First Frost October 20

            The first day of freezing temp was on October 20th - Day two of Muzzleloader Deer Season. My DH took his new (to him) toy out near dawn to his favorite stand and came home two hours later nearly frozen to death - he neglected to check the temperature when he left and was not properly dressed. He saw only one deer which jumped up when he got back on the ATV for a windy 5-minute ride home. He's going to need proper riding gear before Modern Gun Season in November. This "free meat" project takes more money every time.          This whole week has had highs near 50 degrees  and lows in the 20s so I have not been to the farmhouse to sew or knit since last Sunday - nearly froze myself. I hope it warms up enough this week for me to go and pick out projects to work on at home. The gas heater will warm the farmhouse quickly IF the outside temps are closer to 60+ degrees so I don't bother to venture out before then. I started knitting a pair of socks in the meantime - one foot and half a cuff done so far. I'll take a picture when they are done.

      Fortunately I got my other Runaway Project done. It is about 75 x 90. The name of the pattern is Staycation but was renamed Runway to Bali by Teresa Raleigh when she taught the class. I used fat quarters for the B/W (versus a jelly roll) so I could add to the original pattern. I took the quilt tops to Show and Share with both quilt groups last week (and bought batting) but they will be folded and put away until next quilting season - hopefully March but most likely April.
     

     I did get to quilt both of these tops before the cold weather moved in. They were bound during the first week of October and the baseball playoffs. Valentine's will be covered this year. I want to make many more versions of this Hexy Love - Christmas, Patriotic, chickens (don't you see the chicken wire?) I have lots of novelty fabric in the stash:gardening; teapots (why not?); sewing notions (of course); daisies; snowflakes; maybe soccer balls (World Cup next year); fishing/hunting;-- oh, the
possibilities! However, I will not work with cold fabric so these may also have to wait until Spring.
It is now sunny and 49 degrees outside at 10 a.m. I'll go back to my knitting and watching internet videos while the DH watches news shows and football.

Sew until later, Denise

It's Fall, y'all!

      It's official- first wooly worm sighting at the farmhouse. I think the prediction for winter is bitter cold at the beginning (the black part on the right side is the head), mostly mild (in brown) for the rest and a little bit of cold at the end (the tail). I've seen pictures of persimmons seeds with spoons inside indicating enough snow to shovel. There were many foggy mornings in August which also relate to days of snow this winter. In all this means its gonna be COLD and I will be sitting by the heater from about November to March. I am planning to have a few quilt projects handy to work on in confined spaces and time is running out.
      I attended a quilting conference in mid-September - Runaway Quilters Retreat near Owensboro. I returned home with three new WIPs with the intention of getting them to kit stage for the coming winter. I got so obsessed with getting my Granny Squares blocks done that I stayed home to sew instead of going on a Stash Enhancement eXcursion to Whittle's Fabrics with my Campbellsville quilt group. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Anyway, the top is finished and here it is!

      It's about 75 x 85. There are 42 blocks, each containing 36 print 1-inch squares (1512).  The borders consist of another 600-plus squares - over 2000 squares. The solid brown fabric was purchased but rest came from stash. I still have enough strips cut for another quilt but I'm leaving them in the tote until I can choose a different background. Now I have to decide on the backing and how to quilt it.

Back to the farmhouse to "plan " more projects!

Sew until Later, Denise