October Monthly Goal(s) Complete

Hello and welcome to another Monthly Goal Day!

I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilts' "One Monthly Goal"

to share my completed goal(s) for October.

October was such a big month!  We travelled to NY for

our last West Point Parents Weekend, played lots of

golf and celebrated birthdays.  And I still managed to

go on a quilt shop hop, make three quilts and finish a

"UFO with issues" that has nagged me for almost a year. 

Today I sit at my computer feeling like I blinked and

a favorite month is over.  I've skipped posting so now

I'm trying to condense the weeks into a two posts...

 but leaving out details makes it all fall so short so it's

hard even to know where to begin.  A hobbit would

say to begin in the beginning but I think I'll just

start with my monthly goals.  

My main goal was to finish my Snow Day quilt.

(Photographing white quilts is so hard.  This was a

first of three tries so it's not great.)

Goal completed.

Snow Day is quilted, bound and labeled.

Photos were taken and it's now listed in my shop.

For a little extra motivation, I picked a second goal:

complete the next quilt project that was currently

on the design wall.

I finally settled on November Stars for a name

though I still think it looks like Indian corn popping...

This also has had its pics taken and is listed in my shop.

So with those goals completed I moved on...

I came across a UFO that has bugged me since last

winter when I quilted the entire thing not realizing

there were intermittent tension issues.

As a rule, I'm pretty anti-UFO but this was a quilt

that I had really put my heart into and I just

couldn't decide how to proceed so I stopped.

Finally, enough was enough.  I decided to

bind it as is and keep it for myself.

Hudson Valley Palisades is approximately 70 X 70. 

Residing on the back of our sofa, it brings to mind

the beauty of Upstate NY in the fall and our

West Point memories that now come with it.

Next up are two quilts from the pattern Wooded Whimsy

by Corey Yoder.  I had two Christmas jelly rolls on hand

that I felt were perfect for it so I set about cutting them

both out at once and had a blast with the fabric play.

This is one of those times that I enjoyed precuts, even

if there was a lot of waste*.

"Festive Firs" is made with Warm Wishes by Riley Blake and

quilted with "Mittens" (paper pantograph).  It measures

66 X 77.5 and is just awaiting a photo shoot.

"Joyful Junipers" will be my featured November

goal so stay tuned there...

*If you are interested in this lovely pattern, please

see my noteworthy comments in tomorrow's 

Tuesday To-Do post (comes out tonight).

Until then,  happy quilting!

Tuesday To-Do #34: In My Two Weeks Away...

November!?

Holy flying calendars, Batman!

Welcome to another round of to-do's on the

Tuesday Link-Up over at Texas Quilt Gal.

Frankly, I'm tired.  Tired with a capital T.

I travelled to NY.  I've played a lot of golf.

I've sewn and quilted my heart out.  I made

a costume and I made some family meals.

And I ate way too much Halloween candy.

Yes, I did skip two weeks here but I am no

"to-do" quitter [clearly!!] so let's do this!

From last week's list:

1) Quilt Indian Popcorn; settle on a name

DONE!

Sheesh!  It seems like eons ago when I finished

this but I guess it was just a couple weeks?

 It finished up at 74 X 85.5. 

 I stuck with November Stars for the name.

(I don't think anyone looks at the labels anyway!)

I chose simple swirls for the quilting, looking

for a feel of the wind swirling leaves around. 

And yes, I even got the photo shoot done.

Both #2 and #3 on my list are from the same

pattern:  Wooded Whimsy by Corey Yoder.

See below for some notes.

2) Finish Christmas quilt top #1; name

DONE!

Festive Firs -- 66 X 77.5

(I still need to get pics in the correct lighting

so it actually shows as white.)

These were just quick ones on our front porch.

(Pumpkins aren't very Christmas-y!)

Noteworthy:  this pattern only uses 30 strips, and

there will be scraps left from those as well   In retrospect

I might have just cut my own strips because I enjoy that.

I ended up making good use of the scraps at least

by putting them on the binding.

3) Start piecing Christmas quilt #2; name

DONE!

Joyful Junipers won't be far behind;

I'm waiting till next week with the pics

Noteworthy #2:  This is a super-fun pattern but be prepared

 for the tiny piecing in those stars to slow it down a bit.

I recommend using sizing on not just the stars but also the

the strips since you'll be sewing on them diagonally.

I did a test and it makes a solid difference!

Other things:

Last Thursday we joined up with our other son at

the Chicago airport and flew on together to NY.

As always, West Point Parents Weekend hits right

at peak fall foliage so I was in absolute heaven.

Jaw-dropping scenes every. where. requiring 

occasional reminders to close my mouth before

I drooled.  There's just nothing like fall up there.

End of story.

But not this story...

We visited our some of our favorite restaurants...

....and distilleries....

(I just love Bourbon the chonky cat!)

...took in a football game (we won!)....

....and even got to sit in

be wow'd by one of the cadet's classes.

Coincidentally it was the cadet's day to present.

I say it all the time but it's just overwhelming.

We knew Older Brother would enjoy a visit to the

simulation rooms, too.  Above real guns are hooked up

for practice--minus ammo but with all the feel.

At this station cadets pair up with media students from

 NYU.  While the officers learn to immerse them safely

(as possible) into aggressive situations, the reporters

get a feel for real-life battle and how best 

to conduct themselves while getting the scoop.

