Halloween finish

Just in time for Halloween the little pumpkin door hanger is quilted up.  I tried free motion writing for the first time in the borders.  DH asked if that was just in case someone mistook this for a Christmas quilt.  Very funny dear!  

I really enjoy Halloween. The smiling pumpkin faces, adorable and creative costumes on excited children as they bustle through the neighborhood after dark ringing door bells seeking treats. It's fun to count how many witches, princesses and hobos that arrive at the door. Not to mention all the sweets I 'sample' before the children arrive.

But no tricks for me. I'm definitely NOT a Haunted Graveyard type Halloween  person. The frightening, evil and violent aspects that some people attach to the holiday - I can do without.

Linking up just for fun:
  confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com
crazymomquilts.blogspot.com

Pumpkin patch

Don't you just love all the wonderful ideas that are out there on quilting blogs?  Such fun to get inspired by things you see and give your own version a try.  This week I needed to burn off some creative energy and put two ideas together.  Lori at Humble Quilts posted a block that begins by using an already made orphan block.  Sheri at Little Bits of This and That had a Monday Mystery quilt which included a cute pumpkin block.  So I put the two ideas together.

The center patch is larger than Lori's directions, but I just adjusted as needed.  The candy corn HST's were leftover from a quilt I made my cousin's daughter last year.  This was actually my second attempt.  The first time I used a darker green border, and the candy corn triangles just looked wrong.  Not wanting to make more HST's I dug into the 1.5 inch bag and found enough golds, greens, rusts and browns to make a checkerboard border instead.

DH says they'll make nice door-hanger decorations for out kids apartments.  Great idea honey!

Early morning stress relief

What in the world can cause a woman to turn on the sewing machine at 6am and quilt for an hour or so?  Well, things have been a little crazy here the past two weeks.  My father has not been well, and while DH went up to the Lake to pull out the last boat and dock, I stayed behind at the last minute.  This morning I woke up in the dark at 5am and just couldn't get back to sleep thinking of all the bad things that could possibly happen - worst case scenarios and all that.  Sheesh!  Had to do something to break that cycle!  Good thing no one else was home to be bothered by the noise.   Do you use quilting as a stress reliever sometimes too?  I have to say it worked pretty well!

The original idea came from Temecula Quilt Co.  Her lovely version is called Savannah Steps.  I added a big button in the center and tried out a new border template with autumn leaves.  The Courthouse Steps pattern led me to title this little quilt "One Step at a Time."  Good advice when dealing with difficulties, don't you think?

Quilting in the rain

Last Saturday at the Lake it rained almost all day.  What a great day to dig into some UFO's and WIP's that were in my quilting tub!

First, I finished quilting a table runner made from leftover block pieces.  I tried something new by attempting to quilt 'pebbles' in the white spaces.  Not too excited about how they turned out.  Well, practice would help, but I think my stippling looks better and is way easier.  But it was worth a try!

My next project was to put borders on Bricks and Stepping Stones.  It's a free Bonnie Hunter pattern that I started piecing over a year ago, and then it languished.  I had run out of 3.5 inch blocks.  But now my scrap basket has caught up and I finished up the final 20 or so blocks last week.

The inner black border was an easy call, but what to do for the outer border?  Most of the fabrics I auditioned looked too busy.  Then I pulled out a skirt that I bought for $3 at the Thrift Store a few weeks ago.  It was hand died batik made in India and looked like it had never been worn.  I couldn't decide whether to keep the skirt and wear it, or use the fabric for a quilt.  In the end, the quilt won.  I really like how the circles play against the squares and rectangles of the quilt.  What do you think?

 I wish I had taken a photo of the skirt for you before I cut into it.  You'll just have to use your imagination I guess.    In the end I decided the print was a little too bold for me and I probably wouldn't wear it much.  Have you ever bought a garment and then cut it up for a quilt?  It took a while to get up the nerve to cut into it!