Fast & Furious: Fall Fellows

The second pattern in GE Designs's Fast & Furious season 2 came out last week. I had a plan for which fabric I was going to use for this one. I'm not much of a Halloween person, but being in Massachusetts, we have plenty of Fall to go around. Like the last Fast & Furious project, I wanted to use fabric from my stash, so I went digging.

The fabric I decided on goes back to the December 2017 Sew Sampler Box! That box came with a Star Twist Helping Hands Fat Eighth Bundle by Kim Diehl for Henry Glass Fabrics, and I used all but one of the fat eighths for this project. I needed to select a background color, but I didn't have anything I could use, so I went with Laundry Basket Favorites Linen Texture in Parchment by Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover Fabrics. It's a beautiful fabric, and I'd love to revisit the line for something else. (I do have a Laundry Basket Quilts Rainbow Alaska Kit burning a hole in my pocket right now. It uses Century Solids, and it's been sitting next to me daily since I got it. It's a beautiful quilt, and Edyta has a quilt along for it going on right now, but this will probably be a later in the Fall/early winter project for me.)

Fall Fellows is a pair of pumpkins and is a quilt as you go project. I wasn't sure how this one would work since the last one was all just straight lines on an angle, but I should've known to trust Gudrun. Other than a couple of reading comprehension issues, this pattern, paired with the video, was fun and straightforward. I did use Photoshop to figure out which colors I wanted where. I tried lighter pumpkins, teal pumpkins, and every variation and settled on this.

For the backing, I used two of the fat eighths in the more natural colorways, plus the green that I used for the pumpkins' stems. Even though I used light thread, it doesn't look like it doesn't belong on the back with the quilt as you go lines.

The prairie points were a little challenging, and they didn't sew down perfectly. I'm sure I could've made it look a little tidier if I had taken a bit more time on it, but I do like the dimension they add. I love the finished look of this piece. I'm not sure where I'll put it. I don't have a place to use a wall hanging, but I have plenty of flat surfaces that could use a little sprucing. I like how the deep colors pop off the parchment background. I did use one of the fat eighths for the binding in the deep teal color, and I feel like it finishes the piece nicely.

Details
Fabric: Star Twist Helping Hands by Kim Diehl for Henry Glass Fabrics, Laundry Basket Favorites Linen Texture in Parchment by Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover Fabrics
Thread: Aurafil, 50wt: 2000
Batting: 100% polyester
Pattern: Ge Designs Fall Fellows
Total Hours Spent: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Maple Leaf Mini Quilt

Recently, on the Fat Quarter Shop Livestream, Kimberly showed a free pattern available on their site. The Maple Leaf Mini Quilt uses the Orange You Glad Fat Quarter Bundle Curated by Fat Quarter Shop Featuring Fig Tree Quilts. It has four oranges from All Hallows Eve and one green from Christmas Figs II. I received the bundle in June 2020 Sew Sampler Box, and while the pattern that came with the box was cute, it wasn't something I was interested in, so I added the fabric to my stash.

When Kimberly showed the mini quilt, I knew that I had to dig the fabric out of my stash! The pattern includes directions for a pieced backing, so all I needed was background fabric, and I pulled out random solid white to use with it. I'm not sure which color number it is, but it's probably a Moda Bella Solid. I trimmed what I needed from a larger piece and starched my fat quarters and the background. The weather was beautiful the day that I did it, so they dried outside in no time. Later that evening, I cut all of the pieces I needed. I didn't trim the backing squares precisely as written at this point because I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my label yet, and I wanted to make sure I had extra if needed. I labeled all of the pieces with my Alphabities.

I chain pieced where I could on the pattern, and it went together quite smoothly. Most of the projects I've been working on lately have directed to press seams open, so it was a little strange pressing to one side, but it was nice to be able to nest the seams. For the backing, I printed a label and pieced some fabric leftovers on either side. And, check this out! I unintentionally matched my seams! I couldn't have done this well if I tried!

I wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt this, and I'll admit that I started, ripped, and pulled out more than once. I decided to go with a larger meander. I tried stitching in the ditch, but that didn't turn out the way I wanted to. Since I'm still not super at free motion quilting but knew I could meander, I gave it a try, and I was quite pleased with the results. Machine binding would've been faster, but I went for hand binding, and it went pretty quick.

