Pumpkin Pillow

I can share one of my secret projects with you today. This is my pumpkin pillow, made using  Yellow Umbrella Quilts' Homegrown Harvest pattern

I quilted it using Simple Orange Peel. I had a bit of a miscalculation on the size. I was trying to get the circles to be about 1.5", but they ended up much smaller. Best I can figure, I had the wrong grid scale set up on my screen and didn't notice. I saw that it was stitching out tiny, but since there was quite a bit of overstitching on it, I didn't feel like ripping it out and just went with it. It looks cute. It's pretty stiff, which is probably good for a pillow.

I made the front using things from my stash, but I did have to buy some backing. I ended up getting this cute little Moda print. I'll be sending this to my mom when I get my act together.

I'm attending a daytime sewing retreat for several days this week, so I've been working on getting things cut to take with me. I have all of my Malted Mystery quilt cut, so technically I'm 1/3 done with my OMG. However, there are a ton of HST to sew and trim in the September clue, so that will take some time. The October clue comes out tomorrow.

I finished cutting the Log Cabin Star (Emily Dennis) quilt. Here is a grayscale picture of one of the shapes. I was trying to decide if I had enough contrast or not. I am only using stash for this one, so I've exhausted the majority of my options, other than adding more black.

I've been quilting a ton trying to clear my schedule enough to take off the extra day this week for the retreat. Here's what I've accomplished so far.

Linda's next IU quilt, quilted with Stipple again.

Linda's mom's quilt, which is entirely HAND PIECED, quilted with a smaller-scale stipple.

Sara's KC Chiefs quilt, quilted with Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut.  I felt so on-trend working on this one as all the Taylor Swift stuff was hitting the news. 😆 This quilt is very big and ended up being really heavy when I was done.

Hannah's first quilt! She requested Denali and orange thread. She did such a nice job; it was very square. I also bound this one.

Lauren's quilt. This is the first larger project she's done. She used a lot of African prints and we decided on Triangle Meander for the quilting, which ended up adding really nice texture without competing with her blocks and fabric. I also bound this one. She provided me with scrappy binding and it was so fun! The background fabric is black; I probably should have tried to adjust it to better reflect that.

Jess's quilt, quilted with hand-guided loopy meander. This one has a fleece back and Warm & Natural Plush batting, which is thicker than the normal. It should be really warm. I need to get this one bound today and then I will be done with my planned work for the week.

While I was working on all the binding, I threw my little Buttercups quilt on the frame and quilted it with Knit 1, Purl 2. Now to find time to make and sew the binding on. I think I'll do hand binding to finish this one since it's small.

We went out and saw Starlink go by last week. I think it was Thursday night. We tried the night before but it was cloudy and sprinkling. It was interesting to see it go by this time, but not anywhere near as exciting as it was the very first time my daughter and I saw it (video link in the linked post). This time it was all unlinked (is that a word?), so it was just a band of widely spaced lights going by. My son grabbed my phone and took a picture of the moon while we were out there. 

Clearly I haven't had time to do much else. The kids and I went and got our Covid boosters Friday afternoon and I loafed about and then slept part of Saturday too. Once I recovered, I quilted and quilted and quilted. 😄

I heard someone speak and they were talking about copyright. They claimed that you could take someone else's pattern, write your own instructions and take your own pictures while you are making it, and then sell it as your own--and that was okay. I don't think that sounds right. Maybe it's allowed under a legal definition or interpretation, but it doesn't seem the least bit okay morally to me. What are your thoughts on it? 

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


October One Monthly Goal

It's time to set your October goal. If you're here for the first time, welcome! Let's set some goals and have some fun!

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.)

My goal this month is to get caught up on the Malted Mystery quilt. I need to do August (cutting), September, and October's clues. October's clue releases on the fifth. The only thing I've done so far is select the fabric. The nice thing about Cheryl's mystery quilts is that they are very easy to get caught up on if/when you fall behind.

I'm also working on my version of the Log Cabin Stars quilt by Emily Dennis. This is a QAL I joined in on without reading through the timeline. I had a fabric pull that looked like it would work, so I thought, why not? Then the emails started coming. Oh my. 😅 I won't be finishing this one on time, but it's more about the journey, I guess. 

If I can get caught up, I'd also like to sew the remaining Grassy Creek border units. 

One thing that may help me slightly is that I'm scheduled to attend two (daytime) retreats this month.

A stretch goal is to get a few more of my to-be-quilted tops quilted. I'm entering my busier season of quilting, so this will probably be unlikely. 

I also have my dress form pieces waiting to be sewn and some clothing to make. I don't know about you, but I never run out of things to be sewn.

Now it's your turn to set a goal. 

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on October 25.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal October Link Up

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter