Twelve hours in October (derailed)...

     It's time once again (already?) for our monthly sew-a-thon! Once a month, I allow myself an entire day of sewing... this month, to add to the fun, Mr. SFO is not away, so let's see if he notices I'm not actually doing any work today! I will be responsible for dinner, though.

     I made a list of ten items that were very close to the finish line for "FFOctober"-- that's FULLY FINISHED OCTOBER if you have had a question mark over your head all month as to what it meant. So I did get three things completed-- today, I really want to CRUSH some more to be able to call this month a success. Three involve bindings, one involves borders-- these are all do or die today. If I have leftover time, I'm going to treat myself and start the Lighthearted Christmas tree I talked about in the last post.

9:00am. First up, Corn Pop Pillows. The table runner has been done for more than a couple of weeks, but I ran out of the binding fabric-- so lucky to have found more, still at Fat Quarter Shop. These are fully, fully, fully finished-- quilted front and back, and they are going to be a huge upgrade to my fall décor for years to come. You may recall how I sewed all the pieces together to be long armed as one piece-- my dear longarm friend advised me to do this, but has now created a monster as everything is getting stitched together as "two for the price of one" at this point! 

    I said I would show how I was doing this, so here it is. You need three pieces-- your front, and two backing pieces-- both are 2/3 the height of your front. You can also see the two backing pieces have been prepped with binding along one of the longer edges.

     Pin a backing piece to the front aligning outside edges as shown-- the wrong sides are together. Pin out of the seam line, as some of these cannot be removed as you stitch along. If your pillow front  has a top and and a bottom, start with the bottom piece  (Tip: If you insert the point of your needle back into the fabric after pinning, you greatly reduce your chance of getting pricked!)

    Then do the same for the top piece. Make sure all your edges are nicely aligned.

     Baste all layers together, all the way around, at an extremely scant 1/4" seam line. (That's 3/16" for those of you who like math!)  If you get "bubbles" as you go along, just use a stiletto to ease them in as you stitch along. It's great if your pieces are perfectly flat, but remember, this is ultimately a 3D object so if things get wonky, it may not matter. Check your work-- especially make sure the raw edges of the binding strips are caught in, as well as the parts of the underneath backing piece you can't see. Take out all the pins-- don't forget some are hidden underneath the top backing piece.

     Now make 2-1/2" wide binding strips--  just sew them on as you normally would for a quilt. I'm hand stitching mine down-- all the hand stitching is NOT part of the day today-- I'll get it done in the course of the week. I buy pillow inserts 2" bigger than my pillow tops all around-- it may be a bit of a wrestling job to get them in, but I really love an overstuffed look-- except in the mirror, of course!(One last tip: If you iron that binding up and around and in place before sewing, it is going to make it SEW much easier on your hands and avoid that bump, bump, bump look when hand stitching it down.)

     I absolutely LOVE this way to finish a pillow-- they look beyond professional. Fun and done and ready to enjoy this Thanksgiving-- unless my son's crew of two boys and a dog show up-- then I am HIDING them! Two hours and done-- that includes taking pictures and writing about it. It is amazing how one little thing holds a project up-- but when you actually DO IT, instead of just over-thinking about it, it gets done so fast!

11:00am Next up, my April tablerunner that's been sitting around for months. I don't like it. I keep reminding myself I do like the backing fabric and can just turn it upside down. I have considered gifting it, but I'm really not the type of person to gift stuff I want to get rid of. I just can't do it. I've had the oval template ready for months-- that was kind of neat idea-- so let's just cut already. (Mr. SFO has crossed my path several times this morning, with no notice that I am at my machine at an unusual hour-- but I may just take a minute to fold wash to keep up appearances. It says a lot about this piece that I'd actually rather fold wash that start it.)

     Since I'm working along a ton of projects right now, I have had the presence of mind to store all the parts in separate "cubbies" on cube shelves I have. So I can put my hands right on it--it's bigger than I remembered it as well-- big AND ugly!! My paper template is a bit crumpled-- I'm sure if I put some heavy books on it and stuck it under my bed for two years, it would straighten out. 

    Haha! See what I did there? A two-year reprieve. No, I'm soldiering on. So I flatten the template cut it out, ignore the fact that it's a little too big and draw an oval on my piece. Galileo, the champion of ellipses, isn't exactly going to be looking at this with his microscope is he? I basted a line on, 1/8" of an inch inside my drawing to stabilize the edge. Then snip, snip! I have some interestingly shaped excess pieces-- thank God they are too small for mug rugs, so I ditch them.

