Our last day at the beach was chilly and rainy so we enjoyed a day of watching college football and I made more hats. I took my sewing machine but was never really in the mood to sew. I was happy to sit on the porch and crochet. I shared most of these last week but decided to put them all in one post so I could have one place for the links when I want to make more of any of these.

On the top row are 3 hats I made for my nephew's wife. She's the expectant mother and she happens to have a small head. She says it's impossible to find hats that fit. I made 3 hoping that they fit and that she will like at least one of them.

The blue one is this YouTube tutorial from Spiffy Handmade. I like this pattern a lot. It's also the pattern I used for the purple one below. Kim liked the purple one because it matched her coat so I gifted her that one. For the blue hat I used Lion Brand Jeans yarn and an I hook. The purple one is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice and a J hook.

The gray mottled hat is a pattern that I've had printed for a while but it doesn't seem to be available online anymore. It's a standard DC increase rounds and then straight with back post DC. It's a very flattering hat. This one is made with Yarn Bee Velvety Smooth and a J hook.

The gray specked cuffed beanie is made with the Crochet Baby James Beanie from Daisy Farm Crafts. The yarn is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice using a I hook. The pom poms for the blue hat and this hat are from Amazon. This is the 5th hat I've made with this pattern.

The pink baby hat was made with this Crochet Shell Hat Pattern and the headband was made with the Blueberry Dance Headband pattern. The yarn is Brava Worsted from Knitpicks and I used a I hook.

The purple and tan hats are going to be donation hats and they are made with super bulky yarn and a N hook using a BagODay Youtube tutorial. It's a super simple single crochet spiral pattern and it's a very warm and nice looking hat.
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This week I have got to change my focus to Christmas cards! I also have some veterans quilts to quilt.
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Yesterday we expected worsening weather. It was supposed to be cloudy and windy in the afternoon with possible rain.  I headed out early for a walk so that I could catch a little sunshine.
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There weren't any stranded jellyfish today but there were a lot of cute shorebirds. They aren't shy around people at all.

One of the cool things about this beach (Emerald Isle, NC) is that most of the houses are still nice, modest homes and not the mega homes of places like the Outer Banks. Both are fine and both have their place but here you can still rent a nice,modest beachfront home.

The sun was still shining when I returned so I sat on the back porch and finished crocheting this hat that I started Thursday. This is a super fast hat using only single crochet. The pattern is from BagODay from YouTube.
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Well the clouds never really came in so I grabbed my chair and headed out to the sand with my audiobook. I decided to set an alarm because I had already spent an hour in the sun on the porch. The alarm was good because I had a great nap on the beach!

In the afternoon we had a nice visit from some friends of Kim's. Throughout the day I worked on this hat. It's another pattern from YouTube from maker Spiffy Handmade. I was making this from my niece with the small head but it's going to be too big for her. It fit me but I'll probably add it to the donation pile. 

I haven't done any sewing yet. It's easy to crochet on the porch and neither of us has been motivated to sew. We might sew today. We might not. I might keep crocheting. We'll head home tomorrow in the rain.

I had a long but rewarding day at the precinct Tuesday. We have an excellent Chief and a great team. That is very helpful for a day that starts at 5 am and ends at 8:30 pm. I was exhausted when I got home but I was up early Wednesday so I could get on the road to the beach. It was about a 4 and a half hour drive and here's where I headed 15 minutes after I unloaded the car. It was a beautiful day and we spent a couple of hours sitting on the beach.
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I always enjoy watching the shore birds feeding in the retreating waves.
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Yesterday we were expecting afternoon clouds and a pretty windy day so I got out early to take a long walk. I almost had the beach to myself. In one hour I saw maybe 6 people.
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There were a lot more beached jellyfish than people.
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The afternoon actually turned out nicer than forecast and we spent most of the day right here. Kim was reading and I was listening to a book and crocheting.
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I made a hat and a headband for my Grand Niece who could arrive any day now. The hat was made with this Crochet Shell Hat Pattern and the headband was made with the Blueberry Dance Headband pattern.
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Then I started a hat for her mother. Ashley has a very small head so she can't buy hats that fit. I'm making a few for her and this one is in a chenille yarn. I ran out of yarn so I'll finish this one when I get home Sunday. 

Today we are expecting some rain so I expect we'll finally break out the sewing machines. Or we might not . Mostly, we are just relaxing and enjoying every minutes of it.

It was a beautiful weekend here in Virginia and, of course, I did a lot more leaf blowing. But we also had a fun sewing weekend and I got to reconnect with a friend I hadn't seen in over 10 years. Also, the Eagles squeaked out a win so the weekend was a big success!

On the quilting front, everything was all about veterans quilts. I'm really happy to be back to quilting them. They are quick and stressless. These two were brought to me by Ramona. I love the bright geese in this one. I could see making this in my Shades Packs or a Gradient.
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I decided on just a touch of custom on the geese. It was very fast to quilt.
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This next one also came from Ramona and I find it really soothing. 

I quilted this one with the Square Spiral pantograph.
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This is the top that I pieced at sewing this weekend. It's one of the kits that I had pre-cut over a year ago. I only have two kits left so this Spring I will need to cut a lot more kits. I really like that approach. It makes getting ready for the sewing weekends very easy.

