What the weekend brought forth

 Just a quick post on what I finished up over the weekend.  These three round wedge toppers in fall colors are made using my tutorial.  I pieced and quilted them this past week and this weekend I got the binding on.  They are 29" in diameter.

Saturday I hosted my local long arm group. Ten members came which made for a nice group.  Lots of chatting, show and tell sharing happened and then afterward we had potluck lunch:)  It had been around 2 years since I had seen any of them.  

Sunday the weather was warm enough to go for a nice bike ride with the hubby.  We also enjoyed having a campfire and hot dogs!  It was a good weekend.  But I do have a busy week ahead, I need to quilt a leaf runner, turkey runner, and finish up a wall hanging so I can release the pattern for it!  I'm also going to lunch with a friend on Wednesday.  What is in store for your week?

Monday linky parties:  Monday Making and Design Wall Monday

Repeat finishes

There are a few table runners in my Etsy shop that are just more popular than others.  When I sell them I turn around and make more.  Often I use the exact same fabrics as that makes it easy to use spare parts leftover or I might have just bought a bunch of that fabric in anticipation. 

For example I might have only started with a yard or two and if the table runner sells fast I might go out and buy several more yards.  That is what happened with the border fabric in this turkey runner, it is just perfect to coordinate with fall colored batik feathers.  This runner make look just like others I have made, but this one was actually finished up on Friday.  

I tend to cut out a lot of feathers at one time so those fabrics are used over and over too.  The same quilting design is used on each turkey runner also.  That way I don't have to think what design should I do each time.

  

Here is another example of the same scenario... Sunflower runner.  This one was finished up on Monday. 

There is some major house cleaning happening for the next couple days as Saturday I am hosting my local longarm group.  I didn't get to go to the July meeting and then of course there was Covid so there were no meetings for ages.  It sure will be nice to see them again. 

I hope to sneak in a little quilting time in between the cleaning to make my days more fun!

Linking with Wednesday Wait Loss, Midweek Makers   

It's a process

 Yesterday I decided to start a new panel wall hanging. By now you know I love playing around with these and making them unique.  Out came the fall panels box to see what I have left.  For this one I am using leftover parts from three different panels! 

The words 'Harvest Gathering' were cut off a previously used panel where I didn't want to use words. 

The small pumpkin and leaf with the black background from a second previously used panel.

And the house, turkey and cornucopia came from a panel that was just all blocks that size. 

After squaring almost everything up I decided on this layout style.  The picture was taken before I squared up the words.  I pulled fabrics from the stash to coordinate but didn't get much further than that.  There might be some checkerboards, pinwheels, HST's in the future, we'll have to wait and see!

Before I started the panel project I finished up two of these guys.  One for the shop and one for a November local craft sale.

I took time to make a fun pieced backing.  I have lots of leftover pieces from when I trim table runners after quilting, so why not use some up. 

I hope you can take time this week to visit these fun linky parties for more inspiration.  I am hopping over to link up with...

Monday Making and Design Wall Mondays

Gray Wheelbarrow With Pumpkins

 Thankful and Blessed is the name of this pumpkin and gray wheelbarrow panel.  There was just something about this panel that told me it didn't need a lot of fancy pieced borders. So I listened to it and all I added was a skinny 1/2" gold border and then the leaf print outer border. 

I raided my stash to find just the right fabric for the border.  There might have been a whole lot of auditioning of different fabrics before I pulled this one.  Instantly I knew it was the right one.

  

With fall here I am really in a pumpkin mood aren't you?  Add some sunflowers and a gray wheelbarrow, perfection!  This was made with the intention of putting in my Etsy shop. But when I went to set up for it's photo shoot I fell in LOVE with it. I told my hubby I don't really need another fall wall hanging but man I really like how this one goes with my decor.  But after couple days I caved and put it in the shop anyway.  Well I thought I would have a little while to admire it as I walked past it in the store room.  That lasted all of three days, it is winging it's way to a new home as of yesterday.  I am thinking I need to go on a hunt for another one!!  I don't remember where I purchased this one or even when, LOL.

Happy Fall Ya All!  I need to whip up another Turkey table runner today.  What are you going to work on?

Linking with Friday Linky parties:

Can I get a Whoop Whoop, Finished Or Not Friday, TGIFF, Off The Wall Friday, Peacock Party, 

Out of the box, onto the design wall and done!

I love going back to see what sold the previous year, it gives me an idea of what I should work on.  Recently I did this and decided I should get a few fall wall panel quilts done(out of the box!).

This panel started out with this larger piece and had a few more smaller pumpkin ones attached.  Smaller wall hangings sell better than larger ones. So I chopped off the small pumpkin ones and will use those at a later date.  

Recently I saw someone using HRT's in a border and decided I needed to try that. So, after auditioning my fabrics, out came my HRT ruler and decided on what size I needed to make.  That ruler sure makes fast work of HRT's with no trimming.  This wall hanging came together quickly. And it was time for some fun custom quilting on it.