So here it is-- it took me months to do what really only took an hour. 

12:00pm That took a lot out of me-- it's lunch! And forget the yogurt and fruit I was gonna have-- it's roast beef sandwich time! All during my time off, I consider the fate of this unloved table runner--- could I just cut it into placemats? Just make it smaller? Cut out just the flower blocks and reformat it to something else? No conclusions are reached.

Lunch is going long,  and I turn on the news as I do, once in while, when I can face it. It is sometimes a mistake...

You know you're in trouble when the reporter in Israel is talking about Maine. If you didn't know, San Francisco Stitch Co. is now based in Maine-- mostly because of many job moves, and Mr. SFOs retirement dream. Yes, it was to set the clock back 50 years and live a simpler life. Not this. 

We are all gratefully safe. Sewing is usually such a balm for me-- occasionally, there arises a time when I. JUST. CAN'T. Twelve hours in October is over.

I did get back to my machine later in the week-- once again, I went off the list. I finished up my 64 basket blocks, and even started assembling the units of four... they look pretty.

Then I got my extra junior jelly roll in the mail for the Sew Sampler September box, remember it?

     The artist in residence helped me pick out new jelly strip pairs for additional blocks. In a moment of small joy, she said, "This is really fun!" and it made sense to her why I do love to sew as much. I'm making 8 more blocks to get a decent sized throw for a very special couple, newly married this Christmas.

I also dabbled away and got the November Bowl Fillers done.

My FFOctober list doesn't mean much to me at the moment. Here I am... feeling crushed and helpless. Some moments I can sew, and some I can't. Taking care of my small world becomes more important to me at times like this-- it is all we can do. Yes, the family will be getting some beautiful dinners this week. Push forward everyone-- we can't go back.

xox

Carol

It's Monday Morning! Time to put on your cape...

    

   So it is "technically" Week 3 of "FFOctober"... I didn't start until October 4th, so it's only fair to give myself until November 4th to finish up the list. This is the kind of equivocation that now comes into play as I see I have not gone in order at all and still have quite a bit to finish up. Here is my original list and where I stand-- I'm totally not counting EXTRA projects I have given myself during the course of the month. 

1. September Sew Sampler Box

2. Neighbor #5

3. Resilient Quilt 

4. Corn Pop Pillows

5. Pressed Flowers Block 6

6. Oval Table Runner

7. Mod Flower Box

8. Tree Farm Table Runner. 

9. Fruit Cocktail Table Runner-

10. Spooky Box. 

    Not to be discouraged... I do intend to put my shoulder to the wheel this week. #3, #4, #6, and #7 are all pretty much binding jobs and I did find the pack of missing fabric for them. (It was unopened under a large pile of mail-- yes, I was looking right at it, but in my mind I was looking for something "bigger" than it was in real life.)

     Neighbor #5 is two seams from a finish-- but I intended these for wall hangings, and I thought they would be more vertical than squarish in the end? I can picture a nice row of tiny Churn Dash blocks across the top-- please comment to either confirm, or dissuade me from the extra work. Maybe they are more vertical, but don't look it because I sewed two together? At any rate, my longarmer has created a monster by explaining how I can save a $50 set up fee by stitching two things together.

   #3 Resilient just needs borders-- now found in my pack of fabric. I'm also doing a quick personalization on it. Really close and then also heading out to the longarmer...

 #4, #6, and #7 need bindings-- then a FINISH-- the Pressed Flower Block of the Month! I was up to date for almost three days until pattern #7 came in the mail.

     I also pulled the Spooky Box, #10, out of the hat! Never thought I'd get to it-- hee,hee, but honestly as a shiny NEW project, I should have put it first! That being said, it was a royal pain to put together-- my fault, not the instructions. I wish I had paid a little more attention to them. All's well that ends well, and I do have enough leftovers for a "baby ghost" extra project...

    The Tree Farm Table Runner is likely to be finished, not so much the Fruit Cocktail. 9 out of 10 finishes would be pretty good for FFOctober, wouldn't it?

     Today I have the later than I'd like November Bowl Fillers to stitch out-- the glory of machine embroidery, if you haven't already discovered it, is-- TWO machines running at once. So I definitely will have a chunk of time today for sewing.

    In the obstacles department, the October Sew Sampler Box came in-- yes, it was the Lighthearted fabric I was not excited about. So I hate to be a whiner, but it's just so... PINK! And so Valentines-y--the provided pattern is even a heart.

