What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Well, if you heard a loud squeal sometime Sunday afternoon, that was me. I hit on a design for our Fall Fortnight, and I like it so much that I’m going to make several! Oh, now I cannot wait for October!! At this point, I think the event will begin on Sunday, October 13, and have three posts a week until Sunday, October 27. I have some giveaway prizes, and maybe one or two more coming. The pattern will be free, and I’ll have a pdf download for you. It will use up your scraps, and you’ll ...

“I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze. The sweet chill of pumpkin, and crisp sunburnt leaves.” – Ann Drake

Wow, it has been quite a month, wouldn’t you say? Lots of projects and prizes, winners from all over the US, inspired by Mason jars. I have one more idea for you today to put a Mason jar to good use.

I like the scented candles in the large jars, but every one seems to have the same issue when they get near the end.

I’ll light it, and in no time at all, the flame shortens and dims ...

Finally we get to the Autumn Jubilee tablescape, now that we’ve made some of the things we’ll be using. This table is anchored with our Harvest Festival quilt from the quilt along.

The place settings have rust color chargers with white dinner plates topped with my favorite fall salad plates. The set is discontinued from Pier 1, and is called Asheville Leaves. I set my pumpkin bowls to the upper left for salad or soup. Individual salt and pepper shakers are at each place setting.

I pull out my gold tone flatware for fall, the warm gold goes ...

For our last project post of Autumn Jubilee, we are going to play with Mason jars in the sewing room, and then preview a few new releases from our giveaway sponsor.

Using Mason jars to separate buttons by color is a fun way to display your button collection. I put bits of Harvest Festival fabrics on the lids. The one on the left has a plastic ring from a cross stitch kit.

Making a sewing gift from a Mason jar is fun for the fall season. Using a pumpkin print, cut a square roughly twice the size of the ring ...

More winners were drawn this week! Congratulations to all these lucky readers!

Backside Fabrics North Carolina based, Backside Fabrics sent lucky winner Rita H a gift certificate to their online store worth $50!! 

Quilter’s Dream awarded THREE twin size battings this year (Dream Green, Dream 80/20, and Dream Bamboo) to Kathryn L.  Find Quilter’s Dream Battings at Fat Quarter Shop and Amazon. Congratulations!

Milk Street sent a copy of their latest publication Simple to Mary D. If you love trying new flavors, get 15% off your first purchase at Milk Street with code MILK15. See their sale ...

I hope you are enjoying the Mason Jar inspired quilt along, with fabrics from Benartex’s Harvest Festival line. Today we are going to talk about the finishing, with some ideas for labeling. When we left off, the quilting was done and it was ready for binding.

I thought the plaid in the brown and rust tones made a perfect frame for the piece. I made the binding in the usual way, using 2-1/2-inch strips. I stitched the binding to the front, just a bit deeper than the 1/4-inch most use. My main sewing machine foot is a ...

Fall wreaths adorn the wall outside our front door, and also in the garage at the door coming into the house. I like that bit of Autumn color welcoming me home, and greeting guests no matter which door we use. Because our garage was added to the home sometime after it was built, there is a nice door and brick wall at that entrance. This was an Autumn Jubilee wreath from a previous year, and because it never hangs outside, it is still looking nice with its ribbons and pine cones.

Today, let’s make a new wreath for the ...

Time to finish our wool stitch along project. I hope you had time to get your bases done with the apple appliques and buttons. Today we finish it off with a bit of embroidery and some seed beads. When we left off, we were here.

Get out your floss and beads, finding some green to match your leaves, along with red and gold seed beads. If you don’t have seed beads, you can do french knots with the appropriate color floss for a similar look.

Place the piece on a countertop. Center a Mason jar ring on the wool ...

Stamping is such fun, and a nice creative break from sewing. I like both endeavors, and mixing it up keeps my creativity flowing. Fall is the best time for stamping, making cards and Halloween treats, working with gorgeous papers and fun images.

I like using ribbons on paper for an extra bit of texture. I’ll start with gluing it to the backside, then fold it over the front. I only do about an inch on each end on the backside of the paper strip. Turned to the front, the ribbon and paper piece is glued to the cardstock on ...

Another fun week of projects and ideas means more winners of the wonderful prizes from the Autumn Jubilee sponsors! I use the online random number generator Random.org to get a number for the winner based on the total number of comments. I count from the first comment forward in the order posted, skipping those who do not answer the question of the day. I really appreciate the kind comments on the designs and projects. It has been super fun to see all the projects in our Facebook group too, read on to see how creative some readers have been ...

I hope you are having fun with this year’s Autumn Jubilee Quilt Along. Now that we have all the blocks made, layout of the top is next.

