Frosty Morning

We got heavy frost today and some fog. I guess fall is really here.

The ponds with fog in the valley.
Gone to quilt for a customer now.

WIP Wednesday Pumpkin Mats How to

I have been working hard at using my scraps up. The month of Sept was Orange for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012. On Saturday I really wanted to make some Pumpkins, before the month ended. But into what? I got making six pumpkins and thought maybe place mats.

From my Orange 1 1/2" strips I made a 6 1/2" square. You would need 5 strips measuring 1 1/2" x 6 1/2".

Then the corners I used Purple scarps. Start with a 2 1/2" square one dark purple and one medium purple, and cut then on the diagonal once each.

I then pins the triangles to the orange square in each corner. Make sure that you have the tips of the triangles over lapping by at least a 1/4". Sew 1/4" from the bias of the triangle

The purple triangle should cover all of the orange corner. If you have it correct, trim off the orange corner and press. Trim up your pumpkin square again to 6 1/2".

For the stem I used 2 inch strips and free cut them with a little angle. make sure your three pieces have the same angle.

When sewing the angle, I just eyeballed the little 1/4" to hang over. Press and see if your new strip is straight enough to get by.

Add your stem to the top of your pumpkin. I like to keep the medium purple on the top. Yes I did some one with the stem on the dark end and ribbed to fix it. 

I then sewed some purple 2 1/2" scraps to make up the frame parts. I quickly went to my longer strips and did strip piecing with my 2 " wide strips. I cut off 2 1/2" strip piecing at this time. I used all dark purple on the bottom. then the sides have a little shading to medium purple.

This block is now 8 1/2" wide and 8" tall. Not a great size to keep track of but I was being a little free at this time.

I made the word "Boo" with all yellow scraps that were 1 1/4" wide. I had all this yellow hand dyed in my scrap box and did not cut any extra. The B started with a 2" purple square for the top of the B and a 2" by 2 1/2" unit in purple. The O's started with a 1 1/2" by 2 1/4" purple unit. I then just added the yellow were needed. The top of B needs a little strip of purple, to make it as wide bottom. I added narrow strips between the letters and some purple on the top and bottom of the Os to make them as wide as the B. Lots of 1 1/2" purple strips were used to get what I needed and then I would trim of one was to big. I am sorry I did not take photos of the Boo in process.

To get both the Boo's and pumpkins together I added 2 " strips to the pumpkin top and bottom. the Boo's got 1 1/2" strips around it. I trimmed if one was to big.

There one place mat top done. It measures 12 1/2" tall and 17 1/2" wide. I thought that was a good size for my place mats. I can not lye I had to cut a few dark purple strips to finish the place mats off, but I used so much up. Now for some quilting these up.

I have added today's post to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced  and Needle and Thread Network

Blogtocberfest is going on this month and I am going to make a creative post every day this month.

Day 2 of Blogtoberfest

I thought today I would show you two quilts my Mom, Betty and I are doing together. She will do most of the piecing on these quilts but I am contributing some fabric and some design ideas. Then I will do the machine quilting. The top one is going to be a twist quilt in pink and purples for a special little girl.

The bottom quilt is part of my Ugliest Quilt (s). This is quilt number 2. I have enough blocks to make at least 3 quilts. I am planning to take the third one with me to retreat later this month. 

Both of these quilts are hanging on mom's design wall and the light is a little off. Her wall is an office wall on wheels so she can push it out of the way.

Today's post is part of Blogtoberfest happening all month. Go and see how much is going on. I am planning a give a way later this month. I just need to pick out the fabric. Stay tuned.

Design Wall Monday Oct 1

Today is the start of Blogoberfest over at "I saw you Dance". I am committing to blog every day this month. So to kick it off, I have my pumpkins on the design wall in Halloween style. I got started on this Saturday morning and worked on them again yesterday. I am think they will be place mats.  I am hoping to finish them soon.

However I am having machine trouble. I have been stitching on my featherweight and thought I would oil it. Now the tension is wacky. I am starting to think the timing is out. I had a number of threads in behind the bobbin case. I keep getting loops on the bottom. No matter what I do to the tension setting. The machine sounds better. I may have to get out a different machine to sew. 
Edited at noon hour: I got it working correctly. I had taken the plate off the bed to clean around the feed dogs and did not get the hook in the correct place when I put it together. Surprised it would even sew at all. Now I am happy it sounds and runs so much better. Some one asked "you have more machines? yes I have 8 machines in total if I count all of them.

I have added today's post to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

I looked back at Sept's goals I did OK. For Oct here we go.
1) In Sept I got my Spider Wed quilt top all pieced together. For Oct I need to get the backing done.
2) Adam's quilt work on at Retreat.
3) piece together the second Ugly quilt maybe at retreat and backing pieced together
4) My pumpkin place mats - plan to work more on this week
5) Rainbow scrap challenge (thinking it is Brown)
6) Maybe quilt 1st ugly quilt get mom to do binding
7)

See you Tuesday

Scrap Saturday Last of the Orange

The last Scrap Saturday to show off our Orange scrap blocks. I saw some Halloween project in the works and got dreaming of pumpkins. Better then dreaming of food - started a diet and was dreaming of white bread and butter the night before. Besides all the orange scraps, it is making a bigger dent in the purple scrap box.

