For me, all my fall-y thoughts go to leaves so I decided I’d finish this top with some leafy quilting. Don’t look too closely, it’s my first use of my quilting software. I can say I learned a lot….lol… and I’m happy I can move this to the done pile!
I’ll try to post a nicer, outdoorsy photo later but here’s what happened as I tried to bind this.
A cuddle puddle!
These two almost never snuggle. The normal routine is that Milo jumps up and Gizmo leaves disgruntled. But tonight they decided to tag team. Eventually, I was able to get the quilt back.
So, before someone fuzzy can jump on your keyboard, be sure to visit our other bloggers for lots of fun and inspiration!
Do you remember the song, “Monster Mash”? It is all wound up in my memories with spooky movies, trick-or-treating (I remember the amazement at those houses that gave out full-sized candy bars!) and, for a kid who was scared of the dark, just a little bit of tired relief to get safely home! When I got older, Halloween became a more crafty event. There were kids who needed costumes and pumpkins to carve. Now, it’s just a fun night to answer the door and admire all the little people in costumes. I like when the bigger kids come to the door, too. I’d much rather have older kids enjoying the fun of trick-or-treating than some of the other options! And, kudos to them for not being too cool to join in the fun. The bigger the kiddo, the bigger the handful of candy is my way of thinking!
I always love to play along in a blog hop especially with the wonderful Joan over at Moosestash Quilting! She and Carol at Just Let Me Quilt are the queens of Halloween in my book! If you haven’t joined their facebook group, Cackling Stitches, you really should check it out. So much fun and spooky inspiration!
Well, this year I decided to go in a slightly different direction. I’d seen a great quilted witch’s hat on the Art Gallery Fabrics Instagram account which led me to this tutorial. So, I decided that what I really needed this year was my own custom witch hat!
It’s tricky to get a good photo of this on your own head so a shepard’s hook in my garden is doubling as a mannaquin. The tutorial called for felt but I really wanted the quilting on it so I did sort of wing it. I’ll share what I did, though, in case you want to make your own. The pattern pieces are back at the original tutorial. Remember, I didn’t design this, I’m just showing you how I added the quilting.
I interfaced my fabrics to make them a little stiffer and then traced the area of the cone and quilted it with one layer of batting.
Then I interfaced the brim pieces, layered them right sides together with batting and sewed the outside edge. I turned it, pressed it, trimmed away the excess batting and put the pieces together as shown in the tutorial.
Then I tried it on and decided it needs a little black seam binding to cover the join. As long as I hold my head just right, you can’t really see it but straight on, it’s distracting.
The thought struck me that Milo had been such a good sport about modeling the dog coat that maybe he’d like to dress as a witch, too. The picture below does not do justice to the level of disgust in the looks I got. Obviously, a modeling career is not his life goal! Oh, well, he has higher pursuits…like napping!
There are always so many talented quilters on these hops. Please be sure to take a look at the wonderful makes!
And, speaking of lovely things, my dahlias are going strong into these fall days. I love the colors and I may have to figure out where in the yard I can put more of them next year!
Now, it wouldn’t be right for me to finish a post without giving you a couple of cute kitty pictures. This was Gizmo and Milo last night. Mo decided that warm clothes made a dandy bed and Milo likes the high ground of the sofa back.
Have fun checking out all the spooky fun and be sure to save a couple of those favorite candies for yourself…after all, you’re never too old to trick-or-treat….even if it’s your own front door!
The incomperable Carol over at Just Let Me Quilt has put together a Sew It – Show It event with the dellightful theme of “It’s a Dog’s Life.”
We’re in the dog days of summer here, the sunflowers that made a volunteer appearance in my garden beds are starting to droop their heads and my dahlia’s (which were planted quite late) are starting to really bloom out. The catnip bed is filling in nicely and gets regular visits. The catio kit that I bought on Amazon this summer is open for business. Unfortuantely, the cats are still a lot mistified about the “outside” part of the house but I’m sure they’ll figure it out. Eventually.
There was a ton of inspiration for me for this hop. Even though I’m only a dog-auntie these days, I’ve had my heart stolen by a steady stream of silken ears and big brown eyes.
I decided that since quilted clothing was all the rage, it was time to try my hand at a quilted dog coat. I found a tutorial online and put together a small coat. Of course, I then realized I didn’t have a handy dog in the house to model for me so I went to the next big thing…Milo! Doesn’t he make a handsome model!
Milo doesn’t look particularly fascinated to play dress up but he did suffer my foolishness graciously. Now I just need to find an acutal dog model. So, if you have a pup or a large cat who needs to make a fashion statement, why not turn some scraps into a fashion statement of your own…maybe even a matching set for you and a favorite pet?
Please be sure to check out all of the other canine-inspired creations. Carol has done such a great job of sheparding this group and I really appreciate all her work!
How could I turn down a hop called “call me crazy?”
Everyone who knows me will confirm that I’m crazy about quilting, and fabric, especially fabric. Sometimes I wonder if the attachment to quilting is more about the fabric or the quilts. That, however, is just another variation on the whole chicken vs. egg debate.
