Thursday

Halloween Week

Our city held trick or treat on Sunday. It turned out to be a beautiful evening and there were many trick or treaters at our door. My husband wore his Curious George "guy in the yellow suit" costume that the grandkids enjoyed. He sat on the porch enjoying his evening of chatting with all the kids and handing out candy.

This year we made some fun decorations for our yard. We made Halloween tombstones. We already had made ghosts and the grim reaper yard art years ago and felt we could use something new.

We started the project at the end of September and with all the rainy/windy/frosty/downright crappy weather, it took a very long time to find a day to spray paint the fake tombstones. It was probably a week after we started before we could finish painting all the sayings we wanted to put on the stones.

Our granddaughters were excited about the project so they each painted one of the ten tombstones we made. After they did one the novelty wore off and they were done. The rest were up to us.

After some thought we finished them with a few weeks to go until Halloween. It was a fun project that should last for a few years at the least.



Tuesday

Happy Trails Quilt

I'm on a mission to get rid of all my donated fabrics as well as my old stash. I took out some pretty browns from the donation bin and decided to pair it with some old beiges from my stash. There were enough of these fabrics to make a Happy Trails quilt.  It's a Missouri Star Quilt Company pattern that seems like a quick and easy project.  I couldn't believe it when I looked at the selvages of the background fabrics I pulled. The years were 1992 and 1997.  I sure was right about needing to use up my old stash - ha!
Missouri StarWithin the last few weeks I made the quilt top, backing and quilted the quilt. I also stitched 2 large leftover pieces of batting together. It feels good not to let 100% cotton batting go to waste. I think it turned out rather nice. I'm happy that I could sew the binding on using the donated fabrics too.

This will make a nice donation to our church group for a shut-in or someone else in need.

Missouri Star

Missouri Star



Friday

Frere Jacques Quilt - Work in Progress

I'm excited about starting this quilt. I will use it on my bed. The quilt that's currently on my bed I made more than 15 years ago. It's still in great shape and looks beautiful but ever since I painted my bedroom and replaced the flooring, I want to upgrade everything in the room, including the quilt. The quilt is under a bedspread which makes me think I am making it last longer.

I found this pattern called Frere Jacques which is a version of an Irish Chain. I saw the pattern on Pinterest and saved it, then when I went to a Quilt Expo in September, a vendor had it in her booth. I jumped at the chance to purchase it.

That's when the fun of picking up fat quarters for the project. I took this photo of the art that hangs over the bed with me in order to color match to the painting. I picked up fat quarters wherever I went. I chose a white Moda Grunge for the background.

I ordered a hexagon ruler to cut the centers and while I'm waiting for it to come I thought I would start sewing the 9-patch blocks. I made 312 of them. I might make more to make the quilt bigger. I'm not sure about that yet; if it seems too hard to make - that will change my mind. Haha!



Tuesday

Patchwork Acorn Pot Holder

I found a photo of these cute acorn pot holders on Pinterest and I couldn't resist following the link to the free tutorial.

The free tutorial for this is on the Therm-O-Web website. I used the pattern and instructions found there. The link for the tutorial can be found here.

Last year when organizing my sewing room, I threw all my fall fabrics into one plastic bin. It was so easy to pull out some scraps to make a bunch of these. Some of the fabrics I used I picked up at my local quilt shop. They have some pretty fall fabrics that I've added to my stash.

I made a whole bunch of these and I think I will take them with me to a craft fair I am attending at the beginning of next month.



Saturday

Fall Goodness

Table TopperI've been admiring Cori Dantini's Fall Goodness fabric collection for a while. So I finally purchased the cute panel and some coordinating yardage of the fabrics.  My plan was to make a table topper and a pillow cover for the bench in my foyer.

I cut the panel into manageable pieces in order to make a square table topper. After adding sashing, I was pretty much done. I did the same for the pillow cover, just sashing and an outside border.

