More Cobwebs in my Sewing Room

Way back in July I started working on a cobweb quilt....

 ...to use up some of my bright novelty scraps - the shorter pieces left over after I made several string quilts using the longer strings for the Heartstrings Quilt Project.  challenge.

 While I was browsing the Free Motion Quilting Project for an appropriate design to quilt on my grandson's Halloween Quilt (see previous post) I also noticed she was running a UFO SUNDAY linky party to encourage folks to finish up their UFOs.   So, this is one of my dozens (hundreds?) of UFOs I wanted to get finished up because 1. I want to use up more scraps and 2. I'm sick of looking at that uncompleted thing hanging over the back of the chair in the sewing room (I don't really like brights).  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it when it is completed. I thought about using the Spiderman yardage I have on the back and give it to my 3 year old grandson for his new bunk bed since he loves Spiderman. But he visited this weekend and told me now his favorite character is the Incredible Hulk. (But maybe that is because that was who was on his underwear for the day. ) And I stray... Anyway, I finished up the rest of the 48 triangles necessary to complete the quilt that already consists of 48 triangles.  Four triangles make a block and the quilt will have 24 blocks in a  4x6 configuration.

Now, trimming and sewing them together will have to wait until next Sunday. My back hurts from sitting in the non-ergonomic chair for so long and this is my last day of vacation so I'm going to enjoy it with a glass of wine on the deck. We are having beautiful fall weather.

Again...to see what everyone else is finishing up visit  UFO SUNDAY  and why not work on finishing up one of your UFOs.

Jacob's Halloween Quilt

I used charms from a Fall/Halloween swap on Quilt-N-Friends Yahoo Group and bordered them with fabric from my stash. This is for Jacob, my 3 year old grandson. The granddaughters already have a Halloween quilt.

 I also used some monster fabric I've had in my stash for several years. I think I may have enough left for the back of another small quilt.

I quilted pumpkins on my plain old sewing machine. I was looking for a pumpkin idea for quilting it and found one at Free Motion Quilting Project.  that I tried to imitate.

And I'm getting better at remembering to label the quilts before I give them away!

I just found a new blog with a Sunday linky party. - Sew Many Ways, Sew Darn Crafty and am linking up for the first time this week. It's fun to see what other people are doing and get ideas for what I want to do!

Brown

 I finished my work on Beth's block for the Brown Color Study RR hosted on CQ4Newbies Yahoo Group.
I added the buttonhole/french knot seam, feather stitch w/ bullion seam, bullion roses/leaves, big ribbon rose with button/bead center and leaf...

 and I added a crocheted basket full of bullions, beads and sequins.

 I just remembered I did not blog about my work on Ruby's block that came before Beths. I added branches and leaves, half buttonhole wheels...

 ...feather stitch w/ ribbon flowers...

...seam with bead flowers and teddy bear button.   I also added a crochet basket of flowers to Ruby's block but don't see that I have that picture handy.

All the stitching/embellishments are supposed to be brown in this RR. I think this Brown RR has been one of the best colors to study so far.

Hand Quilting Dandy

Now that it is getting cooler I've got the Dandy Quilt pinned...

...and I've started the hand quilting with #5 dark purple perle cotton.  Hand quilting is a mindless exercise I thoroughly enjoy. It's kind of like yoga but without contorting the body. (My body doesn't take well to contorting).

Happy (Halloween) Blocks

I've finished working so much overtime and finally am able to be off this week. I'm staying home - cleaning up the garden, working on genealogy, trying to destash and all other things I love to do to clear my mind.

Speaking of destashing...I had a pile of 6.5 inch Halloween squares from a Fall/Halloween charm swap on QNF (Quilting Friends) Yahoo Group so thought I would make them into a Halloween quilt for my 3 year old grandson. The granddaughters already have a Halloween quilt so it's about time I made him one.  I was surprised I had enough different fabrics (30) to cut for borders for the charms. I buy FQs after holidays and throw them into a drawer. The other surprising thing is that none of the fabrics are repeats. I have a cute monster fabric for the backing. So, this is a great destash quilt.

Where the Bats Fly Sideways...

