Welcome November!

We really are marching right on through 2017, aren't we? Incredible to think that it's November already. Wow.

No doubt I have mentioned before how I love the Peanuts gang. The cartoons were a staple of my growing up. Books, comic strips and television specials - my siblings and I devoured all things Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

With the relief of having the October UFO finished, I treated myself to some scrappy stars this morning. The parts for 6 stars have been cut and stacked near my machine for over two weeks--they were my reward for when my UFO was done. Finally! I could work on something else! I see that I was in a bit of a rush and a few intersections are somewhat off. I may do some "unsewing" later on and redo them properly.

Here are my six newly made stars. It looks like I was digging in the red and blue remnant tub, doesn't it? I hadn't realized how similar my color choices were until seeing them lined up like this. Added with the previously made stars, though, the colors do become distributed a bit more. Below are the 24 Scrappy Stars made to date.

I generally do a quick look-back at the accomplishments of the month just ended. I can't brag on too many this month, that's for sure! Having over two weeks of respiratory infections really slows a gal's ability to do much of anything! I missed birthdays (Mom's, hubby's, twins', and friend's), card club, quilting, History Day, and class. Our son-in-law was very ill during the time we were sick, even hospitalized for five days, and we couldn't get to Columbus to see him because we were contagious. What a month! (S-I-L is fine now, thank you.) When I finally did bounce back, I found that I needed to spend more time on my two classes than I normally do, therefore sewing time was at a premium, to say the least.

My collage for October includes a few stars made prior to getting sick; a fun night with Frienzies; fabric bought on a shopping trip to West Virginia; cool weather which prompted using the fireplace; a lunch date with daughter Emma; spools of thread from Grandma's sewing kit; a gorgeous fall sunset; the American Jane Jolly Bar I won on Instagram; and the October UFO.

Now about that UFO. It was a quilt-along I joined in 2014 called Tell It To The Stars. I stopped late in the year when I realized that the borders were extremely involved and - gah! - pieced! In working toward a finish this month, I decided to make two skinny inner borders into a single thick border. The mottled navy that you see is the result. 

Another change is that lighter narrow border outside the pieced section. It was supposed to be of the same background fabric that I'd been using throughout, but I had used it all! I needed to substitute. More than likely, I could have tried a bit harder to find a better match, but you know what? I just didn't really care, so I found a suitable neutral in the stash - I refused to obsess about finding just the right shade of neutral. It's no big deal.

A final difference is the addition of corner blocks in the outermost borders. I might try putting together a brief tutorial on how I did those last two borders and the corner blocks. You can't see that corner in the photo above, but it does show in a picture from yesterday's post. And get this - with all this time and a few changes, the size came out almost perfectly to the measurements given on the instructions - 91" x 79". Now how about that?

So there's my month, in a nutshell. I don't have any really firm plans for November. I will find out which UFO is up next when we Frankfort Girls meet on Friday morning. I have some other WIPs (works in progress) that will likely be tended to. And do I dare consider starting something new?? Oh, how I would love to!! 

I hope your November is productive!

I have linked up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts. Click on over there to have a look around!

Happy Quilting, Friends!