SEPTEMBER FINISH FOR THE QUILT CLUB

Good-bye old friends. No, not you! I mean the fabrics from my scrap basket that went into the making of this quilt. No much came off the shelves. This is mySeptember finish for the Charming Girls' Quilt Club. The name of the quilt pattern that I used is "Last Rung On the Ladder" and is by Lynda Hall of Primitive Pieces by Lynda. The quilt had been layered and spray basted for at least three months. The top itself had hung in the sewing room closet for months. It was time to finish the project. I just about didn't make it to the finish with vacation this month.
I am showing a photo of the backing. I created a ladder using a wood grain look fabric. I thought it was something that would go with the title of the quilt. The fabric for the backing all came from stash. So no new purchases for any of the quilt.
Now to decide what project I will commit to for October. Have to think about it a bit.

My Bernina is in for service so I am taking the time to cut out for a quilt. Some of the fabric was on the floor of the sewing room so this will get things used and then put away. I have a good Pfaff I could sew on if the mood hits. I just don't feel like getting it out and setting up. I am very grateful to have two good sewing machines so that I have a backup machine. My Bernina was a luxury gift from my husband two years ago. I say luxury because my Pfaff sews very well. And I had an older Bernina for back up at the time and it sewed well. The new Bernina does have some features that I wanted, though.

I am off to the sewing room. Come back soon!

Karen

FALL IS IN THE AIR....SOMEWHERE

About the only fall in the air here is in my fall projects I have been working on. It is still very warm and humid in my area of the country. I can say that the night air is not as warm as it had been as the pool water is cooler. That is the only difference I can see. I have been seeing fall photos popping up on the blogs. I would have to post photos of palm trees. Not the same feeling.
I have finished the stitchery that Kaaren from The Painted Quilt gave us a free pattern for. I finished stitching the binding down a few minutes ago.
I want to share a picture of the fabric I used on the back of the stitchery. I thought it was a good choice as it has words on it about fall things. The fabrics has these phrases: Halloween pumpkins, football games, falling leaves, back to school, crisp nights, apple cider, and cool days. Good words for the "Fall Is In the Air" stitchery.

I finished a new quilt top yesterday. I used a pattern called "Jack-O-Lanterns" which is in the book by Teri Christopherson called "Sunflower Patch". The pattern has three mouth selections, three eye choices, and three noses. Gives you lots of variety when you combine them in different ways. I pieced a back for the quilt. I will show that to you when I finish the quilt. It is all nicely folded right now and I don't want to have to refold.
I have finished machine quilting a piece and need to sit and hand stitch down the binding. It is for The Charming Girls Club challenge and I am running out of time. I have an Elton John live concert video to watch while I work on it.

Come back again soon!

Karen

A SURPRISE GIFT PACKAGE

What's better than a bill or junk mail? A surprise package. My husband just returned from the post office. We had our mail held the week we were on vacation. There was a squishy big envelope in the mail tote. I could not remember ordering any fabric. Then I saw the return address. The package was sent from Takako of Quilt In Me. I tried tearing it open but had to get the scissors to handle the job. Inside I found a tote bag, fabric, a quilt magazine, and a thank you card from Takako. I had sent her a pattern recently and was not expecting anything in return. You need to take a close up look at the tote. It is hand quilted! There is an added decorative tassle like affair hanging from the top of the bag. On the end is a fabric flower. I tried taking a close-up of it by holding it and the camera at the same time. I don't think I did a very good job taking the pictures. Such a cute idea. This is going with me the next time I go out somewhere and take things with me. The fat quarters are all tone on tone leaf prints and go well with my stash of darker colored fabrics. And who doesn't like a quilt magazine! Thank you so much, Takako.


If you have never visited Takako's blog, be sure to do so. Her & I like the same style of quilts. It is always interesting to see what she is working on. She is a fast hand quilter and does it well. She lives in my original home state but in a different area. A good friend even though we have never met in person.

I'm heading off to the sewing room.

Karen

NEW FABRIC

We are back from our week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Well, really we were staying in Cherry Grove and not Myrtle Beach. But you get the picture. We had a great week with the couple we vacation with a few times a year. The weather was good. Somewhat cloudy the last couple days but not rainy. A good thing because we couldn't afford rainy day shopping!

