Last night in my before-going-to-bed sewing time I finished my grand daughter Jasmyn's turtle top. Maybe pink shoes with turtles is a little incongruous, I don't think she will mind though. She likes pink, she likes shoes and she likes turtles, works for me. So that's half of the turtle quilts pieced. Tonight I start on her little brother Ben's turtle top, he won't get pink shoes.

Ambrosina and Leon drove to Albert Lea, a town about 3 hours from here, they are picking up their new car from the Chevy dealer there because it is owned by the same company Leon works for.I've never had a brand new car, I don't suppose I ever will, but I did enjoy the new-car smell in Ambrosina's last year. They are trading in Leon's pick-up.

I am down to 8 blocks remaining on the Pinwheel 9 Patch. If I have to mark another top I will do it before I get it basted the way I am supposed to, what a pain it has been marking it with the basting already done. That's what I get for changing my mind about how I want to quilt something I guess. Another couple of days will see it finished.

I am now piecing the borders on the paper piecing project. The name of the pattern is Joy by Jaqueline de Jonge, the next ppp (paper piecing project) will be of my own design. I tend to get bored with other people's designs although I haven't with this one. It's complicated enough to hold my attention I suppose.

I hear by the noise that our little boys are home. Time to go up and see how their day went.

It's been sort of a long dry spell for me; I've just been plugging away at all the same things mostly. This Pinwheel Nine Patch is on the quilting table.

I don't remember what this pattern is called, I saw someone doing it in an online video with rulers and a special foot. I can't afford the rulers and foot so I am drawing the lines. It takes twice as long to draw the lines in as it does to sew. I'm not really going for super accurate, I sort of like the little bit wonky and spontaneous look. I don't think I will try this one again until I can get the foot, but I do like the way it looks. I reached the halfway point this morning.

 Ambrosina and Leon did their Black Friday shopping and brought me home these. I don't get candy very often because of my diabetes. I love these, and I am savoring them, making them last so I don't get sick.

I've got all four of these strips done. I have some borders to make and then I will start putting the top together. I see a lot more paper piecing in my future. I am thinking something in yellow and blue next, a combination I love. The only problem is I don't have many fabrics in those colors, so it's a ways down the pipeline. I will fish out a UFO to work on after this one is finished. I have two huge Rubbermaid tubs full so there is no problem there!

This afternoon though, I have sweeping and scrubbing my bedroom floor on the slate. Not exciting, but necessary. I can be grateful for a small bedroom--less to clean. Every time I think I would like to live in a large house all I have to do is remember all the work that I would have to do to keep it clean, and I am content with what I have.

The first Turtle quilt is done! I love this block, good thing too, I have several more to get through. This one is planned for Kael, our next to the youngest grandson. His favorite color is green.

I am running out of fabric I can piece the backs out of so I bought a sheet, it worked very well and no seams! Easy can be very nice at times; I am sure, also, that it will stand up to the wear and tear of a 6 year old boy.

I am surprised that I was able to get it done this morning, I got entirely too much help from 1st assistant Happy, she seemed to think I was focusing too much on what I was doing rather than she.

Tomorrow it starts all over again with the next one. I have three basted but I haven't decided which one I will do next.

I also started the last one of these,

I am well on schedule where I planned to be so I can shop for fabric on payday to set the blocks together with. I am happy with my progress, if anything it's going too quickly. I don't have the fabric for the next paper piecing project I have in mind. Not that I will run out of things to do. That probably will never happen with all the UFOs I have in ziplock bags everywhere.

So it's time for my afternoon's hand work. Ambrosina had her shopping day today and she brought me home a Mocha, what a darling daughter I have. No one on earth like her!

Third turtle top webbed, yes those are pink and silver shoes. Why now. This top is for my only grand daughter, although I don't know when I will get it quilted. When I started these turtle blocks I had no plan so I didn't count. I made enough blocks for six quilts, I was having fun making them so I didn't stop to count and stopped when I got tired of them. There are enough blocks for 6 twin size quilts, I won't make them all at once. When the tops are done I will put a couple of them in the bottom of the tub and just quilt the ones I am making for the grand kids. The first turtle quilt is about 75 % quilted and I am hoping to finish it next week. These last few days the quilting has exhausted me-I don't know why-and it's been all I can do to work the whole morning at the machines. I've even quilt a few minutes earlier than usual because I have been so tired.

And with that, I am going to crawl under the covers and take a short nap!

Pretty cool I think. The is the 1st section of four. I did another half of one this morning. If I had known how much fun paper piecing is I would have tried it a long time ago. I am planning to have all the paper piecing done by pay day then I can get the fabric to set the pieces together. Some people might not like the curved piecing but I love it; to me it's no more difficult than setting in sleeves and I have done hundreds if not thousands. These are the plaid squares I picked up at the thrift store and they are lovely. This is not going to be one of my big quilts, small is nice occasionally.

Quilting on the first turtle quilt reached halfway this morning too. Coming along pretty good although I am getting a little bored with circles and will try something different on the next one. I haven't decided what yet, I'll just have to doodle until I find something I like.  The third Turtle top is almost webbed, picture of that tomorrow.

And now, since I have a fresh hot cup of coffee, courtesy of David (and isn't that sweet?) it's time for hand work.

The 1st part of the last sections. That doesn't sound very clear,  I know, but there are four of these corners to be pieced. Each one has 95 pieces and the first one is half done. I am still loving it. Pay day I will take one of them into Joanns's and find fabrics to put the quilt together.

These are the hexagon blocks I'm working on right now. I prepped hundreds of hexagons and now I am going to use all of them up. Don't know how long it will take, it's fun I don't know how long it will take. I will have plenty of time to think about the next hand project though. Anyway that's what I have been working on this week so far, and probably for the rest of the week, after that we will see.

