Monday, October 29, 2018

Switch-a-roo

UPDATE:  We have a winner!! She’ll receive her gift shortly. Thank you to all 28 people who read the post, though.

 There are still quilts to show and tell on my Quilting Mini Series, but I'm switching to a new venture for a week or so. I just can't be unoccupied. I have to have my hands and and mind going constantly. My new venture is pennant banners. Just out of the blue I had this thought to see how I could make one. So I made a few and put them in my booth at the vendors gallery.  Well, they're not there any more. They sold.

So more are in progress to get ready for the Christmas Open House at the gallery. There's Christmas and non-Christmas ones ready. Mostly all are burlap with one or two exceptions.


Or maybe for the kitchen or breakfast nook.



They are cute to hang around and they can speak for you.



I like them so much that I'm going to GIVE ONE AWAY to one special person. Just comment one word that can speak for you and I'll draw a WINNER ON OCTOBER 31ST.
.. it can be any word of your choosing, not just the ones I've shown. Shipping to USA Only.

Happy Halloween.......

Monday, October 22, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Cat Nap

Would you sleep under a cover of cats?

There are many cat quilt patterns online. This one was a free pattern and looked like I might could figure it out. I've come to believe there is nothing super easy out there, but I managed to figure it out and then it went pretty fast.

With the flowery cat blocks of mostly pinks and blues sewn together and a pink border added all around, it waited its turn to be quilted.



The back was a flower design, also. That's enough of flowers for awhile.



 It's different that's for sure. Seems you can sew up any design you can dream of.

Meow, till next time.

Friday, October 19, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Finishing the quilt a long

The quilt along for the fall quilt is now finished. Parts 1 and 2 were completed a few weeks ago. And Parts 3 and 4 are now complete. You can read about the beginning of it in this post here..



Part 3 was to add a border of stars around each side. Working with small pieces makes for a slow process. But I like the results. It's out of my comfort zone but well worth the learning process that makes me want to do more. Here's my look for part 3. I'm still using from fabric remnants I have on hand.



I do like the star blocks. I had to make 24. That was a neverending tasks, at least it seemed like it. They're not perfect. They're not on point. Uh-oh.



Part 4 is the outside board and the quilting. The outside border is yellow being I'm using fabric remnants on hand and wanting to stick with the color scheme going on. I Actually like the bright golden sunny fall look.

y


Here's a comparison of the pattern look vs. my look.
Put on your sunshades for mine.


 Finished pattern size is just over a 52" square.  But I wanted at least a twin bed or day bed size. So I added two six-inch borders to mine. It's now a lot more usuable quilt. I have to put my tweaks on it.



It's not my style. But it came out ok. I won't get any awards for it I'm sure.





It's now called the golden fall quilt. I don't know what will become of it, but it's ready.


Thursday, October 18, 2018

Halloween Early

With an invite from Jennifer and her crew to meet at a nearby RVCampground for a Halloween weekend, we packed and readied for a trick or treat weekend. We encountered a full campground of Halloween partiers and roaming wildlife.

Deer and pigs were very friendly. This one was the grandest of all.



Saturday was the busy day with decorating your site, pumpkin carving contest, costume contest, trick or treating, a haunted house, and a hayride. Our decoration was the skeleton campfire. Our trick or treaters were a cat and a unicorn.


There were clowns, dinosaurs, skeletons trick or treating and we found Dr. Suess and had to pose with him for a picture.





The sores were extra good this camping trip for some reason. And the campfire fit in better since the nights were not 90 degrees.  Hanging out in be night under the stars and the moon is always relaxing.




This guy was always camera ready.



It was late nights and early mornings with a perfect weather weekend with all the candy you could eat.



We may do another Halloween on the 31st. Wishing you a fun and good trick or treating.





Friday, October 12, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Pinktastic


This one is certainly pink. Somewhere between bubble gum pink, cotton candy pink, baby pink, definitely pink. Since it is October and breast cancer awareness month it makes for a great match.




I needed a quick and easy pattern to use up some pink fabrics already on hand. And I still have a load of white given to me from my sister who was given it from our aunt. The carpenters star pattern I’ve had downloaded in my phone files for a few months now is the lucky winner for this project.
Can you see the star?




And it was very quick and easy. I added the yellow small border for 2 reasons:
#1 - to bring out the small amount of yellow in the
daisy print fabric, the yellow in the heart fabric,
and the yellow in the back fabric.
#2 - I was short on pink fabric and I needed to make
the size of the quilt larger than the pattern size.




The finished size is 76” x 76”. It’s a little smaller in size than I usually make. It’s square in size per the pattern so I didn’t want to distort it’s real image by making it too much bigger than the pattern called for at 56”x56”. Though I did add about 20” all around, but kept it square. If all that makes sense.




The back is pinky, white, yellow swirly circles. Still the pink for pink October.




This one will be donated as a door prize to an October cancer awareness event and it will find its happy home.







Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Now She’s Six


Birthday party for the other six year old grand.




It was a mixed day for sure. Hot and sunny then a rain shower. A garage sale at my sissy’s to start the morning off.
Then the first half of a soccer game. Then the birthday party in the middle of the downtown antique festival. Another sissy there.

The birthday was at a painting boutique in the downtown antique district that gives painting canvas/art lessons, host group canvas painting parties, and hosts birthday parties.


All the birthday guests and parents let the artist come out in themselves. The mermaid was the theme for the day.




Surprisingly, this was not the first for most of the kids. It’s kind of a popular thing right now and some of the quests have been to other painting parties. That’s why they’re such up and coming artists I guess.




Here’s her mom tending to the party guests. She said it was so easy to just book the place, bring a cake and sandwiches and chips and let the birthday party start. They have always done the birthdays at their house, but the kids now know what’s out there as far as parties go.




Of course the food, cake and presents were just as much enjoyed.




All the artist and their paintings.




Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!







Thursday, October 4, 2018

A Quilting Mini Series: Sail Away

Isn’t this just perfect for a little boy in a new house with a new bedroom who wanted blue for his room but his mom chose gray and a touch of orange and the whole family loves the water and boating?




Its going to be great for my 6 year old grand. I think he will like it. I think his mom is going to love it.





I have another quilt in the works for him which is a dirtbike theme with a fabric photo print of him on his dirtbike. But when I came across this sailboat quilt online, I had to switch gears and go with this. I’ll finish the dirtbike one shortly.

I stood in the fabric store googling quilts on my phone to on a project. When sailboat quilts popped up, I knew immediately I wanted to make one. I down loaded the pattern to my phone in the fabric store. The fabrics started coming together with sealife, star fish, crabs, fish, whales, shells, and anchors with blues, grays, and a touch of orange. I couldn’t wait to get started.





It was started and finished just a few weeks ago. It was easy and quick and fun to see it become real. It’s in the group of one of my most favorites. The backing is all sailboats in the matching colors of blue and gray.




While I'm on a roll, I should make another one with the left over fabric and change the layout and look .                                           



 You can get the pattern here:
chrome://external-file/AhoySailor-Pattern.pdf



While It doesn’t have to be on the bed, it would be good for a snuggle up on the couch, or build a fort, or under a tree for a picnic, or take on the boat for a nice daytime nap. 


I'm very happy with this one.