Pillow Cover
I bought a pumpkin pantograph just to quilt the table topper. It's hard to see in a photo, but it turned out really cute.

There's lots of fabric so I made some half-square triangles with the leftovers. I'm not sure what I will do with them. Since there's not a lot of contrast between the two fabrics, it's hard to imagine turning them into something usable. I think I was just sewing them together for something to do. Maybe if I leave them up on the design wall for a while, something will pop into my head. There's enough panel pieces left that maybe I just need a solid fabric to throw into the mix to help.

Tuesday

Aviatrix Medallion Quilt

My husband purchased this fabric bundle for my birthday a few years back. I think it took me this long to make it because I was a afraid of the tiny little diamonds in the center. They were quite the challenge.

I started making the quilt at the beginning of summer. I took my time and completed some smaller projects in-between working on this one. Sadly, when I opened up the bundle there were some fade marks where the fabrics were folded. A definite sign of taking too long to work on this.



Once I completed the quilt top, I set it aside in search of the perfect backing fabric. I found a print I liked but the color selections were many and I just couldn't choose one color. Then I went on a shop hop with a church group not looking to find anything in particular. And lo and behold, there was this nice gray fabric with text printed on it. It was perfect. I bought 5 yards.

I made the backing and loaded it on my longarmer. It's pretty big and it took me 3 days to finish quilting it. I used a variegated thread and a pantograph called Leaf Crown.

Last night I finished sewing the binding on using the same fabric as the backing. I was watching the Green Bay Packers game and happily by the time the Packers won, I had the binding done. Ha!







Wednesday

Gobble It Up Pillow

Quilts N More
I recently purchased a new issue of Quilts N More Magazine. I bought it just to get this pattern. I thought it was so cute. And I liked the fabric that the designer used too.

Now that I work in a quilt shop I have a better knowledge of what's in the shop. As a customer I just went to get what I needed, I never really browsed much. I knew that my shop has the All Hallowed Eve fabric line which was used in the magazine. I purchased the brown and off white from the shop and used my scraps to complete the project.

It didn't take very long to complete. I even quilted it just like they did in the magazine. It always helps to make a project go quickly when I don't have to make the decisions, just follow the instructions in the pattern. Ha! Now all I need is the correct size pillow form and this one's ready for later this fall.

Friday

In Between Projects

I like to make quilt kits to take with me when I go quilting at the senior center. It makes it so much easier when I get there. I know what I will be working on and I don't have to worry about packing up a project to take along; it's already packed and ready.

The problem is that I have no idea what to make into a kit. I started going through my sewing room for inspiration. The first thing I came across was my box of leftover binding scraps. It's pretty full. So I took out some of the shorter binding pieces and cut them into strips for my next scrap quilt project. That diverted my efforts to make a quilt kit. I'm easily distracted lately.

The woman in charge of the quilt group at the senior center loves to share her love of Missouri Star quilt patterns. I came across one she gave me so I thought I would make it into a kit. It requires some charm packs so I dug mine out. My kitty decided to get in on the action. After auditioning some fabrics, I finally cut my next kit.

It was a fun adventure around the sewing room and a reminder that I really don't need to shop for new projects. I have plenty of beautiful fabrics all around me.

I'll start my new project next week - another quilt for the church charity.

Tuesday

What's on the design board?

I picked up some Cori Dantini fabrics to make this cute table topper. I cut the panel into two pieces, framed them with some orange and make a pumpkin border.

I ordered a pumpkin pantograph to quilt it so I will have to wait to complete it.

In the meantime, my husband wants to make fake tombstones for the front yard for Halloween. So he bought some foam core board and I drew the shapes on the board. 

Next thing I knew, I was using a jig saw to cut the shapes then I glued them up and as they dry, I'll go shop for some spray paint. I don't understand how this became my project. Ha!

On these fall days, it's hard to get a good photo when the shadows from the trees are so prevalent.