November is here! It's a Birthday month!!!

Yup! It's my birthday. Come next Tuesday I will be a year older. I wish I could say wiser but no such luck. Another thing that November brings is less time... less time to work on pending projects and less time to get ready for Christmas. I love thinking about November in terms of Thanksgiving, Macy's holiday parade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (we love re-watching the Thanksgiving episode) and Black Friday shopping but there is no forgetting that the month is also too close to Christmas for comfort.

So I have to start thinking of backup plans in case all the quilts I want to give as presents don't get completed. While I think about that...

This month I plan to tackle the November Schnibble which is called Picnic and will be my first venture into making baskets.

I decided to make this one out of repro fabrics which I had been collecting for a while

so it will be a bit of a stash buster.

I am also going to wrap up the Gobble Gobble top. I know I have been a bit vague on this one but there was not much to say. I'm using Sandy Gervais' Gobble Gobble print to make a Disappearing 9-patch quilt.

What is a disappearing 9 patch? It's a nine patch block that gets altered to the point that it no longer looks like a nine patch.

You start with a nine patch - which I made with 5" charms.

You then cut the sewn block twice across the center

Rotate two of the resulting squares and sew them back together.

The resulting block are charming.
I'm loving the blocks I've completed (10 so far) just 6 more to go and 

then I can add the sashing and it will be complete.

I'm using a similar layout that Rachel used on the table topper quilt she designed for the Moda Bake shop but I'm making it a bit larger so that it will be a lap size quilt.

Those are my two goals for the month. I would love to get some quilting on the Red White and Blue piece but I'll not commit to it since my future son in-law will be here for Thanksgiving and with guests coming around my weekends won't be too free.

BTW: I'm a bit excited about a couple of new patterns I picked up to add to my stash. I was lucky enough to win the Fit to Be Geese rulers Carrie from Miss Rosie's Co gave away last month. I love flying geese patterns but they always end up wonky but with the method used with these rulers they end up easy to make and precise in the piecing so I was loving that I won both sizes for these rulers! Of course I had my eye on one of Carrie's pattern (Opening Day) and picked it up as soon as I won the rulers. I also picked up a few other patterns that I was drooling over as well as the Tri Rec rulers that should make cutting Summer Rental a breeze (hopefully)

These will probably be projects for next year. 

Hey, it's never to early to increase that TBM (to be made) list!!