    What I am thankful for is not two, but THREE charm packs, this month... if there was ever a good year to do a Sew Sampler Box Challenge-- it has certainly been this year. Fat Quarter Shop has bent over backwards to hit these out of the park. I am paying $36.55 shipped and three charm packs would have been $36 right there, plus there is plenty more in this box AND a generous coupon. (I do not get a commission for selling these boxes, in case you wondered.)

   That being said, it's totally not worth it if you don't like the fabric, is it? So forget the pink-- SEE all those reds and greens in Lighthearted? I found the PERFECT charm pack Christmas tree pattern to use my squares for. (FREE at Fat Quarter Shop, I might add-- link below) So here's my plan-- and I am now sew excited about this fabric, those binding jobs are really going to be in trouble today.

     And more distractions... outside the sewing room, we are at peak of our fall color-- there's been plenty of fall cleanup jobs to fill the time.

This week promises temperatures in the 60s, which is great for here in Western Maine. 

Gardens need a cleanout, boats need to be stored, and patio furniture brought in. I love these jobs-- so, nostalgic, every year.

So lets' see what happens-- 

it's Monday morning, time to put on our capes, and launch in to everything a new week brings.

xoxo

Carol

Catch up your missing Bowl Fillers sets here

Fat Quarter Shop Free Charm Pack Tree Pattern here

A Frightful Halloween Sewing Story

    Things are going seriously awry this FFOctober! Fabric keeps disappearing, Jack the Ripper has struck, and projects are multiplying like rats! (Queue up the music "The Sorcerer's Apprentice while reading for maximum effect.) I’m desperately trying to get this blog post done, in case I disappear next... HELP!

   I started off the month by crushing item #1 on my list, the September Sew Sampler box--until I decided I like it SEW much, I’d make it bigger. Then, Neighbor #5 was coming along nicely, until the backing fabric I bought just disappeared, along with most of the yardage I ordered to complete items 2-9 on the list. A lot of time was spent looking for all of this. It's a big package and I just can't even remember if I opened it. You know the drill-- I am probably looking right at it!

    The only thing that’s stopping me from just reordering it all, is the knowledge that as soon as I do, I will find everything. So I moved all the way down to item #10, the Spooky Box. This is the cutest thing ever-- I love the fabric-- just look at all the cute things and all the colors. It is "Fright Delight" by Lindsay Wilkes from Riley Blake.

   I thought I could make two of them with the usual Fat Quarter Shop excess, but my math has been extremely off lately. I decided to remove all the white jelly roll strips so they wouldn’t compete with my ghosties. I also just want three ghosts in a row, instead of the “B” in "Boo." None of this was factored in my calculations.

    I made strip sets of 3 to expedite all those little squares--a junior jelly roll was provided. I totally forgot I needed some loose squares to make HSTs for the little arms and tail and to round off the corners of the ghosts-- hence Jack’s appearance, as I liberate squares from my strip sets. Then pieces went missing-- 3 ghost foreheads and one body. Does this look like one unhallowed mess so far?

     There’s no longer enough pieces for a second table runner-- not even close, but I do have a “baby ghost” idea in my head as a fallback--another new project. Why? I seem to have an aversion to left over pieces from these kits. Instead of trying to do math for the baby ghosts, I’m just waiting see what I have left when this thing finally gets worked out. I am totally not opposed to just sewing squares together for a set of cute Halloween mug rugs. I do love this thing, though! I may never have made it to this piece this month if my house was in order.

    The Summer Memories baskets fell by the wayside this week, at the point where I have only eight baskets to go. At least I know where everything is for this project! I did need to order sashing fabric at this point-- I’m almost ready for the huge assembly job. The original Susan Ache quilt had a stripe, then Kimberley Jolly used a stripe, so every one pretty much used a stripe. So I picked a stripe, oddly staying with the herd for once in my life. I also needed quite a bit of yardage for the border, and just 1/2 yard for little red cornerstones between the blocks.

     While I was looking at the fabrics I have left to see what else I needed, I noticed I pulled out all the white jolly bar pieces from three jolly bar packs-- so I now have an entire jolly bar of white. Too many leftover pieces for my comfort, again! That's how the idea came they’d make a fantastic star quilt. 

    The Sew Sampler box originally came with this pattern: 

     So while ordering fabric to finish Summer Memories, I bought even more to make the Berrylicious Star! The dark blue is going to make the HSTs with all my left over whites, and then the teal blue is going to be the large areas behind the star. 

   So out of one tiny box, with a table runner pattern I have managed to dream up a king size quilt and a large throw. My name is Carol, and I have a problem.

-

   Can we all please say a prayer there isn't enough left for so much as a mug rug after all of this?

