Last To-Do's of September and The Great Pumpkin?

Here we are nearing the end of September and

fall has arrived!  Oh the glorious sweater weather!

How can you not be in the mood to quilt!?

I've certainly kicked it up a bit.  I have a finish,

an almost-finish and a lot of completed blocks

to share so let's get right on into the ta-da's.

From last week's list:

 1) Bind and completely finish the garlic knots.

Yes!  It's a finish!  As they say in the Army, "Hooah!"

 I did some serious power binding, I tell you!

Because I machine-sew all of it, I never rush through

this part because that messes with my accuracy.

(I don't mind hand-sewing but I can save so

much time doing it by machine.)

But I've just been so busy on my other projects that I

let this one go till yesterday afternoon.  If it weren't

for this Tuesday To-Do thing, it probably would have

sat there till today or maybe even tomorrow but

I made a goal and by golly, I'm gonna meet it!  

Autumn Accolades (88 X 103)

You know what?  For rushing, I didn't do too bad.

I finished that binding in record time--like a pro.

Like someone who had been quilting for a long time.

Oh, hey...that's me.

Something like 20 years, not counting all the years

of sewing clothes and everything else before.

The quilting pantograph is

Pumpkin Fest by Urban Elementz.

Btw, I have a quilt-naming tip:

Hit the online thesaurus and start searching any

feature of your quilt.  I do this a lot but I also love

thesauruses [thesauri?] so I can kinda get lost.

Anyhoo, I started by searching the word

"wreaths" because the knots make out wreaths

and it was only a step or two to accolades.

So here is my praise to autumn and all its splendor.

And inspiration.

(Clearly I had too much fun taking pics.)

2) Complete quilting on West Point.

I'm gonna digress a bit here but just work with me.

I'll bring it back around.

I've quilted long enough that I just don't "learn"

as often as I used to, or rather, I don't encounter

new info about the actual craft of quilting like I did when

I was a newbie so I was pretty darned excited to learn

something new the other day when I was watching

the MSQC video that kicked off their 12th birthday

celebration.  Jenny shared her reason why they only

do edge-to-edge quilting at Missouri Star.

She said it is because she wants her quilts

to be used and to be loved. That means they're

going to be washed and take some wear.

Of course!

Making specific and separate designs is beautiful on a

quilt that is to be art but of course a single quilting design

in, say, each individual block would cause a quilt to

separate out into compartments with usage and wash

rather than serve to hold it together.  I have always been,

like Jenny, a quilter who wants her quilts loved and used.

If one gets used up I have 10 more to replace it!

(...and here's where I bring it back around.)

I debated for a month about what to do on this West Point

quilt.  I had a lot of ideas but nothing that made me want

to jump on there and start quilting.  When I heard Jenny's

 reasoning, I was relieved.  Issue solved, decision made.

 Just a few weeks ago, my sister and I discussed

pantograph quilting v. FMQ, rulers and such. 

If I'm really enjoying pantograph quilting,

 why stop now?  There are other areas I want

to challenge myself in so I'll focus on those.

(notice the threads all over the floor!)

Speaking of challenge!

I have to share one more thing about this quilt.

 I think we've all played Bobbin Chicken before but

apparently I like to take things up a notch and play

Backing Chicken.

I won with just one little inch to spare!

I would have just trimmed the border down if it

hadn't worked out but I knew I could do it!

Back to that long story and making it short: 

I went with the pantograph all the way.

The quilting is complete; the binding and label

should be going on today.  It will get finished

before I head out on the shop hop!

3) Work on new Mini-Double Nine-Patch.

I've been doing some marathon sewing here.

Lots of football watching this weekend!

The new machine is getting some time logged, for sure.

But you know what was driving me crazy?  I missed the

surface from my bigger machine--so I got an idea...

My extension table!

No, it doesn't wrap around exactly but it's close

enough.  My sewing speed went up by 40% just by

having it there.  I guess that will be something I do

without if I ever travel with this one but I can sure

bring it from the sewing room to the living room!

