This Week's Hats

Gray - Crochet Ombre Free Hat Pattern

Multicolor - Everyday Ease Caps Free Crochet Pattern

Brown - Everyday Crochet Beanie Free Pattern

For Christmas bags for Rosebud school children on the Rosebud reservation.

I think I will continue to crochet hats through October, but not all will necessarily be for Rosebud. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Dark Neutrals

HST Four Patch

8 inch finished

Dark (or light or both) neutrals is the October Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. 

I made 32 blocks last October when the RSC color was neutrals.  My goal is 63 blocks. I now have 50.

Whenever I receive scraps from others one of my sorts of scrap chunks (greater than 6.5 inch strip and less than a FQ) is solids and another sort is multicolor blacks. I have accumulated quite a few scraps since last year so it looks like after I finish my HST Four Patch blocks I have more than enough multicolor black for a couple more quilts. Maybe for one I will use black multicolor for Happy Block centers.  Time will tell.

New Start with browns

Overlapped Stars

Inspired by Lynn's (Klein Meisje Quilts blog) Overlapped Stars 

Lynn generously shares her construction methods.

A few months ago I sorted boxes of charm squares/5 inch squares received from others over the years by color. I counted the squares in the brown pile and I have more than enough to make the Overlapped Stars. 

I have other dark neutral projects to work on the month but for now this is my focus. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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Health Updates

I mentioned a few blog posts ago that I visited the doc for pain that started in the neck and after a few weeks progressed to most of my body. High ESR results (inflammation marker) led to Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) diagnosis, prednisone and physical therapy. Prednisone immediately relieved the pain; however, in the meantime other lab tests (positive ANA and high ANA Titer - more markers for inflammation) led to a referral to the rheumatologist for further testing. The rheumatologist appointments are 4-8 weeks out so not sure when I will be seen. In the meantime I will stay on prednisone and continue with PT. I'm just glad I don't have much pain at all anymore and can still take care of John, garden and quilt. I was at the point where I could hardly make it out of bed in the morning but now once again life is pretty wonderful.

As far as my husband John's health...he had appointments at Univ. of IA clinics on Wednesday (thank goodness I could drive an hour away and push him around in a wheelchair). He met with infectious disease doctor about the latest culture results that came back on the necrotic and infected jaw bone (effects of past radiation for cancer) he had removed in September. He has been on one antibiotic since April and that will end mid October. They added a different antibiotic after results came back on bone removed during surgery. Now the latest culture results reveal yeast infection (Candida) in the bone and so they have prescribed an antifungal for a year. Evidently it takes a long time to get rid of infections in bone. 

***

Garden Updates

I'm delighted that I still have some roses in bloom! It is about time to put them to bed for the winter. After a couple of days of heavy rain I hope it is dry enough to work outside for a bit today.

Oh gosh! I was really surprised to see a big bloom on a Dinner Plate Hibiscus I started from seed this year. I didn't think I would see blooms until next year!

Starry Paths

Starry Path

12 inch blocks

Made with 30s reproductions and shirtings/plaids.

This month the theme in my sewing space is "reproductions". That means I'll work to move some UFOs forward that contain civil war repro fabrics or 30s repro fabrics or I might even work on my reproduction of a vintage quilt. 

This block has both 30s reproduction fabrics in it and it is my version of a vintage quilt. Hopefully by month end I'll have a complete block set.  I just made these two blocks to see if I could remember how to make them. 

I first saw the vintage quilt above at Pinterest in 2023 in a search for "vintage quilt". That lead me to the website Heirloomed Collection where I could see more pictures of the quilt. I think the blocks in the vintage quilt are larger than the ones I made and I think I switched the positioning of the darks and lights in my blocks.  

After I made a few blocks in October 2023 I asked blog readers if anyone knew the name of the block.  Several folks knew the answer right away and told me the name of the block was Starry Path. 

I now have a dozen blocks. I wrote down my goal as 35 for a 5 x 7 layout of 60 x 84. But now I'm thinking that the layout should have an even number of blocks across and down because of that secondary big pinwheel pattern formed with four blocks.   So I'm trying to decide if I am still in love with this UFO and should make 24 blocks (4 x 6/48x72) OR make 48 blocks (6 x 8/72 x 96). I'm leaning toward 24 blocks. Then I am halfway to my goal! 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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The Garden News.

