have to show for it? Let's start with my goals.

1) Try a new recipe and share if it's a good one.

Well, we did try two new recipes, but one needs a tweak before I share. 
The other will not be revisited. LOL 

2)  Progress Down in the Garden.

I wish I could tell you this one is finished. It should be, but my quilting machine is having yet another hissy fit! Not during a scrappy quilt, but during a special quilt. That seems to be her speciality!

That said, I have made progress, quite a lot. It has borders and is loaded onto the frame, it is two thirds quilted and will hopefully be completely quilted soon.

Hopefully Peter the engineer can get the machine sorted soon and I can get this one completed. 

It's waited a long time.

3) Progress Lest we Forget.

Nope, not a stitch.

4)  Complete the Memory Quilt.

Yes!  The memory quilt has gone to its new home and the owners are delighted.

5) Continue with Winter Fairy Cross stitch.

Yes, I have continued, though not as much as I would have liked. This is the most recent image I have and there is little difference when I look at my work now, just a bit more snow and shadow.

6) Complete the Thistle Cross stitch.

Not only did I complete the stitching, I also completed the project.

It's now a cute wee needle book.

7) Add and close the binding to the I spy quilt. 

Another completed project.

If you remember some of those goals also had a b) project.

4b) I wanted to quilt another scrapper before putting the important memory quilt back onto the frame, following Jenny Janome's previous hissy fit.

Quilted bound and finished.

6b) I also wanted to continue to work on my cross stitched penguin.

I'm happy to say he is completed and is awaiting his turn on our Christmas tree.

And very proud he looks too.

So those were my goals, but you and I all know I have achieved more than that.

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I completed the cross stitching on Santa Claus.

But I can't find him! He must be busy in his workshop or maybe I put him in a very safe place. 

It took me one afternoon to stitch this cute wee keyring size piece.

I've quilted and bound this lovely piece which has been waiting a while.

I made a quilt in a day.

Yep a whole quilt in one day.

To be fair, the squares were precut. LOL

The next day I made a Kaffe quilt top.

Mostly precut pieces, though I did have to cut the outer border.

And I also played with scraps to make these beautiful bright placemats using grocery receipts as foundations for the oddly shaped pieces.

Oh and I finished an adopted Cross stitch.

This piece needed a lot of back stitching to pull out a few details and the addition of that pretty quilt on the wall beside the hutch.

 I have started not one, but two more Santas.

Both are cross stitched. 

One is another mini. The second will take a while.

He currently has a bit of arm and a short length of holly garland.

And finally, I pulled Gail Pan's Bring Me Flowers out of the UFO pile and into the WIP pile.

I have completed a little more and plan to take it along to Embroiderer's Guild meetings. Maybe not every meeting, but I hope it will feature frequently.

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I think I had a busy month!

I wonder what November will bring?

End of Day Three

 And here we are at the end of day three. I'm off to work tomorrow.

Yes, I had a few chores to complete this morning before the fun began.

Then I went to investigate 'that' drawer again. I pulled out the last few bits of my Kaffe scraps, 

along with a collection of scrappy brights in spots and stripes.

Next, I pulled out my collection of grocery receipts to use as foundations.

I had just enough to make two placemats.

And I used up some of those Kaffe strips too.

But I had to accept that some of those strips were narrower than others again!

I can live with it; they are just mats for Tony and I to use.

I plan to make some Frankenbatts for these two, but decided I'd had enough time at my sewing machine for today and besides, it was lunchtime....

I'll finish them another day.

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It's a messy business.

I had a quick tidy up; the leftover strips went into the strips drawer and the leftover spots and stripes went into the scrap bag for Linda.

Along with the leftover foundation pieces.

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After some lunch I settled into my armchair to do some more cross stitch.

No minis today, instead I pulled out a larger piece to work on.

I left Santa looking like this back on 17th October.

I've picked a little along the way and after a few hours today, he is looking a little different.

Once he's done, he'll be looking like this.

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As I said, back to work tomorrow, I'll be taking along my latest mini cross stitch.

Another Santa. I'll keep you posted.

And finally. The weather today was forecast to be worse than yesterday.

It got a bit wild and windy, but I'm happy to say no repeat of yesterday.

Enjoy your weekend. 

Day Two. And Two More Quilts!

 Day two of three was another busy day. I got on with my chores early and then it was time to revisit 'that' drawer. I still didn't pull out any of those ready-made blocks. Instead, I was drawn to a small bundle of Kaffe squares, yes you guessed it, they came in a paper sack. LOL 
There was also a small collection of my own Kaffe off cuts.
I played shuffle on the floor, but either had a one square gap, or had a few squares left over....
Then I remembered that I had a few pieces from a layer cake that had come to me when my neighbour Shelly was having a clear out. I fished about until I found them, selected one and cut out the last five inch square.

I kept the remaining layer cake slices handy for borders.

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While I was sewing squares together, I noticed this black bird hopping about on the front lawn. I do love to see them busy, and this guy seemed to be getting a good feed.

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Next, I fished about in my wee collection, hoping to find 'something'. There were some strips that could become an inner border, so long as you don't mind one of them being a quarter inch narrower than the rest!  That works for me. LOL

Then I set about cutting up a few more of those layer cake slices.

Sewed them on and by lunchtime, I had a Kaffe quilt top.

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After some lunch I decided it was time to sit with some hand work.

I have a few WIPs I could choose from but opted to pull out the Kitchen Hutch. This piece came to me almost complete. It just needed a load of back stitch to pull out some of the details and one final cross stitched element.

I had already done some of that back stitch during lunch breaks at work.

Yesterday I completed it, then got busy with that final area of cross stitching.

Tada!

