Quilt, Wreath, Lanyards, EAT Tutorial Update, & a Dress

How is it already 2/3 through November?  I kid you not, I still have to catch myself before writing "May" when I'm putting a date on something because it still feels like the year is just getting started. 

I don't have a good excuse for no posts in the last three weeks.  I have AN excuse, and that excuse is that I just started a new job.  But, since it doesn't require any longer hours than my last job, it's a mediocre excuse at best.  And this post doesn't really end the slacking because it's all talk and no pictures.


Moving on, the other day I just really wanted to spend some time piecing a quilt top, so I got started on a stacked coins quilt.  My color palette is a little more muted, but I just got in the fabric I ordered for sashing, backing, and binding, so hopefully I'll finish that up and have some pix to share in the next week or two.

I finally took down my Halloween wreath on Sunday and started working toward a Harvest wreath.  I originally wanted to reproduce this rosette wreath, but I'm pretty sure I would not have that much patience.  Maybe if I win a silhouette and can find a swirl cutting shape...?  I opted for a simpler design involving circles of felt instead, but I haven't made any more progress on that, so I might give up until after Thanksgiving and then put up the only store-bought wreath in my life.

Remember how one of my Thirty Before 30 goals was to make a new lanyard, and that's one of the few I've actually completed?  I found out last week that with my new job I have to wear the bland official lanyard so no-one is in doubt about who my employer is (I'm a government contractor and they're more concerned than my last employers that no one mistakes me for a civil servant).  Typical.  But I guess that means someone may be getting a pretty pearl lanyard for Christmas...

I have finished the new letters for the EAT tutorial.  I still need to take one or two more pics of how to hang them, and then do the tutorial.  Should be simple, right?  So, stay tuned for that.  I solemnly promise I will not go to sleep on Friday without posting that tutorial.  (Someone might want to remind me of that next Wednesday if you're really chomping at the bit for that...)

Finally, does anyone else follow Presser Foot?  Since I don't have sufficient craft projects in my to-do pile, I've decided to join their Mad Men dress sew-along, and I invite you all to join me. I don't watch Mad Men; I've never even seen an episode (I have enjoyed Jon Hamm on SNL, though), but I love the pattern they selected for the sew-along.  I've never made a dress, and in fact I've only made about one article of clothing that I considered a success, but with much more practice under my belt this time (and a renewed appreciation for following a pattern), I have high hopes.  Let me know if you join in, too!