  

The back came out nicely too! It is about 30"x33". 

I have enjoyed getting out some of my fall decorations again. Fall is a favorite time and an easy one to decorate for. I forgot I had those little straw bales so that was a fun find!  I will need to get some real pumpkins for my front porch though. Do you enjoy decorating for each season?

Yesterday I decided there were some domestic things I needed to take care of before I did anything else.  Before we went on vacation we picked our grapes and just froze them, five one gallon bags full. It was time to make juice out of one of the bags. Oh is it tasty!!  It had been a couple of years since our vines produced any and that the critters left them alone.  So this was a real surprise. 

Here are my Monday linky parties I will join this week:

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

Getting ready for Halloween

I have been whipping through more panels lately. Before vacation I pieced at least four of them. And I am now trying to get them quilted and into the shop.  Who can resist this cutie! 

These little guys are part of a pre printed panel that I cut apart and am dividing them up into two wall hangings. Only one will get done now. Here you can see I am auditioning fabrics to coordinate with it.

After cutting them apart I brought them up to a workable size by framing them with solid black fabric. And then added checkerboards, more framing and pinwheels. 

 

To finish it all off I used a black and orange checkerboard fabric for the outer border.  It came out to be 23" x 23".  

Stay tuned for more panel wall hangings in the near future!

Linking up with Friday linky parties:

Finished or Not Friday

TGIFF

Off The Wall Friday

Whoop Whoop

Peacock Party

Patchwork and Quilts

17 Days of mostly fun!

 Seventeen days of fun in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  The first night we boondocked/dry camped at a place called Dude ranch on the Missouri River. Boondocking means no hookups, no electric, water or sewer. We don't need that in the camper, we have generators and tanks for water etc. It was so peaceful there even with 6 other campers, we were all spread out. 

Before we crossed the river, we pulled into the rest area and met Destiny.  Wow is she magnificent!  Even hubby enjoyed seeing her.  One just doesn't realize just how tall she is until you are standing at the base of her. 

Next stop was boondocking south of Lead, SD for 4 nights and riding some ATV trails in that area. We met up with hubby's cousin, wife and their friends to ride with. We had rain on Friday and we chose to drive the Spearfish Canyon in the truck.

 On the way to the Hills our truck had a warning light come on. So we stopped at a service dept. in Spearfish and they said to come in on Monday morning.  We then found a campground there and booked 3 nights. On Monday afternoon they said they had to order a whole new exhaust system and it would take 5-7 days coming by truck from Michigan.  WHAT...we hadn't planned on being in Spearfish at all.  We ended up there for 11 days.  What he hadn't told us was that was 5-7 days was after it shipped and didn't include the weekend.  We were lucky the campground could accommodate us that long.  We had a beautiful spot, the back of our toy hauler opened to a nearby walking path and a stream, yes we could see part of the stream and hear the water. 

The weather was gorgeous there too, no humidity and 70's and low 80's.  We now can say we know the ATV trails there really well, haha. That was our past time. It had rained there on that Friday so the trails were muddy, ummm not just muddy, there were cows all over there and you know what that means.  Our ATV got pretty dirty!  

Here are a couple sites we saw as we rode around on the ATV.

We were kinda upset it was taking so long to get the part in but we made the best of our time sightseeing.

I did get to a couple of quilt shops out there. I might have bought a couple more panels. I couldn't resist getting a Gnome one! And I found a red truck panel, one that I had made up last year and promptly sold it, looked for more then and couldn't find. This shop only had one left so I snatched it up!  I did have my sewing machine along and pieced 5 runners in our down time.  On the way home we were able to stop and see my old roommate from single days. She and her hubby live on a farm and let us camp there overnight. It was great getting to see them as it had been 14 years since we were together. 

My question for all of is have you ever been to the Black Hills?  We have several times and did all the touristy things then so we didn't really do that this time. So much beauty in this area. I highly recommend it.  Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend.

 I have been enjoying a little blogging break, next week I will share with you why. But for now I will share a few table runners that I had completed and forgot to share. You have seen this design before but the fabrics are different, LOL.

There is a lot of metallic gold in these fabrics that make it very rich looking. 

And a little snowman fun!

I hope you are enjoying the end of summer and still squeezing in some sewing fun too!

A different Frosty

 Just a quick post today for a little different Frosty than I showed you on Monday. Go ahead, I'll wait if you missed that one and want to check it out. A big thank you to those who purchased a pattern!

This little guy is another small panel block. He is one of 6 (if I remember correctly).

Did you notice how I brought out the colors and prints of his scarf by adding borders starting with the black/white polka dot fabric. Then HST's in red/white and green/white. Finish it off with a black/white gingham and black/white polka dot binding and I have a 21"x20" wall hanging.

And of course I had fun with the quilting;)  Freehand swirls (no hook swirls!) in the center. On the white HST's I used a ruler for continuous curve.  You can't see it very well, but in the black gingham border I did 1" piano keys. 