   So nothing checked off this week for "FFOctober," but we do have a "New Projects" list!

1. Large September Sew Sampler Box Throw
2. Baby Ghost Table Runner

3. Berrylicious Star

    In a moment of truth, the Bluebird of Happiness visited our bird feeder-- I am never as happy as when dreaming up new quilt projects and I've now redubbed the month "UFOctober!" 

Join me!

xox

Carol

First Week of FFOctober-- Check!

    Welcome to the first full week of FFOctober... ten finishes by the end of the month is my goal! First on my list, a brand new start... ambitious, huh! This is a junior jelly roll that came in my September Sew Sampler Box-- I plan to make short work of it before the Halloween box arrives. I picked out a super simple jelly roll pattern from Material Girl Quilts-- let's do it!

    The first step is to sew sets of two strips together-- there's 24 in all. I had fun mixing and matching. There were a lot of brown strips, so I pretty much did one brown in each pair-- beyond that, there wasn't much planning. This pattern looks no fail to me.

    In no time at all, I had them sewn together-- I really put the pedal to the metal! I ironed each strip to the dark side-- that actually took more time than sewing. But all good.

    Next, each strip was cut into three long pieces. I had a little 2-1/2" piece left at the end that I trimmed up, thinking I'd use it somewhere, so there is absolutely no waste in this project! Then, you sew the three like-colored strips together. The jelly roll is not my favorite pre-cut-- but I trusted if I lined up all those zaggy edges the same way for each piece, it would work out. I did pin the beginning, middle, and ending of each strip together at this point, to avoid the inevitable non-matching ends that can happen on long strips-- it worked.  

    The next step is to cut them in three pieces again,  vertically this time. The middle strip is then flipped upside down, and the blocks resewn together-- pretty cool, huh! I'm really loving the fall feel of this piece-- the fabric is Fancy That Design House's "Dawn on the Prairie." A lot of my projects seem to be on the prairie lately-- if it's a metaphor for something, please let me know what it is!

    Finally, you arrange your blocks and finish the quilt! I made sure I mixed them up well-- especially that the reds and pinks were separated. Item #1 easily crossed off the list...

well, um, about that...

     I decided I like it SEW much, I really want to add another two rows and make a bigger quilt size! Ha, ha-- will she finish anything this month? Anyway, I'm crossing it off for now and making it Item #11 to be done. The extra jelly roll is in my cart at Fat Quarter Shop but not checked out yet-- I will see how the list progresses and re-visit my decision later in the month. This whole project only took about three hours and was really enjoyable to make. I might just be friends with the jelly roll at this point!

    But here IS a FINISH! I made my extra end pieces into a little placemat-- so cute. Just gonna do some quick quilting on it and use it somewhere in the house this fall. What beautiful fabrics...

    

I also got another eight Summer Memories baskets completed--
only eight more to go!! 

And then a HUGE assembly job-- heehee! 

   

    I have cut the pieces for this month's Pressed Flowers block. 

     And I got the bindings started on the Corn Pop pillows. I'm going to show you how I am making these when they are done. 

So here's where I stand for a week of work-- I'm pretty satisfied with it, there were a lot of distractions last week, but the next three weeks are really free of extra-curricular activities. Most of the items on this list have very little work left in them. If I push, I think I could have ten finishes this month... eight is totally realistic.

1. September Sew Sampler Box
2. Neighbor #5
3. Resilient Quilt 
4. Corn Pop Pillows
5. Pressed Flowers Block 6
6. Oval Table Runner
7. Mod Flower Box
8. Tree Farm Table Runner. 
9. Fruit Cocktail Table Runner-
10. Spooky Box. 
11. Sew Sampler Box Redux

* * Summer Memories Eight more blocks

Hope you were able to review your yearly goals and make a little forward progress this past week-- if not, there's always next week!

xox

Carol

FFOctober! Join me...

   Okay, I've found myself in the usual situation of working for less and less time each on more and more projects-- now nothing is getting done on everything! It's October 1st-- a great time of year  to look back on our 2023 goals and/or plan Christmas stitching-- if you have a blog-- that's easily done-- I took a look back at my first post of the year.

    

  So I was supposed to making monthly goals, not yearly ones-- I honestly haven't done that. I am really satisfied with my sewing accomplishments this year, but still want to finish strong. I also said I was going to add monthly finishes to my the 2023 tab above-- I made it to February--hee-hee. I may correct that and fill in some of the blanks before the end of the year.. I think I was getting frustrated with that, because early in the year, a lot was held up on the quilting step. AARTI is still not at the long armer's but is a finished top. And I hate to say, I never finished quilting my Winter Twist project-- what better time than now? And the Barn Star Sampler has only one block done to show for the year! LOL. But why be negative-- it's a beauty!

