September, already

 

 I am sitting at one of my favorite spots, Freeland Park looking out at Holmes Harbor. It is a lovely September day -- a light breeze is rustling the grass and small waves are rippling onto the rocky beach. 

On Wednesday afternoons, I drop Miss C at the Cat Cottage for her volunteer afternoon, and I typically do grocery shopping and run other errands. If there is time left, I come here to walk along the shore, look for pretty shells, and just enjoy the salty air and peaceful view. Now that I'm work-free, this midweek break is not quite as precious -- I could come here at any time, now. But still, something about sitting here, listening to the water, reading my novel, or just staring out across the harbor still feels like a precious gift. 

 I am making excellent progress at getting the last of the boxes unpacked, and the workshop organized. I have mentioned, I think, that my house has a partly finished room, accessible from the backyard, which had formerly been a carpentry workroom for the previous owner. I have installed metal shelving racks and am using it as an extra storage space for quilting and art supplies and workroom for bookmaking and other activities. Suffice it to say that I am well equipped. 

 

 

I showed you last time the Crossed Canoe top I made from blue, green, and turquoise batiks. I loaded that onto the longarm and quilted horizontal wavy lines to add to the watery look of the quilt. It was fast and fun and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

 While I was unpacking the remaining boxes in the workshop, I came upon a big bunch of leftover parts from quilts past. This was a timely discovery, as I had just watched a video from Just Get it Done Quilts on Youtube about creative ways to use leftover quilt blocks.

With the leftover Crossed Canoe blocks and other batik scraps, I put together another top that is ready for quilting.

 

 

I'll quilt the same wavy lines on it -- that went so fast -- and both will be donated to a local cancer unit that provides quilts to its patients. It was very satisfying to use up every single block and a bunch of scraps. 

Then, I came upon a bag of left over baby four-patches I'd made a few years ago, for this quilt:  

I made the blocks as leader-and-ender sewing over many months, so it was no surprise that I ended up with a bunch extra. 

So one batch of teeny four patches became this quilt top, just 24x30 inches to fit the top of a NICU incubator.

 

 

 And another pile became this little top, the same size and for the same purpose:

I'll load them on the longarm side by side once I find the right backing piece. I'm sure there's something suitable in my stash. 

It's been funny, how satisfying it has been to use of leftovers. 

I even finished a quilt this week! I quilted the scrappy trip around the world with an overall feather design, which looks especially lush with the wool batting I used. This is already draped on the end of my bed, to pull up for added warmth as these fall nights start to get chilly. 

It is simply amazing how much I can get done without work getting in the way.