A Work In Progress Challenge

I love Fall. I love the colors, the crispness in the air, watching the leaves change colors on the trees, apple cider, pumpkins, mums, sunflowers, the Fall holidays, Reids Apple Festival, craft shows, and everything else there is about Fall.

My love for the Fall began when I was in the Second grade. Dad drove our Airstream Travel Trailer(I'm sure I have a photo of ours somewhere, but you can see what it looked like here) to Dayton, Ohio. Mom and I flew from our hometown of Shreveport, LA to meet him. I remember sitting by the window looking down on Ohio. All I could see were purple trees and beautiful old barns. I had never seen trees turn colors! Shreveport is filled with evergreen trees, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw so many different colored trees! This was the beginning of my love for Fall and old barns. We then drove from Ohio, stopping along the way at campsites through Kentucky (where we visited Mammoth Cave), Tennessee, and Arkansas. Fall had a new meaning to me.

You would think that since I love Fall so much that I would have fall themed quilts. I have a couple, but none large enough to hang over my couch or cuddle up with on a cool night. Sure, I have quilts I would love to make. Such as this one

I bought the pattern and the fabrics for my birthday 3 years ago. I haven't even started it, yet.

Do you remember this quilt that I was working on last Spring so I could have it finished for Fall?


It's still not finished. I made more blocks to make it larger, and started sewing the rows together. To be honest, I don't know why I put it back in it's little box on my WIP shelves shelf.

I fell in love with the quilt on the front cover of the recent American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.



The girls at Joined at the Hip designed this quilt. I loved it so much, I ordered the kit from their website. They wrote this sweet little note saying that they made that quilt a while back and didn't have some of the same fabrics. They used their stash in creating my kit.

I'm so glad they did! Just look at all of those pretty fabrics. I love the one with the leaves. And those oranges and blue plaid are perfect.

I think I need to update my stash.

Oh well, back to the subject: A Work in Progress Challenge. Patti mentioned a challenge that Finn has posted on her blog. The rules aren't hard, you just have to have some projects finished by New Year's Eve! I set a goal to finish 7 projects by that time. I am going on 2 retreats (one in September and one in November), a family trip to Savannah, GA in October (the sewing machine always goes on vacation with me) and I am trying to get in at least an hour or two of sewing a day. I should be able to finish something!

My first project to finish is this quilt called Turning Leaves.

Here it is in pieces on the design floor of my sewing room. I have already started sewing the rows together. The quilt has sort of changed since I shot this picture last week. One of the yellows was too bright, and I have rearranged some leaves. My plan for this quilt is to hang it above my couch in the family room.

My quilts may not be quilted in time for the Fall season this year, but at least I can try to finish them so they can be ready next year. Hopefully this challenge will help me accomplish that goal. There's nothing like a little shove encouragement to get me busy!

Edited: You can find the pattern for the Turning Leaves quilt here.