 I made some reversible trick or treat bags for the grandkids, Isabelle and Kayla both aged 7 and Jacob, age 3.  The girls get spiders on the outside and Jacob gets candy.

And on the reverse, Jacob gets eyeballs (he loved them on the I Spy quilt) and the girls get bats  (which I didn't notice until this picture were flying sideways).

They aren't allowed to wear costumes or have Halloween parties at school anymore. I don't understand that. What will be banned next? - scary/gorey books with  fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood?

My grandkids love scary. They love to turn out the lights and play with glow sticks and make up scary stories that include themselves.  They love to watch the old black and white scary movies (like Thirteen Ghosts). My kids always loved scary too. In the old days when we didn't have much money we would pop up a big bowl of popcorn dripping in butter, turn out the lights and listen to scary old radio show tapes. The kids still remember their favorite episodes.

I might use some glow in the dark paint on some of those eyeballs. That might be scary. The story of why bats fly sideways at grandma's house might be scary too.

Looking Out Attic Windows

I participated in a 6.5 inch animal swap about a year ago that was hosted on the I Spy Yahoo Group. I have lots of 6.5 inch squares - piles of them- so decided to sort through a few of the piles and sort out all of the animals. I ended up with several new piles - realistic looking animals, cutesy kid print animals, small print animals, and "under the sea" creatures. I decided the realistic looking animals would make a nice attic windows quilt for my daughter and son-in-law who love the great outdoors. Only one square is not an animal- it is mushrooms. They are avid mushroom hunters too.

Now, I have one less pile and a flimsy. I'm going to add another small border in white or gray??? and another wider border in black???  and who knows what for the backing. Everything so far has been from my stash. I might have to buy some fabric to finish it up.

And then I will have to figure out how to quilt it. Hmmm....

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and at Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

Holier Than Thou? Darn It!

I feel like I'm in a depression both economic and mental. And what did our grandmas do during the depression? Yes, they made quilts out of old clothes, but they also darned socks. I haven't darned any socks since the 70s when we were more than dirt poor, but last night I got out my husband's grandmother's darning egg and about 10 pairs of socks I've been saving for the occasion, turned on the Ott light and...

...started darning.   I don't have to buy new socks now that it's getting cold and my feet need them. And my big toes will love me.

September CQJP 2012

 My September block for the CQJP 2012 Journal Project is finished. This month's basket was a sewing basket.  Hmmm...looks like I left a real needle in the block.  Those are teeny tiny baskets full of french knots on the seam with the gingham ribbon.

And here's my Crazy Basket Case lap quilt so far held together with pins.

Halfway There

I'm halfway finished with my crocheted prayer shawl. Here's a pic of what it's supposed to look like when finished from the book The Crocheted Prayer Shawl Companion by Janet Bristow & Victoria A Cole-Galo. I liked the autumn colors in the yarn when I bought it. After I started crocheting I thought the shawl started looking like camouflage. Then I looked at the yarn label and saw the color was "green camo multi".  I still like  it. I'll be looking for some beads now for the fringe- probably wooden ones. It's getting cooler now and I'll need a nice shawl before long.

Linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

Autumn With a Twist

A few months ago 6 people (plus me) with the Mailblocks Yahoo group participated in an Autumn with a Twist swap. We were to make 1- twelve inch block, 2 - six inch blocks and 4 - 3 inch blocks for each particpant in fall colors with a cream background.  My blocks are as above - 12 inch Sister's Choice, 6 inch posy and 3 inch bow ties. I used a couple of my own sets to assemble the top.

And, now I have an assembled top but I think I will add 6 inch maple leaf blocks down each side and then call it a lap quilt.  So far, I love it.




Linking up at Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  and Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion by the River. 

Dancing Dishes

I finished a few more Christmas gifts - sets containing a fabric shopping bag, embroidered dish towel, crochet dish rag, hot pad.  

The bags. 

 Contents of bag 1 - embroidered dish towel, hotpad, crochet dish rag. 

Contents of bag 2 - embroidered dish towel, hotpad, crochet dish rag. 

Stocking Up!

