Just like that, it's fall!

I was feeling particularly energetic today so it seemed like a good time to write a post.  Maybe energetic isn’t the correct word.  It’s more of a state of high alert since I found a scorpion in my home office last night.  This was after our recent trip to Pittsburgh where I found not one, but two, of those horrible centipedes.  I guess I just have the luck.  So, all of our illusions about … “at least we haven’t seen any inside” have been dashed. Granted, there were a couple of activities yesterday that could have literally carried it into the house from the garage.  I’ve been doing scorpion hunts since we got the pool and the palm trees and we’ve only found two dead ones outside.  The one last night was very much alive, emphasis on “was”.  Eventually, the high alert will fade.  Sigh.

In between other activities, I’ve been trying to refocus on sewing.   I made a McKenna Ryan wallhanging for our guild’s fundraiser.  I forgot to take a picture but I made the parts for a second one to give a friend who is dealing with some not so nice things.  Once that one is done, I’ll post a photo. 

If I think back to the August retreat, I was working on the Halloween Scrappy Trips made from Friendship blocks.  That top is together and I hope to quilt it during the next few weeks or so.

I put together a Triple Rail Fence for a charity auction.  They requested a patriotic theme so it was a good fit with some of the leftover fabric from the Indians quilt.

I also worked on piecing all of my floral scraps into stacked coins.  That’s not put together yet.  I worked on Moonglow, of course, and I’ve made steady progress.  I kitted up all of the remaining blocks for the Have a Jolly Little Christmas quilt along but haven’t sewn any of them.  I also made some fat quarter placemats for the patio but ended up ripping out the stitching on one of the sets because I didn’t like the layout.  Odd since that pattern is notoriously foolproof, but those need to get finished soon before “winter” is here.

While we were staying in Pittsburgh, my mom has a quilt hanging that I made for my brother's first marriage.  It is one of those things that makes me cringe when I see it because it was above my skill level when I made it (1993 maybe?) but I made it from a photo my ex-sister in law gave me.  She wanted a quilt just like the one in the photo--to match their bedding.  I know I bought the solids from Amish shops and they've held up pretty well.  I used polyester batting because I didn't know better so it doesn't hang very well.  I did some pretty advanced cable FMQ, though, and it looks pretty good!  I am confident my brother cringes when he sees it too since that relationship ended years ago. 

Last night, I even finished the top for the long-promised Cleveland Indians quilt.  I need more of the Indians fabric for a border so that will have to wait for fabric.com but at least it is put together.  There was sooooooooo much sashing, it took longer than I expected and way longer than it should have.  It’s also BIG, hopefully, not too big.  In the meantime, Brady asked if he could make an Indians pillowcase so maybe this timeline was meant to be.

Coming up next, I will probably refocus a bit on piecing charity tops.  Sadly, our guild’s most prolific piecer passed away this summer and her absence has been noticed in many ways.  Since I’ve been co-facilitating the charity quilt effort in the guild, I store the fabric and I’ve been enjoying making something from the oddball parts that can’t be cut into kits.

I also still owe a Cleveland friend a memory quilt made from her former foster child’s baby clothing.  I am very intimidated by that project.  I’ve never made a t-shirt quilt and I think I can muddle through that part but there are things she wants kept “intact” such as newborn knit hats, a couple of onesies, and a rattle stuffed toy.  I have a pattern picked out and she’s pretty easy-going but I have to figure out the hats and the onesies.

In between those projects, I’ve been brainstorming ways to get back into more challenging projects.  You might remember that I have a wallhanging traveling with the employee art show.  The show travels to all of the major locations for a two year round trip.  Just before it came to Phoenix, our corporate art director called me and invited me to be the guest speaker at the opening reception.  Of course, I accepted but then panicked about what to talk about or to bring.  He had suggested bringing other works, including some that are in progress.  The piece in the show was a spin off from the fabric choices I used for my Jan Krentz star so I brought the star, a circles wallhanging I made with the pieced circle technique, a couple of wallhangings I made in our workshop with Melody in Chicago, and also a quilt I bought from Melody to show how the inspiration is reflected in my work.  When I looked for in progress work that was cohesive with those finished items, I was kind of sad and embarrassed to unearth so many cool things that were nearly finished or worked through conceptually but not started.  It made me realize that I don’t work on those challenging pieces because they are intimidating but they are some of the things I’m most proud of or most excited about.  I need to work on challenging myself more, starting with some of these UFOs.  I’m working through it in my head and, hopefully, will figure out a plan soon.

The reception and talk went well.  The group asked lots of good questions and enjoyed seeing the in progress components.  Mike went with me to see the show and help.  They ended up asking him questions and the stories of our professional and personal changes from the last year came up.  Of course, the changes in my quilting space aka the basement, were a part of the discussion.  I spoke highly of all of you--the fun we had, the food, the drinks, the challenges, the fairy-godmothering … it wasn’t the quilting bee that the audience had previously envisioned.  Another funny thing happened when I left the room and the director decided to temporarily hang up some of the things I brought. He hung the lone star backwards.  Granted, the backing was pieced and had a large print that is very artistic, however, I would have thought the label and hanging sleeve would have been a give away plus the lone star is a pretty prominent “front”.  Of course, I thought of Kathy’s wise words about “reversible quilts”. 

It’s still the afternoon here but I’ll leave you with a photo of last night’s sunset.  We were at a little league game so I got to watch the whole progression of colors.  It was beautiful.