I'm a little farther on these blocks now but 

this pic shows what's going on, and I love it!

You do a lot of thinking while you're sewing right?

At some point, I get around to wondering exactly how

many pieces are in the quilt I'm working on so:

4410...unless I go even bigger (I doubt it!).

And those little squares finish at 3/4".

I need about 25 more blocks but I'm running out of

these little sets.  With all of the strips I started with, I

knew I'd end up with extra so I set some partial strip

sets aside so I could see what colors I wanted more

of before finishing up.  I definitely want more of the

pale green/gold combos.  To me, they look like light

coming through the trees.

I cannot get enough of looking at this quilt and

what the blocks are creating.  I really wanted this

to be a Christmas gift but I tell you right now,

I can't let this one go.

If you've done this, please let me in

on the story so I can feel a little less guilty.

What am I going to do with two more fall quilts?

4) West Point Table Runners

I have plans for these.  Really!  I'm just not

sure they'll happen this week or next.  See #5.

I also have another West Point sewing project

in mind but goodness!  So much going on!

5) Gardening stuff

Still canning tomatoes.

The second burst of pumpkins are doing well;

no threat of freeze so far.  Of that new burst, I've

picked 2 more pie pumpkins and one larger one.

Grow, pumpkins, grow!

If you've been wondering about the record-breaking

hopefuls, I don't think it's going happen.  I had to pick

one of them and he only weighed in at 42.6lbs, with

a girth of 51.5".  (My record is 56.4.)  The other one is

still on the vine but doesn't seem to be growing, though

it's hard to say.   I guess it's not a bad showing and

hey, there's always next year. 

A friend requested a walker bag to use while she

recovers from knee surgery so I spent an afternoon

making this little bag.  I think it turned it pretty cute,

except for the fact that the lining fabric was printed

crooked.  Had I been paying more attention, I would

have lined it up horizontally instead of vertically

when I was cutting it out.  It's a great little pattern

that I got off of Etsy.  

(I get nothing for this referral--just sharing.)

Saturday was likely our last hot day.

Knowing the weather was going to turn cold, we 

put our feet in the pool one last time and just

enjoyed the last taste of summer till next year.

We've been hoping for weeks now that the pool

would warm back up.  Saturday it reached 80'.

So close!  On a hot day, I'll get in at 82 but the

air was cool and the sun was setting.  I readily

welcome fall but this day is always a little sad.

But sweaters, fall leaves and hot drinks are here.

Shop hop, a short vacay, lots of quilting, football,

chili, family time--all coming up so, feeling blessed,

we say goodbye to summer and hello to fall!

For next week's to-do's I'm keeping it simple.

Next week's To-Do's:

1) Take pics from hop and quilt/vintage sale; 

post for everyone.

I emptied 3 bolts on the above projects so I'm feeling

good about some intense fabric shopping.

2) Finish WP quilt and list.  Try to get something

going with those table runners?

3) Work on "September" if I get time?

I might call it September Glow?

(Putting question marks after things

takes away the pressure, right?)

One last little thing--a fabric purchase:

Unfortunately, the coloring is off in the pic but I got

a few new ones last week--the first is olive and that

second one is black.  Oy!  The bolt on the bottom from

my stash goes super-well so I'm hunting for ideas.

I love the simplicity of the early-American/colonial

look so we've been trying to move toward this

just a little.  I like traditional and timeless--if

anything for its practicality.  The new light fixtures

hubs just put up me have made me so happy

that I'm wanting to move on to the next thing.

(I'm a very slow decorator!)

Maybe a nice early-American quilt?

Watch for LOTS of fun quilty pics next week!
Right now I'm off to the dentist.  Fun, fun.

(Just a semi-annual check-up.)

Happy quilting!

Linking up to:

Home Sewn By Us Tuesday To-Do #60