I'm participating in a pantry jar swap. So far I have fourteen different jars of food.

The ones I kept for myself I left off the top and bottom borders. I think I'm going to make my "Stocking Up" quilt  with stacked jars (ala chinese coins) with maybe a faux wood border in between.   I'm going to make several different sizes of jars.   I can tomatoes (tomato juice, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, chili sauce, etc) and jams so will add numerous jars of tomatoes. To simulate the jam I will probably add some "jar labels" to some.   And, as a semi-survivalist I will have to find some sparkly white fabric (I think I have some in my hoard) to simulate sugar and some kind of white and/or whole wheaty looking fabric for some very large 12 inch jars and then I'll need fabric with dried beans, rice and pasta. Maybe I'll have to take a picture of my own staples and print them to fabric.  

Dresden Chocolates

Earlier this year I found the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild EZ Dresden Challenge while browsing the web looking for Dresden Plate quilts.  I already had Darlene Zimmerman's EZ Dresden ruler sitting in a drawer for months. I picked it up with a 50 per cent off coupon thinking I would someday make a quilt just like Grandma used to make but with 30s reproduction fabrics and muslin and an EZ ruler and rotary cutter and...well, the quilt wouldn't really be just like Grandma used  to make with all those modern conveniences.  So, I went searching for some more modern Dresden Plate ideas and the challenge bug hit me. (I do love a good challenge even if it's a personal journey).

I've been on a kick making lap quilts with fabrics consisting of some of my favorite things. (So far I've finished Hi Ho Cherrio!  celebrating my love of Cherries). I figure someday when I may have to go to a nursing home (heaven forbid) I'll take some of my favorite things with me.   Anyway...one of my very favorite things is Chocolate...chocolate chips, chocolate cookies, chocolate cupcakes, mocha coffee, chocolate candy, chocolate ice cream, strawberries dipped in chocolate...so that's what this quilt is all about...a love of CHOCOLATE.  So, I dug into my stash of chocolates (I don't buy collections of fabrics just hoard the ones that appeal to me), ordered up some Kona Cocoa for a background fabric and started off cutting up chocolates.  I was skeptical that a ruler would make light work of so many pieces, but it really did. Good thing, too, because I knew I would be working massive hours of overtime in July and August so knew I had to work quickly to finish my quilt if I wanted to enter it in the challenge.

I also challenged myself to do some hand quilting. I've seen quilts on blogs quilted with perle cotton #8 and knew that was what I wanted to use. And, since I love variegated threads I purchased some variegated brown for the quilting and a new quilting hoop for my lap (or is it an embroidery hoop?)  also with a 50 per cent off coupon. I bought a few different types of thimbles also but decided building up a callous and using it was easier than using any type of thimble.  Another challenge was quilting during the hottest part of the summer without air conditioning. (No, this old farm house does not have A/C). Unfortunately I didn't sweat off any calories ;-(

Here's some of my imperfect hand quilting up close and personal - the design I quilted between the Dresdens.  There's actually a double row of stitching there but where the dark brown thread starts the stitching blends into the background. And that's all right with me.

So, now my challenge entry is finished and the time to blog about it and link it up has arrived. So, without further ado...I'll force some quilt pictures on you all...

The yellow, turquoise and lime green centers and strips in the border are rather bright for me (even looking through sunglasses). I couldn't decide what to use for the center of the Dresdens and several people suggested using some of the colors that  were in some of the fabrics. Most of the fabrics were pink and brown so I decided to pick up the aqua, yellow and lime green.  It has grown on me now. If I hadn't taken the suggestions from others I probably would have used some drab, darker brown for the centers.  I also made some mini dresden fans for the corners. 

 All Dresdens on deck...

The backing and binding fabrics were on sale too at Connecting Threads. How lucky was that? Now it's all washed and crinkly and ready for my lap this winter.  The only thing missing is the label. I couldn't decide on a name...Dessert Plates, I Spy Chocolate, I Love Chocolate, Pass the Chocolates and other things came into my mind. But I THINK the label will read Dresden Chocolates as the name. But, it's not labeled yet!

Also linking up to Freemotion by the River Tuesday Linky Party.