Does A Fox Really Smell It's Own Hole First?

It's a top!

Fox Holes

40 x 60

Actually, it is Foxes in Holes in the Barn Doors. 

I had a few different fox fabrics so used them as centers for Hole in the Barn Door blocks. There are many variations on blocks by that name. I used the one found at Quilter's Cache. 

Someone gave me that red fabric with black swirls on it and I immediately thought it looked like barn siding so that's what I used for the "barns".   I have lots of small green chunks of fabric so those became the block backgrounds. I then added a two inch (finished) sashing between columns to bring it up to the size requested for kid's quilts. 

And so now I think I will be making a series of different Hole in the Barn Door quilts in order to use some large print animals. 

And sew on...

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Oct 12 - Finished a book! - Lilac Ink by Jean Grainger.  Jean Grainger is an Irish author who has written several different series of Irish historical fiction books. I've read several but not all of the series. (I had to look up the plural of series. It is series.) Lilac Ink is the first book in a new series and I'm ready for the second book. I like reading books that take place in Ireland since my paternal ancestors were all Irish.

Oct 13 - I made a big pot of vegetable soup. It was delicious - full of homegrown vegetables - tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peas, green beans, lima beans, carrots, cabbage...

Oct. 14 - BOGO perennials! I picked up 22 perennials deeply discounted. I knew there was going to be frost Tues. and Wed. so waited until today (10/16) to plant them. I think (hope) they will be able to get their roots established before we have several hard freezes in a row. A few plants went into the native wildflower garden. A few went into a shady area. A few went into the cottage garden. 

Oct. 15 - Some roses are still in bloom! Since I've found Bobbex and used it as directed the deer seem to stay away! 

It's A Finish!

It's a finish!

60 x 78

Sawtooth Stars 

with Square in Square centers. 

Back in 2021 I started making 3 inch Square in Square (SIS) blocks (aka Chips) from scraps as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project.  All of the SIS were made with black and white corners. 

I usually make blocks from scraps until I have a big pile of them and then decide what to do with them. This is the third quilt (and the largest) made with those SIS blocks and I probably have enough for one more small one. In one quilt I alternated the SIS with squares. For another quilt I used the SIS blocks as the centers of Happy Blocks. 

For this quilt I used the SIS blocks as centers for Sawtooth Stars. I used tone on tone scraps for backgrounds and gave the stars black and white points. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine (Brother PQ1500SL) with vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines through the star points.  I used a variegated thread. 

The backing is a rainbow plaid and the binding is a soft batik that is mostly black and white but has a few other colors in it too. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Oct. 9 - Scraps and some vintage state flower blocks received from Teresa.

Oct. 10 -- My brother Steve who lives in Bonita Bay, FL and his daughter who lives in Naples, FL are safe and suffered no damage from hurricane Milton. My brother lives only about 40 miles south of Ft. Meyers where they thought it might be hit hard so he went down south to stay with his daughter in Naples. They experienced the high winds and power outages and some flooding in the streets that quickly receded but they had no complaints. 

Oct. 11 - I was hungry for apple pie so made one. I have always made my pie crust with lard but it seems to be harder to find in the store these days. Supposedly lard makes for a flakier crust.  Instead of a top crust I like my apple pie with streusel (crumb) layer on top.  Pie is yummy; however, since hubby cannot eat any (he has G-tube) I have to eat the whole pie. And of course each piece has to be warm and be a la mode! 

 

A New Top!

Monkey Wrench Top

86 x 93

5 inch blocks on point

Monkey Wrench blocks were sewn together randomly.

Several years ago one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects was making Monkey Wrench blocks from scraps in three different sizes - 5 inch, 7.5 inch and 10 inch.   

I have finished several different comfort quilts from both the 7.5 and 10 inch blocks; however, this is the only one made from 5 inch blocks. 

There sure were a lot of points to try to match up in this one. 

And how did I manage to iron, sew into rows and then sew rows together and miss that oopsie until now? 

And now I suppose it will be awhile before it gets quilted. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Oct. 6 - Finished a book! - The Huntress by Kate Quinn. Fictional story about the several people who band together to hunt for a WWII Nazi murderess. The Nazi murderess is based on two real women, one a female camp guard named Hermine Braunsteiner, the other an SS officer's wife named Erna Petri. This is the third book I have read by Kate Quinn. The other two were The Rose Code and The Alice Network.  

Oct. 7 - Hubby John had bone biopsy on Oct. 2. Results today show no cancer or dysplasia!!!!! 

Oct. 8 - My brother Kerry's 69th birthday.

 

Two Finishes

Two Finishes!

Orphan Block Quilts Quincy and Poindexter

Orphan Quincy

40 x 52

Sawtooth Stars

Orphan Block Centers

Green Backgrounds

Quilted with swirls on my DSM (Brother PQ1500SL)

Green background and binding.

Orphan Poindexter

40 x 48

Mostly purple orphan blocks framed to make 12 inch blocks. All of the orphan blocks were given to me by different folks. 

This one was also quilted on my DSM with swirls. 

The backing and binding are a mottled purple.

And now they are ready for donation!

And sew on...

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Oct. 5 - Hubby surprised me with an order of over 200 bulbs! They have not arrived yet but he forwarded me a confirmation of order email.  Soon I'll be getting quite a variety of Crocus as well as Hyacinths, Dutch Iris, Alliums,Tulips and Asiatic Lilies.  I think he looked at some dog eared pages in one of my catalogs! I dream a lot but usually never end up ordering anything but seeds. I already know where I'm going to put everything! 

 

Stars and Windmills

Brown is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. I have several blocks in the works that are only made of brown scraps.  These 8 inch Stars are one of the blocks. 

