Fall-O-Ween Days 2 & 3

Fall-O-Ween Day 2's designer was Sandy Gervais from Pieces From My Heart.  I loved her little Pumpkin Table mat!  I don't however work with wool, so I knew that I was going to have to make a few changes.  I also want to do all the Fall-O-Ween projects by pulling only from my stash, and I have no giant ric rac....

I decided I would use all cottons, back it with flannel, do prairie points where the ric rac was and quilt as I go. 

I pieced all the tans into strips and sewed them onto the batting and flannel in the quilt-as-you-go style.  Then I fused on the pumpkin, making it three pieces and stitched 1/8" in from the edges....same for the stem.  I chose brighter colors for the stars, applied them the same way.

When I was finished, it all looked a little "flat" compared to Sandy's, was it because I didn't add the wool acorns? 

By that time I felt a bad cold coming on and decided not to make any more decisions until later.  In the meantime, Fall-O-Ween Day 3 arrived and solved my problem for me.  This designer, Roseann Kermes, had the cutest jar decoration for us.  It was also in wool, so I had to make some changes again.  I also didn't want to make a jar decoration, but did want to use her pattern a different way! Perhaps on my "flat" pumpkin!!

I made up the acorn and the leaves using cotton fabric and I fused two together so it was reversable.  I stitched 1/4" in from the edge with thread that matched my pumpkin.  I pulled little curly sticks from a dry flower arrangement that has been hidden back in a corner and used those for the twigs in the directions.  Then I tried to find a spot on my pumpkin for them to go.  No place looked right because the acorn was nearly half the size of the pumpkin.  So, I had to split the trio and arranged the leaves on the pumpkin and the acorn as an accent in the corner. 

That worked! I stitched them down, added a floss bow up by the leaves and stitched the acorn on by going over the "X"'s on the cap.  So day 2 & day 3 are complete and ready to go home with my girl friend!

Fall-O-Ween Blog Hop - Day 1

I am so excited, today starts the Fall-O-Ween Quilt Designer Blog Hop! Gudrun has organized a fabulous 10 day hop with a free pattern each day from a different designer. Check it out!!

I finished the first project just a little bit ago...I love candy corn, so couldn't wait to get started!

I have another halloween project that I want to do that has a stencil like pumpkin, so to make this match I did the candy corn as a raw edge applique and put a tiny space between the pieces (don't know if you can see that in the pics) to make it look more like a stencil. 

I also used fleece as my triangles rather than the prairie points, just because I wanted them to pop and I had this BRIGHT orange fleece left from another project.  My son thinks I should make another and add fingers to either side and triangles all along the top and bottom so it looks like a monster is trying to eat the candy corn.  Perhaps I will make another when this hop is done....

For now, Day 1 project is finished and already on the table ready for supper. Can't wait to see what we will have tomorrow!  I have co-op tomorrow, so will check early in the morning to see if there is anything I can cut and take with me to hand sew in the morning when I have a few free minutes here and there.  If not, I will take my hexies as usual and start the hop project after supper when we get home.

House Warming

This is my sweet, sweet friend Cindy.   I wanted to make something special for her when they bought their house.  Since hubby and I had just returned from a wine tasting tour, I brought them back a bottle of Vintner's Blend from Perissos, one of the wineries we visited.  Cindy loves to support small family owned ventures and Perissos is just that.

I know Cindy likes pink, so I used some of my favorite pink with black polkadots and searched for a poem to put on the bag I was going to make for the wine.  I finally found one online that I just had to change a couple words to make it work for me.

I am such a poor friend, the bag was finished and sitting on my shelf for weeks before I finally took it to the house on Thursday!  I sure am glad she loves me anyway!

My Liberated Houses for Block Lotto!

Well, I just joined Block Lotto this month...two days ago actually...and here are my four Liberated Houses (or Wonky Houses) to go in for the drawing.  I only like the polkadot house...I think I have too much going on in the others.  But that is all the turqoise fabric I have, so they will just have to sit at those four blocks.

I may make four houses for myself without the three color requirements of the Block Lotto.  I think a Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter House wall hanging would look good in my hallway!  First, however, I must get another border on my neices quilt since I found the purple yesterday that I had stashed away.

Book Review - Billy Graham His Life and Influence

Billy Graham is a name everyone knows, and also a man many have written about. David Aikman adds his book, Billy Graham His Life and Influence, to the list. He writes about important times in Graham’s life and recounts impacts he has had on political leaders here in the United States and abroad. He starts with Billy as a country boy and follows him through his world changing life.


While there was so much information contained within the pages of this book, most of it was regurgitated from other sources. I was excited to start this book, but it didn’t take long until I was dreading having to read another chapter. I could not, at all, stay interested and felt I could have just read the books he was quoting over and over. I also got the impression that Aikman did not agree, or looked down on alot of the personal areas of Graham's life. If I were to recommend this book, the recommendation would also come with the statement that - if you like to read books of regurgitated information, then this one is an easy and informative read.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

E-I-E-I-O

It is hard to see the detail on these from the pic, but they are very cute! The rooster is the only one with the back & front sewn together. I will get to the others tomorrow.

Now that is one cute cow!

The chicken turned out so cute, i had to try one more finger puppet before moving on to my shirt order! Now that is a cute cow! Cant wait to see these on my grandsons fingers!

I finished my pin cushion yesterday! My big blue magnet pin holder has been dropped so many times that at was all cracked and ugly. So i made this pin cushion and put the ugly blue magnet into the top. The top of my pin cushion is now a strong magnet and i can stick my needles around the outer edge and on the sides. I used the fabric left over from my binder cover, which i will try to post later. I will also find the site with the pin cushion directions and post that later today. Now back to my chickens!

----Here is the website with the directions and templates for the pincushion:
http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_prairie-flower-pincushion.pdf

Enjoy!

I was trying to work on some breast cancer awareness t-shirts but my file is corrupted, so i decided to stitch up some finger puppets for my grandson. They are cute! I still need to fix that embroidery file today... But for now, something fun! :-)

Hexies getting started

I just finished hand piecing the top and Bottom of my pincushion. Now i can start making the hexies for my quilt challenge!