I Can Explain

I was busy in October. No time for blogging and I didn’t spend much time on social media.

I had three quilt retreats in October.

Sew Much Fun!!!

Most exciting of all...I finished a quilt in October. 

This was a kit I bought at a quilt shop in Anchorage at a screaming low price. The pattern is, "Take Flight," from Patti's Patchwork. The fabric line is, "Soar," from Northcott.

 It's a small lap size, 47 1/2 x 66 1/2-inches. Might be just the right size for my grandson someday. 

Back to the retreats.

The first retreat was a daytime retreat, three days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at my local quilt shop, Twisted Sisters. Several of the ladies in the group are loosely related so we call it the Sisters’ Retreat. We currently meet three times a year.  

 I was a monogamous stitcher and started a new project I had kitted up a couple of summers ago. I was compelled to buy this pattern after watching a video from Jordan Fabrics 

I did mine in patriotic batiks. This is a layer cake pattern, very easy but the spikes are cut from 1 3/4” strips…I messed up a few times and cut 1 1/2” strips. Easy to recover from the scraps but a little annoying. I finally marked my cutting ruler with some colored tape to avoid that mistake.

I didn’t finish that top until the next retreat with the Material Girls. This is the group I do a four-day retreat at a B&B in Wasilla.  This group also has three retreats per year. 

I'm calling this quilt, "Sparklers on the 4th." Another small quilt, 59 1/2 x 71-inches

One of the retreat gifts I received was all the precut pieces to make this adorable pumpkin block. Since I am known as a batikaholic, my kit was all batiks. Sew thoughtful.

My third project was starting a kit I had cut out at least a year ago.

I  bought the pink version from Hancocks of Paducah. When I read through the directions (before I cut anything), I noticed there was an option to use a "Cat's Craddle," ruler from Creative Grids. I gave it a try and the ruler gets a thumbs-up from me. 

I had to make over a hundred Cat's Craddle blocks so I think it was worth the expense. As you can see, I had very crisp points with the aid of the tool.

The third retreat was a day time retreat for two days...again at my local quilt shop so only 15 minutes from my house. This is a new retreat group for me, "Sew What." Several ladies from the Breakfast Club are in this retreat group. I was very excited to sew with my buddies again. Most of these ladies are from Anchorage and the Breakfast Club stopped meeting almost two years ago. 

I finished most of the components for the Grand Isle kit.

I found a free pattern online from Sandy Gervais, Fall Ya All

My gift for the retreat was a copy of the pattern and a kit. 

I love these four little blocks.

Below is my collection of blocks from my two October retreats this year and the row of pumpkins is from the Material Girls retreat in October 2022.

I could have a fun little sampler quilt top someday...several fun free quilt patterns on the internet that might make some fun kits at future fall retreats.

We made a fun little project each day at the Sew What retread. 

A tulip basket made from two layer cakes and a couple of buttons.

And a little wallet. I think this took two fat eights to make, plus a snap.

I think we paid a little bit for the supplies, $15, which also included some treats and a special pincushion which I forgot to bring home. I was the first to leave and I'm sure I will get it from my table mate the next time I see her (Christmas party in December.)

Just a little recap of my other project. I finished another Halloween cross stitch, "The Boys are Back in Town." Those buttons from Just Another Button Company always get me to, "add to cart." 

I had several retreat gifts that were added to my fall decorations. The little easel with the mini leaf wool patch and the pumpkin mug rug were from the Sisters' retreat.  

And I received on more mug rug at the Sister's retreat, a witch's hat.

I shared with the ladies that I could use a black cat mug rug...

and a ghost mug rug. Just trying to give them some ideas for next fall.

I also need to share my completed set of the Halloween mantel series from Merry Stockings.

It looked great with my Halloween decorations.

I had a timely critter visit in late September. All summer I have been listening to a screeching owl. He has woken me up several times. I was sitting on the couch doing handwork one evening when I heard that owl screeching again! I looked up and saw him looking right back at me! He was perched on the handrail of our deck. It was not quite dark outside and I didn't want to scare him away by moving so I very slowly lifted my phone to try and get a couple of photos.

Not the best quality...but you can see him.

I did move to try and get a better shot and he flew away.  A lovely specimen of the Great Horned Owl. 

Sew much more to share. I went to the Houston Quilt Festival the first weekend of November. I'll save that for my next post. 

Rain, Rain Go Away

If you are looking for your missing rain in your area…I found it! I thought last summer/fall was the wettest ever…nope. I have moss growing behind my ears. My grass does look really nice. 