So, back to work.

Aren't they pretty, I do love a plaid, sorry about the glare. Those sections are done and I made copies this morning to go on to the final paper piecing sections. Then all I have to do is put them together. That does sound simple, but it is all curved piecing so it will take time. I am loving the paper piecing though, and already have my next project planned. David is intrigued with the paper piecing technique, and wants to do a twisted log cabin so I printed a simple one from EQ7 and told him to start simple because I didn't think I could handle teaching him complex to start with. I also told him he has to quilt the top he has done and the one he is working on because there wasn't room for him to have tubs full of unquilted tops too. I spent the last year play catch up, and I didn't make my goal despite quilt 27 tops so far. Next year. Ambrosina also showed a great deal of interest in these too, unusual for her.

We are supposed to get snow on Friday, oh joy, oh joy. Now is about the time I usually start figuring out how many months there is to get through until spring. The rest of  November, December, January, February, March. 5 months, oh well, we've survived before, and at least with David trying to finish his quilts maybe he won't drive me too crazy this year.

Time for hand work. And coffee. There is apple pie left from yesterday too. It's fruit right?

Our eventful week was not over. Yesterday afternoon the washer flooded the upstairs and was running down the light fixture in the dining room in floods! The ceiling has to be repaired and we can't use the electricals in the dining room until everything is dried out, so no sewing up there since the light fixture is also a junction box. Old houses have some very peculiar wiring. The stories I could tell! So I came back down here and did some work on Ernestine the treadle.

I have this tub of split sixty degree diamonds that I want to use up. I am piecing them in rows first and then I will join them into large diamonds and join them together until they are square. I have a piece of diamond graph paper that I figured it out on.

I also finished the 2nd Turtle top this morning, this evening on to the 3rd.

Tomorrow we have guests after the meeting, I hope the dining room is dried out by then or it could get a little difficult! Ambrosina seems to have taken it in her stride though, I used to be that way, I couldn't cope now if it all depended on me the way it used to. Oh well, getting old is better than what the alternative would be.

Anyway it's lunch time and after that probably more time at the treadle, also hand work when it's time to put my feet up I am getting a pretty big pile of hexagon blocks again. Probably a picture of those tomorrow.

Turtles is the first of the basted quilts to go under the needle. I am using some green thread that was given to me by Rose. Two full cones of it. I've already quilted a couple of quilts with it, I am afraid it is going to last forever. Green is not my favorite color, it fits in with the turtles though. David looked at this quilt and said it's the first quilt he can remember making for a while that didn't have red or orange in it. That's because I didn't think red or orange fit in too well for turtles. The colors above that look orange are actually a golden brown. Most of the red and oranges in that last few quilts were scraps that I got that Rose couldn't use in her quilts. I'm done with those now except the ones that were are in quilts that are already cut out and partly sewn.

As you can see, 1st assistant Happy likes turtles. Or maybe she is just glad to have a quilt back up on the sewing table after a week without.

The belt on my vintage New Home broke again so the next turtles top is on hold. It seems to break every couple of months so I think maybe David is putting it on too tight. I didn't sew the last couple of evenings, too cold down here but I am going to just have to bite the bullet and bundle up. Can't spend the winter not getting anything done.

Ambrosina made raspberry cheese cake for dessert on Sunday, um um, can't wait. Smells yummy!

I had doctor appointments every afternoon until today. Today I basted.

 Pinwheel Nine Patch

 Hexagon Diamonds

 Kentucky Chain

And Turtles. I don't have to baste again for at least a month. Yay horay!

I finished this top a couple of nights ago. It really pops! I'm glad it's ready for quilting I was getting tired of it. One more UFO reaching the top stage. I will probably baste it in the next batch.

Things should start to settle down here now that I have all my appointments for the fall over with. I have one more dentist appointment in December, I won't have the copay I need until then. It looks like I won't be getting shoes until January. The bad news from the dentist is that I have a lot of bone loss in my jaws from the diabetes. What is left of my teeth are loose and I face the prospect of losing them all not too far down the road. Oh well, we will cross that bridge when we get to it. No doctor or dentist ever explained the the connection between diabetes and teeth before, it would have been nice to know what I was looking at before they got so bad.

So now I can relax. The basting is done so I can quilt. All I have left to do before the weekend is clean up my sewing corner upstairs, we are having guests after meeting on Sunday. It's not too bad and won't take me long tomorrow morning. For now though, I get to sit and do my hand work, today I have earned it!

Number 27 for the year and I love it! I am calling it Mosaic. it consist of about 3900 three quarter inch English Paper Pieced hexagons. I finished it yesterday afternoon, we were expecting guests so I didn't get time to get it posted here until this afternoon.

I just heard on the news that there has been another shooting in a church in Texas with over 20 dead. I feel so bad for these people and their families. I do not understand what can be going on in those peoples minds when they do that. Do they even have a mind? Certainly no heart.

The hexagon stars that I am working on is nearly done, I just have to fill in some 60 degree diamonds on the top and bottom. I am hoping to get that done in one evening of sewing, I am getting really tired of it sitting around down here. And, of course, the next one is already planned.

Last night we put another quilt on the bed. That's it we are officially into winter: it's two quilt weather.

This is the back of the quilt.

I did a simple cross hatch quilting design with my walking foot, I didn't want the quilting to compete with the pattern of the piecing. I won't be piecing too many more backs I am running out of large scrap pieces that I can use. I did start putting together the next back, I had a few minutes this morning. I think I will probably be buying sheets to use as backs.

I think I will now turn on the news and work on my hand sewing, I don't know what good watching the news will do but at least the hand sewing is soothing.