November OPAM

November is not my favorite month.  The leaves have fallen from the trees, and it's dreary and bleak outside.  The kayaks have been put in storage for another season.  On the bright side, that leaves more time for sewing!  And for retreat earlier in the month.

the end of the leaves for the season, near our retreat 

I took four projects to retreat, and worked on all four.  Three tops were finished up to the point where they need applique applied.  Working on that now.  I've also been doing a LOT of embroidery, and hope to have something to show for my efforts soon.  I'm in two groups that have UFO challenges, and I got them mixed up, so I had to pay up for not finishing for one group.  I think that's the first time I've ever had to pay a 'fine' for not finishing my project.  It will NOT happen again - LOL!

My finishes for November include 5 place mats, which were all made from various scraps laying on my sewing table.  Some will go to Meals on Wheels, and one or two are for our guild's Christmas project.  In lieu of exchanging gifts this year, we decided to make place mats and pillow cases for a small Assisted Living  home in our town.  The residents are extremely low income, and have nothing.  We're also making lap quilts in addition to the place mats and pillow cases, and hope to bombard them with gifts and love.

We're having dinner guests tomorrow night, and I whipped up a set of coasters for each couple.  We don't really exchange gifts, but I wanted to send them home with a 'little something'.

I'm determined to use every last inch of this fabric that is leftover from one of my retreat quilts.  And the best part - I won the jelly roll a couple of years ago!

While looking for these pictures, I remembered that I actually also made a postcard for Sheila's swap.  It hasn't yet made it to Brazil though, so I can't share it here.

I do manage to sew at least a little each day, and I'm making progress though I don't have any big finishes.  Next week is crazy busy with parties and gatherings, and then look out.  I've scheduled some major time with Patience, my quilting machine, and we've got a somewhat large stack of projects to finish.  

In closing, I just want to say that Gatlinburg and the Great Smokey Mountains are one of my favorite places, and I'm so sad about their tragic fire.  Please keep the people in your prayers as they try to recover from this terrible act of suspected arson.

keep on stitching........Sunny

April 2016 Great Smokey Mountain National Park