Slowly, slowly we are slipping from Summer into Autumn. A very gradual shift in Hampshire this year – no wild storms (yet!) and daytime temperatures only recently slipping down from the low 20’s to the high teens. The conditions have been ideal for tidying our little garden and sorting the allotment ready for the dormant phase over Winter.

Early morning sunlight catching the trees at the top of our road 🍂

We are continuing to support my Dear Old Dad living in the family home. Bless him, he doesn’t want to be ‘any bother’, but we are concerned for him living alone and thankfully through each week it is much more of a pleasure than a duty to pay him visits. Though I’ve found it is important to take short breaks  to re-charge my batteries and let go of some of the anxieties. During September we really enjoyed being treated like hotel guests whilst staying with in-laws for a couple of nights. It was so refreshing to spend a relaxing time with them and experience new places as well.

Through September I was on a bit of a mission to get projects finished. I managed to clear the WIPS from the ‘thinking sofa’ in my sewing room  before spending a few hours tidying & sorting, cleaning & re-arranging. It’s been lovely to have space in my room (and in my head) to just sit down, relax and ponder. I completed a jigsaw puzzle and got a bit obsessed with a crochet project!

The Granny Square project taking pride of place on my thinking sofa.

The crochet is a giant Granny Square – the only stitch I know. I’m on the fourth ball of the variegated Aran weight yarn. I find this such a relaxing handcraft – no deep concentration is required so it’s easy to do whilst the TV is on or I’m listening to a podcast and it’s portable too (although the blanket is now getting rather large!).

After the rush of project finishing and the big tidy up I found myself taking a rest from sewing. However, in the past few days I have felt a growing need to handle fabrics … I re-discovered a Layer Cake during the tidy-up:

‘Creativity Glows’ by Moda. I must have bought this Layer Cake to lift me out of my comfort zone – the prints are so bright and modern 🫣

I had fixed on a pattern and sorted the squares accordingly but looking at it I’ve changed my mind. The pattern involved a lot of cutting and re-arranging of pieces. I’m really not in the mood for doing that right now. So I’m currently deciding whether to just sew all the squares together on point (which will mean buying a background fabric for the setting triangles) or experimenting with wonky-cut, stack & whack style blocks? Hmmm! Nothing like a good ponder to while away the wakeful times in the night 😏

It’s been a busy week in the patchwork-quilting world so you might like to fill a large mug with your favoured beverage and plump up your cushions before diving into the links below! There’s certainly plenty to inspire us:

Lot’s of great patchwork bloggers are posting through the annual Fall Fortnight organised by Carole at My Carolina Home. Many have been posting tutorials for Fall/Autumn themed table place mats. Several of the designs, like Yvonne’s, feature Maple Leaf blocks. Go to Yvonne’s place mat post to see her lovely design and scroll down to find links to all the other participants and their place mat tutorials.

Sticking with the seasonal theme, Angela Walters is running a ‘Quilted Autumn’ series of free motion video tutorials demonstrating ways of quilting a panel. You don’t need the actual panel or even be in free-motion mode to pick up a lot of tips and design ideas from Angela. (I have to confess to turning the sound down a little on these videos and just allowing myself to be mesmerised by the quilting action!).

Sonia has put a lot of thought into the design of her Flexi Project Bag. The pattern has three sizes to choose from and an option for a drawstring top as well as the zipper closure. She’s even recorded a step by step video tutorial to take you through making a Flexi Project Bag – including the insertion of the zipper 😊

Geese migrate in Fall/Autumn, right? So Julie’s six weeks of patterns and tutorials titled ‘Fantasy Flying Geese’ is perfectly timed 🍂I only caught up with this fascinating series featuring variations on the traditional Flying Geese block towards the end but it’s well worth looking through. Here’s the link to Julie’s introduction to the Fantasy Flying Geese blog posts.

Over in Malaysia (where Autumn isn’t really a thing!) Amira has been tempted away from her plan to avoid starting any new projects! She saw the video promoting the ‘Moda Blockheads 7‘ free weekly QAL and couldn’t resist the friends and neighbours theme! Amira has made the first block and it really does look lovely but is not going to become a slave to the QAL schedule, she writes, ‘One thing I’ve learned from making quilts over the years is that I enjoy the process much more when I don’t put too much pressure on myself. And with everything else going on in life, I really want this to be a fun project to pick up whenever I have some sewing time. So I’m not making any promises about keeping up with every single block each week!’.

Deb has chosen a rainbow scrap quilt as her retreat project. She shares the blocks she’s made and her preparations for going on a quilt retreat.

Happy Stitching!

Allison 🙂