October finish

Well, I managed to finish one thing this month, my yo-yo mouse. He seems a rather brave little critter, too, as he's been spotted hanging out with some of the cats.

First, he was lounging about with Lorelai:

Later on he found a comfy resting place on Bette:

We get snow

As promised, we had quite a bit of snow Wednesday and Thursday. This is our front yard midway through the storm.


Friday morning I was heading down the stairs when I saw these icicles hanging outside the stairwell window. The blue wall is our neighbor's house (yes, our houses are that close together.)


Today was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and bordering on warm. If it weren't for the piles of melting snow everywhere, I would have thought that the storm had been a figment of my imagination!

Fall, where art thou?

Just checked the weather forecast and this is what we have in store for us:

SNOW...HEAVY AT TIMES WILL DEVELOP WEDNESDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY. TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 10 TO 18 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE...WITH UP TO 24 INCHES IN THE DENVER AREA. NORTH WINDS AT15 TO 30 MPH WILL PRODUCE AREAS OF BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW.

Now, as I've said before, I love Fall. Next to Spring, it's my most favorite season. The days are just that right degree of warm with a crisp little hint of cool underlying it, the nights are chilly enough so that I get a good night's sleep burrowed under blankets and all of the trees are turning such pretty colors including my favorite, the Ash with its opalescent mixture of reds and golds. I can usually count on spending October out in my yard, cleaning it up and putting in the rosebushes that are still in pots. This year? Not so much. We've already had a light snowfall or two earlier in the month and I've spent more than one night hauling in my potted rosebushes onto our utility porch until it got warm enough this past Saturday to get them in the ground. Now it looks like a major dumping of snow is on its way. Fall, it would seem, has totally passed us by this year.

Making progress!

I got all my blocks stitched together last night but decided that I didn't like the brown fabric that I had selected for the border and binding. It just "died" when I held it up next to the panel. I made a run to one of the quilt shops that was open today and picked out a raspberry shade that looked like it would work. But rats, when I put it on the top and bottom, it was just too strong. After noodling around with the fabrics a little, I think I've come up with a good solution: cut down the raspberry strips to leave a narrow 1/4" border for just a pop of color when a 1/2" binding of the brown fabric is applied (you can sort of see the pinned mock-up at the top of the panel.) The border just won't be as wide as originally called for but I think the end result will be even better.

In the meantime, I hauled out the embroidery unit for my machine and stitched out the label. This is my first time creating a label with the embroidery software and while I generally happy with it, I can already see things about the layout that could be improved. Everything's a learning experience!

I had hoped to get the quilt finished this weekend but all the angst over the border killed that plan. So now I'm shooting to have it in the mail by Thursday. While I'm toiling away, Cary will no doubt be taking up his usual spot on the big guy's recliner:

Mini quilt swap

I got a bit of a late start on my mini quilt for the exchange. The first pattern that I choose just wasn't working out so I switched to a different one a couple of weeks ago. This one is called Bumblebee Lane and is from a book by the same name that I picked up while I was in Wisconsin. Each log cabin block has an embroidered center and now that I've finished those, it's on to the piecing! Here's a close-up of one of the centers:

And here is a closer look at one of the finished blocks:

There will be nine blocks in all, arranged in rows of three each. I'm really please with how it's coming together and can't wait to see it finished and ready to go off to its new home!

Camp Cotton

Last month I attended Betty Cotton's Cotton Theory camp in Osseo, Wisconsin. It was one of the most intense experiences that I have ever had! Five full days of sewing and learning new techniques left me worn out! Betty's quilt as you go method produces very unique quilts and I can't wait to put what I learned to good use and get some UFO's done.

This was my first time ever in Wisconsin and I loved it. It's truly beautiful and the people were wonderful. My only regret is that I had very little time to see the surrounding area. My first words to the big guy when I got home were that we have to make a vacation trip back there.

October project

I'm bumping my yo-yo animals that I didn't get done last month for this month's project. I have so much non-quilting sewing to get done by the end of the month and my mini quilt to complete for the swap, that this is about all I can hope to get completed. Once I get all these various projects out of the way, I can go full steam ahead on actual quilt projects next month! I'm really looking forward to settling into my sewing room as winter approaches and getting back into my sewing groove.