Recently, I was asked to try my hand at a memory quilt that could be considered a crazy group of fabrics. I was given a bag containing knit pajama bottoms and a couple of t-shirts. Pulling these into a cohesive whole was going to take time and a bit of creative thinking. I did a lot of cruising the internet for ideas. I had some ideas that had to be scrapped due to fabric constraints.
This was the first step in creating a plan.
Things began to fall into place. (I no longer felt like I was going craxy.)
And, voila! The final product made me really happy! And I hope it makes the recipient exceptionally happy! It may have started out as a crazy little pile of old clothes but I’m crazy about how it turned out!
However, I’m glad to get back to regular quilting cotton on the next one!
Special thank you to Joan for the crazy-good job she does on hearding all the crazy quilt folk and putting this fun together! Be sure to check out all the projects being shared…you’d be crazy to miss it!
It is definitely picnic season! Here in Oregon, we’re having warm days and sunlight that lasts through 9 pm. Plenty of hours for a picnic if you are picnic-inclined. Personally, I like my picnics indoors. I’m quite allergic to grass and, frankly, I go immediately to Defcon 5 at the site of ants! But I love an indoor picnic. When my daughter was small, we would take a towel and put it on the floor and bring our snacky foods Each of us would have a favorite book and we’d picnic away in cozy silence. When I think quilts and picnics, I immediately picture a scrap quilt. And scraps are something I have plenty of! I had a stack of browns that I’d been gifted. These were good quality quilt shop fabrics from probably the late 80’s and early 90’s but the color was, well…a bit boring. I’m pretty fond of a challenge, though, so I decided to pair them with some scrappy blues I’d also been gifted and, voila! Suddenly, those browns were looking pretty good! I used 2.5″ strips and 3.5″ red center squares. Set 5×5, this quilt ended up a comfortable 72×72 and is plenty big to accommodate a nice picnic and a couple of good friends. Or, if you’re like me, a few books, a plate of cheese and crackers with oranges all in the comfort of your living room.
The flowers in the second picture were so pretty that I thought they needed their own picture. They were a gift from my lovely neighbor who gave me starts when she divided her flowers. I love the life and color they bring to the fence line. (I’m super lucky to have the very nicest friends, family and neighbors.)
There are a bunch of terrific bloggers ready to invite you to a picnic of their own. And the perfect party planner deserves a huge round of applause! Carol at Just Let Me Quilt is the hostess with the mostess when it comes to corralling a bunch of talented folk for a celebration…be it picnics or Halloween or all the themes in between! Be sure to hop along and see what everyone has to share…oh, and the best part….you don’t have to watch out for ants!
Whether you call them pigs (projects in grocery bags), WIPs (works in progress), UFOs (un-finished objects) or PHD’s (projects half-done), I have lots of them! There’s a variety of reasons I find myself jumping ship on a project (or, shelving it for later…I really do believe I’m going to finish all of them some day.) Sometimes, it’s because another project comes up and has a deadine. Other times it’s because another, shinier project comes along. No matter the reason, if the PIGs in my sewing room could oink, it would be a neighborhood noise hazard!
The project I decided to finish for this Sew & Show was truly a PIG. I was gifted a bunch of really nice scraps and pieces a while back. In it was a smaller bag with some leftover bits from a flannel quilt. Some rail style blocks, some cut pieces, some half-square triangle blocks and three 9-patches. And a few bits of fabric. I added one of my own (the tan) and started playing. Sometimes, you just need this kind of unplanned fabric adventure to unwind. So, I worked away with no plan at all and I’m pretty darn pleased with what I made from leftover orphan bits.
I did have to add a fabric for borders and binding. This one didn’t have a home in mind but when my brother saw it, it was clear it was his! So, tomorrow, I get to suprise him with it. And, I get to enjoy the fact that the oinking in my sewing room is just a tiny bit quieter! This little piggie finished about about 50″x50″.
I quilted this freehand on my Q’nique 21 Pro with a light green thread. The back was two different flannel pieces I had on hand so another win on the fabric utilization project. (I have no desire to “de-stash” except by using up those lovely pieces I’ve acquired.)
Of course, I had lots of help on this….
Gizmo quite loves this little piece of backing leftover from one of my friend Jennifer’s project. Speaking of Jennifer, I had the fun of quilting this beautiful baby quilt that she made.
Many thanks to Joan over at Moosestash Quilting for helping me evict this little piggie from the pen to roaming free! There’s a whole herd of quilters with PIGs to show you this week. Be sure to check them out and come back soon. I’ve been in a bit of a slump but my “sew-jo” seems to have returned and I hope to show another little piggie or two soon!
Oh, I do love a blog hop! A chance to look up from my pile of UFO’s and say, “Squirrel!”
The amazing Carol over at Just Let Me Quilt is your travel planner/cat herder for this hop and she is just amazing! Many thanks for all you do, Carol!
I, on the other hand, have not been amazing lately. I had Covid back in December which left me feeling pretty yucky but apparently my body didn’t get the memo that we didn’t like that because Covid made a return visit in March! (Before you ask, yep, vaccinated, yep, careful about where I go and, until recently, pretty consistent with masking.)
