Growing

There are lots of things going on, and growing on, around here. Despite my best intentions, my "to do" list is one of those things that grows out of control, like Kudzu, and thwarts all attempts to keep up with posting here. Gregory has turned eleven years old this month. Eleven! One thing that doesn't seem to to grow is available time: that shrinks! Seriously. How can it be November already? Here's the birthday boy and his sister, who's growing at the same break-neck pace as her brother. 

She spent the night with us last week; we were entertained with an interpretive, dramatic, reading of "How The Elephant Got His Trunk" after dinner. 

My list of UFOs is growing once again (even with all of those completed tops being rounded up and out of the BOM bins from years past) with the addition of two more Blocks-of-the-Month that I've signed up for (I'm unable to resist) this fall. This is one of them, "Lady's Scrap Basket", so far I've got Unit One completed, along the way I discovered a great little tool for dealing with those pesky "folded corner" triangles, it's made by Creative Grids. ↓

Rather than drawing (and then sewing on) the line, one simply aligns the "Folded Corner Clipper" with the strong diagonal across the corners of the stacked pieces and trims away the excess beforehand, stitching 1/4" away from the cut edge. It works really, really well. Thanks for this tip, Annie! 

My DIL sent this photo the other day. Gregory decided to mend a tear in his pants by himself. He raided his sister's sewing box for the needed items and set to work before it ripped any further. I couldn't help but think of this  very similar illustration from "Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt", maybe it's just the red hair. 😉

A recent retreat weekend saw something else take shape and grow: Great Granny Squared. It's one of those quilts from the always-growing "to make" list that finally rose to the top. I already love it and it still needs two more borders, it will only grow more and more lovely. I'm using Lori Holt's Bee Basics fabric line, it's a bright and cheerful day-brightener. 

A quilting friend finished this top while we retreated together, isn't it great? The pattern is one that's fat quarter friendly: "Inkling" by Patchwork and Poodles. This one really piqued my interest (like I have any business starting something else new!!). 

I have everything, except for the vine border, stitched on this sampler; at long last! It has been temporarily stowed now as and my needle, linen and hoop are being redirected toward Christmas stitching. One more growing obsession... and SEW it goes! 

These are golden days right now, it's hard to keep up with things indoors when it's this glorious outside!

What's going on ( and growing on) at your house?

Life is Good!