Bloggers Quilt Festival

Yeah! The Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side begins today. It is always one of my favorite times. We get to see so many of our fellow quilters, share ideas and get inspirations in mega doses from all over the world. If you have never taken the time to visit Amy, now is the time to do so. I promise it will absolutely be well worth it .

I am sharing a new finish for me this week. It's not my best work, and the oldest PIG (project in grocery sack) that I had buried in my pile. I have no idea why it decided this was the week to be quilted and called a done deal. My friend Ruth tells me that our quilts talk with us and let us know when the time is right to work on them. Humm I wonder if she knows something or has just been hitting the sauce a little to much!  This folk art quilt was one of the very first quilts I ever made. From that time, back when I had no idea what a quilt was, but I knew wanted to make one. I have to laugh when I see the fabrics that stripes don't match up and things are not on the straight of grain. Who knew then, that all these things really do make a difference. Better yet, I have discovered that "I" must have really been the one to discover "Texture Magic." If I had only known how popular it would become, I might be rich and famous from it. It doesn't show up so much, but the borders are definitely texturized. I had to really quilt the "bejeebers" out of em to get em hammered down. On any other quilt I would take off the borders and start over, but this being a my first real quilt I feel I needed to preserve the integrity (or lack of) for prosperity!!! hahahahahaha  I probably shouldn't share my pleated backing with you either, but we all had a first at one time of our lives, and there was no quilt basting spray back then and who had every heard of a long arm????? So pleated backs must have been the norm right? What might shock you all is the fact, that with all it's sins, the thing quilted up square! Now how does that happen?????   I am pretty excited about finishing this one up and thru all it's many faults, I love it. I hope to see you visit my blog from time to time, and I do promise that you will not likely see a project like this here again!  (quilt fairy's willin)   :-) Enjoy blog hoppin!

Last of the Halloween posts

I promise. It is the last of my projects for this season and I have to say, it  speaks to me. This little guy's snarky grin seems just as evil as I am.   :-)  :-)  He can be found along with some other great patterns in a book called "My Autumn" from Disa Designs. If you haven't seen their books, they have some great ones and they are all very fast and easy.  So on that note, I wish you all a Happy Halloween!  Next stop on this quilting trail is a few UFO's that I have actually managed to finish!!! YEAH!!!!!
             
*********** Just a reminder note, that when I refer to different patterns, I try to add links to make  it easier for you to find them. Make sure you drag your cursor over my posts to look for those links!

Halloween Blog Hop

I hope you all had a chance to follow the Halloween Blog Hop a couple of weeks back. 10 wonderful people shared their creativity with us in an array of fast and fun little seasonal projects. This one from Sandy Gervis was just about as fun as can be to work on. I have just recently been introduced to working with wool, and let me tell you, it's just darn fun. That little bit of handwork is very relaxing and the texture is incredible. I think it's probably my favorite thing to do right now. You can hop on over to Gudrun's World blog for a run down of all the fun projects. After all there is still a few more days left!

Quick Halloween Mini Quilt

I just love seasonal bling. Buttons, appliques, any of the fun things you find for those "special" times of the year.

With just a few short days left before All Hallows Eve, I needed a fast and easy little Quiltie to show off my new finds. 2 fat quarters and some solid for sashing, backing and binding and I was on my way. I just cut 1 1/2" strips for my 9 patch blocks. They yielded a 3 1/2" block. 5 fast 9 patch blocks and 4 solid blocks and I was on my way. I added my   1 1/2" sashings and a little window for my Halloween buttons, and that is all there is to it. There is plenty of time to get one done, yet. So start your engines, get your "happy haunting" mojo going, and see what you can whip up this weekend!

Sewing Room

Yea Haw! My sewing machine "Tuxedo" arrived today from Germany. Like the timing could be better!!!!!  This week I decided enough was enough, and focused on cleaning out my sewing room adding some extra drawer space and straightening out my fabrics. I hate doing that, almost as much as cleaning bathrooms, but what are you gonna do, it has to be done!      :-)   It's such a good feeling once it's finished . I had hit the point where I couldn't find anything in my room anymore. Getting this package in the mail, was my little reward and icing on the cake today. There is a story behind the moose on my machine. I took the photo last month in Alaska while visiting my son. It was moose hunting season and it was in his yard. He had his rifle and a scope out, but decided it was not a legal moose at the same time some idiot on the road shot towards us, at the moose. Needless to say he missed the moose, but the bullet came scarily close to hitting my son. It landed just a couple of feet from him. It was a young kid who took off running and hid out in a house up the road. The state troopers took so long in getting there that once we left the driveway of the house the kid was hiding in, he bolted in his truck never to been seen again. It was all very nerve racking at the time, but ended well. I took this photo the day after and  hopefully this little guy is still walking the in woods somewhere up there.   

In all my cleaning I decided that I really needed some more drawer space my my machine, so I could keep my extra stuff in there and have the room on my table for my quilts as I pieced them. I toyed with the idea of the one of the craft stations that are on the market, but the $300 price range seemed like more than I was wanting to pay, so after shopping around, I decided on these closet drawers that you find at Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, etc. There are very inexpensive in comparison, and 2 sets worked just great where I wanted them. I am very happy with my find.

I am a fabric-holic, and I while I should be attending some kind of meeting somewhere, confessing my sins, I prefer to just enjoy my little vise. After all, we need some kind of vise in our lives don't we????   :-)  :-) My media center that I got last year at Best Buy seems to work out the best for me. I can stack plenty of fabric in it and see what I have, which is helpful when I'm working on projects. I used to have it all in closets, but things seemed to get lost in them, so I have come to like this arrangement better. While  refolding and straightening out things, I became  re-acquainted with some fabrics that I haven't seen for awhile and  it sure got my mind churning. Hummmmm! Wonder where this will take me... Stay tuned.  I hope this provides you some inspiration too.