I love Zinnias. I save my seed from year to year and add a couple of packets of new seeds to the mix each year too. In the spring I sprinkle seeds here there and everywhere so have several patches of them. Deer don't seem to bother them and butterflies love them.   This year it seems like they aren't going to form many seed heads. I'm not sure of the reason for that. Usually by this time of year I have at least a brown lunch bag at least half full of seed heads. Right now I have nothing. I took these photos on Tuesday, Sep. 29 and as you can see they are still blooming and attracting some butterflies (or maybe those gray things are moths. I'm not sure but they sure are prolific this year. )

More garden news later.

And sow on...

Back To Some Scrap Piecing: Uneven Shoofly

Uneven Shoofly Blocks

10 inch finished

Made with older florals and shirtings/plaids

(Blocks that remind me of ones my grandmother used to make from old clothes)

This is an old Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I've had the pieces for most of these blocks cut out for awhile have never gotten around to sewing pieces together until yesterday.  My goal is 48 blocks and I think I am more than halfway there so I'm hoping to complete this block set in October. I'm trying to finish up a lot of old RSC block sets before year end. 

And sew on...

***

After a beautiful couple of days where I could get out and do a little gardening, we have rain again in the forecast for a couple of days. I'm glad it is not heavy rain. My husband has doctor appt. in Iowa City an hour drive away. 

 

A Little Finish

A Little Finish

43 x 43

I started making these blocks back in July 2025. (On that post you can see the actual color or lack of color in the blocks). I had a little box of pastel scraps and someone had just given me quite a few low volume 4.5 inch squares so I decided to make a few plus sign blocks.

I made 15 blocks in July 2025 and wasn't sure I liked them because they seemed rather busy and I'm not fond of pastels. I put them away in a box until I decided what to do with them. 

When the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) "color" of the month this year in June was pastels I dug out the blocks and made one more and decided to sash blocks with gray for a baby quilt top. 

I quilted it with horizontal and vertical lines. 

The backing and binding are of the same gray fabric as the sashing. 

And now it is ready to hug a wee one.

And sew on...

So that completes my September quilting marathon. I finished an even dozen. I'm missing piecing with scraps so might be doing some of that today before I head out for a little gardening before another week of rain. 

 The theme in my sewing space for October to move things forward is "reproductions" - that means working on quilts with both civil war and 30s reproduction fabrics. I think it might also include finishing a few quilts that are my reproductions of vintage quilts. 

 

Sashed Sixteen Patch Finish

It's a finish!!

Sashed Sixteen Patch

57 x 67.5

This is one of four quilts I started in July 2023 after receiving baggies of 2 inch squares from a couple of folks. Plus I already had a baggie of my own. 

At the time I assembled this top most of my stash was scraps (pretty much still is) but someone had recently given me the lime green yardage so decided to see if there was enough of that. Well, there wasn't quite enough - I used it in the nine patch cornerstones but didn't have enough lime for the nine patch corner stones in the sashings around the outside edges. 

I'm not really a fan of lime green; however, I have to say that I think it spices up a quilt of mostly older floral squares. 

I assembled the top in August 2023.

I quilted it on my sewing machine with horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. 

I put on a scrappy binding from leftover binding pieces given to me.  I just sewed a bunch of pieces together so it looked like I had enough to go round. Strangely enough I had EXACTLY the right amount of binding for the second time this month. I had to add a little piece to the backing. 

Someone gave me that wild and crazy backing piece a long time ago and I set it aside for this quilt.  Not sure why. Maybe because it has a little lime green in it? 

And sew on...

Monday Musings at Brenda's Songbird Designs

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I've finished three books in the last few weeks.

1.

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer. A historical fiction novel inspired by Operation Paperclip. 

"Operation Paperclip was a secret U.S. program that recruited over 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians after World War II to advance American military, space, and intelligence capabilities."

2.

The Irish Daughter of New York by Kate Hewitt. Historical fiction. First of the Maggie O'Halloran series. 

"Kate Hewitt’s The Irish Daughter of New York (published March 31, 2026) introduces Maggie O’Halloran, an Irish teenager arriving in New York City in 1891 with her younger brother. Expecting to reunite with their father, they instead find themselves alone, penniless, and forced to navigate the harsh realities of the Lower East Side."

3.

7 Days by Mike Kraus.  Book 3 in the disaster/post-apoc thriller trilogy. Well, that's the end of that series. Not sure I like how it ended and not sure what caused the disaster; however, I must say if there ever is a disaster that changes our world as we know it there's a lot of good survival tips in the book.

This Week's Hats

Everyday Ease Caps Free Crochet Pattern

Everyday Crochet Beanie Free Pattern

For Christmas bags for Rosebud school children on the Rosebud reservation.

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts