fall colors

A beautiful sample of the fall colors here--

But after our very windy weather yesterday, there might not be as many leaves on that tree!

Luckily, we didn't have stormy weather last Thursday, so our favorite little treat could don his Pizza Man costume and work his way down his block.  After he got home, he got to snack on a mini Snickers bar, which seemed like a fun new experience for him!  He really didn't know what the fuss was all about with gathering candy in his bag, but I bet by next year he will have a better understanding.  Brita made his little costume, just an easy plan with felt and glue to make a crust and toppings.  It served the purpose and he didn't mind wearing it, especially when he could pick off some of the pieces!

My quilting last week was a little bit on the wild side--

Carol made this jungle quilt from a panel print.  I quilted an outline around the biggest animals and then just did a little bit of design in the background.  She chose this wonderful soft sculpted fabric for the back.

And, some quilting for Leisl that I had a little part in making.  This was a couple years ago when myself and 3 friends did a "Round Robin".  Each of us created a center square applique design.  Then it was passed on to another person in the group to add the next border.  This continued until we each got our quilt back with work done by all of the group.

This is the end result of Leisl's quilt.  Mine is still waiting for the quilter!

a little fall

A couple of weeks ago I was spending some time with Brita and Ian, actually, it was about a month ago because it was soon after she broke her arm and I wanted to try to help her manage some things since I had 2 good arms plus her 1.  Holding a 19 pound wiggler with one arm is challenging, even if you have nothing else to do!  We made a little trip to Michael's to see if we could come up with something for a new wreath on her front door, and this is what we did---

 Not bad for starters!  A few garland rope-y things, flower pick things, glue gun, and voila!  It does announce that the fall season is upon us.  This morning the temps are in the 30's!

Also on that trip to Michael's we bought the makings for a funny bachelorette party wedding veil, I will have to see if I can get a picture to share with you because it turned out to be quite the attention-getter around the pools in Las Vegas!

Also part of that fall-like decor, I sewed this tabletopper using Halloween fabrics and a pattern from Runnermania by Gathering Friends.  It is going to be displayed at the store along with a group of other tabletop decor.

I have had some feedback about the change in the look of my blog page, and will probably be making another change, soon.  A couple people have said that they are missing the things that were on the right-hand side of the page, like the index, bloglist, recipes, etc.  Those things are still there, just layered beneath some little tabs that pop out when you move the cursor over that side of the page.  Another person mentioned that they don't see the comments, but I think those are still there at the bottom of each post when you open the full page for that post.  Just click on any of the pictures to get the full page.  Only the first paragraph of text shows up on the front page.  I do really like the clean look of the page, but also miss some of the other things (like the spinning quilts).

In my last post, I told you a little bit about the black and white and red quilt that I was working on.  Well, that quilt has been finished and a good lesson was learned.  I ran into a problem that nearly caused me to have a stroke, but turned out OK in the end.  I had the chance to use a product that was sitting on my shelf unopened, just waiting for the right moment--

                                                

I needed to apply a little spray of water to the quilt backing in a small area to shrink it a bit and eliminate wrinkles.  Which worked, but when I went back to the front of the quilt, there was pink bleeding through on the white.  HELP!!!  After picking myself up off the floor, I went to work to find a solution.  That's when the Carbona product saved the day!  It is intended to be added to the wash, but I mixed the powder with some water in a cup, then dabbed it onto a sample, and the color bleed vanished!  Hallelujah!  So the problem spots were treated, and looked like new, and I was able to clue in the quiltmaker about a potentially big problem if that quilt is ever washed.  How lucky was I to have purchased that product?  Must be fate.

"I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."  Thomas Edison

tricks and treats

We had a few more visitors on Halloween this year, but that's not saying much because last year we had ZERO! Our most favorite was this little camo dino that we found wandering on the frontporch--

Cheerfully escorted by Grandpa Jim (in his golfer costume), wearing a fine dinosaur suit crafted by Michelle. Good job!

I've been working on an adaptation of my Star Light quilt, I decided that I wanted to make a version that is smaller so it could be more like a kid-size quilt. Instead of shrinking all the proportions, I chose to keep the center star the same size and eliminate some borders. I think I like the scale and layout so far. The colors are inspired by a quilt I saw on the Red Pepper blog. It took me a bit to find what I think are the right shades and clear tones to put together. I asked for some help here in finding more of this red and white polkadot, but guess what! I got what I needed from the fat quarter that I had! I had held off sewing this for quite awhile so I could find more of that fabric, but I was really itching to get it started. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me that I really didn't need all that much of the polkadot, and when I calculated it out, it worked! After that point, it all came together nicely.

The lighting here wasn't so good, it was pretty late (around midnight) when I finished sewing and I wanted to grab a quick picture. It helps me to view the overall quilt in a picture like this, sort of like looking at a design wall (which I still haven't created!). So, this is ready for some quilting, but has to wait its turn since I am kind of backed up on the quilting right now for customers who need things done for the holidays. But it really helps to have this out of my head and off the cutting table. I am going to teach the Star Light quilt for a class at Bear Patch and it will be fun to offer the group this variation.

Haunting quilting

Been working on a couple Halloween quilts just recently--

fun colors to work with, the thread shows up a lot better on the backing--

Close-up of some of the stitching detail--

These will be available as patterns from Buttermilk Basin at Quilt Market next month. I have a couple more to do that are awesome embroidery blocks!