If you are making the same size as I am showing, please note that in the photos, the pumpkin blocks should be switched. This will separate the pumpkins from the flying geese on the lower left, and keep the other ones from forming a diagonal line with the apples. If you making more blocks for a larger quilt, lay them out and take a photo so you can see where there might ...

Cool October nights are bringing the garden season to a close. While I still have some tomatoes on the vine, and more still green, they are mostly done. I harvested these, and I’ll pull up the plants when the first frost occurs.

There is still one squash left on the vine, and it finally appears to be ripening into a golden-tan color.

We are finally seeing a bit of color on some trees.

Because the black cherry tomatoes were unusual and flavorful, I saved some of those seeds for next year. See my method on my previous post Saving ...

When I saw the fabulous turkey prints in the Benartex Harvest Festival line, my mind immediately went to fussy cutting the turkeys. I knew I wanted a project to showcase those turkeys, along with the feather prints. Placemats for the Autumn table that would work all the way to Thanksgiving seemed like a good plan.

I began with my 6-1/2-inch square ruler to figure out which turkeys I could get in their entirety with the half-yard of fabric I had.

I made a gaggle of flying geese from the dark feather print so I could set the turkeys on ...

I’ve been playing in the craft room and there are lots of ideas on today’s post for using Mason jars in new ways. We’ll start simple, and go a bit more involved later on. I have shown these jar votive holders in the past, but I have new readers that may not have seen them. While at a big box store some years ago, I noticed some votive holders that had flared tops. Around the corner was a Mason jar display. I wondered, would those votives fit the jars? Yes, they did. Setting the votive holder on ...

Three lucky winners are doing a happy dance today! Congratulations to all of you!

Becky P won the $50 gift certificate to MadamSew! She wrote “MadamSew’s organization bundle would be a huge help in organizing my sewing area.” Congratulations, Becky!

Joan G won the Milk Street Vegetables Cookbook! She wrote ” I see a lot of great cookbooks, but The World in a Skillet is at the top of my list! Also, that precision rolling pin is super cool!” Congratulations, Joan!

The winner of the Sulky Threads and Embroidery pack is Sandra M! Sandra wrote “I have some of the ...

It may be Friday the 13th, but it is a lucky day for free patterns. The rest of the Quilt Along blocks will be on today’s sewing agenda. Did you make progress on the first blocks this past week?

Once again, lets take a look at the design in concept. Details will be just a bit different with the flying geese / leaf block configurations. The quilt shown will finish at 40-inches square with 12-inch blocks set 3×3 and 2-inch borders. If you want a larger quilt, just make more of the blocks, and arrange as you like.

Today ...

Fresh Baked. Doesn’t that make you think of the aroma of baking pies and bread, brownies and cookies? Can you smell the aroma of fresh baked pumpkin orange bread in this photo? It is my original recipe, but we’ll get to that at the end of this post. Read on for a long and picture heavy post with two projects today! Don’t forget to visit the sponsor for each post and answer the question of the day to enter the drawing. New subscribers, please review the rules on the Autumn Jubilee Rules and Notices page.

Today’s ...

Our first embroidery project of the event is today, but you can still sew along if you do not have an embroidery machine. Fussy cut motifs or hand embroidered designs will work just as well. This project is made to fit a large 3-cup (or 24 oz), wide mouth Mason Jar.

Remember the four flying geese left over from our quilt along blocks? Here’s where we use them. If you are not doing the quilt along, I’ll give you the instruction on how to make four for the project.

First, find a small embroidery about 3-1/2-inches square ...

Autumn is my favorite time of year for being in the kitchen, making pumpkin bread, trying new recipes, cooking comfort food, making football snacks, and hearty soups for chilly days. I am lucky that My Sweet Babboo loves vegetables of all kinds, so experimenting with them is fun. There are so many ideas in the Milk Street Vegetables cookbook, it will take a long time to get to all of them! I have made several from this book already. Today, we’ll do the Zucchini Fritters because I’ve been looking for a way to get crispy zucchini chips for ...

Two lucky winners are doing a happy dance today! Congratulations to both of you!

Sharon D won the $50 gift certificate to One Of The Flock! Sharon said “I fell in love with Bittersweet Fall”. Wonder what she will get?

Sheila in SC won the Hobbs Fusible Batting! She wrote ” I’d love to try the Hobbs silk batting. Thanks for an apron pattern that might actually fit!” Congratulations, Sheila, I’ll get your Queen Size Hobbs Heirloom fusible batting in the mail this coming week. Look inside the package as I’ll add a spool of Aurifil thread, too ...