I made a lot of quarter sections of the Stars this week from 2.5 inch width scraps of browns and creams. 

After I empty my bag of brown and cream scraps set aside for these blocks as I've sorted scraps, I will assemble the Stars. 

I assembled a few Stars in the past. After I finish up these Stars from my bag of scraps I will see how many Stars I have and then decide on a quilt size. 

Another RSC project - 4 inch Windmills

With some more colorful 2.5 inch width scraps I made a few Windmills to add to the collection. 

I think I've been making these for over a year as scraps happen. Maybe now is the time to count these up and decide upon a quilt size. Then I'll know how many more are needed. I usually like to make a BIG quilt with the little blocks.   

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Oct. 4 --Hubby's G-tube fell out again. The water balloon that holds it in place was no longer holding water. I had to put in a new one. I'm really not nurse material. I'm not a blood and guts or vomit kind of person. I don't like looking at holes in people that other people don't have. But I was able to stay level--headed and not panic and put in a new G-tube to replace the old. "For better or worse", you know... (maybe 51 years ago if they told me what "worse" would involve I might have thought twice!!)

 

Feather Finishing

A few months ago I dug into my string bin and started several new string quilts. I usually start making a quilt with the longest and widest strings and then start several other quilts using shorter and shorter and skinnier and skinnier strings. 

This Feather Bed quilt is the one that used the longest and widest strips. This week I've worked on and off on completing 25 feathers.  I now have 38 of them and the quilt is ready to be assembled. 

I'm not in love with the background fabric but it was about all I had at the time with enough yardage. It has kind of grown on me now. It's not as bright as in the photos. I used the flash on my camera and I think that brightened it up a bit.   So, anyway, you know it's all about "make do" around here so make do I did!

Feather Bed is an Anna Maria Horner pattern.   I picked up the pattern back when it was first issued and was free but now it is no longer free.   I previously made a Feather Bed quilt back in 2016 using the pattern and hand quilted it. 

For the feathers I pull out the longer and wider strings and try to group them together by colors that will work together. Then I sew the strings together into a long and wide enough piece of made fabric to cut left and right feather pieces with a template. 

But before I assemble the blocks I need to quilt a few tops. I haven't had any finishes in awhile.  Last night I pin basted a couple of smalls so I might get around to quilting today. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Oct. 1 - Spent most of the day clearing scrub brush - mulberry bushes, honeysuckle, wild rose, wild raspberries. Also cleared a few patches of ragweed and pokeberries taller than me. How do the things I don't want to grow grow so fast?   Well, anyway, it feels good to see progress! And I'm thankful I'm using my little battery operated chain saw on scrub brush and not trees that have fallen during a hurricane. 

Oct. 2 - Spent most of the day an hour away at Univ. of Iowa Hospital and Clinics (UIHC). Hubby had three teeth removed and bone biopsy of his jaw. Now we wait for results. In the past he had fibula free flap reconstruction surgery on the jaw on the other side (they made new jaw bone from his fibula). All of his mouth problems (bone necrosis and lost teeth) are a side effect of radiation he had back when he had oropharyngeal cancer.  

  

That's not what I celebrated...I do not like to drive in the dark and interstate has lots of road work going on and lots of semis on the road. We started our journey to UIHC at 5:30 a.m.   Well, weather was nice but a little chilly and we made it there and back just fine. Well, my back kind of hurt a little from being so tense but no worries now.   And hubby is doing fine - very little pain, thank goodness!

Oct. 3 - Daffodil bulbs arrived. I ordered some small and fragrant ones. Also received some allium bulbs.  Deer don't bother either of those. Now I just need to get them planted. I'm putting them in the cutting garden tulip bed with what tulips I have left after the deer ate most of the leaves before they could bloom this year. I met a deer a few days ago in the middle of the afternoon when I went out to do some veg garden clean up. It was munching on my broccoli. This year deer have munched more broccoli than I have. So I pulled up all the broccoli plants and threw them on the compost pile. 

Also - remember when I celebrated sending quilts to Wrap-A-Smile on Sep. 25? Well, the coordinator lives in Asheville, NC. According to tracking info the quilts were held up in Greensboro for awhile but they were able to be delivered yesterday.  Thankfully, Ann, the coordinator is safe. She had 5 trees fall and was without power for a couple of days and still might be without internet. My nephew and family also live in Asheville and I've heard all are safe.   

I've Saved Up Enough Coins

I had a little pile of 2 inch width strips accumulated in my Coins project box. I matched up some strips, cut them into lengths divisible by 3 and sewed them together. Then I cut those strips into 3 inch lengths and sewed them together into strips. 

Now I can add those to the other coins in the box and I think there's enough for a quilt. I was planning on 24 x 52 layout for a quilt 60 x 78 inches.  Hmmm, not sure how I will approach assembly because I usually sew blocks together randomly and web together rows; however, these strips are all different lengths and colors and best sewn together in columns. I might have to lay this one out on the floor  and gather up the columns and number them. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Sep. 29 - Beautiful waning crescent moon and lots of stars in the sky. When granddaughter Kayla was two years old she called it a "witch moon" and we have called the crescent moon "witch moon" ever since. That reminds me...Sometimes when the grandkids were younger we would lay on piles of quilts on the deck and look up at the sky and watch for shooting stars and alien spaceships.  The funny thing is that hubby had a green laser that he would sometimes shine on to the deck and move it around. When they claimed to see it we pretended we didn't. They started calling it the green alien. That trick went on for quite a few years until they caught grandpa red handed with the green laser!

Sep. 30 -- New underwear. It's about time!