Another week already? Where does it go?
I tried out this recipe for Apple Pandowdy. It needed to be in a bigger pan with more apples. Still, it was quite tasty (there's none left).
Apples! I also made Apple Sausage Pie. The house smelled delicious.
My OMG was to have the braid quilt bordered and sandwiched. Check. I have ideas of how I want to quilt it, and picked the thread. I should start working on the quilting by the weekend. I've decided to do an all-over pattern (but... over the border, too? Or do something different for that?). I still need to do some more doodling so I feel confident when tackling the quilt.
I did a mix of patterns interspersed with simple wavy lines. I got to try out a few new designs and practice several of my favorites. My stitching is fairly even - probably because of the small areas I worked in. If only my quilting was so even when working larger areas! Well, I'll get to practice that with my next quilt.
I haven't had a chance to write other blog posts this week. I've made lots of progress on my quilt - I hope to have a post soon.
We were invited to a neighborhood pumpkin party, so I carved a pumpkin to display. I haven't carved one in years - I forgot how fun they are to do. I decided to do something artistic instead of just a jack-o-lantern face. I love how this came out. Not too sure how structurally sound it would be, but it hasn't collapsed yet.
The pumpkins needed to be dropped off on Friday, for a Saturday evening outdoor party. At the time I dropped mine off, there weren't many there...
Lots of orange, red and green this week. It started out with our misadventure last Wednesday. We returned home to a dark house. Yay for a generator! Water and internet are a good thing (even if I curled up most of the evening with a book by the battery-powered lamp).
This pretty picture was taken the next morning. The brush/leaves in the foreground is a tree branch that took out the power line. Great color! But I'd have been happier if it stayed on the tree.
We didn't do much over the summer, so we were kind of excited to get tickets to the Naumkeag pumpkin show. We've never been - so this would be a change and something fun to do outdoors. We were to wear masks and keep to our scheduled time.
It was a beautiful drive out to Stockbridge. However, rain was predicted and we arrived just as a thunderstorm hit. I was so glad to have pulled into the parking lot, because the wind and the rain pummeled and shook the car. In less than 10 minutes, it blew down branches and took out the electricity.
Seriously impressive.
A few minutes later it quieted down and the rain nearly stopped. Soon after we found the entrance to the walk we bumped into a couple headed out. They told us the event was canceled; we could get our tickets refunded.
The braided quilt is backed.
It's a very polka-dotty backing, isn't it? The suns and moons are very blue and gold. I was tempted to make a stripe with blue fabrics, but it would have ended up more purple than the blue on the front. So I decided to go with rust and gold. Not bad. When it was done, the backing was a few inches bigger than the front all around. Whew!
I layered it up, everything wonderfully aligned and realized one of the borders was wonky. I hated to pull it up but I needed to restitch it. So glad I did.
Making progress on my quilts. Creekbed is sandwiched and I know how I want to quilt it. That's on hold as I get the braid quilt ready for quilting, too. The borders went on without too much fuss (although I needed to tack on 3" to be long enough). I stitched together the backing - of course discovering it wasn't quite as long as I hoped. I'm now I'm piecing together a stripe to go across the middle. I plan to have that assembled, then sandwich and baste the quilt before the sunroom gets too chilly to work in. Then I can focus on quilting both quilts.
Creekbed is sandwiched and basted; I just need to decide how I want to quilt it. I suspect that will work itself out this month, because once I figure out how I want to quilt it, I won't be able to put it down. What I'd really like to do is get the braid quilt off the wall, where it's been hanging all month. I have batting and backing all set to go - it just needs the borders attached and binding cut. So my October goal will be to have that ready to be quilted.
Sharing with Elm Street Quilts - October One Monthly Goal
It's October. Seriously? For being out of work and isolated, the time just seems to be flying by. It's crazy.
We went out for a drive on Wednesday. Technically we were running errands, but we took the long way around to enjoy the trees. I'm really enjoying the fall colors.
Our yard is starting to change, too. I swear the leaves on this bush are hot pink. It was overcast the morning I shot this, which certainly affected the colors.
