Hello, October!

And Suddenly (or ever so slowly) the calendar turns from September to October.

October’s arrival always has me a bit wistful, accepting the fact that we are indeed saying good bye to the long days of summer, and ready for warm socks, hoodie sweatshirts, favorite fur-lined slippers, hot beverages, and darkness arriving much earlier in the day than we’d like it to.

Though that dark-before-dinner change of things also leaves much more time for hand stitching away while tucked into my cozy chair.

Last night I was sharing this chair with Zoey, who has this adoring behavior of plopping her head right on top of whatever I’m stitching, usually pinning my leg to the ottoman at the same time.

As it ended last night, there is only something like 15’’ left to stitch, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.  I should finish it tonight.  Then on the table it goes.

While I pulled some fall décor items into the house decorating in September (which was merely a nod at wishful thinking! LOL!) With October's arrival comes the desire to pull to the forefront all of those autumn themed things.

I have even added a second quilt to the bed as nights are now getting chilly.

My favorite lighted twiggy pumpkins of years past bit the dust last year so I am falling a bit short in the autumn décor when it comes to some favorite things - but opening up new ways for me to find new things.

Some of my other favorite autumn things have been moved over to Quiltville Inn for others to enjoy.  And the desire to make more table runners with holiday and seasonal themes is calling to me.

Backing from the newly filled “Use it until it’s gone!” bin.

I picked up several pieces of toile fabrics while in Paris many years ago.  They have sat.  I have come to realize that for me toiles are a bit of a problem.  

Not only are they directional, but if you cut it down into smaller pieces you are going to end up with people’s heads cut off – arms and legs disembodied, sometimes it’s animals who are sliced apart. Disturbing!  

It’s a personal weirdness thing I can’t get over. LOL!

But can I leave it whole?  And use it up on a backing?  YES!

And I did have to piece this – but it is so busy that you really can’t tell, can you?  I didn’t even try to match the print, but it came close.  You can see that there is a flaw in the print at the far right side, but that was all margin and cut off after quilting.

That’s 3 yards GONE from the “use it up” bin.  Let’s keep that productivity going! (And I need to admit that I also bought more toile in other colors also.  Yep.  Going to be using it up as backs!)

Another shot at the orange stripe binding pulled from the newly installed stash cabinets.  

Oh, how I love a striped binding, don’t you?

Yesterday in the studio was spent mostly at my computer dealing with graphic drawing and coming up with nothing more than problems. But I did find some time at the end of the day to sew some of the Snails Trail blocks into fours.

The issue came when trying to draw the Traveling Star block – which I could no problem in QuiltPro, but couldn’t find how to do a half-block drop layout in their quilt layout portion.  I can do the half-block drop layout in EQ7 easily – but drawing the BLOCK with the hexagon (60 degree angles) on top of the string block (45 degree angles) was just not playing nice with the snap-grid.  

My manuals for both programs are back in Wallburg and on the list of things to "bring up next."

A call to a friend may have resolved the situation, and I will see what we can do with that when I get back to the QPO computer today.

But all in all – I think what is going to happen is that I am going to force myself to upgrade to EQ8, and then sign myself up for some online learning.  All that I know about quilt design software is what I’ve learned on my own from poking here and pressing this, and clicking that and seeing just what it does. 

I have Swiss Cheese learning as do most of us.  There are holes where things I don’t know are.  Maybe I take some of this winter down time and really learn how to do this.

For those who have asked – I love QuiltPro for many things that EQ can’t do.  And I love EQ for the other things that QuiltPro makes harder to do.  Sometimes you need both.

More Appalachian Autumn love from Ellen who sent these photos by email. 

She writes:

"Thank you so very much for “Appalachian Autumn”. I had a pile of orange batiks that were meant to be made into something special and this was it. I only used my stash and didn’t realize that I had more than enough grays to have a nice variety, but I did.
Since we met back in September of 2019 at the Quilt Odyssey Retreat in Pennsylvania I have finished 5 of your wonderful quilts. I look forward to seeing you again soon, perhaps even on one of your Crafttours, if we can ever travel again.

Until then, thank you!"

I love seeing your beautiful projects! Please keep them coming, and don't forget to tag your photos with #appalachianautumnquilt and tag me @quiltville_bonnie on Instagram.

You will find the PDF pattern for Appalachian Autumn in the digital patterns section of the Quiltville Store.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Happy October, Friends! I love this month! Bring on the pumpkin flavored everything!

This pumpkin quilt was made by my friend Lisa and I believe it's a pattern by Lisa Bongean. 

I love having it front and center as part of my cozy autumn décor!

Enjoy your Thursday!