Scrappy Mountain Majesties Quilted and Bound

I  finished piecing Scrappy Mountain Majesties (a free Bonnie Hunter pattern)  in September of 2015.  I finally got it to the longarmer in a few weeks ago and got it bound yesterday.  This will be a high school graduation gift for one of my ten nephews.  I'm going to hang on to it for a couple of years.  Two nephews and a niece will graduate in 2018.  I have to plan ahead since there are so many of them!

All of the fabric on the top is from old shirts except for the red checked binding.  The backing is red flannel.

Linking up:  http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2016/11/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-survival-winners.html

http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/2016/11/finished-or-not-friday-and-tgiff-linky.html

http://www.shecanquilt.ca/2016/11/the-november-scraptastic-tuesday-link.html

Late October Flowers

I have a few flowers left in my backyard.

Only  tropical milkweed is left (the orange and swamp milkweeds are long gone).

 There are still a few flowers on the crepe myrtles,  a couple of cannas, geraniums with one or two blossoms on them, a patch of very short yellow zinnas, floppy sedum past its prime, and a host of marigolds.

These flowers are prolific in my yard.  Several years ago they started taking over my beds, and I tried to control them with Preen.  This year I let them run wild.

Lantana is an annual here, and it is still going strong by the mailbox.  This is one lantana plant.  Full sun makes all the difference.  I have some out back, but it is too shady to grow very well there.

One of my camellias is blooming now; one one of them never blooms, and the third one died in the August heat.

I chose red mums for the porch this year.  I am hoping they will last until Thanksgiving since we are hosting it again this year.

I may leave my Halloween display up until Thanksgiving too.  Two of my birds are missing.   I suspect my dog got them and buried them somewhere under the porch or in the woods, but  I haven't been able to find them anywhere.  I would like to give the dog the benefit of the doubt, but I know him too well.

Pre-Stitching Harvest Home

I am going to be taking a cross stitch class in November taught by Beth Ann Seal of Summer House Sttiche Workes.  The piece is a drum shaped pin cushion called Harvest Home.  A few of the ladies in my guild have already gotten the pre-stitching done. This is what I've been working on instead of quilting in the evenings.  The end is near, but it will still take me a few more hours.

Linking up:  /http://www.supermomnocape.com/2016/10/24/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-81

Stash Report, Nags Head

No quilting pictures today.  I'm at Nags Head!

For mid October, the weather has been great!  It was a little windy yesterday, but we walked in bare feet anyway.

Used this week: 1.5  yards (Mod Bear Paw)
Used year to date: 78.375 yards
Added this week: 0 yards 
Added year to date:  84.125 yards
Net  Added:  5.75 yards

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/10/23/stash-report-october-23-2016/

Mod Bear Paw Top Done!

This week I looked for border fabric for Mod Bear Paw.  I couldn't find the perfect dark  color I was looking for.  Everything was too blue, too dark, too light.  There were fabrics I could have used if all I wanted was to make this a bigger quilt, but nothing that added anything to the design,  So I just added a narrow blue border, and called the top done.

 It  is baby quilt size, but I don't give quilts with lots of white to babies.  I'm going to turn this into a wall hanging for the playroom/office.  Now I have to decide what to do about the back.  I'm thinking about some of the paw print blocks across the back, but that is a lot of work for the backing of a quilt that will be a wall hanging.  Need to think about this!

Thanks to Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts for making this pattern available!

Linking up:  https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2016/10/lets-bee-social-147.html

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Last month's RSC color was red, and I worked on Talkin' Turkey, but I didn't make any string blocks at all.  This month I wanted to do better.  The colors this month are orange and yellow.  So far I've made  24 blocks.

I have a bunch more yellow strings, and I hope to get a few more yellow blocks done.  I'm down to the dregs in the orange strings:  not much variety left.  Next year, I want to get a string quilt put together.  Thanks to RSC, I have a bunch of string blocks already made.

I have a few blue string blocks done, but no picture of them.

http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/10/scraphappy-saturday_22.html

Mod Bear Paw Top

I finished my Mod Bear Paw Top according to the pattern, but I think I'm going to add borders. I may also add some paw prints up the back if I have enough leftover fabric. This is a baby sized quilt right now (39 x 47) .

I really enjoyed constructing this quilt.  I had been dreading the big bear blocks, but they went together quickly.  Making the HSTs took a while, but this wasn't a difficult quilt, and Lorna's  instructions are very good.

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/10/17/design-wall-october-17-2016/

The Spirit of Cross Stitch

The Spirit of Cross Stitch was held in Richmond this weekend.  I volunteered to man my needlework guild's table for three hours on Friday.  I have belonged to the Virginia Guild of Needlewomen for the past 11 years.  This independent guild is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and we want to be visible to the stitching community.  Most of the members are older than me, and I am in my mid fifties.  It is important for the guild's future to attract new members, especially young members.

I brought a bunch of my completed VGN projects for display.  I only brought those I could stand to have strangers touch.  For the record, you should really ask permission before you grab someone else's project off a table.  Your hands may be clean, but there are still oils on you hands.  Think about what my white biscornu would look like at the end of the day if everyone who walked by the table touched it. Most of the participants of the Spirit of Cross Stitch had great needlework manners, and looked with their eyes only.

We don't just do 'regular' embroidery at VGN.  Along with cross stitch and surface embroidery, we've had classes in needle felting, hardanger, beading, finishing, antique needlework tools, dyeing threads, and smocking.  I have learned a lot from my guild.

After my shift, I went into the merchandise mall, which was a real treat because LNS are rarer than LQS in central VA.  I got to see charts and a whole host of completed models.  I managed to control myself and only bought two things:  one chart, and one small kit.  I actually completed the kit this weekend.  This is a Halloween necklace by Rovaris, a French company.

The class for this piece was about $80, out of my budget.  I just bought the $23 kit and figured out the finishing myself.  It wasn't hard.  I'd do a few things differently next time, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Linking up: http://www.supermomnocape.com/2016/10/17/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-80/

Design Wall: Mod Bear Paw and Talkin' Turkey

It rained and rained all day Saturday, so I spent most of the day sewing.  I got the rest of my Talkin' Turkey blocks done and a fair amount of Mod Bear Paw.

Linking up:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/10/10/design-wall-october-10-2016/

https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/2016/10/mod-bear-paw-qal-constructing-big-bear.html

http://www.shecanquilt.ca/2016/10/october-scraptastic-tuesday-link-is-open.html

Quick Trip to Savannah

We spent a couple of  days last week in Savannah.  We knew Hurricane Matthew was on the way, but we planned to be gone by the time it arrived.   A lot of tourists had already cancelled, and the city wasn't crowded at all.  We walked down by the river, ate at The River House, went to a roof top bar, had ice cream at Leopold's,  went to Tybee Island, toured Fort Pulaski, ate at the Flying Fish, toured Bonaventure Cemetery,  walked thought Forsyth Park, ate at The Pink House (best food we had in Savannah), took a trolley tour and went to the Cathedral.   By the time we were ready to leave on Thursday morning, the hotel we were staying at was closing due to mandatory evacuation.

Bonaventure Cemetery:

Forsyth Park:

Several people warned us about how bad the traffic on 95 would be going home, but it turned out the most of the people who were leaving the coastal areas were heading west, not north.  We sailed home in less than 8 hours, which included 4 stops.

I didn't get any sewing done at all last week, but one of my projects did get quilted:

http://www.joscountryjunction.com/charity-quilt-finish-15/