The month of October was a productive one for my quilting projects. I had finished one Dear Jane block fairly early in the month, and cut out the pieces for this second one shortly before leaving on a weekend getaway. The idea was that I would relax and enjoy the scenery in our Airbnb rental while stitching away on this block. I even picked one with lots of pieces, figuring I’d have all kinds of time to finish it on the trip.

But sometimes the quilting muse has other ideas. I ended up not touching this block at all,  and instead spent most of my time working on the holly wholecloth quilt. Once you’re in the homestretch, you’ve got to take advantage of that momentum … so I stitched double my monthly goal of holly leaf motifs, and I’m happy to report that the quilting on the wholecloth quilt is completely done.

Now all that’s left to do on that project is the binding around the edge, and I have a good chance of finishing it by the end of the year. I can’t even remember the last time I completed a quilt. I think it might have been in 2008.

October is, of course, the month of trick or treating, and I had both a trick and a treat this month. At my guild’s monthly scrap exchange, I acquired this project bag:

I was intrigued (and maybe a little intimidated) by the “I GIVE UP!” message scrawled across the bag in big black letters, and I find it hard to resist an orphaned quilt project, so I took my treat home with me.

Inside the bag, I found some fabric, some already assembled pieces, and some very confusing handwritten instructions:

After puzzling over it a bit, I was able to produce a scale drawing of the finished block, as well as cutting instructions for all the pieces:

The original instructions didn’t have the correct sizes for the pieces – no wonder the previous owner gave up on it. Once I had the right instructions, I was able to assemble the rest of the block:

(Technically, I didn’t make this in October, but I just finished it a few days ago and I couldn’t wait to show it off, so you get to hear about it now. I did acquire the project in October though.)

Once I got back from my trip, I focused on the rainbow quilt, and overachieved there too, quilting 15 triangle motifs when my monthly goal is only 9. At that point, I’d already achieved my UFO Challenge goal for the month, but I was on a roll, so I finally started on this Dear Jane block on Halloween weekend.

It was relatively straightforward stitching, and I probably could have finished it much sooner, if only I hadn’t chosen a block with 39 pieces in it. As it was, I completed it at about 9:00 PM on Halloween night – which is where the “trick” part of trick or treat came into play.

With three hours left to go in the month, I realized that I was so close to achieving double my UFO Challenge goal for the month of October – I’d already done 8 leaf and 4 berry motifs on the holly wholecloth, 2 Dear Jane blocks, and I was only 3 triangle motifs short of doubling my rainbow quilt goal. I could get that done in an hour and be supremely cool!

But it was kind of late, and I was tired, and I didn’t want to get out my nice quilt hoop on a stand for just 3 measly motifs, so I opted to use my plain old hoop. I wrestled the inner hoop under the bulk of the big rainbow quilt, and SNAP!

I’m still not sure what happened. I think I must have been holding the hoop at a weak spot and the weight of the quilt on it caused it to break. By then, I was no longer in the right frame of mind to set up my sturdy quilting hoop stand, and I just went to bed without finishing the triangles and achieving supreme coolness.

But it was still a productive month for the UFO Challenge – finishing the quilting on the wholecloth quilt, completing 15 triangles on the rainbow quilt, and wrapping up 2 Dear Jane blocks:

And I’ve decided that the trick of the broken hoop is outweighed by the treat of the “I give up!” project. It was a fun change of pace from my usual quilting, and an entertaining puzzle to solve. And now I have an excuse to go out and buy a new, stronger quilt hoop.