Works in Progress

How can it be November already?  I think I must be suffering from some kind of time warp.   The fact that we have been able to go outside in shirtsleeves this week isn't helping me keep track of the season, either!  (Not that I'm complaining)

So, aside from getting out to enjoy the weather, and buttoning up the gardens for the year- it broke my heart to put the pots away as some were still blossoming!-  I have been in the sewing room as much as I can the last couple of weeks.  I wish I had more to show for it!

 This is the big cutting table in the "studio".  I'm not sure how many projects are there in one form or another.  What you can't see is the piles of projects I have pushed off the table onto the futon.  There are two on the back of it that only need quilting.  The pretty green and red bit in the center is one my great grandmother made.  I'd love to replicate it some day!

 This is sideways.  It's a Christmas gift.  This is the latest I have ever started something to be given for Christmas.  I hate this kind of pressure. This one is going together quickly.  It's from the book "French Braid Transformation", by Jane Hardy Miller.  I was pretty upset when all the light blues landed in the same area- no matter which way I turn those strips- but now I kind of like it.  It looks like I did it that way on purpose!

This is a sneak peak for my Guild members.  We have been working on a new quilt to raffle next year during our quilt show.  I am the chair for the project this time.  I did not design this, just changed the way the colors were laid out and added the borders.  I got the pattern from McCall Quick Quilts.  One side of the pieced border is missing four colors (it was the only way to get it to come out right at the corners)  Can you find them? - sorry the picture is at an angle and makes it harder.
 We'll have this machine quilted.

 I've knitted a few more tiny snowmen to use as gifts this year. (If you get one, act surprised, ok?)  They stand about one and a half inches tall.  Each one takes about an hour.  The little scarves are actually the hard part. 

I'm working on a Kanzashi Christmas bouquet.  The extras will be used as ornaments and "bows" on presents.










My Green Tip this time is about all the leaves we have to clean up this time of year.  Raking is good exercise,  and leaf blowers use gas, creating CO2 and noise.  If you live where they collect leaves, just pile them up, don't bag them and clog up landfills.  If you live in the boonies, like me, use them to mulch around your shrubs and tender perennials, or just add them to your compost pile.   If you don't want to rake, chop them up with the lawnmower and leave them on the lawn as mulch and to enhance the soil.

I am grateful for:
A few extra days of nice weather allowing me to take walks outside!
Friends who are willing to spend time with me.
Having a little one to play in the leaves with last week.
A chance to have my say and doing it in a calm manner.
When things work the way they are supposed to- making life a little easier!