Through the brief breaks in rain I forged on to complete my landscaping work with the rock I had left.

My sweet boy, Logan, is enjoying the new rocked area. Those man hole covers make a rather pleasant place to sit and keep watch on our part of the world.

I finished a quilt…except for the binding. Just in time for changing up the quilts around the house to fall and Halloween themes. This is a free pattern from the  Fort Worth Fabric Studio. The borders are not part of the pattern.

My Kauai chicken quilt is coming along. All the chicken parts are glued in place…ready for me to top stitch. I decided to give all of them Hawaiian names.

I will embroider the names and the feet for the baby chicks.

Two more tops got finished. A cotton batik top…

and a rayon batik top.

I'm hoping to finish a few projects for Halloween decorating.

The Merry Stockings Halloween Mantel series is underway.

Such a cute kit to work on in the evenings. Lots of tiny satin stitching in these monster faces.

I was really obsessed with finishing a cross stitch project that included some really cute buttons from Just Another Button Company. I have a cauldron décor piece I plan to use for displaying.

This project was pieced on a 30 count linen...always a challenge for me to stitch on linen since I stitch in hand...not in a hoop. I started this with DMC flosses over a year ago and didn't like it so I went through the effort to track down all of the specialty hand dyed flosses. As I was stitching with the hand dyed flosses I hated them in several areas where the variations in the colors just didn't work. So I went back to DMC in a few areas. Also had to resort to using a hoop for the moon...all the pale yellow floss showed any imperfections in my stitching. 

My other cross stitch finish was this cute witch, Batty Belinda. Her broom was a nice little challenge. I ordered a variety pack of metallic chenille sticks and twisted a black and purple one to make the handle. I also resorted to hot gluing all the parts together...something I abhor doing but I just couldn't get everything secured with hand stitching.

The next series of photos are a mamma moose and her twin calves crossing the road on an evening when I was driving home. Most of our days are very gloomy and dark with all the rain we have been getting...so sorry for the murkiness of the photos...it is the reality lately...which does make spotting wildlife tricky while driving. I saw three dark objects that were moving as I was driving and knew I was coming up on some animals so I slowed down. The speed limit is 55 mph on this road. 

Mamma crossed.

Then one of the calves..

Finally, the second calf took his sweet time to cross the road.

The winter forecast...this pattern of extreme precipitation will continue...which means a lot of snow. Temperatures are dropping into the high thirties at night. The leaves are changing color and starting to drop. I'm just never ready for winter to arrive...feels like we are skipping fall.

Quilting and Handwork Projects

It continues to be a cool and rainy summer…that is typical weather for August. On one of the few sunny days, I washed the quilt from my bed and finished drying it outside.

I have done a tiny bit of quilting on my Nolting mid-arm…I’m still having a little trouble with my quilting mojo.

In mid July, I did a three-day retreat with a group I call the, “Sisters.” Three sisters set up 3-day retreats at our local quilt shop several times throughout the year and I am lucky enough to get invited to be a part of their family. Initially I said no way to their July retreat…no summer retreats of me. But our wet and dreary summer weather meant I was available.

Instead of starting yet a new quilt I pulled out a UFO.

I had fused all the pieces in place for this Nancy Halvorsen design in April of 2013, while we were living in Paris. 

I needed to do the blanket stitching around all the appliques.  I did it all on my Bernina 440 with foot  number 23 foot, which is a clear acrylic foot. 

I was able to finish five blocks in three days and finished the rest at home.  I need to add some simple embroidery to the blocks and then I can finish constructing the top. That will probably happen at my next Sisters Retreat in early October.

My next summer project, Chicken Salad, designed by Lori Holt. I've made all the appliques, now they need to be glued into place and topstitched. One block ready for topstitching.

Getting those feet in the right place was so tedious. 

My plan is to complete one block and if it all works out great I will get all the other blocks glued together and then topstitch all so I can minimize changing thread color a million times.

I completed the last two Mill Hill Christmas ornaments from 2022. Jim Shore's Gnome with Ornaments and Gnome Holding Holly. I made a major change to all the Gnome ornaments, the backstitching was supposed to have two strands of floss in most of the situations. I did the first ornament like that and hated it so ripped that out and did all the backstitching in one strand of floss. I never make changes to Mill Hill kits but that changed this year.

