It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas here even though it is very warm.  Was over 80ºF today and seemed strange to be decorating for the season in the heat. But, thanks to my good friend Darlene, the tree is up and decorated. 

I am in a monthly mug rug swap and this is the beautiful one I got from Terri.  

 I made a mug rug for a swap here in our village.  We will be exchanging on Monday. 

My design wall has some blocks on it from a class I taught for advanced piecing and it was at least 15 years ago.  I taught at the Otter Co-op and am sure I taught this class while I was still teaching so that is quite a while ago.  I need to figure out a setting for the blocks and get it finished as it has been a UFO far too long. 

One of my Hallowe'en projects is finished.  Am 11 months early for next year.  This will be a table topper and I messed up badly while piecing it but if I don't tell you what I did wrong, maybe you won't notice? 

One more simple project

I forgot to post the picture of the mug rugs I made.  Two were made for a friend for a pay it forward and I also sent one the same to someone in a mug rug exchange. 

A month is a long time.

Lots has happened since my last post.  We cleaned up our 'northern' home and got it ready for winter and then set the heat at 55ºF and locked the doors, set the alarm and left for our sunnier, warmer 'other' house.  It is always a whirlwind when we arrive.  Everything needs dusting and cleaning, wood needs to be oiled because the air is so dry, corners vacuumed, baseboards washed and don't even talk to me about windows.  Then we are busy with connecting with our 'old' friends, back on the tennis court, returning to our other activities like quilting, softball and pickle ball.  I have finally sorted out my projects that I left behind, added the fabrics and patterns I brought with me and am increasing my 'fabric stash' with all the pre Thanksgiving sales.  Prices are too good to resist and all have free shipping.  What is a quilter to do?

I have managed to mess up two different projects but am going ahead with them anyway and have two simple projects finished.

 

A pumpkin hanging for my 12" stand and a hallowe'en fabric tote.  Both kits from Connecting Threads that were on clearance after Hallowe'en.  Am working on being 11 months ahead rather than a month behind.  Getting read for October 2015! 

This is one of the projects I messed up.  I am not sure if it was me being lazy when reading the directions or the instructions weren't clearly written or illustrated but am going to put it together anyway.  There should only have been three colours in each block and they should look like eyeballs.  This will be a table topper so not too concerned about my mistake and for sure, am not picking it all out and redoing! 

 We have been busy planting and decided that instead of our front garden being full of petunias and colour, we would go with something more permanent like lantana.  The petunias die in the heat of the summer and have to be replaced every fall but, hopefully, the lantana will grow and spread and be colourful all year round.  It does well in the heat here so we never have to plant in this garden again! 

We purchased a birdbath today and I also bought some flowers and got my pots planted for some back yard colour to go with the citrus trees.  The oranges are slowly ripening.