We ate twice at Horst Gasthaus. For years, we couldn't get Judy to agree to eating at this restaurant. We finally got her to agree to trying it three or four years ago. Now we plan ahead for the night we want to go because of the Monday night special. This year, we went two nights in a row. One night for the stuffed pork chops and the next for stuffed cabbage. I think the stuffed cabbage is my new favorite on their menu. It is a charming German style restaurant. Even has a man who plays the accordian. The polka music is fun along with other favorites he plays. The beach vacation is spent at a condo on the beach but we don't cook. Always good seafood to be had and many, many restaurants to choose from. We are there every year when the Shaggers are in town. For those who don't know what a Shagger is, it is a specific kind of dance that is popular in that area of the country. Sort of a slow jitterbug. They have a big gathering and have lots of fun. We stay close to that area.

I visited three quilt shops on the trip. One was Quilters Cottage in Garden City, South Carolina. They have a bright and cheery shop with a good selection of fabric, though I did not find much in the line of reproduction fabrics. Another shop was right in Myrtle Beach. I have forgotten the name. They had lots of dark fabrics and this is where I started shopping for the green, red, & yellow reproduction fabrics I purchased.
Not all of the fabrics in the stack came from that shop. On the way home, I had an opportunity to shop at Olde Green Cupboard in Orange Park, Florida. Always a treat to shop there.
Almost all of the greens in the photo above came from Olde Green Cupboard.
The fat quarters are from Quilters Cottage.
The eagle fabric is for a quilt backing. That & the cheddar piece came from Olde Green Cupboard. The Cupboard was having a 25% of sale on fabric and fat quarters. Made it extra special shopping!
I have a new piece of blue carnival glass to add to my collection. It is a Fenton swan. Below is a new toothpick holder our friends gave to me. It is a pretty orangish red color.
The greens, reds, & yellow reproduction fabrics were purchased with this pattern in mind. It is a Terry Clothier Thompson pattern and is found in the book "The People of the Plains Quilts and Stories". A couple weeks ago, I came across a green plaid fabric similar to what was used for the vases in the patterns. I found it in my stash when I was straightening shelves. I had been saving it specifically for this quilt. Well, I can no longer find it. I had taken some fabrics off the shelves and put them in plastic bags for donation at a local church thrift shop. The only thing I can think of is that my piece got into one of the bags. And the fabric is long gone from the thrift shop. I can't find anything else that I think will work as well. I have searched high & low in the sewing room trying to find it. A substitution will have to be made. I plan on using one of the fabrics I purchased on vacation. A lesson learned to double check a bag before donating it!

Oh, I secretly put the Halloween cat (shown on a previous post) on my friend's porch last night. I don't know if she will figure out it was me that put it there. We did it after dark and just as I got onto her porch, the sprinklers came on. I had to dash back to the car getting wet as I went. I hope that the sprinklers didn't spray all the way up to her door. I figure she either found the cat last night when walking the dogs or this morning.

I did a lot of stitching at the beach but need to put some finishing touches before I post a couple pictures of what I was working on. So keep tuned for that.

Come back for another visit soon!

Karen

STITCHERY UPDATE

I want to share with you the fall stitchery I have been working on this week. I think everyone in Blogland is aware of the First Friday Freebie that Kaaren is sharing with us. If not, click on the symbol on the side of my blog and pay her a visit. My project is not done but I am out of time. We leave on vaction in the morning and I have some packing to do.
I added some color to my stitchery project with the use of colored pencils. I have never used that technique before. I think it would need the addition of a textile medium for a sealer if the project was to be washed. I don't think this little wall hanging will be seeing the inside of a washer, so I am not doing that. I need to purchase some for future projects, though. I do not do the back stitch as fast as some of you do. I need to watch someone doing it, so I can figure out why it takes me as long as it does. Anyhow, the project needs batting and backing added, a little machine stitching around the border area for minimal quilting and then the edge binding.

I am giving thought to adding magnets to the back so the project could hang on the fridge. Some advice please if anyone has done this. I would think the magnets would have to be in cloth pockets of some kind.

The mailman left me a package today. Caryn from Pieceful Chaos had a giveaway on her blog. She decided to give everyone who had left a comment by a certain time some goodies. I was one of those. She made scissor fobs and that was all I was expecting. Such a surprise to receive a bigger package. This is what was in it.

The very pretty scissors fob, a fall leaf design note pad for the fridge, some fall smell goodies, and a calender mouse pad for by the computer. I sent Caryn a note to let her know the package had arrived. Also, to let her know that I was thinking just yesterday that I needed a little calendar by the computer and here comes one in the mail.

