This year has flown by and here we are in October with the leaves turning to their beautiful autumn colours, the days in the northern hemisphere getting shorter and the weather cooling. Here in London the last couple of days have been sunny and warm but my early morning dog walks with Missy and Twiglet have been a little chilly. However the sunrises have been very good and more than made up for the chilliness of the morning. As autumn moves forward I need to buy a new head torch so I can see where I'm going on these morning walks. I tripped over some tree roots a couple of years ago and bit through my lip and banged my forehead which left a large lump where I cracked the bone. The lump has slowly been reabsorbed and now there is almost nothing to show the injury.
September was all about the Chookshed challenge which for me was to work on my Grandmothers Garden quilt. This is an English paper piecing project and is all made by hand. I have been making 'flowers' from orange fabric for this round of the quilt. I've sewn on several finished flowers and I'm very happy with this progress.
There is still a long way to go to finish this round but I'm going to continue working on this project in October. Once this round is done I can start to turn the quilt into a rectangle and prepare it for quilting.
I have also prepared a lot of hexagons ready for stitching into flowers. I tend to do this in batches. First making the individual hexagons, then stitching them together into a flower and when I have several flowers, sewing them onto the quilt.
There is now one final challenge left for the Chookshed challenge 2025. For me it is to work on my double wedding ring quilt. I did a little sewing on this project but I decided I needed more practice at sewing curves. I've been doing my practice and I think I'm ready to get on with this one.
This was my trial piece and it didn't work out particularly well but equally wasn't as bad as it could have been. The top curve was the very first piece I sewed together. As I said I have been practicing curves and I've got the hang of them now but it is a slow process..
I've been practising with this apple core quilt. This has grown quite a lot but I need to cut some more apple core pieces to finish it off.
This month I do need to get my knitting needles out and make my grandson a scarf. We discussed what he wanted, which is a rainbow striped scarf with a pom pom on each end. I have all the yarn but I just need to get on and knit it. My daughter has also asked me to knit a blanket for the new baby due in January. I have the yarn for the blanket and I've made the pattern several times before and the pattern is enjoyable and fairly quick to knit.
This week is the start of the new academic year at work. I have my new group of students starting tomorrow. Trying to get everything organised has been tiring but the day should be fun.
I was going to work on some of the hexies this evening but I think I'm going to go to bed early and listen to a chapter or two of the audio book on my tablet. I'm really enjoying having stories read to me or listening to a podcast. When I tried audio books a couple of years ago I didn't get on with them but now I'm really enjoying them. They are very relaxing to listen to when doing some hand stitching.
Take care
Lyndsey
