After three rounds of visitors in October, I’m officially closing Sugar Meadow Farm and I’m ready for some serious sewing time! The last round was Mr. SFO’s Boy Scoutmaster from the late 1970s– while it was fun to have him, it was a bit sad– he’s 91 and has four months to live. Why do doctors tell you that? He is writing two books and time is growing short. So my biggest takeaway from the visit– if you want to finish something– finish it NOW!

In that spirit, the Summer Memories quilt is rapidly coming to a conclusion…

And I did get this Moda Love quilt fully finished and off to its future owners in time for a wedding. So I take hope from that– we can finish quilts!

October was going to be all about Halloween stitching for me and as usual, it fell by the wayside. I am making a little progress on my Halloween Argyle. It looks like the seams would nest– they don’t– and I’ve had to pin every single patch. Not looking back, but I think NO NEW PROJECTs is going to be a mantra for the rest of the year.

So does this count as a new project? This poor thing, ” Creeper Peepers” has been sitting in my closet since 2012.

I saw something like it on the internet– it is an old J. Wecker Frisch pattern and apparently, this formula is still in use for a quick quilt– it’s only four blocks, five panels, and some borders.

This one is called “Barn Dance” and it is brand new– don’t laugh, but I am considering buying it, even with the knowledge I have one that’s been waiting twelve years to do! I just can’t resist those cute pumpkin faces.

If there’s something you want to finish, finish it now, right? I am going to attempt to quickly assemble Creepers Peepers after the Halloween Argyle. Maybe I will allow myself to purchase “Barn Dance” as a reward for finishing it– haha.

All this to-do sewing doesn’t even take into account the thing I really wanted to work on this month– “Night Flight.” I absolutely LOVE this thing, which I believe I started in 2020– that’s not so bad, right?

I’m almost halfway, and even better, I left some notes about where I left off. I could easily finish up another row with only slight effort.

So October sewing is going to continue into November! I’m happy about that because I do like Halloween.

I did get the San Fran FREE stitch-a-long restarted. A big thank you to all who purchased this upgrade kit, making it feasible to continue the series. Here’s an informal picture of the gang in front of my egg holder, now depleted by too much company. The Bates Motel is free– you can grab it from now until November 1st here. It is for machine embroidery, not hand cross stitch. Try it!

Since I brought up hand cross stitch, I am working on something new– it’s allowed, because Moonbeams is finished! This is a Christmas kit I bought from Herrschners a couple of years ago– it is just darling. Look at that little bird!

Instead of making individual ornaments, I want to make one big piece, so I copied the photo, cut it out, and arranged them according to my favorites. I like squares apparently, and there’s only 24 designs, but I could easily repeat one, re-color one, or just make my own for that empty space.

It took me about two weeks to get this far, so this is a pretty big commitment. If enthusiasm starts to wane, I could stop at any point really and just go with a smaller rectangle. We’ll see what happens– I did have an interesting conversation with myself about making projects easier instead of harder all the time, and how that approach would impact my UFO situation. 🙂

This is my view when hand stitching in the morning. And someone is usually viewing back!

Every year, “Craftways” puts out this beautiful Christmas book. I think Craftways is a Herrschner’s brand, but I’ve been unable to confirm this, Anyway, people have made videos showing this book on YouTube, if you’re interested. I have three or four from over the years and I was thinking of starting to collect them from eBay– they are just beautifully produced.

This is my favorite pattern in the book. My DD was a figure skater, so it’s tugging at my nostalgia. I may attempt it next year– but only when the current one is finished and framed, right?

So that’s everything for the week. As I said, I’m just really looking forward to some quiet, creative time over the winter, and falling into a nice routine.

Early each morning, I walk out to open up the chicken coop for the day, freshening up the water and food and greeting my beautiful birds. This morning, there was an egg in the middle of the floor(?)… I wasn’t ready to collect them, so I picked it up and gently laid it in the corner of a nesting box, being careful not to disturb Rosie, my Rhode Island Red, who was in there. Usually the hens are in a bit of a trance when they are laying, but she immediately stretched out to the orphan egg and used her beak to roll it under herself. It was just a really touching, quiet moment, of the type I am looking forward to enjoying this winter.

xox
Carol