I also have a small Halloween project started from the September issue of Fons & Porter magazine. I decided not to photograph it for today's post as it needs some buttonhole stitching, a tiny bit of embroidery and some beads before you can see what it is going to look like. I may take it along on our trip to finish. I have several hand projects. I have to decide which of them to pack. I always take more than I could ever do in a week but the fear of running out of something to do in my spare time makes me do it.

I will not have computer access on the trip, so if you don't hear from me, you know why. Back in a little over a week.

Karen

HALLOWEEN CAT

A finished project! The Halloween Cat.
According to the pattern, the cat is 21 inches high. I did not measure mine, so I will give you the measurement from the pattern. The pattern name is "Stitch-n-Stuff Cat" and is from a designer named Shawn Williams of "Threads That Bind". I have had the pattern almost a year and finally bit the bullet and made it up. It really did not take a long time to do it. I started Friday evening and have finished it on Sunday. I did not have the sand for the bottom or would have finished it yesterday evening. I made a trip to Michael's Crafts to find the black decorator sand. I suppose you could have used any color sand, but I thought black would be appropriate for a black cat.

I am not much in favor of scary looking Halloween things for young children. This is a gift for an adult, so I left the mouth as shown on the pattern. You could easily change the mouth to give it a less scary look. I hope to deliver this soon to a no-blog friend who is crazy about decorating for Halloween.

Just looking at the pattern, I thought the letters for Halloween were cut out and sewn on top of the tree. Actually, the tree is cut in sections that form the black spaces for the letters. I did not follow the pattern directions exactly. The directions for tracing the design onto the black wool felt involved tulle. You were to use double sided tape to stick the tulle over the pattern for tracing with a pen. Then the tulle was to be placed over the felt and traced over the pattern lines using one of those white markers. I have never successfully used one of those white markers. I know that the lines do not appear right away but for me, they seem to never show up. I traced the pattern onto freezer paper with a black Sharpie pen. That allowed me to flip the paper over, use Heat 'n Bond Lite to trace the tree parts, pumpkins, etc and have the design reversed so the orientation is correct when you fuse the pieces down. I then ironed the freezer paper pattern to the wool felt to cut out my cat pieces. I pinned the freezer paper along the side and then lifted different sections in order to slide graphite paper in between the freezer paper and the felt. I used a pencil to trace over the lines and that put the design onto the fabric. The graphite paper comes in different colors. I used a piece of the white. I then embroidered the wording and spider web using perle cotton. I did have to retrace some of the letters part way up the design as they were wearing off from holding the felt while stitching. This was not a problem.

The pattern directions said to cut a cardboard piece for the tail. All that is for is to allow you to trace around it on the felt before cutting the tail. I just used a piece of freezer paper, traced the tail pattern and ironed it onto the wool felt. The head is made separately from the main body. The neck scarf covers where the pieces are joined. The tail end is tacked to the side of the cat's body to keep it up. The sand gives the bottom weight so the cat will stay in a sitting position.

I think the recipient will enjoy this addition to her Halloween decorations. Now onto another project.

Have a great day and come back soon for a visit!

Karen

BASKET PROJECT UPDATE & A NEW KIT

The mailman brought me a new quilt kit from Temecula Quilt Co. I have been waiting on this kit ever since the announcement was made on their blog that the shop would be featured in the next issue of Quilt Sampler. I fell in love with the quilt they designed as soon as I saw it on the blog. I e-mailed and asked to be put on a waiting list. Just thought I would show you the brown paper bag the kit came in stamped with the quilt name.
And this is the little brown paper bag with my receipt in it. Stamped with "Thank you" on it.
A photo of the magazine cover with their quilt on it.
And last is the fabric. Now I did not artfully display it for the photo but it is definitely my kind of fabrics!
I am participating in Dawn Heese's BOM which has just started. Her blog is Linen Closet Quilts. Pay her a visit for your first free pattern for "Vicksburg". I promptly made the first block. I certainly could have lowered the eagle a bit lower on the block but I think I will applique my initials or the year on the block later on. Thank you Dawn for the pattern and those to come.
The next two photos are more of my basket blocks that I have done over the last five weeks. I took the project on our vacation but didn't do very many blocks. I have done a few back at home but it is progressing slowly. I still have a stack left to go.

It is a somewhat rainy day here in Florida today. We had a heavy downpour yesterday and had to drain water out of the pool. We are supposed to have a repeat today. Can't complain as our county needs the rain.

I am going to spend some time in the sewing room today making signature blocks for the exchange I am participating in. I meant to do it before now. I should make a list and stick to it.

Nice to have you visit. Come back soon.

Karen