Framed Hexagon Swap

IFQ has a new swap, the Framed Hexagon Swap.
This is the first one I made to swap.

I am debating on how many I want to collect.

La Petite - A year of Small Projects - #1

 The Paganini pattern was the first pattern posted for the La Petite, A year of Small Projects.  Last year was A Year of Schibbles and I really enjoyed looking at the parade of quilts posted in October and was wishing I found out about those projects sooner.   Now a new "year" of projects has started and this time I signed up to play. 

I wasn't excited about this pattern at first, it just didn't seem to jump out at me, and I would never have purchased it on my own, but since I wanted to play, I jumped right in and bought it anyway.  Then as I started making it, I really began to like it.  It is sort of like shopping for clothes.  You see something not too great on the rack, but decide to try it on anyway.  Once you get it on, you find out you look great in it, fall in love with it, and take it home.  That was the same for me and this pattern.

The pattern was designed to use charm packs, but I don't usually buy charm packs, I have only purchased one in my whole lifetime.  So I cut the squares out of my yardage.  But when I cut one 5 inch strip to get enough squares, I still had half the strip left. So I kept cutting squares and decided to make two quilts.  After all, there are four designs to play with in this pattern,  I made V3 first, and with the extra squares I will make V4.  

Since this project was for the month of October, I decided I needed another Halloween decoration. So I cut into my collection of Halloween fabrics and my oranges for this quilt and I love how it turned out. I Absolutely love it!!  I wish I could work on the second one right away, but alas, I have other quilts that have deadlines looming, so I will have to put the rest of the fabrics in their own project bin till next year when I have free time to work on my own quilts.

Enough squares for two quilts.

Triangles laid out on my makeshift design wall to make sure I sewed my HST correctly.

HST stacked in 4 rows of 4 to start block construction.

I added some close up photos of the quilting for Tarnyia. :)

A UFO Finish - Just in time for Halloween

 I made the top for this quilt in 2006 at the end of summer.  At the same time I made three other Halloween quilt tops.  Two got quilted right away, one got quilted three years later, but this one sat basted and ready to go for three years.  I decided this one needed to get finished this year.  Heck, it was already basted, the hard part was already done.  So I used the free time I had in between other projects to worked on this one.  During one session, I quilting the free hand spiderwebs around the floating squares.  During another sitting I added the meandered pumpkins.  A few weeks later I worked on the designs inside the triangles.  Finally all I had left was the border and I finished up that up last week. This week I was able to attach the binding and last night while watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I hand stitched down all the binding.  YAY!! Another UFO crossed off the list.

For now it sits folded nice and neat under this little table near the front door.  On top of the table are little tiny treat bags I made with some of the leftover scraps.  The pattern comes from The Happy Zombie and can be downloaded here. They sure are quite fun and quick to make.  I really want to make more of them.  We shall see if time permits before Halloween arrives in three days.

Rag Quilt for Baby Girl

My newest finish - A rag quilt for a baby girl.  My cousin's baby is due in the middle of November so this needed to get done pretty quick.  I started it early Tuesday morning and finished it up late this afternoon.

With the finish of this quilt, I am left with about half a yard of the flowered flannel fabric. I have made quite a few rag quilts with this fabric, but unfortunately what I have left is not enough to make another one.  I will have to figure out what else to do with this left over peice and all my other flannel scraps.  Perhaps a scrappy flannel double Irish chain.  Hmm, that may be a good possibility.

I'm loving my pumpkin in this photo.  It doesn't really go with the  pink and yellow, but I wanted to have something Autumn in the picture, and what represents Autumn best besides colored leaves? Why a pumpkin of course.  :)

Doodling on a Monday.

I love Monday's.  They start off a fresh new week and the house is calm and quiet again after a busy and noisy weekend.  Even though Mondays are usually Laundry Day they are also play days for me. :)  In between loads I usually work on my sewing projects, but instead of sewing today, I finished up this drawing.  I usually doodle on Sunday's but this picture was almost finished and I was excited about it so I decided to go ahead and finish it.  I added a few more rocks and grass and then colored it all in.

Tree Silhouette Fabric Postcards

This is my version of "Tree Silhouette" for my Fabricards postcard swapping group.

I made four of these.  Three to swap and one to keep for myself.

I made these a week and a half ago, but didn't want to post the photo too early and spoil any surprises.


Then, just for fun, I made another card out of the reverse fabric left over from punching out the tree on the first cards.  I'm loving the candy corn border on this one.

Halloween Costumes

I have been very busy crafting this week, just not with needle and thread.  I spent most my days making these two Lego men. Two of my sons and I saw something similar on the internet and they decided they really wanted to be Lego men for Halloween.  So I told them to bring me a couple of their Lego men and I would give it a try.  My daughter wanted to be a cave woman, and we threw her costume together in the hour before my husband's work Halloween party tonight.  I didn't even use thread for her costume, just tied it around her.  I really wanted to spend more time on hers, but those Lego men took way longer than I anticipated.  4 days of non stop work.  I didn't even clean house or make dinners.  My husband took care of the dinner part, but now I have a really messy house to take care over the weekend.  My youngest son's costume was store bought.  It is the first one I even remember buying as a mater of fact.  I was feeling really bad about that and the fact that I didn't get to make his, but when he said, "This is the best costume I ever had!" and really meant it, then I didn't feel so bad.  The kids all had a good time at the Halloween party and the Lego men sure did get a lot of attention and each Lego man won a $25 gift card for second place in the costume contest.  :)

She loves me... She loves me NOT!

