I will admit that one of the hardest things about getting older is that it seems to take me longer to accomplish what I used to be able to do quickly and in a short time. My lists look longer because I am slower to cross off tasks. I have the greatest of plans and fall short at the end of the day. Oh well... accepting this is hard but I cannot slow down the aging process.
It seems that a lot of the yard work is now in my hands and while I don't mind weeding and cutting grass, at times it is frustrating to take care of the outside 'stuff'. I continue to play tennis between 2 and 3 times a week which is good for my fitness but takes me away from my home duties.
Towards the end of September, a good friend and her partner drove from Mesa to here with ALL OF MY MESA STUFF. There was a mix of suitcases, boxes and vacuum sealed heavy plastic bags and in total 14 of them containing quilting items, clothing, pictures, and other odds and ends that I had indicated that we either needed or wanted. Included in that were prescription glasses that my husband had safely tucked away in his top dresser drawer in Mesa as well as family pictures that it is nice to have back. Everything was piled up and I managed to tackle the biggest of the items fairly quickly but all the quilting fabric, rulers, and bits and pieces took me forever to find new homes for them.
A great picture of friends from Mesa. One couple drove from Vernon to chat with our visiting friends because the woman that delivered our belongings was also our realtor and they wanted to confer with her in person. The weather was lovely and 10 days later, the highways heading east and north were covered in snow - winter arrived but after we had our visit.
One awesome item that arrived was my tennis bag! Love this bag - am a Vera Bradley fan.
I had worked really hard all summer to get our green grass back to being healthy and happy with no grubs but, I failed and the products I used were not successful. After waking up to this one morning in September, I was feeling defeated but a neighbour out walking came to the rescue. He had a gardening company coming to treat his lawn with chemicals and sent them over to my house. The grass got sprayed and since then we have seen a couple of small holes but apparently, if the grubs were alive, they would be awful tasting so the raccoons have moved on (to my next door neighbour's back yard).
I continued to work on half square triangles using white with black print fabrics with bright colours for the other half of the block. I was going by a picture so just made this by guessing and pulling out scraps.
Running Doe's quilt of the month for September was Stargazer and I decided to pull out lots of reds with creams.
In the meantime, I have been busy picking up quilts from our local long armer's home where a group work on quilting donated tops and I have been binding them. Lots of binding!
I cut a stack of odd fat quarters that sort of went together and made a quilt top using the Carolyn block.
Stargazer had to be put up on the design wall because you make all the parts first and then figure out how they all go together. This isn't my favourite way of assembling a quilt but there was no way to avoid stitching the rows together (slowly, checking for errors).
I made a couple of googly eyes for a block lotto for the modern guild October meeting. I was really happy to not win! But the eyes have gone with all the others.
I did get some autumn decor done but now, it is time for Halloween!!
A friend in our Wednesday quilting group discovered two large bags which contained a lot of smaller snack bags, each filled with 16 2.5" squares and judging by some of the names on the bags, they are from a very long time ago. We divided some of them up and I ended up with a lot of blue and green packages which I took my time sewing together into 16 patches. This was my first idea but when I laid them out, it was far too busy so onto plan B which you will see further down.
I managed to finish up Bonnie Hunter's leader and ender challenge and got the blocks put together. I decided it would be good for Quilts of Valour so put a panel on the back of the quilt to make it a little more Canadian.
The bright triangles from scraps got finished and will also be a Quilt of Valour.
These are rainbow strip challenge blocks from the past few years and am working on getting the blocks that have accumulated into quilt tops. This will also be for Quilts of Valour and again, used a panel on the back to make it a little more Canadian.
The assorted fat quarters that are now put together into a finished quilt. I love this block for using a bunch of fabric that you aren't quite sure what to do with but when put together, they seem to work.
At our modern guild quilt meeting, we draw for doorprizes that some of us contribute and I won these fabulous cookies decorated for Halloween.
Fresh snow on Mount Baker. Winter is coming.
The next group of quilts are NOT ones I have made but are the ones I have put the binding onto for the longarm group who quilt donated tops and then donate to various charities in our city.
Flutterby is the Running Doe pattern for October and I chose to use more Canadian themed prints (that I had cut for the blue/green sixteen patches but they didn't work) and then a red/black combination for the short pieces. This is close to being ready to stitch together but another pattern that has to be done in columns which is slower and less efficient that my usual way of putting blocks together.
One more of the group of sixteen patches found in a drawer and these are reds, oranges, yellows and browns. I pulled out more of the Canadian themed prints and put a border around them and now have a Quilt of Valour waiting to be pressed, quilted and bound.
There is always more binding being made for quilts waiting to get their edges finished.
A full bag of quilts bound and ready to leave my house. Love Ikea bags!
The worst part of my hobby is cleaning up after a quilt has been quilted and trimmed. Some are pieces of batting and backing that can't be salvaged but a lot of the trimmings can be cut into 4 or 5 inch strips and the same with the backing fabrics. This was an entire afternoon of sorting, cutting and folding. All done!
I have started another Bonnie Hunter leader and ender and so far have been tackling my bin of green scraps.
This is another picture of the red/brown sixteen patch blocks, STILL waiting to be pressed. That is not a favourite activity and usually wait until I get a phone call that know will be long.
Tidying is happening. I still have loads of small bags full of fabric pieces from my Arizona sewing room and will eventually go through them all, but, in the meantime, it is a little tidier and more contained.
My very favourite ruler rack came home from Mesa. It mounts on the wall and is on a bit of an angle so rulers are easily accessible. I mounted it in front of my white board which might have been a bit of a mistake but I can work around it. It is perfect above the cutting table and love having the rulers out of the way but easy to grab. I bought this many years ago at a quilt show in Tucson and have never seen one since.
This wall hanging also came home from Arizona and is now on the wall. It is bright, cheerful and makes me smile so it is front and center!
I do love my Janome machines but I DO NOT LOVE their dual feed ankle which holds the various feet. I had to replace the one I had on my Janome 8200 and now, the one on my M7 is broken. With the price you pay for these sewing machines, you would think that they could come up with a better design for this part? Now, I need to figure out the easiest way to replace it ... checking to see who has them in stock? I use the even feed for all the bindings I am doing - there was some quiet cursing when it happened but that was drowned out by the Blue Jays winning home run hit last night!
Time to decorate for Halloween and get ready for my quilting spree next week (last week of the month). I only have a couple of quilts to quilt and bind so that makes me happy though it means I didn't accomplish as much this month as I would like. Enjoy the 31st. Our neighbour's are having a costume party so it will be fun to sit outside and watch their guests arrive. We are invited but these costumes will be elaborate and I am past the time in my life where I want to get creative with my appearance. But, will be fun to watch! We will be in New Westminster for Moh's surgery that day so a glass of wine, sitting in my driveway will be a lovely way to enjoy the evening's entertainment.
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