Complicated programs but still your basic gaming control!

I found this amusing.  I don't think too much of gaming

but note to parents:  military kids actually use those skills!

After a full weekend of fun, the cadet had to get back to

class and hubs and older son had to get back to work.

To kill some time on our way to the airport, we made

a quick stop to walk around Bear Mountain State Park....

...and through Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. 

 We discovered several years ago how beautiful

 it is, especially at this time of year.  

We drove by the grist mill of the famed

Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

And then went for some NY pizza. 

A good ending to another NY trip.

 

I think the cadet really enjoyed having his older

brother see what he's been up to these last years

and I'm so glad we were able to bring him along.

The next family visit will be graduation.  I'm sad

our oldest will likely not get the full experience but

she's currently growing a little human.   I think all of

us moms have had times where we've missed out

but that pays off later.  In my case, I look back

and know it was always worth it.  I feel pretty

blessed with our four "little humans" for sure! Lol.

Back home I got right back in the sewing room.

I finished up the first Christmas quilt and made great

progress on the second.  And over the weekend I

walked three rounds of golf (over 20 miles!), did

a little more garden clean up and made a

Halloween dinner for the fam.

And now it's time to look at the first week of

November already!

1) Photograph Festive Firs and list in shop

2) Finish Joyful Junipers

3) Start on daughter's winter themed quilt.

And that's that.

I'll see you all next week!
Happy quilting!

Tuesday To Do #33: High Boltage and Upping My Game

Hello and welcome to another Tuesday post!

 I've been putting in long hours in the quilt studio

over the past week and I'm anxious to join the

others on Texas Quilt Gal's link-up and show

a little of what I've been up to.

As predicted, the week was filled with golf,

quilting and the the annual shop hop.

My quilty friend and I head always get an early

start so that we can visit all the shops in one day.

The first shop snapped this of us and posted it

to Facebook.   Later in the day at another shop,

 someone recognized us from the post and we had

a good laugh about being shop hop celebs.

 (We even offered to autograph their hop passports.)

The early pics have lighting issues due to the morning

sun shining in but I think you can see well enough.

Participating shops each create a block and then

designs a quilt around all the shops' blocks, using

a fabric created specifically for that year's hop.

Each shop sells a kit for their block as well as

a finishing kit for their specific quilt design.

I usually take lots of pics to share on the blog

but this year I chose to relax a little more.  

The above 4 are the only ones I have of the

actual hop quilts.  Below are a few others that

I snapped just for fun. 

One of these days I'm going to make a leaf quilt!

I made a paper-pieced snowflake quilt a few years ago

(sold on Etsy) but I'd like to give these a go.  At least

I wouldn't have to deal with the paper mess.

Ah, the Simple Whatnots Club.  I admire them

every year from afar.  Some day!

And that's it for the hop pics.  I've been so immersed

in quilting this year (esp fabric buying, that the

novelty of it wasn't quite there like it usually is. 

 In the past I'd splurge on a fun book or pattern but

I just received my order from Martingale's $8 sale so

I had plenty of new books waiting at home.  It was

pretty warm out so it didn't even have that fall

quilty feel.  But, I did buy 28.5 yards of fabric

so that's something, and all clearance goodies.

In order of appearance:

1) 7 yds -- backing stash

2) 2.5 yds -- so pretty!  any American quilt?

3) 7 yds -- red/ivory quilt backing (hopefully this year still?)

4) 4 yds -- any fall quilt

5) 6 yds -- backing for my current Christmas quilt project

Not pictured is a red/white diagonal stripe (binding stash)

and a red fabric for my current 2 Christmas quilts that I'll

discuss in just a bit. 

But first, I finally took some finish pics of

Hudson Valley Palisades.

If you recall, this is the one that had the tension issues

 on the back (posted here) that led to my getting a new

longarm and all that.

The pattern, by Susan Ache, is Churned Around and

can be found in her book Start With Strips.

Her version is made up in shades of reds and white but,

as I often do, I changed it to my palette.

The [fated] quilting brings the whole fall leaves theme home.

I'm still a little sick over this one because it is just so pretty,

more so in person! It sat in limbo for 9 - 10 months

just needing binding (something I never do--while I

racked my brain for a way to fix it.  But it's done now

and as I mentioned, I will just keep it so that's that.

Back to current projects:

I haven't started quilting my Indian Popcorn [name?]

(seen in background) but it is loaded and ready.

I've started two Christmas quilts, both from a

pattern by Corey Yoder.  The second one is

completely cut out and waiting (above).

I spent my entire day, and I mean the entire day,

piecing these teeny little stars (fabric from shop hop)

and adding them to all 30 blocks.  A few points aren't

perfect but at that size, really, who can see it?

I'm just sharing this teaser pic for now; I'll have much

more to show next week.  I love what I do but the last

few weeks I've put some in very long work days in the

studio that have left me exhausted mentally

and physically--but in a good way at least!

Next week's to-do list:

1) Quilt Indian Popcorn (and settle on a name)

2) Finish Christmas quilt top #1 (name)

3) Start piecing Christmas quilt #2

Completely random, here's the cadet

posing bigtime at a recent formal meal:

What a cheese!

But those uniforms are so cool.

Until next week, happy quilting!