Stories from the Sewing Room

 Is it looking like fall in your neighborhood? The leaves are mostly yellow or brown here and lots of them are falling. Facebook kindly showed me memories of canned applesauce and when I checked the local (well, an hour away) orchard, I saw that it was time.

Friday morning we drove over to the apple orchard and purchased our usual combination of Jonagold and Golden Delicious apples. Going on a weekday was a big improvement crowd-wise. We got in and out pretty quickly. They have great light near the building and I always enjoy taking a fall picture while we're there. 

Then we went over to Meijer and got groceries. The selection in the produce and meat departments is almost overwhelming compared to the local Kroger. And most things are less expensive too. I thought these donuts were funny.

Since I bought a bunch of apples, I had a lot of work over the weekend to make and can applesauce. I did half each day and ended up with seven quarts, a pint, and two bowls of fresh applesauce to enjoy right away.

As far as my own projects, not much has happened. I had set some fabrics aside a while ago with no project in mind. I bought Emily Dennis' newest pattern, Log Cabin Stars, and thought my fabric pull might work. I saw she was having a quilt along, so I signed up, got the first email about fabrics last week and pulled out more fabrics to try to get to the amount required for the pattern. Then I got the second email this week where we are sewing the blocks. Oh my gosh! I haven't even started cutting yet!  

So I started cutting yesterday and I'll be a bit behind, but that's okay. You know that's how I roll. Always behind. I currently have 10/42 sets cut and no stars cut. I'm pretty sure I won't have enough of some of the fabrics to make full sets, so some improvising will be necessary.

I haven't done anything on my Loch Ness cross stitch in a while.

But I have started sewing down the binding on my quilt. I was cold in the evenings and figured I may as well stitch while I was huddled under the quilt. I have almost one long side done so far. 

How did you do with your September goal?

This link up will remain open until September 30 at 11:55 pm EST. Remember, you can link up from either my post or Patty's at Elm Street Quilts and your link will show up in the same link party. Starting in October, I'll be running OMG solo, so my blog will be the only place you can link up. Again, huge thanks to Patty for hosting it for so many years and helping motivate me to get my stuff done.

Want to see everyone's goals? Check out the September goal page. My September has been incredibly busy. I did get a chance to look at all the posts, but I didn't have enough time to comment on most. So sorry about that. 

My goal for September was to complete the top of my Buttercup mini. I thought this would be a no-sweat project, figuring I'd even have enough time to quilt and bind. Life said, "ha ha ha, you thought what?" and I needed every minute prior to the link up post to get it done. Not quilted or bound, but it is a top. After getting it done, it doesn't really seem like a mini to me. It's around 33" square. I'm just happy to get it to this point.

Now it's your turn to share your progress. Link up your project and then visit others and make new friends and gain inspiration.

Do I ever have anything other than that lately? 😆 This time I was busy with sewing! Unfortunately, I can't share a lot of it yet. 

I have made a small amount of progress on the Buttercup quilt (my OMG for this month). I have three of four blocks completed. Can I get one more plus the setting done before I need to post it on Sunday? If I can keep up the pace I've been going at for the past few days, it shouldn't be a problem. Sorry about the dark picture. I took it last night. It's started getting fully dark by 8:30. The chickens have been returning to their coop by 7:40 every night.

I made a project--minus stitching down the binding--that I can't share yet. It's cute and has a silly story to accompany it.

I made a bunch of new business documents and got them uploaded for printing. I learned all sorts of new skills. It's nice to have a bunch of technical items off my to-do list!

I've done a lot of quilting. This first one belongs to Jessica. She found the top while thrifting. I went with hand-guided loopy meander so that I could avoid the thick seam intersections. 

Next is Linda's IU quilt. She selected Stipple. 

I guess that's all I have for now. I have multiple meetings today and still need to work. I'll see you back here Sunday when the OMG Finish Link Up opens.

Linking with For the Love of Geese, My Quilt Infatuation, Alycia Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Things have been a whirlwind around here. We were in Michigan for three days and I feel like I just ran around trying to catch up all of last week. Thursday I had to take my daughter to school. Friday I basically drove back and forth to town all day and then drove 1/2 hour each way to the guild meeting in the evening. I attended the sew day with the bigger quilt guild on Saturday, thinking it would be easier to get things done with fewer distractions. And Saturday evening and Sunday were basically spent on robotics. 

I do have a small amount of progress to show you. I finished the jungle baby quilt top yesterday. The pattern I used is a free one, Easy Charm Baby Quilt by Jessica Dayon. It's now in the to-be-quilted pile. I have a plan, just need some time. 

I mentioned before that I have fabrics to make a second one of these. I went at this one willy-nilly. I will take the time to lay out everything on the design wall ahead of time next time. I will also make more of an effort to make all the sashings line up better. 

