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!

New Favorite block - octagon star

Here's my new favorite block.  I love it!

 It's from the Fat Quarter Shop's Decade the Halls quilt. You can get the free pattern here.  It's the most adorable star in an octagon which they used for their ornament block.  It's so easy because none of the points have to match up! 

Yes, that's right.  Take a close look at the octagon corners and the star points.  Not an exact half square triangle.  No matching to a corner point.  And the stars have an overlap too.  Lots of wiggle room!

I'm going to try a few without the ornament top and hanger, and alternate with plain blocks.  Should be a great way to use up some scraps!  It makes a 5 inch block (4.5 inches finished) which is a really easy size to work with.  The pieces aren't too tiny.

Here's how far I am with the official pattern...

#7 goes missing

Pam Buda at Heartspun Quilts has been putting out clues for a darling little quilt called Nabby's Dowry.  I've been pretty busy, but I already had the HST's made from leaders & enders and I decided to follow along.

Making up one block each week was really easy - and made for a nice break from my other projects.  Or maybe I just needed an excuse to procrastinate a while.

Anyway, the big reveal, and time to put the blocks all together came.  I laid out all the blocks on the floor and pinned a number to each block to keep them in order.  Then took them into the sewing room and started putting them together with a little sashing.  Got nearly done and suddenly - no block 7.  Not here, not there, not anywhere!

After two days of searching I finally gave up and just made another block.  Now that the top is together I'm sure #7 will show up any minute.

Linking up this week: http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com

2013 Heritage Days

What a beautiful Saturday for our community Heritage Days festival.  Sunny and not too warm.  Near 70 degrees, and just a little breezy in the afternoon.  There was a good crowd, music and food.

The Bloomington Historical Society had a big tent with photos and displays.  The one-room schoolhouse display was next to my quilting area.  Behind me was a blacksmith, and his wife who talked about the supplies needed to come west by covered wagon.  Farther over were old-fashioned games like three-legged races, sack races, and mini pumpkin painting.

Every hour there was a pie-eating contest sponsored by a nearby pie shop!  You should have heard the whooping and hollering after they shouted one, two, three, GO!

A long-time friend, Jenny, helped me this year.  She is a teacher and did such a wonderful job talking to the children who stopped in about quilting and sewing for a pioneer family.  My niece Sara Kay also helped with set up and took some photos before things got too hectic.  I'm so grateful to both of them for their help!

On the card table were the reproduction quilts I have done, or am working on.  The flag quilt in the back drew lots of attention.  The long quilting frame, which once belonged to the mother of my BFF from high school, held a completed Double Irish Chain quilt and Jenny covered her worktable with a Card Trick quilt.

Four quilt racks held examples of quilts made from today's old clothing - denim jeans & t-shirts, and some old quilts that had deteriorated to show how fabric can wear/fade/stress.   An old steamer trunk spilled more colorful quilts out and a couple ladders added some height.  All-in-all, a pretty good day to share quilting with folks in the community.  And I even had a chance to get over to the the food court for a hot dog and an ice cream sundae!  I couldn't have done it at all without the help of my wonderful DH who packed the van, unpacked the van, set up and took down and had a nice glass of wine ready for me when we got home.  What a gem!