He now resides in my Etsy shop, I am hoping he'll get whisked away to a new home soon. 

Linking with

Midweek Makers

Wednesday Wait Loss

Put Your Foot Down

Welcome Frosty-Pattern Release

Today I am so happy to let you know that I am releasing my pattern for this snowman wall hanging. It's called Welcome Frosty. 

 Let me tell you he is a very quick and easy wall hanging to make.  You could do it in an afternoon.  He measures 12" x 26".   And think how happy you would be to have something new to display when it comes time to do that Holiday decorating!  And don't forget snowmen can be on display a lot longer they are not just for Christmas.

Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts tested the pattern for me and she too said it was quick, easy and fun to whip up.  Wendy will be posting her finish soon so be on the lookout for that!  Thanks so much Wendy, I appreciate you:)

The pattern is in my Etsy Pattern shop, PatternsbyVicki.  You can also find that link on my right side bar right under the 'Follow me by email' signup.  To celebrate this release I put all my patterns on sale for 20% off until Saturday August 14, 2021!  

Linking with 

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

Wednesday Wait Loss

Put Your Foot Down

NTT

Whoop Whoop

Finished Or Not Friday

Peacock Party

Scarecrow time

It's a scarecrow thing!  I am thrilled to have had some time in the past couple weeks to work on a few new things. And working with panels is fun to see what I can come up with.  

I got a nice start on it and then he became a UFO while I worked on a few other things. He sat in a corner patiently until one day he said 'would you quilt me already'!  I listened;)

After squaring up the little scarecrow I framed it with a black/gray marbled fabric and stenciled on the leaves.  I actually stenciled the onto the fabric and after drying added to the scarecrow...I didn't want to mess up and then have to rip!

Next came the green and orange checkerboard border and the cute little pinwheels and circled everything with the black/gold metallic cork like fabric. The orange and green fabrics were all from the scrap bin. Even though it didn't make a dent it was nice to use some:)

Obviously the quilting is a fun part for me too!

Isn't he just a sweet scarecrow, not sure how many birds he will scare!  

Linking with fun Friday linky Parties:

TGIFF

Finished Or Not Friday

Off The Wall Friday

Peacock Party

Oh Scrap!

Orange you dying to see something new!

 Don't you love the title, no I am not that clever to think it up but, Roseanne did, and she let me use it for my title;)  

Okay onto what you came here to see.  I told you it was orange;)  Short and squatty pumpkin.

With a tall and skinny pumpkin.

Throw in a leaf or two...  

And you get a fall wall hanging or door hanger.  It's 12.5" x 26". I am trying to come up with new ideas for my Etsy shop.  This was a DrEAMi moment for me, once I thought of it I dropped everything to get it made.  You might recognize the shape of this hanging, it looks a lot like the snowman one I did for the Twelve Days of Christmas in July blog hop. If you missed the snowman you can see it HERE.  Pattern for the snowman is in the works!

Linking with my favorite Wednesday and Thursday linky Parties.

Wednesday Wait Loss

Midweek Makers

Patchwork and Quilts

NTT

Put Your Foot Down

A little trip and then sewing

Happy August!!

So last week the hubby and I took a little trip to Wisconsin to camp in a State Forest campground. And to ATV on three of the trails nearby.  The first trail wasn't very exciting, now I don't like a lot of excitement on the trails but there was none on this one. The next day we did another and it was better with a few mud puddles(that we went around). Pretty trees all around.

The third was even better with some twists and turns and lots more mud holes. The night of the third day we had a T-storm roll through, it really rained, but we were in amongst the trees and didn't think it was very windy.  We took a walk around the campground in the morning and there were lots of twigs/leaves scattered on the road through the camp.  When we got to the beginning of the camp road there was a crew working to cut and haul away a big tree that fell down across the road.  Further down the road in the camp was a tenter who had a scare, a tree fell across their camp missing their tent by a foot!!  Luckily no one was injured.

We decided to go kayaking that day because the ATV trails were closed due to the storm. The water in this lake was so clear and the lake is super deep, over 300 feet. 

The last morning we went for a walk on the nature trail. Pretty scenery for sure, plus we ate our way through by picking wild blackberries  YUM!

How crazy that a tree can grow amongst the rocks!

Upon arriving home a flock of 5 adult turkey and a bunch of little ones came through our backyard. I couldn't get all of them in one photo.  It's so fun to see them pecking and eating their way through the yard, they take a step and then peck, take a step and then peck. A few of them were taking a drink from our pond too.

Saturday was back to sewing, I mean I was having withdrawals as I didn't take a machine or any project with me!  I finished up these two runners. I have a tutorial for this round one under my Tutorial page under my header.

I hope you will stop back on Wednesday to see something new I whipped up, a little hint...it's orange!

Linking with:

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

Just letting you know there is an Accuquilt Live event tomorrow Tuesday August 3rd.  It is a "Die To Try" series.  You can learn more about the upcoming events HERE.