FALL TOMATOES

 The next page for my Fall Journal is of our October tomatoes.  This year we grew some different varieties along with the Romas.  The green one is actually stays green when it's ripe, it is called Green Zebra.

WITCHY CAT

 I made What A Curly Life's pattern of a cute Witchy Cat in wool and felt, with a little embroidery.

I'm just learning how to do these kinds of things.  I hope to improve my skills.  I can see what I did wrong because I didn't read the directions until after I had already made it.  

FINISH NUMBER 19

 I made the binding and sewed it onto the National Parks Panel quilt.

It is now done!  It is Finish #19 for the year.

And here's how the backing looks:
 

I wanted to center the pieced stars on the backing, but I miscalculated and ended up cutting off the very bottom of the stars.  Oh well, I still love how it looks.  It's a nice complement to the front panel.

FOUR QUADRANTS

This month's instructions for this year's Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Block of the Month was to sew the previous month's blocks into quadrants.

Yesterday I got the A section quadrant's done.  Today I finished the B section and put them all together on the wall.

The instructions don't say anything about sewing them together, so I'm not going to yet.  I tried them in two different orientations.

PANEL QUILTED

 I finished up the quilting on the National Parks Panel.  I had started it yesterday and there wasn't much left to do today.

It's now off the machine, waiting for binding.

GOODBYE TABLE

I've had this vintage oak dining room table and four chairs since probably 1988.  I've tried to sell it, but apparently no one wants small well-made vintage tables.  So I decided to donate it to Habitat for Humanity.  They picked it up today.  I hope it finds a good home.

I was also trying to rehome this big chair we no longer want.  I tried to add it to the existing pickup order for the table, but couldn't do that.  So, I asked the guys taking the table if they could also take the chair.  They said they had room in the truck so they could.  Goodbye chair.

SUNFLOWER JOY

 I've really enjoyed growing some Sunflowers this summer. 

And I'm really happy to see the Chickadees enjoying the seeds.

TURQUOISE SLABS

For the last few days I've been making SLABs from my Turquoise Scrap Bucket.

Still have more to make to get it to twin-size.  Lots of scraps left.

 

LUCY GLO APPLE

 I love apples.  I found a new variety in our store this week.  It's called Lucy Glo.  It's a very big variety of apple, yellowish on the outside and a surprising red color on the inside.

It was labeled as being sweet and crispy.  I might have gotten a bad one.  Mine was very tart and a little dry.  I couldn't finish it, it was too tart for me.

A friend in New York said she had tried them too.  Her's was sweet and crispy.  Maybe the New York variety is better than the Washington variety.  ??  Either way, I don't think I'll try it again.

PAGE TWO OF FALL JOURNAL

My goal is to start a new page of the Fall Journal every Tuesday and finish it that week.  

This was started last Tuesday and I finished it today while on the Finish It Friday zoom with my friends.  These are representing the Black-eyed Susans brightening the turn of the season in our front yard. 

 

SHEPARD'S PIE

 I made our first Shepard's Pie for the season.  We love this when it gets chilly out.  

Here I am topping it with some of the Yukon Gold potatoes from our garden.  I also used a bit of the spicy Tomato Ketchup I made from our tomato harvest.  Unfortunately, we didn't plant any carrots this year, so these are organic store bought.  And we had eaten all the peas we grew already.

It was exceptionally good; I think because it's been awhile since we've had any.

MONTH NINE

 I finally got around to making this month's blocks for the SeaMQGBOM2026, Weave Got This.

I guess I've been busy with other stuff.

I'm getting concerned that I might run out of that orange print before the end.  

HARVEST MOON

 We were on our way to Lincoln Park for our morning walk at about 6:40am when we saw this full moon.  [sorry for the bad photo.  I saw on the passenger side looking through a dirty windshield].

FALL JOURNAL

 The Stitch Club with Ann Wood suggested starting a Fall Journal on Tuesday, September 22, the Autumnal Equinox.  It will go for twelve weeks stitching a page a week.

Here is my page one commemorating the Sunflowers I grew this summer.  I enjoyed them so much.

OHIO STARS

 I've been working on making big Ohio Star blocks for a backing.  Yes, a backing.  It will be for the National Parks Panel I was gifted by a good friend.  Since the front will be just the big panel I felt I needed to actually make some patchwork for the back.  I had a charm pack of vintage-looking 5" squares whose colors sort of matched the colors of the panel.  I added some solids and some other prints from my stash to make enough blocks to cover most of the back.  I will need to add a border around these blocks, once I sew them together.

If you look a little closer you'll notice I wasn't concerned with making the points match or line up.  I just sewed them together. 

CANNING PEARS

 We bought up all the Bartlett Pears at PCC last Sunday for $1.99 a pound.  We got around 21 pounds.

Today we canned them.  Darrell peeled, I cut and cored them.  Then I packed them into jars with a light syrup and processed them.

We now have 10 quarts of tasty goodness.

SIX YEARS OF MONDAY SEWCIAL

 I have been meeting with a group of wonderful ladies, now my friends, online on Mondays for around six years now.  It has been one of the best things ever for me, making friends all over the US and Canada. 

We started meeting during the Covid-19 shutdown and have been together since.

LUNCH WITH A BIRD

 A Coopers Hawk flew quickly and closely by as it swooped into our backyard while Darrell and I were having lunch on the deck.  I thought it was carrying something.  It landed in the trees in the back of our yard.  With binoculars I got a closer look.  It was a Coopers Hawk and it appeared to have a pigeon.  

We left it alone.  Later we found evidence that it did indeed enjoy it's pigeon lunch.  When Darrell went to dispose of the remains he noticed it had a band on it's leg.  

I did some searching online and found the band was distributed by a Pigeon Racing Association.  There was a phone number for reporting the band number  and I called it.  That person told me the band was sold to someone in Seattle.  I called him and let him know of  his pigeon's demise.  "Dang", he said.

WENT DOWNTOWN

 Darrell had to go downtown to pick up his repaired camera lens at Glazers.  On the way we stopped at Honest Biscuit to get breakfast sandwiches.  We took them to the Sculpture Garden in Magnuson Park and sat and looked out at the bay.  Then we walked over to see the Ai Wei Wei installation of his "Zodiac Animal Head" sculptures.

I saw this beauty on our way out of the park.

We walked by the famous metal tree sculpture that was being enjoyed by a crow.

BUTTERCUPS!

 We harvested our Buttercup squash today.  Jelly did not help.  But she's going to guard them for us.