I have been fiddling with this postcard for weeks now trying to turn it into  a masterpiece, well maybe not a masterpiece but I at least wanted to be able to say "Look What I made!"  Instead, I want to introduce it to the garbage can.  I just don't like this fabric postcard.  I think I screwed up first  by putting that yellow background behind the ghosts. Then I tried to add some stars to go with the yellow but something still didn't look right about it.  So I decided to add an orange fringed border to bring out the orange pumpkin.  But I think I ended up making the card worse.

I was about to chuck this in the trash, but then thought, maybe I am too harsh on myself.  Someone out there may actually like it.

So, If there is someone out there who loves this card, drop me a line.  I will put your name on the back and put it in the mail just for you.  :)

*Update*  

The card is on its way to Wendy.

Thanks Wendy,  I am glad it will be loved.  :)

Halloween Postcard Holder

I got tired of my postcards falling off the fireplace mantle from only a little breeze of someone walking by, so I came up with a festive postcard holder to hold them.  It is similar to the other one I made, but this time I used plastic for the corners instead of fabric.  I was going to try another method I have seen on other blogs and use a whole 4 x 6 piece of plastic instead of corners and slide the whole card in and out, but the glare on the plastic was too much, so I just used the corners.

When I was done making the wall hanging, I had some interesting scraps left over, particularly the orange I used to punch out the "Happy Halloween".  It had fast 2 fuse on it and I hate to throw that away when I can fuse it to something else, so I did just that.  I cut it up into very small pieces, mixed it with the striped binding fabric and the black background fabric of the wall hanging and fused it all on the base of a fabric postcard.   I also took the small triangles eyes, nose, and mouth that came out of the punched out pumpkins and ironed them on as well. Then  I covered it all in black tulle, added some meandering stitching to hold it all down, and for the final touch, I placed the white ghosties on the top. 

I love it when I can use my littlest scraps and turn them into something cool.
I even have enough fused orange fabric to make another one.  

:)

Fall Into Fall Giveaway Winner!

The day has arrived.  It is time to announce the winners of the Fall into Fall Giveaway.
On October 1,  143 bloggers all over blog land posted giveaways.
I was one of those bloggers and today is the day to announce all the winners.  

The winner of my giveaway is....

JayTee of JayTee's Patchwork Place!

Congratulations!!

Thank you all for entering my giveaway.
I really enjoyed visiting all the new blogs and reading all of your favorite pumpkin recipes.
I am definitely going to have to google recipes for them!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Frog Fabric Postcards

 Every now and then I like to pull one of the unfinished frog postcards off my pile and practice my simple hand embroidery stitches.  One day I may advance and try some of the fancy stitches showcased on Pin Tangle, but for now I  want to get better at the simple stitches since it seems that the more complicated stitches are all based on these basic embroidery stitches.

18  more postcards awaiting hand stitching.

They are all similar to each other because all the images came from the same novelty fabric.

I spent one afternoon cutting all the salvageable images from the scraps of that frog fabric and attached them to the green base.
Now when the mood strikes, I just pick one up and grab my thread and start stitching.

  

I also put together this postcard the other day.

My daughter had this brown and blue flower appliqué iron on, but she didn't want it,

So I took it and turned it into this postcard.

Halloween Table Runner

I grabbed one of my favorite Halloween fabrics and some coordinating fabrics to go with it and put together this table runner.  The pattern comes from Karie Patch Designs and is call Served with a Twist.  I love how the 4 patches in the center aren't your traditional 4 patches, the purple fabric is all twisted up.

And just like the peppermint pincushions, I made two of these.
I kept one for myself and gave the other to my sister.  

This is my outdoor kitty Rex.
While I photographed the table runner, He wanted to play and stretch out in the newly made shade.  Even though it is Autumn, the temps are still in the 80's here in the afternoons.

Sunday Doodling

 I spend a lot of time on Sundays just doodling.  Today I finished up this picture that I have been working on the past three Sundays.  Usually I just doodle shapes and lines and cover a whole page, but my husband said he wanted me to turn those lines into something he could recognize, so I made this picture of a waterfall.  Then I added color.  Usually I just work in black and white but for this one I felt the need to add color.

These are what my drawings usually look like. Random doodles all merged into each other. This one has my niece's name mixed into it.

Fall Into Fall Giveaway

Debi is hosting a Fall Into Fall Giveaway.  She has gathered 151 different bloggers, 8 of those are business bloggers, and each one is offering a give away.  I am one of them. WAHOO!!

My give away today is pattern for a 43" x 48" Autumn Wallhanging, 3 fat quarters of my most favorite Halloween fabrics, and a Halloween fabric postcard of your very own to mail out to whom ever you wish.

To enter, just leave a comment and tell me the name of your favorite Pumpkin Recipe.

Mine is Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake.   mmmmm

The winner will be drawn on October 15th.

Good luck and happy blog hopping.



*UPDATE*    *UPDATE*

The winner is....

JayTee of JayTee's Patchwork Place!

Congratulations!!

Peppermint Pincushions

I used the free pattern from Connecting Threads to make these two pincushions.

One is for me, and the other is going to be put up for auction during my guild's "Make It, Bake It, Sew It, Grow It" auction at our next meeting.

I decided to make two at once because based on past experience when I say, "I will make one for me later on", it always turns out that later never comes and I never get one for myself.  So this time I cut out enough fabric to make two and now I have one to give and one to keep.

This one is mine.

My son Thomas liked the button better on this one so that is why I picked this one to keep.