At the sew day Saturday I worked on this month's OMG--the Buttercup mini quilt by Fig Tree. This is not a quick, easy pattern. I haven't sewn any pattern by Joanna that's been quick and easy! I have one block completely finished. The other three are close, but I'm having a lot of alignment issues, not to mention all the mix ups I had with sewing the wrong pieces together. Oops. 

Here's the one finished block. I'm hoping to finish off the other three this week. The mini also has pieced sashings I'll need to work on. I will need to have this completed by the 24th, when the link up party opens. Wish me luck! This one has been a challenge. 

I completed a few quilts. The first one is Charlene's. We decided on the Sprout design by Karlee Porter. I think it looks like the elephants are spraying water. I used almost an entire mini cone of thread on this one. Boy, was I surprised by that. I can usually get two or three quilts from one. 

Next is Marilyn's baby quilt. We used Good Vibrations on this one and I picked 60wt gray thread so that it wasn't so heavy through the photos.

Something ate most of the green bean plants. It would have to be squirrels, chipmunks, or raccoons (or maybe a cat??) since deer and rabbits can't get in there. The plants look like deer chewed at them. I've never had the plants eaten before. 

Every bed is full of weeds and tree saplings. And by full, I mean like a solid layer. The only plants still alive are the tomatoes. There are tons of tomatoes, just not many edible ones. Something dug in the tiny herb boxes and destroyed the chives and one of the thyme plants. I'm ashamed we let the gardens get this bad. 

I did have a beet harvest. It was lame. The leaves of each beet were quite plentiful, but the beets themselves largely weren't.  I made beet chips for the kids. This is before and after cleaning them. The small beets were like very small fingerling potatoes.

The barn is coming along. All but one window have been installed. One of two exterior doors is installed, complete with knob and deadbolt. The garage doors are supposed to come next week. Then we'll need to get soffit and fascia on to make it weather- and pest-tight. Our neighbor asked us how much longer it would be until it's done. I said two years. My husband said that was probably right. 😐

We ordered some of the siding online. I love that UPS delivered it in an appropriate location! It was so nice to have one less thing to do! Kudos.

My closet re-do hasn't happened yet. All the parts that I spent nine months gathering are still in a pile in my bedroom. 

Linking with For the Love of Geese,  My Quilt Infatuation, Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Remember how I planned to finish my baby quilt top last week? Yeah, didn't happen. I got the sashing in, but still need to put the outer borders on.

I did get four quilts done. The last of Ann's quilts got quilted first. She selected the Let It Snow design. This one was a new experience for me because I had to do "no sew zones" for the pieced star centers so that I didn't risk breaking a needle. I also attached the binding to the front of the quilt before shipping it, and the three from last week, back.

We headed to Michigan Friday evening so that we could attend my uncle's celebration of life/family reunion on Saturday. I met a few distant family members that I hadn't ever encountered before in addition to seeing people I hadn't seen in person in over 10 years. 

My husband fixed my mom's fridge, which stopped letting water and ice come out the door dispensers right after we walked in the door. Two fridge fixes in one week! We also spent a day with my in-laws before heading back home.

First thing yesterday morning I had my eye exam. I need to bump up a bit in my readers strength. 

Henry the rooster continues to get back into the coop at night. My neighbors only collected two eggs while we were gone. I would have expected six. It's interesting that whenever we are gone, the hens lay a lot less eggs and then go back to normal when we return. I guess two skunks were spotted at the end of the driveway the other night when they went to check on the chickens. Yippee. 😒 We also have acquired a woodchuck. 

Hopefully I'll have more sewing time over the next week. I do have a ton of appointments, meetings, and such to deal with, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. 

Until next week--

Linking with For the Love of Geese, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.

Is it fall yet? I'm ready for cooler, less humid weather. I live in southern Indiana, so that's not very likely, but one can hope! It's time to set a new goal.

As you can see, we have a new logo. This is the last month Patty and I will be co-hosting OMG before I go solo next month. I'd like to thank Patty for all the work and dedication she's put into One Monthly Goal over the past seven(!!) years. I know I've gotten much more accomplished than I would have without this link up party, so I'm happy to keep up the motivation and encouragement for anyone who wishes to join in. 

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

I have so many projects that are in progress or in the works that I often find it difficult to pick just one to focus on. 

Some things I'd like to work on: 

1. finish other half of Grassy Creek border units

2. finish Jungle baby quilt 

3. continue working on dress form & make some new clothes 

4. finish the Batesville BOM (the borders are like constructing another whole quilt--seems daunting)

5. start the Circle City Sampler I got from the shop hop earlier this year

6. piece In & Out mini #2 (it's been on a design board in my closet, all cut and ready to sew, for close to a year--it's probably really dusty by now)

7. piece the Buttercups mini that I erroneously thought could be a leader/ender project

While I'd like to make progress on more than one item form my list, I am going to try to focus on #7. My goal will be to get the blocks pieced and top assembled.