Learning Curves

I am committed to getting this quilt done before Thanksgiving.  I originally had planned on the end of this month, but with everyone home for fall break and catching a bug I just don't see it happening by Sunday.  This has been an interesting one for me.  I met some new designers and quilters during a quilt blog hop and this pattern belongs to one of them: Heather Mulder Peterson.
http://www.quilterswarehouse.com/p-1009-harvest-time-by-ankas-treasures.aspx

Harvest Time quilt in progress

 This was a stretch for me out of my ordinary color schemes.  I think it is the first time I have ever been bold with purples and oranges.  These are the fabrics I ended up choosing after a couple of days of deliberations, the colors show up so much better here.  From the photos it is hard to see that the background fabric is covered with tan flowers and vines so does not appear as white as it does here.  That actually was one of the harder choices-the background.  I had a more tan overall piece but the pumpkin seemed kind of lost on it so I ended up going with the lighter background.

I am really focusing on using up some of my fabric stash and am pleased that the only thing I had to purchase for this one was the backing- Go Me!
My new pressing table is giving me a space that I love as I can lay everything out as I get ready to sew.

The piecing has gone very well.  One of the designers on the blog had a special offer on her Clearly Perfect Angles.  I had something similar that I had to tape down to my machine every time I wanted to use it and this one was made out of that plastic that clings, which totally intrigued me and I decided to give it a try.  I love it.
It not only works for piecing half square triangles but gives me a nice long line for accurate seams too.

(I think my Dh did a very good job of cutting the plexiglass to fit around my machine so that I could drop it down in the table we made and have a nice big smooth surface for sewing quilts.

Yesterday it was on to machine applique.  This was only my third attempt and with some tips from Pat Sloan's techniques book I think I made some real improvement.   I am having to learn how to do curves on this one, the pumpkin that goes in the middle has a nice big curve but the oak leaves, lots of action there and it was a bit of a challenge for this newbie to applique.

Buttonhole stitch on my first oak leaf

Overall I am pretty pleased with how evenly the stitches are coming out, even on all those little curves.  I have one more oak leaf block to do and then it is on to the pumpkin in the middle and a couple of borders.  Looks like I will succeed in getting the top completely done by the end of the week.

Our dear mail lady came by yesterday- she truly is one of my best friends- bringing the new BOM I signed up for.  Another new designer for me, Terri Degenkolb, and another new technique to learn: needle turn applique.