   Best news of all-- I did commit to making something from ALL the Sew Sampler boxes this year-- I also decided to do the specialty boxes as well-- Cupid, Liberty, Spook, and Jolly boxes. That will be 16 finishes for the year. Many of them are still going through the pipeline-- and that is what's contributing to having a ton of things in various stages to work on right now. I think the plan this month is to just do one thing at a time and try to close out as many as I can. Here goes!

1. Oddly, I'm starting with a new project-- the September Sew Sampler Box just came in and I need to make something ASAP. Because then the Spooky Box is right on top of it. The September box fabric is a junior jelly roll-- not my favorite precut-- but I love the fabric-- Dawn on the Prairie by Fancy That Designs. So rustic and autumnal!

     

   When I read my original Sew Sampler Challenge, I was supposed to  just use the box fabric and stash. I discovered I hate my stash-- it's very dated. So a lot of new matching designer fabrics have been purchased and the challenge has gotten a bit pricey. I can avoid this in the future by picking patterns that don't use background fabric-- for this month's junior jelly roll, I found this free pattern by Material Girl-- it uses the entire jelly roll of 24 strips and I will have a nice set of 12 blocks. I'd love to bang this out in a day. Mr. SFO is traveling again this week (sigh), so I am going to try! (Click the photo to go to the Material Girl tutorial, if you are interested in an easy way to use up your detested jelly rolls.)

2. Neighbor #5-- I was able to get two blocks out of my kit almost!-- thank you, Fat Quarter Shop! Just want to get borders and embroidered "Welcome" on them. Then they go in the "To Be Quilted" pile for another little more marinating. Actually, now that there's two of them, I may send them out for quilting, when I see the extent of this finishing list!

3. Resilient Quilt-- I had fun making the blocks but I now need to add a border and piece the backing. Fun, fun... my least favorite part of quilt-making! Excited to gift this to a new baby girl-- it's ending up a little big for a baby quilt?

4. Corn Pop Pillows-- this is slowly working along. I have already passed the gut wrenching moment when I had to cut the quilted pieces apart. And the pillow forms have arrived. Just finish it already. I am going to have an extremely dialed in living room this fall!  

5. Pressed Flowers Block 6-- this is a BOM program that comes in each Sew Sampler Box-- another thing I have amazingly kept up with. I'd really like to get Block Six done by the end of the month and stay on top.

6. Oval Table Runner-- my least favorite project this year. I need to cut it into the oval, and I made the template already, then it needs binding. I do have the fabric Where even is this thing? This is where it was last seen six weeks ago. Where did all those weeks go?

7. Mod Flower Box-- just needs a binding-- I got hung up on this when I had to order more of the navy fabric to bind, but it's here now. There it is, waiting patiently in a heap!

8. Tree Farm Table Runner. This kind of fell into a black hole while I worked on some more timely sets for San Fran. Very close to being finished, but still needs some effort... all lying in another heap!

9. Fruit Cocktail Table Runner-- sitting awaiting quilting for quite some time...  months, actually. There is the backing and binding fabrics all ready to go. This was the one I made to look like my favorite table runner ever from 2003 in a spring and summer version. I want to quilt it just like I did the first one, all those years ago. The Christmas version was on my table all summer, and may as well stay there at this point, oops!

10. Spooky Box. Dying to know what is in this, but no one is doing a spoiler. One photo I saw looked like another jelly roll-- I  hope not. Arrives Wednesday, and I need to dive in and get it done. Maybe I'll use the included pattern for once? The finishing kit on Fat Quarter Shop website is cheap, meaning a smaller piece, hopefully. (Update: I did see a SPOILER, it is another Jelly Roll, but the pattern is the cutest little ghosts ever, so I may make a run at it. Let's just hope there's not enough fabric to make two of them!)

 

* * . Summer Memories-- only 16 baskets to go-- I'm 3/4th of the way. This I don't want to keep working on till it's finished-- there's still too much to do-- so this one gets and asterisk, not a number. So I'll just continue to dabble it along until the baskets are finished-- should be able to easily do that by the end of the month.

    So that's the project run down for October. Phew! Eleven things! Not sure how it happened. I've ordered them in the most palatable fashion-- the goal is to check off one before the next one gets worked on. Join me! Make your list and let's have a great FFOctober!

xox

Carol