Pumpkins in October

 The fall season always brings out pumpkins.

So I wanted to make my own pumpkins. I came across a very easy tutorial on Stacey Lees website.

These were fun to make. 

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Quilting with my walking foot

Over the years I have tried my hand at free motion quilting. Every time I get a little bit of control and ease in the quilting, I find that there is a huge break in time. I lose the momentum, and the next time I sit down at the sewing machine, my quilting looks like a disaster.

Taking the time to practice, practice, practice has brought a sense of frustration. So in light of completing the quilt, I purposed to do straight line stitching with my walking foot.

Case in point... I started quilting straight lines through the body of this quilt.

Crossing over to make an X over the white blocks.

But I can also fancy up the quilting a bit, just by adding curves and arcs.

All done with my walking foot.

 

I machine quilted straight vertical lines on this quilt. 

But then I felt I needed to do something more. So here is what I did.

Starting at one point, I spotted down two rows. Went back to the top and crossed over, again spotting two rows down.

I love the way it turned out.

My quilts are not going to win any prizes, but they are what I love to do. Using geometric designs works for me. Better to be finished than perfect :-)

Happy Quilting!

The first 100

 If you have followed my blog for a while, you know I love reading. For many years I have been reviewing books. But the time comes when I need to downsize my book collection. Many books now come to my kindle instead of paper. 

So I went through my books, and decided I would donate some to the library and some to the Hospice thrift store. 

Have you started downsizing in any way?