Mercury Retrograde

Since Mercury was retrograde until yesterday, and because I unearthed my box of unfinished projects while reorganizing, I went ahead and finished these Halloween place mats. 3 of them were already quilted so I only had to quilt 1, and then put on the binding. The centers are vintage postcards that I printed onto fabric that I framed out in a rust print with stars. I love this vintage looking Halloween print, it's just so cute. There wasn't enough of it to bind the place mats, and there wasn't enough of the rust either, so I bound the long edges in one print and the short in another. I really really like these, and I don't know if I can part with them!

I also finished hooking the pillow top. When I dyed the sky blue last week it came out a bit dark, so I took out some of the sky I had already hooked and then added in the darker blue. I think it looks fine, and I will probably get a back on it today and then list it in the store this evening.



I've made more progress on the sewing room, too, I'd say I'm somewhere around 2/3rds of the way done. I got both the big and small bookcases cleaned out, and the small wall unit that Sio gave me and I am using on top of the small bookcase to hold magazines. The large bookcase has all the books that I use the most; the small bookcase has costuming and doll books on the bottom and my collection of doll clothes patterns on the top shelf. I am going unearth the Bleuette pattern binders and put them on the bottom shelf too. Plus I got all the patterns separated by type, and number into plastic drawers. I cleaned out a lot and am listing them in my store as destash listings. I found a really cute jacket pattern I forgot I had bought and am going to keep my eye open when I go to the thrift store for a nice heavier fabric to make it out of. I have some wool here but it's a bit too heavy, plus I don't really want another dry clean only jacket. I'd rather have a heavier cotton that I can wash. I also started knitting a scarf with odd small balls of leftover yarn combined with a skein of burgundy and a skein of a light olive I pulled from the stash. I had about 12 inches done when both mom and Sio told me it was too wide, so I unraveled it and started it over last night. It's a great take it with me project, I just keep it in my book bag all the time. I'm trying to keep more of a fall palette, although I may add other colors if I feel I need to for length.
I've also been cooking a lot, and I made these really yummy apple carrot muffins last week, as well as banana pecan for John's lunch. He didn't like the apple carrot, but I loved them and will make them again for me.