Hey June, September's Almost Over!! --- Pt 2

In my last post, I talked about when we traveled down to my MIL's in August.  Both before we left and while we were away, I worked on blocks for my other "inspired during the quarantine project" by Cathy of the Sane, Crazy Crumby blog:  the Civil War Basket blocks:

Although the block parts are die cut (using an old discontinued Accuquilt BOB die) and machine pieced, the handles on these blocks are sewn down by hand.  I made up a bunch of blocks before we left so I could sew them up in the car on the drive down to North Carolina.  I then made two blocks a day during the week we were away to have more hand sewing for the drive back to New York.   

I also mentioned in that post that DH and I had gone camping this month.  We found a wonderful little campsite in Port Jervis, NY

The campground is up on that mountain!

Our campsite set-up

In addition to the campground, the park is full of hiking and biking trails.  We managed to hike three of the moderate trails (taking us both below and above the tree line!) and an easy straight trail in town on the site of what had once been an active transportation canal back in the 1800s.  The park has been managed by volunteers of the town's Outdoors Club since 2016.  We had booked a four night stay but wound up leaving on the third night due to an incoming heavy rain storm.  The CW Basket blocks came along on this trip too as they were perfect for working on by the campfire:

Stitching by the campfire

We will be headed down to NC again at the end of October, so I'll be die cutting and stitching together the last of the fabric block sets I have so they are ready for travel sewing by then.  I'm also realizing now that I had drafted a post about this project when I started it but never had a chance to post it.  I'll update that post which has the full back story of this project when I get this to a top.  That is another entry on the WIPS-B-GONE list!   

Another big thing that happened during this busy summer:  my youngest son left the nest!  He and his girlfriend had gotten a summer sublet in Manhattan that was supposed to be for the months of July and August.  Dutiful parents that we are, we had helped with the move-in at the beginning of July.  All was well and good until my son called to say there had been a change:  turns out the building owner had not been aware of the sublet and so they had to vacate at the end of July!  The good news was that my son and his girlfriend were successful in finding their own apartment in a nice area in Queens and were able to close on it right at the end of July!  So we were once again helping with moving duties and got them settled in for the start of August.   And even though my son hasn't taken all of his belongings to the new digs, needless to say there has been some project stash moving into the freed up space in his half empty closet!   I am also eyeing a move of our house computer and office files to his room to gain the space where it now sits.  I can use that for more quilt supplies storage since it is conveniently adjacent to my current sewing space.

With moving, the final resolution of our car repairs and garden activities keeping us busy in July, in Old News:  my "Hometown USA" project is still on hold (and for details on how this got started, see the "...Or Not Finished" section on this post). 

I was never able to really sit down and collect my thoughts and get a good plan for the stitching.  This one won't be part of my WIPS-B-GONE work unless I get a handle on how I want to proceed.  So this one may wind up being carried forward to next year.

However, having a project on hold doesn't stop a "Dreami" project from beginning!  So in New News: yet another CW repro project has begun.  I can once again blame this one on Edyta Sitar (I just can't quit her!!!).  I saw this design and then saw these fabrics on sale on eBay (top left) and Etsy (bottom left).

Seeing that it was a simple Strippy quilt made up of equally simple Uneven Nine Patch and Rail Fence blocks, my interest was piqued!  I still have CW stash that I'm (supposedly) trying to whittle down and then saw another great deal on Etsy for a scrappy bundle of CW repro 2-1/2" Strips to add to what I could pull from my stash.  So this is where I am now:

The plan for this one is that I have enough of the striped fabric for both that top border and the back so I'm planning to use it as a continuous piece and also attach it to the bottom of the finished center for the bottom binding.  After quilting, I'll bring the sides around to the front to create the finished side binding.  The blocks for this have been added to the "Daily Sewing Queue" along with the "Wishing Rings" blocks and finishing this is now another entry on the "WIPS-B-GONE" list.

Another result of working on this new CW project is that the "Wishing Rings" block sets I'm making up for the rest of September have a decidedly CW theme:

So that just about brings me up to date with regards to the summer.  I'll be spending what's left of September this week, bringing the "Wishing Rings" blocks up to date and using what I need to make for "Hey June!" and the "CW Strippie" blocks as leader/enders.   Happy Fall 'Yall!!