Another quilt.

And another completed cross stitch piece.

After tea I pulled out yet another of those mini cross stitch projects of which I seem to have so many.

I made a start. I hope to finish it later today.

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During my afternoon stitching I took a break and wandered into the kitchen to make a pot of the tea.

Through the kitchen window I could see stormy skies, and I had already heard a few rumbles of thunder.  I had been watching the weather from my cosy armchair, but the view from the kitchen was rather alarming. The sky way out over the coast has a green tinge to it!

My camera did not capture how green it was. I watched while I waited for the kettle to boil, the clouds were roiling and boiling in all directions. Some moving up from the south, others appeared to be headed in from the west and then more moved down from the north. The flag just at the bottom of this image didn't seem to know which way to fly. Then I noticed some clouds seemed to be rolling themselves into a tube... I tried to capture that on video, but like my green skies, it just didn't seem to tell the whole story.

I later found out that not one, but two tornadoes had touched down just North of here.

Luckily, they were in open country and did little damage.

There were also huge hailstorms, they did cause damage.

I can't help but wonder if that tube of clouds I saw forming was the very beginnings of one of those tornadoes?

Though we have bright sunshine and calm skies at the moment the forecast says today could be even worse and more widespread storms

Good thing I don't need to go out anyplace and I have plenty of sewing to keep me busy.

A Quilt in a Day. And Other Stories.

 Yes, I made a quilt yesterday. From start to finish. It's all done. But first those other stories.

As you know, I was off to Embroiderers Guild for a few hours. That was fun, stitching and chatting with the other ladies and seeing all the beautiful works.

I made some great progress on my Bring Me Flowers stitching.
Finishing off this piece that had stalled with only a little left to do.

Next, I turned my attention to the smaller flowers.

All four were completed. 

I'm very happy with my progress, though there is still a long way to go.

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While I was there, I had a look at the sales table. Members can donate items to the table, and any proceeds go to the club's funds.

I found this beauty hiding amid some pieces that required completion.

The stitching is complete, but it needs to become a something. 

I'm thinking maybe it could become a very pretty pin cushion? 

How would you use it?

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After club I paid a visit to the supermarket then headed home. I'm not sure what made me do it, but I decided to stop at the Sallie's op shop. It's been a while. They have new management; the place is less cluttered and feels brighter and airier. The stock has been rearranged a bit; things are easier to see. The craft section had moved along a little and was also much tidier than it used to be. Look what I found tucked into the bookshelf hiding amid a bundle of old magazines. 

Oh Wow!  At $4 it wasn't staying in the store.

Will I ever be brave enough to make it? 

Not today, but we shall see.

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Now, I promised you a quilt in a day.....

After getting home I put away the groceries, had a quick lunch then headed into the happy room. I've had it in mind for a week or two to pull out some of those ready-made blocks I acquired in the $20 paper sacks. But when I went digging in the drawer for some of them, I came across a package of purple. I bought this back in 2023 in an op shop.

I had previously used some of the original bundle to make up this quilt in the same year.

Yesterday the remainder of the bundle had its day.

I played sudoku on the floor with the remainder of the precut squares. Cut two more and started sewing.

I pulled two fabrics from stash for border auditions...

The ditsy purple flowers came in a $20 paper sack.

Janice agreed it was the right one, so on it went.

That very dark purple right at the top of the audition image was also in one of the $20 paper sacks.

I was going to cut four pieces for the borders, then it struck me that the off cuts from three sides might be enough to make the final piece. I'm trying to use up some bits and pieces, not make more...

After making up a Franken batt, and also a Franken Back! 

That plain looking purple in the middle? That's from a $20 paper sack and the piece at the bottom is an offcut from the back of the memory quilt. And of course, the piece at the top is the ditzy flower used for the border.

It's only small, a crib size, so I opted to crack on and quilt it on my desktop machine, using the serpentine stitch, over the ditch.

I even got the binding sewn on before I had to cook tea.

Then after we had eaten, I got it closed!

It was getting dark by then; so, I opted to wait for a daylight photo shoot. 

No trees today, it is pouring down. The garden is loving it, I'm sure. I'm glad I don't have to go out anywhere today and I can get to the sofa on the deck for a quick photo there.

Tada!

A quilt in a day.

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What's on the agenda today? 

Well, I'll need to iron yesterday's laundry, then I'll go where the muse takes me.

That does seem to work better for me at the moment rather than planning ahead or trying to chase goals. 
I'll let you know, once it's done. LOL

Three whole days off!

 (Shhh, don't say it too loud, someone will hear me and take one of them away)!

What to do with myself? 

I started bright and early today, the laundry is on the line, some chores have been completed and soon I'll be off to join the ladies at Embroidery guild. 
I'll be taking along Bring Me Flowers, by Gail Pan. 
If you remember it was a BOM back in 2021.
I made a start back then, stitching the first few flowers, but then stalled.

It will be good to make some progress on this one.

I have all the fabrics I originally sorted for it all set aside in a project box. Blue and green fabrics, to go with the blue and green threads I had selected. I'll show more once more progress is made.

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And like I don't have enough projects to be getting on with, one of the ladies at quilting club had the most beautiful pencil/project case. Closer inspection and her own admission revealed that she had purchased it from one of those Chinese stores for pennies and had embroidered and appliqued a beautiful panel to stitch onto the front. (I tried to get an image, but it's very blurry, sorry). She was working on a panel to sew onto the back.

Inspired I purchased this one.

It's quite spacious, with a few pockets inside.

Just right for a small project.

I can't guarantee that I'll get around to making a pretty panel anytime soon, but that is the idea. 

One more chore before I head out to have fun for a few hours. 

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