Loving the Extended Fall

It's really quite late for us to still have beautiful fall colors. I am loving it! Friday after work I stopped at this little lake and stayed quite a while, until the sun set. The water was like glass! There were some ducks swimming around at one point, but I didn't get good pictures of them. I enjoyed the ambiance, however.

I don't have quilt pictures to show you, but I AM working on my blue/green HSTs! And I bought more green/blue FQs to use in my HSTs.

Report on our recent church bazaar (I posted photos of some of the stuff I was donating to the bazaar).. I bought myself a pretty bracelet. Of my four table runners/toppers, only one sold. The baby quilt did not get any looks and only one comment, which was quite unusual ("babies can't have quilts any more"). The baby onesie thing I made got a few comments but did not sell. I have not had good luck over the last few years selling my quilty items, so I think it's just not the right crowd. Next year, I'll make stuff I want to keep or give to friends and charities, and everyone will be happier.

A Late Burst of Color

We had a very dry summer, then a very wet fall... not the best combination for making glorious fall colors. Finally in the last few days we've had cool nights and sunny days. That is perfect for the bursts of color, and suddenly they are everywhere. Here are some great autumn colors for you to enjoy:








I had more photos to show you, but I'm having that darn problem of pictures uploading in all the wrong colors (like a printer that is running out of ink). So this is all you get for tonight.

Happy Autumn!

Days Off = Sewing!

Last week I had two days off, so I took advantage of the time and got some sewing done... not as much as I had hoped, but nevertheless I am happy with how much I accomplished.

Here are some heartstrings blocks I made for the October project - pink for the middle string in honor of breast cancer month. These quilts will go to breast cancer patients.



Here's a little quilt I made kind of by accident. I wasn't so sure that I liked it until I got it quilted. Then it looked lots better!



I didn't make all four of these this week, but I made the two on the left... then photographed all four of them together. They will be put in my church bazaar this week, and I hope they all sell. I had intended to make more Christmasy runners/toppers, but realized that I have very little Christmas fabric. And guess what... I didn't remember that the purple runner and the fall colors runner are made of the same block until I saw them photographed side by side! Silly me!



Finally, I made this crumbs quilt sashed in PINK. It's quilted but I have no appropriate fabric for the binding. I'll need to go shopping, or do some deeper scrounging in my stash and hope there's a dark pink I overlooked.



And to anyone who is wondering, the answer is no... I have not made any more green/blue HSTs. But I intend to very soon!! Stay tuned.

Plodding Along

I have some quilty projects that just never seem to get done... I'm not even talking about the zillion-year old UFOs I have. I am making a pieced border for this quilt, and I keep procrastinating!! I finally made some of the border today. When playing with its placement, I changed my mind on the kind of border I'm going to do, so now I have to make twice as many HSTs as I had thought. Oh, man... this is the kind of thing that I am good at putting off for ages! This is what zillion-year-old UFOs are made of: almost done projects that just need one thing that I find too boring and monotonous to make. Hundreds of the same thing over and over. Uffda!

I am hoping to keep plodding along and get this thing DONE! It is going to be for our queen-size bed. I'm excited to see it turn into a real quilt.

Here is some of my HST-making progress while working at church this afternoon:



This is the border the HSTs will become. I really like it and hope I can stick to these HSTs long enough to get it done very soon.



Have a great week, everyone!

Trouble Posting Photos

Lately when I try to upload photos to Blogger, some of the pictures show up half washed out, sort of like a printer that is running out of ink. (Due to this problem I had to choose not to post some pictures that I wanted to show you in my previous message.) Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone know how to fix it?

Quilts, My Niece, and Fall Colors

I managed to do a little sewing this weekend. The only thing I have to show for it is this paper pieced block. The other projects aren't ready to show you yet. (Hey, did you read Tonya's idea about a Class in a Box? Fun! She is so clever, isn't she??)



I also went to visit my niece. She used to live in another state, but now she's back home, about a 2-hour drive from my house. We had a fun visit. She is now a college professor. What an accomplished young woman! Fall colors at her work place are quite pretty. She said that once on her way to work she had to stop and wait for six deer to get out of the road. Isn't that kind of romantic?





There was a quilt show going on in her town, and we kind of "ran" through it. (On account of my hubby waiting outside in the ucky, hot, humid weather, I had promised not to spend too much time inside. Oh, and yes, you are correct, it wouldn't have killed him to go to the quilt show with us! But he doesn't really "get" quilts, so why bring a downer along??) One thing I noticed was that they had a good number of large quilts. Sometimes a show can seem almost too focused on small wall hangings and/or art quilts. This one had plenty of large ones, which I enjoyed seeing. I took a few photos. As you know, quilts always look so much better in person, but I hope you enjoy these few photos.












I have to tell you about this last quilt. Holy buckets! It is huge! My niece is tall (maybe 5'10") so you can see how tall the quilt is... and it must be 12 feet or more long! AND the kicker is.... the design? It is all made with TINY 1/2-inch squares! Even the solid blue background is all tiny 1/2-inch squares! I tried to take a close-up photo, but it turned out too blurry. I couldn't even conceive of designing such a quilt, much less attempting to make it!!! I wonder where this quilt will end up.. it needs a LARGE wall in some church to really show it off. My photo just does not do this quilt justice. Wish you all could see it in person!

Marjorie & Frances

Remember the book that Tracey sent me?

I read it this week and am convinced that Marjorie (the main character in the book) knew my grandmother, Frances. They lived in the same small town during the same time period, lived just a few blocks apart (from what I can surmise), went to the same church, and were both active in what was then called the Ladies' Aid. Here's a picture of my grandma, taken in 1962. We had just returned from a trip out to Washington state, and we brought Grandma a box of candy from there. That's what she is holding. She is standing in front of her little brown house. You know what happened to that house? They tore it down and put a parking lot there! Sad!



Now that I have figured out that Marjorie and Grandma knew each other, I wish I could ask them some questions! I maybe even SAW Marjorie, because I remember attending church sometimes with my grandma. It would be fun to let them know that their granddaughters crossed paths and enjoy the same hobby. (Ann, the author of the book, once spoke at my quilt guild, and I talked to her about the possibility that our grandmothers knew each other.)

Thanks for sharing this book with me, Tracey! I have decided that it is going to go on a little train ride of its own. Maybe some day you'll see what I mean.