The excitement of fall projects!

I just LOVE fall and all it brings with the cool crisp air, swirling leaves, the smell of bread and pies baking in the oven and fall projects. I just picked out yarn to make a new hat for myself using a new pattern called Alaska by Camille Descoteau (find pattern on Ravelry.com).

I cast on to knit a new pair of socks and a cowl for myself! I finished a red and white quilt top using Primitive Gatherings fabrics and it’s ready to be quilted. This is a huge quilt and measures 128″ x 128″….overSIZED king!

Red Gatherings fabric by Primitive Gatherings (own pattern drafted on graph paper)

And I received these two beautiful quilt patterns in the mail Saturday. I’m making quilts only from my stash and luckily I have fabrics for both that I just need to pull when I’ve finished my Christmas sewing/quilting. I love this pattern company Red Crinoline Quilt Company, it used to be called Bonnie Blue Quilts, and I’ve made several quilts from their patterns. I simply love civil war, reproduction and 30’s fabrics!

Carolina by Red Crinoline Quilts

Lydia by Red Crinoline Quilts

I’ve also been busy on this little beauty, a pumpkin rug hooking project that finishes as a Hexagon! I joined local and national rug hooking groups and have two rug hooking retreats coming up in the near future! I’m so excited! This pattern is designed by Christine and is available for purchase at Prairie Moon Primitives for a very reasonable price and comes printed on linen. Website: https://www.prairiemoonprimitives.com

I’ve traveled, quite a bit and was surprised to learn last week when I went to get an oil change, car wash and tire rotation that I’ve put over 20,000 miles on the new tires, over 6,000 miles were from August 3 to September 25th. I love traveling by car and enjoying the sites. In August we were able to enjoy Lake Tahoe and surroundings areas before the fires hit. If I could afford a house on Lake Tahoe, I’d buy in a heart beat, yes, even regardless of the fires because it’s such a beautiful area of the United States.

Since June 1, 2020 I have traveled to the Lake Tahoe area in Nevada and California and Sacramento three times. I’m glad I was able to spend the time with my sister Sharon before she passed away and my two younger sisters, Tina and Bobbie Sue. I spent a little bit of time in New Mexico (Albuquerque area) and they have a great quilt shop called Kokopelli! Theresa and I traveled and spent the day at Arches National Park in Utah, I’d like to return and spend a week camping and hiking, I love their camp grounds. I’ve camped out in Missouri at Truman State Park, right on the lake. I’ve traveled to Branson twice and just love Missouri. I’ve visited my brother Jim and SIL Yolanda in Missouri a couple of times, they live east of Kansas City, MO, about an hour east and south of where we grew up as young children. One of my favorite quilt shops in Missouri, on Hwy 49 heading north from Joplin is Rocking Chair Quilts in Butler, MO. It makes for a nice break in the trip and she carries Lori Holt fabrics and notions! Great price and super sweet owners. I spent a week in Nebraska enjoying the sites and going to a few antique stores that weren’t closed due to the Chinese virus. And, I LOVE Wyoming with the large open spaces, fewer people/less traffic and beautiful scenery. I’m planning to return to the northwest and hit the far northwestern point of the continental US and then swing around and travel south along the coastal highway to southern California. My dream is to kayak through the caves off the coast by San Diego. If you’ve ever watched Traveling Robert on YouTube it will make you want to hit the road. This will be a trip planned for next summer hopefully.

I’ve been to a quilt retreat at Hobby House Hill in Bowie, TX that was fun and I met some great new quilting friends. And because I just love Texas, I spent a year and a half of high my school days in Lake Dallas, TX and still have friends in that area so I’ve been down there many times this last year, not to visit friends but quilting and sewing related trips take me south! I’ve taken a few day trips with my sister, Theresa, who lives here in Oklahoma, to explore different areas of Oklahoma and visit our favorite quilt shops in Checotah and Gore and we love the lake just north of Gore. I always search for small town, local diners for the best meals and secretly hope they have my favorite dessert….pie!

My friend Debbie, who is an expert quilter, gave me hand applique/needle turn applique lessons to improve my applique work and since then I’ve been working on the Lori Holt Prim Quilt and even taught a hand applique lesson to my quilt group this month. I only have the first five blocks completed so I need to spend a day prepping new blocks! I really don’t care for the log cabin style border blocks so I’m going to change my quilt. I’ll use the star blocks in the corners but then I’m going to do panels with appliqued flowers and leaves in place of the log blocks.

I’m also making Lori Holt’s Grandmother’s Garden Quilt, it’s so cute but for some reason it got put on the back burner and I’ll pull it out and finish it when I finish Prim. Both of these are free on Lori Holt’s Blog, Bee in my Bonnet, but you do have to purchase the shapes to be able to make the quilts and honestly the best price for these are found at https://www.fatquartershop.com/, she carries all of Lori Holts fabrics, notions, rulers, etc.

I did sit down last week and used my orange/black Halloween fabric to make 9 log cabin blocks to make a table topper that I seriously need to finish and get on the table to use before it’s too late! I also made two matching blocks for pot holders! LOL….running late. I’ll post pictures when they are completed.

And, because I’m a Virgo and love to get excited and start new projects, YES, there are many more projects I’ve been working on such as wool applique, embroidered pillow cases, more socks and hat knitting but I’ve either gifted before getting pictures or they are still in the WIP bins!

Living in Oklahoma has it’s ups and downs. The positive attributes are the friendly people, affordable cost of living and my boys live here. The negative attributes are the high winds and tornados and hail such as happened last night, the high heat and humidity in the summer with ticks and mosquitoes that are monsters and relentless in their pursuit of blood. My BIL gave me a great hammock that I’ve yet to be able to use due to the monster mosquitoes! Maybe after the first freeze I’ll hang it up and take a book outside with a coat and enjoy the hammock and the cooler weather! I know it’s going on my next camping trip!

Last night I was knitting and watching NCIS reruns when I thought I’d better check on the weather. Storms had developed and were heading my way. I put my shoes back on, put keys and billfold in pockets, made sure my phone was charged and grabbed my purse, flashlight and rain jacket and put them by my side, ready to run to the neighbors storm shelter if necessary. About an hour later, tornado sirens when off and my phone alert started blaring. I opened the front door and looked across the street, my neighbors house was dark, I went to the street and their cars were gone. I couldn’t tell if the storm shelter was locked or not so I ran back into my house, called my sister who lives about 30 minutes east of me and told her I was headed her way. I grabbed my purse and hit the road. I was just ahead of the storm traveling east on Highway 9 toward Tecumseh. It started to rain on me before I made it to her house and listened to News 9, David Payne, as he stated they had 3″ tennis ball sized hail at 48th, east of Norman. I sped up and made it to my sister’s place. I was there about 10 minutes when the storm hit her place but luckily we didn’t experience the hail or if it hailed it was small pebbles of ice. We had small tornados cropping up and then would die down, then gain speed and pop up again, all over the state. I waited until the storms passed and the tornado warning expired and then headed back home. I could see the trash cans all turned over and debris from trees and trash on Highway 9 heading home but it all looked pretty good. I’ve lived through four tornados in my life so I take them seriously. Usually though, I have to say that the tornados tend to hit in April and May here in Oklahoma. In North Carolina the tornado hit my house in November!

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler temperatures this week! Time to get busy!