Here’s a little peak at the current state of affairs on my sewing table. As you can see, it’s a bit of a mess. What you can’t see, my determination to finish my Autumn Love sampler quilt while it’s still Autumn!

In all fairness, my sewing room/projects have been a little bit neglected.

We’ve had a lot going on the past week or two: Family – including a very cute almost-1-year-old niece – in town (with her mom) who needed some snuggles (okay, I needed some snuggles); an overnight anniversary getaway which was already postponed from when we had the ‘rona a month ago; dog sitting for a weekend; some serious time dedicated to soaking up the fall color in the mountains before it all goes away; and – less fun – the beginning of garden clean-up after our first cold snap this weekend. (RIP tomato plants.)

I’ve been itching to work on some Christmas quilts – some already in the works from years past – but I decided I needed to exercise some discipline and finish the Autumn Love quilt blocks that I pulled out a few weeks ago.

I knew if I put it away again, it wouldn’t see the light of day until next fall. So finishing I am!

All of the bocks in this quilt are from Lori Holt’s Autumn Love quilt along that can be found on her site. (Check the right side bar for links to all of the blocks.) You do need the Autumn Love templates for the shapes, but the pattern instruction is free.

I made the applique blocks using wool instead of regular cotton. Using wool is SO fun, easy, and very forgiving. I made those blocks a couple of years ago. After pulling them out of hibernation a few weeks back, I decided to make the patchwork star block from the Autumn Love quilt along to go with them. (You can find the Star Block tutorial here.)

You can see the progress I’ve made so far on putting my blocks together. I’m obviously making a much smaller, partial-version of Lori’s original Autumn Love quilt. 

Because I’m winging it on my own, I’ve been more indecisive about sashing and borders… 

At first the plan was to make some additional patchwork blocks using Lori’s fabric collections to add as extra rows and borders. But as I started playing with them on the design wall, it felt too busy.

Instead I’m playing with darker, more neutral fabrics so that the applique and intricate stars pop and are the real show-offs in this quilt. But I may use some of these square-in-a-square blocks as border cornerstones…

I’m thinking it will end up finishing at about 44″ x 44″.

I’ve loved using Lori Holts’s latest Prim fabric collection  available here and here to finish this project. I’ve been using the Pebble colored prints/gingham for the sashing and outside borders. Just yesterday I got some of this coordinating Prim blue bias plaid for the backing. It’s perfect! I’m leaning aqua for the binding, but will wait until it’s quilted to make a decision.

My goal is to get the borders sewn on today and delivered to Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting by Monday. I’m just going to get over my indecisiveness, pick something and finish. At this point, I’m channeling the mantra is “Done is Better Than Perfect.”

Before I sign-off , here’s a glimpse of what’s been my distraction the past few weeks.

Can you blame me? 😉  

Have a great week, friends!