I just received the new Santa ornaments from Mill Hill...adorable Australia theme. Mill Hill just released the new Jim Shore series and it is again...gnomes...but in creamy neutral colors. No immediate plans to start the new ornament series. I like to work on those kits while traveling. 

I finished one more mantel series from Merry Stockings, their 2023 release.

Fire Station

Post Office

A big fancy house.

A cute red pickup.

And a Christmas Tree lot.

Adorable set. 

Now I am working on Halloween projects. I'm pretty excited about Merry Stockings July release, Halloween Village. I've started work on it but just a little embroidery on one piece.

And I also started work on a series of witches designed by Brooke's Books for perforated paper. I've had these patterns for several years and have slowly been collecting all the specialty threads.

This is Batty Belinda Witch. 

I am obviously an experienced cross stitcher on perforated paper but some of these specialty threads, like Kreinik #8 Fine Braid, were impossible to use with the paper. I couldn't even get the Kreinik thread through the eye of my needle. I bumped up to a larger needle and of course...that was too big for the paper holes. I had some Kreinik in the #4 fine braid that is a smaller size that I substituted. 

Some of the called for items were DMC Memory Threads which aren't available anymore. They are thread wrapped wire. The wires were used to make embellishments and part of the witch's broom. So...I'll have to figure out something else. I have some ideas for the broom...chenille stick in black as the broom handle...maybe some cute buttons from Just Another Button Company for embellishments. 

There are 14 more witches from Brooke's Books. I'm going to have to look at converting all the #8 braids to #4. Such a bummer. I didn't see any more Memory Thread used in the rest of the patterns.

I received so many nice comments about my landscaping.

 Thank You!

I did have a question about working with the metal tubs...yes...I do drill four holes in the bottoms of the tubs. I bought a half-inch drill bit for the job. Easily penetrates the metal. 

Sometimes I get a moose that strolls through my metal tubs when they are covered with snow. So far just a little bent edge that I was able to hammer into a decent edge which the plantings cover. 

I had a recent bone density test...all the weight bearing exercise I get with my "Rock Gym," has really paid off...I have nice strong and dense bones.

Summer Finally Arrived

 It looked doubtful during the month of June but we finally started to have summer weather in July. August is typically cooler and rainy but the first week was great. 

Unfortunately the forecast for the rest of the month is typical August weather.  

I’ve made great progress on my rockwork around the hill constructed as our septic drain field. 

Here is where I am as of this morning.

For me, this blog is a way to journal about my projects so I'm going to get pretty detailed about my rockwork. Below is Day 2 of my rockwork for 2023. I started at the tree at the bottom left and met up with the tree in the center…where I ended my rockwork in 2022.

Day 5 of the rockwork got me past two venting pipes for the septic system.

Day 6. My process is to scrape off the layer of grass and then lay down cardboard to block out the weeds. I have a great pile of gravel that I use as the underlayment for the big rocks. I had a blog reader several years ago suggest using the gravel as the base for my rockwork. She changed my world! So thankful for that huge tip. 

My personal goal is to move at least 10 substantial rocks per work day. The hardest part is getting started so I almost always start by just thinking...it's only 10 rocks. Of course...most of the time I move more than 10.

Day 7 and 8 involved a lot of pondering about how to add in a planting bed.

Just as I finished the rockwork for the planting bed my local garden nursery cut prices on perennials and annuals by 50-percent. 

This is a mostly shaded area and I wanted perennials here. I did a mass planting of coral bells. I had great success with this perennial at my last house...we'll see how it does here. 

The view from the bottom of the hill.

And another view from the bottom of the hill. This was all started just last summer. 

I set three tubs. I have a thing for using these metal tubs I get at Home Depot. These gorgeous hot pink impatiens are so fun and part of the big sale at my local nursery.

I don't have much rock left to work with this summer so my goal is to get what rock I have into place above the impatiens. 

And I just wanted to highlight a photo below from June 18th of one of my perennial beds.

This is the same area this morning, August 6th.

Maybe just one more plant photo. This is one of my planters on my deck. All of my deck planters are at their peak right now. Pretty spectacular. Our summers are so short but we get a lot of action during it.

Oh yes...I know you are wondering if we had any bear visits. But of course! I even managed a photo and a video.  I was sitting on my computer when I spotted this little black bear walking along the dog kennel that is outside my sewing room door.

My dogs were napping and had no idea we had a visitor. It’s so nice when critters cooperate for videos. 

I will do a post in a day or two that covers my progress on quilting and hand stitching.