I got started on the pumpkins today and got two blocks complete and a start on three more. Not sure what they will become. Maybe a wall quilt or runner. At this stage they are about 10" square. The orange strip set in the middle started as a 6 1/2" square.

I also got working on something new. I see others making blocks of 4 patches or 16 patches and I thought I would make some 16 patches but I have added in one little twist. Each block has one square that is a contracting colour. In the case of Orange it got a blue or purple square. These are made up of 2" squares and  now measure 6 1/2" square. We will see how I use these.

Go to Soscrappy to see more about Scarppy Saturday and all the other Orange happening. I wounder what colour we will get next month. I could do Black or black and other colours mixed in. Brown could happen too. Three month left and all my favorite colours have been used up.

I also needed some Orange wonky log cabins. One full orange and two that had a dark purple side too. You just wait till the end of the year and I have to put the log cabins together.

Here are new Orange spools that I worked on today as Leaders and Enders. I also have a stack from early in the month.

I have signed up for Blogoberfest 2012. I have added the button to the right side. I am to blog every day in the month of October, and share my creative sprite  I think I will host a give a way. I will have to think about what I will give away. Maybe some dyed fabric.

Friday Finish

I got it totally finished last night. It has been dragged around waiting for me to finish the binding. In just over an hour I got the hand stitched binding done.

Not  sure it has a top or bottom. Both ways look great.

The back with the bubble quilting. Someday I should do a large project all over it.

I am using it as a little placement next to my chair on the oak side table.

I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday, and Friday-Favs-Party 82, and TGIFF.

Fall and a Quilt

I got this quilt done for my customer and she came to get it late yesterday. She calls it her "fun quilt". I forgot to get a photo of the backing but it was red with large numbers. She had me quilt it will an all over squares pattern that I do with Red thread on the top and bottom. It really did made it fun. The pattern of the patch work is Turning 20.

A detail shot. Great fun. Best of all she was very pleased with it. Now she has to finish her binding.

The sun was out today and the leaves are at their best colour so I have some fall photos today to share with you. Honey the horse.

This is my driveway. If you had a bad day, there is nothing better to drive home through the trees and almost there. Open the window and small the leaves for the best aromatherapy. No internet smell-a-vision, sorry.

WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday  has my Grandmother's Choice block for this week, the Sunflower. I did not know what I should do to make this 8 inch block at first. I desisted on English Paper Piecing. So it is all hand pieced. I now need to pick a background fabric. A friend Liz is sending me some fabric with my mom tonight that looked like it may work great. I did most of the piecing yesterday at my Bee group stitch day. Liz gave me a kids quilt to quilt and one of the fabrics is the perfect blue. She thinks she has some left and will see my mom tonight. Then I can pick the fabric.

I have added this post to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday

This is one choice I have. The large blue dot print. It maybe to strong for the block.

I am having computer trouble. My lap top is dead and my great Geek of a brother found me a nice recycled one but it does not have the programs I know. I can not edit my photos the way I like too. Maybe tonight my husband can give me some new programs so I can edit photos and make the post I want. Good thing my men know how to fix these computers.

Maybe tomorrow I can show the other choices, if I can fix up the computer for easier use.





I have also lost all my contact list for my emails, so if you think I have your email, well now I do not. Send me an email and I can add you to my new computer. Thanks.

Design Wall Monday Sept 24

 Today on my design wall I have got the fixed results of The Ugliest Quilt I have ever made. Back in June I showed you some blocks on my wall that I had sewn together some 10 years or more ago. Then they were put in a box. I got them out thinking This Year I Must Do Something with them. Well I know why they were in the box. It was Ugly. So with my mom' help we have saved it a little.

 We found this pale green floral print on sale for $5.00/m Canadian and knew it would help. We used 6 1/2" square of it between the 16 and 4 patches. It did help some. The bad part is, this is only one out of three. We have enough to make three quilt tops like this one. We have other prints to go between the patches.  We are thinking the quilts will go to charity projects our two quilt guilds do.

I have added today's post to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday, and Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek.

 I have been dying thread again to sell. I have my thread stands refreshed again. A friend (and her friends) are starting some hand projects and need more of my thread. It is great for hand quilting or hand button hole stitch. I have used it in the bobbin of my machine for machine quilting too.

Today I am starting to quilt this quilt for a friend and customer. I am doing squares in Red thread. Should be fun. I thought with the ugly quilt I needed to show something pretty today and this is much better to look at.

Lex Did Well

Update on our Dog trial in Agility today. Lex and I had four runs in total. We passed or Qualified in the first two, Advanced Gamblers and Advanced Snooker. Both are a part of the games of agility. Then we were in a Challenge and it is for Master level dogs only so our run we were For Exhibition Only.  We had trouble in one area and did three jumps badly but the rest was super good even some of the other hard parts. Then our last run was an Advanced Standard and we had some trouble at the table. The rest of the run was very good also. Sorry I forget to take photos. I have at least one video of us but have not down loaded then up loaded it to my YouTube site. So happy with my dog.

This is were he will be spending his evening resting.