October is my favourite month of the year. When I lived in Sydney, I knew that October would be the last comfortable month before the humidity arrived and stayed until April. I struggled with the discomfort that high humidity brings.
It’s different here and I love it. October has wildly fluctuating temperatures – last Tuesday reached 28 degrees yet, three days later, it struggled to reach 11 degrees. We often have frost in October, which was a huge surprise to me the first year we lived here but I soon adjusted.
Spring blossoms have shown their best in my garden over the past month. Thanks for another fabulous October display!
Quilts
I excel at starting quilt projects but don’t often finish them. That’s because it’s the process of stitching I enjoy, rather than the focus on completion. However, this month I’m making an effort to finish two bed-sized quilt tops so I can have them professionally quilted (you can see part of one of them below). They will be the last large quilts I make.
After that, I’ll only stitch small projects because I can usually manage to quilt these myself. This month marks the beginning of this plan. Let’s see how that progresses. 😊
If you enjoy learning about quilt history, you may like to look at Deborah McGuire’s website, PlainStitch Deb. It is chock full of interesting stories about the history of patchwork and quilting in the British Isles. I found much of interest there.
My friend Sarah Fielke has started a subscription club called StitchyMites. I joined straight away and each Wednesday Sarah posts a special newsletter just for members. It’s like being a member of a secret society! You can read more about it here.
Books and reading
I reached my (arbitrary) Goodreads goal of reading 50 books this year last week. You can see my list here and I have some interesting novels on my to-read list for the next two months. There are a couple of reviews elsewhere on my website: After she wrote him by Sulari Gentill and Murder at the book festival by Jane Bettany. I’m currently reading The art of breaking ice by Rachael Mead and am immersed after only a couple of chapters. If you have any reading recommendations, please let me know!
What are you enjoying? Are you making quilts, nurturing your garden or reading good stories? Let me know!
