Welcome to the first day of fall on Sugar Meadow, where the current fall feeling is…

GLUM!

Here is a sad picture to express myself– my poor, molting rooster with one last tail feather to show for himself. I know exactly how he feels!

Why, you say? Everyone in New England is battling a cold except me, but my visit to see the sensational Miss Harlow this week had to be cancelled– they are all sick.

What better way to battle the glums, than to start a new project! I mentioned I have a class next month to learn the Posh Penelope block by Sew Kind of Wonderful. I’ve seen it around for quite a while… haha! I even had the required ruler still wrapped from about 2018(?) and in a moment of serendipity I knew exactly where it was. I should give myself more credit for an organized studio than I do.

If you know Sew Kind of Wonderful, they came up with this curve cutting ruler, in large and small sizes, and they unlocked a whole new look for their quilt patterns– look at this cute nativity design, also on my bucket list!

Here is the Posh Penelope quilt– I think it’s super sophisticated. Well, posh.

And here is the block:

What better time to break open my beautiful Sunday Brunch fat quarter set which now looks like wolves tore into it.

So, yes, the curve cutting tool really helps, but in the end you still have to sew the curve, so my first attempt ended up in the garbage! It took me awhile to understand the cutting diagram, and at the moment I just couldn’t wait for the class.

This is what I have so far– just look at those sexy curves! At first I pinned them, then I glued them, but the instructions say to just go ahead and sew it without any more than a starting pin. So I tried, and it actually worked. I think these curves are gentle enough for you to be able to do it.

I wanted to do this to get away from stitch and flip corners for awhile. To my dismay, these units now have at least sixteen cut and flipped corners to add, to get the final look.

The stated class goal is to make two blocks. If I finish this one, I’ll have three, which would make a lovely table runner. I’m desperate not to start another full blown quilt while my closets overflow with UFOs. As it is, I’m now going into the class with all my own pre-conceived ideas of how to make the block, so it will be good practice for me to just listen and let someone else do the talking– a good life skill, if you ask me!

I finally finished the fourth giant block on my Pioneer Woman quilt. I have a friend who I noticed had many Pioneer Woman items in her kitchen and I intended this as a tablerunner for her. These blocks are huge 20″ ones, so it’s now a lap quilt, which does not match her living room at all. So I don’t know– does it live at my house? 🙂

On Carefree Highways, I have now stitched all of the blue areas. Now I have to roll back up and do the star points. Then I have to roll back up and go over the cross stitch– just a little. Then roll back up and do the stripes. I’m forcing myself to put in a couple of hours a day, and it. is. just. laborious.

One of my high school jobs was stamping a tiny wheel into a glass cutter– barrels and barrels of them, for eight hours a day– and that is now seeming like it was more interesting than this. So I’m not going to blog much about it any more. I know when I see Alaska and Hawaii, I’m just about finished with a task.

I did order these fabulous French curve longarm rulers to help me go around my banners– they are from White Arbor Quilting, if you’re interested. They would certainly help if you had to go around appliques, or if you wanted a beautifully stitched spine for feathers.

The cancelled trip is good news for the Year on Sugar Meadow block. I have more time now. In the meadow this month, it’s all about big rusty blooms– sunflowers and amaranth, to be specific. Here are the photos I took:

And here is the design so far:

I’ve pretty much followed the photos exactly, but the design is now at the awkward point where everything has to move into some sort of circular harmony. So the green blobs are unopened sunflowers that I think will help do that. Look for this later this week– I can’t believe there are only three more to go!

I also wanted to add this weed to the design which is everywhere right now:

The dear weed gave me a smile because it looks exactly like a candy my kids used to enjoy!

And this finally happened!

I resisted the temptation to add MY name to the top of this beautiful stocking- haha! Did I mention, I don’t have a Christmas stocking. All that’s left to do is the little row of holly at the top. But it even hurts to look at this right now, because I haven’t seen my baby since July.

So that’s all I got this week! I’m heading down for breakfast next, and hoping the negativity lifts. It’s good attitude Monday, if that is even a thing!

xox
Carol