Octobers Past and Present

It's really starting to feel like fall here. Yesterday I went out fairly early to fill the bird feeders and take a little walk around the yard. Most of the trees are just now beginning to change color. The star of the show is the maple tree at the far end of the field. We planted it far away so that it could drop its leaves with wild abandon and we wouldn't feel a need to rake them up. I've been taking pictures of it from far away, but yesterday I walked down a little closer.

Probably I waited a little too long to get a better picture of the tree because it's already dropped a significant number of its leaves. Standing on the far side with the sun shining through the leaves that remain, it looks like this.

Standing there had me wondering what we were doing this time last year. And, not to worry, because I have a blog I can check to see. I hadn't actually blogged on October 4th, but on October 3rd, we were traveling through three states and visiting three friends. We'd taken the advice of many of you and driven through Letchworth State Park. We were only just beginning to see the leaves changing there. While in the park, I took this photo:

Shortly after that, we met up with my friend Sarah from Sarah Did It.

Sarah is a volunteer EMT, and she gave us a tour of the firehouse there. This was one of Mike's favorite parts of the trip.

We were on our way to see my Oregon pal, Pat from Amity Quilter. Pat used to live in Oregon, but moved to New York several years ago.

The next day, we met up with my friend Sharon from Vroomans Quilts. It was pure delight to meet Sharon and her mom.

It was a fun couple of days. But, ahem...getting back to 2018, I had a couple of guardian kitties out with me in my walkabout. This next image is a tale of two tails....one short, one long.

Watching them had me thinking about that old Dionne Warwick song:

If you see me walking down the street 

And I start to cry each time we meet 

Walk on by, walk on by ...

Smitty would like to serenade Molly someday. He's a very good singer, and he's an excellent guitar player. Do you doubt me?

So before I went outside yesterday, I filled the first hoop for Heart & Home. These are small blocks, and so filling the first hoop means I'm about halfway finished.

Now it's ready for the next round.

There was one housekeeping chore to do, and then I got busy with the bag ladies. It was pretty quick to sew the first row together.

By lunch time, I had the second row sewn together.

After lunch, I sewed the first two rows together.

Then I got to work on the third row.

By the time I finished yesterday, I had three rows sewn together.

There are just three more bag ladies, and then the quilt center will be finished. After that, I'll be sewing three borders. It's possible I can have the top finished today, but that will require patience and persistence. It can get pretty tedious sewing all those borders. We'll just see, won't we?

There is one housekeeping chore to finish today, but aside from that, it's going to be an NBS day. I might wear my daytime jammies today.