But, back to the important part…pink! (OK, so it says rose but rose is just another shade of PINK!) I really, really, really love pink! It is my all-time favorite color. I love it in all it’s shades from the palest blush pink to the deepest fuschia. So, I decided to pull fabrics from my stash to celebrate my favorite color. My plan was to make a trip around the world with these but I’m afraid I only got as far as the fabric pull and the strips.
I did finish this one up a bit ago and, despite the emphasis on the Emerald City, it has a lovely note of pink in it!
I really need to find a new set up for photographing my quilts…or ask the neighbors if we can extend the fence.
Since this seemed like a very miserly amount of pink to show you, I thought I’d show you a few more of my pink or pink-adjacent projects. This one was from Project Quilting this year and I never did get a full picture of it. I had such fun digging in my stash for a variety of pinks for this!
I’ve put together a little gallery of some of my quilts that were pink, pink adjacent or just had a sneaky peek of pink in there somewhere. I even added a picture of the office chair that we reupholstered for my sewing room in, you guessed it, pink! With any luck, I’ll find my sew-jo here quickly and you’ll see a rosy round the world soon!
Made with inspiration fabric from guild and donated back to guild.“Big and Little” – a pair of charity quilts.
Please hop on over to the other participants and see what they are showing this week. There is so much talent in this group!
So, when I heard about a blog hop celebrating green I started to think Emerald City! I have this collection of Wizard of Oz fabric that has been waiting around for it’s time in to come out and shine! (Actually, I had such fun using up the entire “Little Women” bundle that I was itching to repeat the process!) I was casting around my brain for a fast and fun pattern to work these up in when I decided that it was time to revisit “Trip Around the World” which was one of my earliest quilts and one I’ve never repeated. I found a great free pattern on Bonnie Hunter’s website. I started playing and arranging my fabrics until I decided on this…
The accuquilt made quilt work of cutting my 3.5″ strips.
Hmmmm…it’s not quite as green as I thought it would be…but I like it.
Now, funny story about this green…my bundle was half-yard pieces but I found another 2-yard piece of this green at a thrift store. I looked all over the sewing room for that piece and came up empty. Then, when I was working on my final PQ quilt, there it was! Like the fabric fairies were just playing tricks on me! Or, the quilting leprechauns decided to do me a favor for National Quilting Day.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get as far on my project as I wanted (in part because the 22nd is not the 23rd and should not be thought of as such) so here’s a peak at the quarter section. My plan is to add a border of the green Emerald City print and a green binding.
Lots of thanks to Carol for putting this together! I’m exited to finish this up and see what lies a bit further along the yellow brick quilt road!
In the meantime, Milo has taken to the quilt from my husband’s shirts. He seems pretty content and I’m excited to see how the next one will come out.
Be sure to check out the rest of the terrific quilters on the hop!
Often, I need a day or two to come up with an idea to suit the challenge but this week’s prompt about facing your fears resonated on the second idea. I usually toss around ideas for the first and second day, then get down to sewing.
My first thought was fusible applique.. this technique really scares me! But my next thought was of another project that has been lurking in my sewing room. I put my late husband’s shirts away with the intention to make quilts for the girls and me and, honestly it’s been hard to think of taking scissors to them. Of course, it’s another late night finish so here’s a quick late-night picture of with Milo making an appearance. I think he approves!
More in the morning! So, here’s the better picture…
The wind was gusting just enough to make getting a photo tricky and Milo has apparently bonded with this one! Although, when asked, I’ve always said that the cats’ favorite quilt is always the one I’m currently working on. The pattern is Scrappy Mountain Majesty which is a free pattern at Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville website.
The back is yardage that was earmarked for another shirt.
I’m glad I had the PQ challenge to push me along it this. It was a tough emotional project but I love the end result. It’s been a great season of Project Quilting and I’m grateful for all of Kim and Trisha’s work to put this together!
Bea from BeaQuilter invited a bunch of bloggers to dust off a quilt book and play! Well, dust was a literal thing when I took a deep dive into my bookcase and looked for a book. After I finished sneezing, I landed on the very first quilt book I owned. (Not this copy…I actually had one of the comb bound editions that were among the first ones.) I had recently done a log cabin for the “Novel” challenge and was reminded how much I love log cabins. I made my first quilt using Eleanor Burn’s Log Cabin Quilt in a day in the early 80’s. I wish I could show it to you…it was soooo bad! Suffice it to say that my color sense and sewing skills have come a long way since then! I had been eyeing up a pile of nice browns and tans and wanted to give them a place to live. I added a bit of red for the center and some blues for the other side and I’m loving how it’s coming out. Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much done as I wanted. There are 25 blocks in various stages of done-ness and just not enough hours in the week!
In my first log cabins, the style was six colors and a center square. Now, I’m pretty much in love with a scrappy approach. My “novel” log cabin used one fat quarter pack of “Little Women” fabric and I simply sorted the fabrics between light and dark.
The great thing about log cabin is how many variations there are…this is another scrappy version of the quarter log cabin.
Be sure to hop on over to the rest of this talented group and be sure to thank Bea for pulling all this quilty goodness together!
Words & Stitches 