The blue fabrics in this quilt are all from the remnants of dyed veterans quilt backs. I save all of the excess fabric and try to use it in other veterans quilts. The color fabrics are hand dyes from my stash. I really like how this looks but it was kind of hard to piece. I had way too much trouble keeping my fabrics in order! But even with all of the unsewing, I pieced the whole thing in 2 days (about 7 hours).
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I got the next 2 veterans quilts loaded for quilting. Both of these were pieced by Clara. I'm trying to decide between red and blue thread but I will not get to quilting these until next week.

Tomorrow I will work the voting precinct all day. We will setup tonight and will be there tomorrow from 5:00 am until about 8:30 pm. It's a long day but I really enjoy it. Then Wednesday morning I'm going to the beach! My friend, Kim, got a beach house for the week and invited me to join her. I'll pack up the blue quilt and some crochet and head out early Wednesday. I'll post from there but probably will not post again until Thursday.

This week's inspiration comes from Robin Parton. She used the Monterey Bay Gradient as the background for her applique tree and leaves. Click on the photo to see the beautiful background quilting.. She won a blue ribbon and best machine quilting in local guild show. 

For sharing, Robin received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount.

I had a little panic a few days ago when I realized that I needed to get a birthday card in the mail to my SIL the next day. I didn't have an appropriate card in my stash for her. I had some of the Martian cards but I had already sent one to my brother. One household can't have 2 of the same cards. I had to make something quick.

I walked into the sewing room and saw the stack of bonus HSTs left from the blue bowtie blocks. Since the quilt is for her, it seemed just right to make a card from these little blocks.
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I just randomly sewed a bunch of them together. The fact that there's an arrow in the middle is a complete accident. 
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I didn't want to have to be fussy to try to center the card on the pieced fabric so I took the easy way out and set it totally off kilter. I like it enough that I might make some more of these!  It took less than 30 minutes from the moment that I walked into the sewing room.

Yesterday I started quilting some veterans quilts. Today and tomorrow are sewing days with my quilt club. I have a new veterans quilt kit to start and it's very bright colors. I hope you have a great weekend.

This certainly took a lot longer than it needed! I spent way too much time stressing over the quilting plan instead of just quilting. I probably spent more time thinking than actually quilting, like usual. I started in the middle with the blocks and worked my way out with each border. By the time I got to the yellow and blue borders it went really fast. It's now trimmed and ready to deliver to Becky for binding and label. 

This one started as a quilt kit that one of our members bought so you might recognize the pattern or kit. It will be donated to out local food bank and they will use it for a raffle fundraiser. We make a quilt for them about every other year.
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The quilting doesn't really show on the quilt very well but I was able to get it to show by laying it in the foyer and opening the front door for some side light.

I used white Wonderfil Master Quilter in the top and Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin. I didn't have one thread break on the whole quilt.
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I dyed the backing for this quilt and tried my best to match the blue in the background of the outer border. My fabric turned out a little more purple but I'm still happy with it. The back is the main reason that I wanted to do some custom quilting. I knew it would show on this side.
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Here's a close up of the back. I can say that I have finally reached a point where I am happy with my feather quilting. For once, it wasn't stressful quilting feathers. That's a big win!

Now I'll return to the regular programming of quilting veterans quilts. I have a really bright one loaded to quilt this weekend.

I had big goals for October and, as usual, I didn't get them all done. But I got plenty accomplished.

To recap (for myself), my goals were:
- enjoy a vacation - indeed we did
- make placemats for my brother - no
- placemats for my nephew - no
- quilt the guild fundraiser quilt - almost done!
- finish and deliver the Paula quilt - check!
- finish the second baby blanket (on vacation) - made 2 more baby quilts
- crochet 2 children's hats for gifts (on vacation) - made 4 hats
- start the Christmas cards - working on ideas

I'll add the following as a wish list:
- start quilting the Red Sunset quilt that I pieced on vacation last summer
- quilt 6 veterans quilts
​- -quilt some donation lap quilts

Of course my main accomplishment was this quilt, A Little of Everything. It's a sample quilt for Paula Nadelstern's new line of fabric and there was a hard deadline. So really, that was my main goal for the month.
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My two other quilting projects for the month were the big blue quilt and the raffle quilt. The raffle quilt will be done tomorrow and the blue quilt will be done whenever it's done. I did get one veterans quilt quilted and I look forward to quilting lots more in the next few weeks.
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My main focus for the month was crochet. I was working on the baby blankets and baby hat for the shower a couple of weeks ago. Then I finished 4 hats for Thanksgiving gifts. It was a good crochet month! I used 9 skeins of yarn.
That's not bad for a month's activity that included a vacation.

My stats as of the end of October:
Quilts - 2
Veterans quilts made - 12
​​Donation lap quilts - 12
Veterans quilts quilted - 28
Fabric Postcards - 19
Pet Beds - 7
​​Quilted for others - 4
​Crochet blankets - 8
​​Crochet shawls - 1
​​Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 27
Doll outfits - 2
Placemats and Table Runners - 25
​Dyed shirts and towels - 7
​Other Donated items - 74
​Garments (sewn and cochet) - 1
​Balls of yarn used - 57
​Other items - 5

My goals for November are:
​- make placemats for my brother 
- placemats for my nephew 
- finish quilting the guild fundraiser quilt 
- make 80 Christmas postcards - this is the most important goal
​- work on the blue quilt

I'll add the following as a wish list:
- start quilting the Red Sunset quilt that I pieced on vacation last summer
- quilt 6 veterans quilts
​- -quilt some donation lap quilts