I appreciate that Fat Quarter Shop offers free patterns and that I was able to us stash that I already had for a new decoration for my house. Now, I have a cute Fall table topper to go with my cute fall cross stitch. :)

Details
Fabric: Orange You Glad Fat Quarter Bundle
Thread: Aurafil 50wt, 2000
Batting: 100% Polyester
Pattern: Maple Leaf Mini Quilt from Fat Quarter Shop
Total Hours: 7 hours, 4 minutes

FFO: Hello Fall

I have finished another cross stitch project! This one is to decorate my house for Fall. Let's ignore that it is now October 7th, and I haven't even put my Fall decorations up yet. I'm usually much faster. The first week of September, but I haven't been ready to let go of summer, and we've had an on-going basement project, which means my decorations are currently a little harder to get to.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of Priscilla and Chelsea of Stitching with the Housewives/The Real Housewives of Cross Stitch. I'm thrilled that they've started releasing their own patterns and love that many of them are on the smaller side because that means I can complete them in a reasonable time. I track my crafting time, mostly because I like to see what I've done with my time. Before I started doing that, I would inevitably hit Sunday night and say, "Did I even DO anything this weekend?" Now, I know whether I did or I didn't!

This finish is part of the What's in My Cup Series from Stitching with the Housewives and is called Hello Fall. It's an adorable fox popping out of a mug with leaves and acorns scattered around. Even though this is a smaller project, it still took me a decent number of hours. I discovered that most of the reason for this is I tend to get distracted while stitching, because of what I'm watching, where I am, who I'm talking to, or my phone has something VERY (not) interesting on it. Anyway, I stitched this little guy (I don't know why I'm assuming he's a guy, but that's how he's spoken to me) in the called for colors of Classic Colorworks on 32ct Wichelt Linen in Chalkboard. The pattern suggests 28ct, but when it comes to linen, I prefer 32ct. If it's an evenweave, I don't mind 28ct, probably because the threads are a little thicker on most evenweaves than this particular linen.  

Because I used 32ct, my stitches are so tiny. When I first started, I took a picture of the little leaves next to my fingers (which just so happened to coordinate well) and texted it to my sister, wondering if I'd made a terrible mistake. I knew how I wanted to finish it, so I did want the finished stitching a little on the smaller side, and the 32ct would get me where I wanted to be.

Stitching on dark colors can be a little tricky. I've found recently that I have a bit more trouble seeing the holes than I have in the past. I don't know if my eyes are tired from staring at a screen all day, or if my eyes are getting older. (They're not that old...they're only going to be 38 on November 12th, but I don't know when eyes start changing. I did read recently that by age 40, your eyes need twice as much light as they did when you were 20. That was kind of...eye-opening...yeah, I went there.) I've found that having adequate light and putting the pattern in my lap under my stitching makes it easier to see the holes on dark fabric.

I stitched away on my project and kept wondering if I wanted it to say, "Hello Fall." Since we're already in October, it felt a little late to be welcoming Fall in, so I decided to make a slight change to "Happy Fall." I thought that this would carry me through to my Christmas decorations a little better than the original. It was a simple change since I only had to change a few letters. I grabbed some graph paper and did a little doodling, and in no time, I had the new letters.

I knew that I wanted this to be an addition to my autumn decorations, but I wasn't sure exactly how to do that. I love watching Priscilla's finishes every weekend, but I'm still a little new at it, so mine isn't perfect, and I have this terrible trait that prevents me from finishing a project. I think it's two things. I want it to be perfect, and I have a terrible time making decisions and don't want to regret my choice.

About a month and a half ago, I placed an order online at Michael's. The store near me is open, but I'm still trying to avoid going out as much as possible, which is tough, but it feels like the right thing to do right now. I'm a sucker for plaid, and when I saw the 6" Oval Plaid Metal Bucket from Ashland, into my cart, it went. It helped that it was on sale! I added some other assorted finishing pieces, frames, florals and picks, and some ribbon, thinking ahead to some other projects that I wanted to finish. They were all on sale, which is my favorite kind of purchase.

I created a floral arrangement to go in the bucket with various florals that I ordered, sticking to an autumn/orange theme. I haven't picked up any fake flowers since probably the mid-90s, so I had to dig around the garage for some wire cutters to cut the pieces apart. I'm also not super confident with my arranging skills at this point, but I think, overall, the arrangement came out pretty cute.

I didn't take any pictures of my finishing process, since I'm still not a pro with the glue gun, but I used black foam board under the finished piece and sticky board under the fabric. The fabric is from Lori Holt's Prim collection. I cut the foam board to 3" x 4" and the sticky board to 4" x 5" and attached the fabrics to each with a combination of finishing tape and hot glue. Since the bucket is metal, I glued a magnet onto the back of the piece and stuck it on the bucket. I did test the magnet first to make sure that it stuck.

Despite parts of it being a little lumpy, I'm pleased with how this looks. I'm looking forward to adding it to my other autumn decorations, and I think I'll be sad to put him away the day after Thanksgiving.

Details 
Pattern: Stitching with the Housewives Hello Fall
Floss: Classic Colorworks in called for colors
Fabric: 32 Count Wichelt Linen in Chalkboard; Lori Holt Prim Daisy Gingham
Total Hours Spent on Project: 12 hours, 29 minutes stitching, about an hour finishing