Challenge issued and a finish!

I got two quilts pinned last week and then the flu bug hit and nothing got worked on. This week I was able to run some machine and hand stitches in this little Halloween quilt and am going to call this one done for now.

I may add that spiderweb next year when I pull it out still.... and maybe some stitches outlining the Boo. I really liked how the stitches look around the ghost.

As for the challenge..... I seem to have issued one to Kathy to get a quilt quilted so that binding would be the slow stitching Sunday post. I really should have thought of this better since I kept a girl home from school Thursday - which was my 2 hours planned to quilt. Oh well, maybe I can meet this challenge - I didn't say when on Sunday I had to do my post =).  Hehehe....
This is the 64 patch blocks I was making this year in the RSC challenge. I added some big flying geese to make them into star blocks and then added a green border to get it a little big bigger. It is around 58x74 right now.

The cats are going to be disappointed. I have had this quilt back side out on the floor in the quilting room. The soft flannel is a hit with the cats- they keep going in there and sleeping on it! This is one of the 2.99 a yard flannels I got from my shopping spree. There are leftovers so I can see a green and blue dot rag quilt in my future. Another type of quilt I have never made but am going to give it a try.

The plan - to get this star quilt quilted and a binding made and  attached to the top by the end of the weekend. Think I can do it? I have doctor appointments Friday morning (normal yearly things) and then I am working on Saturday. I feel like the little engine that could... I think I can, I think I can.....

Scrappy Saturday in BLACK!!!!!

Finally a month to play with the black scraps. I admit, until a few years ago I never put black into my quilts. Now I've made a few with the black and they really do make the bright colors pop. Once I saw that amazing cat with those gorgeous blue eye's on Angela's blog I could not wait to pull some black and grey out to make some snails trail blocks for my RSC quilt. I decided to do one in greys and blacks and one with fun prints with a very light grey. I think it will add a fun touch with all the other blocks I have been making. Those cats are on the back of Aidan's Monster quilt and the dots have been used for a backing of a graduation quilt for my niece Mindy. I love the memories of quilts you get when you pull through the scraps and remember where you have used them.

I think I need to pull out my Boo wall hanging and try and get that hand quilted this month with a nice black spider and spider web attached. That counts as black..... right?

Head on over and check out SoScrappy's blog on Saturday and see what other fun black creations are being worked on.

Saturday in Orange....

This week was about finishing up a few things. I have a few UFO's on my sidebar that I took out and examined. It seems I needed 6 more blocks for two of them before I could start putting them together.

First, I made a 16 patch block to go with the purple one from last month. I  also made a few nine patches that will end up in this UFO.

Then I checked my birds in the air blocks from last year's RSC and made 6 more blocks. Two orange, two blue and two green.

They will end up at some point as a top with these blocks.

I also got some time on Wednesday and was able to finish off my Halloween wall hanging into a top this week. Hopefully this will get quilted and bound sometime before October.



Today is my 'kid free' day so I'll drop them to Grandma for the day and then head to my aunt's house for a paternal family reunion of my Dad's siblings. Then it will be off to meet the hubby for a date night dinner after he is done working. I guess I'll have to pick up one kid after that and the other will be having a sleepover with Grandma. Just another busy day at my house.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see what other orange projects are being worked on this week.

A finished top

I started working on this little Halloween wall hanging last year during the RSC challenge in September. It started from this little drawing.

 My parents were visiting then and Mom got to see the start and some progress on this. She came down again this month and since orange was the color picked, I had planned to pull this little wall hanging out again. She did ask if I had finished it when she walked in the door last week! Nope - had not touched it since last year. I had not noticed I forgot a couple of the inner borders when putting it together last fall.

After a little frogging....... I made a few more of the four patches and attached them to the right spot.
Next was to figure out the Boo. I had no clue how I was going to do this. Thank goodness I am not a perfectionist as I just drew a B and an O on some interfacing. Cut it out and then made another O and pressed them onto the fabric. I didn't want it to fray... so I tried a new stitch on my machine. Ok, I confess. I have a nice sewing machine and I really only use the #2 straight stitch on my Viking. Well, I decided to try a zig zag... nope. Not what I was thinking. So I tried #28 which was a satin stitch maybe? Anyway... it covered the edges but does take some practice to do curves and corners. It is not perfect but not bad for a first try. This is 24x35 right now.

I am not sure it is done... it might want another border and I do see a spider on a web somehow around that Boo in the quilting. I think I'll let it sit for a week and then revisit it and see what it tells me.

November... how the time just fly's

Yikes, so long since the last post. Life just gets in the way sometimes. I had a quick trip up to Vermont to visit and then drive the second car down weekend before last.... good thing I didn't wait as they got a bit of snow up that way this weekend. I had a good visit with my siblings and families while there and brought Mom back with me! She was a trooper and we got down here in 2 days of driving time... 22 hours driving and probably around 28 hours in the car those two days. What a way to spend a weekend! She was able to come down and see the house and kids and headed back last Thursday to the snow covered ground in Vermont.

While there, I visited a cute quilt shop in Barre/Montpelier called A Quilters Garden and picked up a few FQ's of 30's prints.

Still have not found the ones I know I have somewhere in this house.... I'm sure I'll find them once I finish putting my sewing room in order. While gone, I had emptied out my closet of boxes and hubby installed a few shelves for me. Of course... that is the spare room so once Mom decided to come down with me... he got to throw all the boxes back into the closet and see about getting something for her to sleep on while down here. I was able to finally get in there last Friday and empty some boxes of fabrics and put them on their new shelves. Sill lots to do in there.... but lots of other things have to get done this week before my training starts next week.

On thing I decided to join is the Jacobs Ladder quilt along. I decided to do scrappy in green and creams. Since it is scrappy.... I need to have lots of patches and HST's sewn together before I can assemble a block. Having the greens out and on a shelf is much easier than pawing through a box of fabric. This is the stack I have so far.


I did try the 3.5 inch strips and the specialty ruler to cut them.. but it seems my seam allowance is off and they are too small. I need to pick those seams out and try again to get the correct size units.

I also had some quick sewing to do for Halloween. I got a bit of brown leather looking fabric to make a vest for AT's costume. I have never sewn anything but straight line for quilts...so this was an experience. I just took some packing paper and his shirt and came up with a back and two sides. Since it is just for play... I didn't do a liner. I think it came out pretty good for my first attempt. He made a cute pirate and will get more use out of it as a cow boy and sheriff in the future. That is one versatile garment! The good part, I have enough fabric to make another one for Em.
Here they are in costume last night.


Off to finish dinner... and see if I can get a few things finished this week. My list:
Do the rest of the 5+ hours of on-line training and the test before class next Monday. (Grandma is kid sitting tomorrow so I can get this done!)
Quilt the Star Struck quilt for C and get the binding put on so I can finish it next week while away. (need to unpin, re-iron everything, repin and quilt. Binding is made already)
Cut the creams for Emily's quilt so that log cabin can start construction.
Make more 2 patches, 4 patches and HST's for the JLQA.
Make a midget block (maybe tonight since it is Tuesday?) to keep that project going.
Clean and organize the 4th bedroom/sewing room for MIL (who is a neat freak... yikes!)
Wish me luck.. I'm going to need it!