Fall Quilting for the Home

On Oct. 30, I dropped by my local quilt shop to see what was going on at the all-day sew-in. One of the shop owners had made up this runner from her stash using a free pattern from Hoffman Fabrics, "Oh Pumpkin, My Pumpkin." Several of the participants wanted to make this, as did I, so we picked out fabrics, and I helped the shop owner cut the fabric for several kits. Click on this picture for a sharper image.

I made the first block, then decided I didn't like how the placement of the oranges would work out in the runner, so I turned that block into a combination wall hanging/pillow sham. Right now it's hanging on the back of my front door, but I may move it to the sofa. Because I'd decided to bind this pillow sham, it occured to me later to just add a hanging sleeve so it could be used either way.

Birthday Presents for Chelsey

My granddaughter picked out the animal prints for this quilt, but let me pick the additional fabrics, for a total of 20. The pattern is Birthday Presents from "Take Two and Add a Few" by Atkinson Designs. Each fabric is used twice in the quilt top, once as the corners of each block, and again as the squares. The binding is a different fabric, and the backing is yet another.

I decided the Thousand Pyramids puzzle ball would be a perfect companion project because it takes 20 triangles. That pattern is from Patchwork Puzzle Balls by Jinny Beyer. Chelsey will be 16 on Friday, and has seen the fabrics, but not the finished products.

Teaspoon as Quilting Tool

If you pin-baste your small quilt projects using the bent safety pins, here's an easy way to latch those pins without disturbing your quilt sandwich or killing your fingers. If you hold the spoon as shown, it's easy to push down on the pin to get it latched. This is one of 14 wall hangings I'm making for Christmas presents. 7 are finished, 7 need to be quilted and bound. Another is all cut out, but it's for me, so it can wait awhile.

China Blue Patchwork Puzzle Balls

I've been having fun making these patchwork puzzle balls. I've made several, but these are just the ones I made with fat quarters of one china blue fabric and one more solid fabric. I've got 2 more of these fat quarters and lots of other blue fabrics, so I'm going to make a few more to put in this bowl on my dining room table. But I'm so tickled with these three, that I just had to share right now! I collect blue and white china, on display in my china cabinet, and the runner at the top of my blog is usually on that table, though I think I'll make a hexagon mat to put under this bowl and put the runner on the sideboard.

Bluebird Pool Party

I took this little movie about a month ago. I believe the younger of these birds were raised in our houses by the older birds. The group is very possessive of our backyard and will chase off the mockingbirds and the doves, though they tolerate somewhat the house finches and chipping sparrows. There are actually a few more, but it's been hard to count them. There were at least 2 broods, one of which fledged while we were gone this summer. The older fledglings help their parents feed the next brood when they hatch, and they seem to stay together through the winter, splitting up and finding their own mates and homes in the spring. Some days, we'll see as many as 7 or 8 different species of bird coming to the bird bath for a drink and a bath.

Mute the sound. DH was watching Glen Beck, and I hadn't figured out how to keep it from recording.

Meeting Two of my Internet MT Friends

This is for all our MT friends at Restuvus, who demand pictures when any of us get together during our travels. MTinMT and Montyna live in Montana, and my DH and I came to Montana to visit Glacier National Park and pick cherries in a few more days. I met up with MTinMT and Montyna at a restaurant in their small two, and we had a wonderful and fun visit. If I can get them posted, here be pictures of us. Left to right, it's MTinMT, me, and Montyna. Obviously, I'm holding hands with DH. We call the motorhome "The Old Gray Mare" because she's 23 years old and isn't looking her best, but she does get the job done.

Project report

Well, I have finished some of the projects. The NICU flip and sews are done, along with "snakes" to match them. The housewarming gift is done and delivered, though I may add some additional items. I did finish 6 place mats and a hexagon table mat. A thank you gift for DD's friend who put them up for 5 days after the car accident until she flew to us is in the process of having binding attached, and should be finished this week. At the Project Linus sewing day, one of the other ladies had a knitted pincushion, and I asked if she had the pattern. She took my e-mail and sent me the instructions, so I promptly started in using up left over yarn, and I've made up 5 of these. If I don't have hand stitching on a quilt to do, I knit while watching TV, and I also knitted on these on the trip to Georgia. I'll include the instructions when I post a picture of them.

We've been so busy otherwise that I've just not had time to get the pictures transferred from the camera to the computer or post. I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, so decided to write a short update. We went to Georgia again on Feb 6, and returned on the 8th. We drove up to the house to find that someone had run down our mailbox and a trash can, and there was trash scattered in the bar ditch for nearly 200 feet. There was a note stuck in the door from the deputy sheriff with a case number and so on. Surprisingly, when we called the trash people, they came out and picked up the trash, but apparently the person was driving the car is a relative of the owner of the company. DD had been there the night before packing up and moving more of her things and apparently this occurred during the night. DH did a makeshift repair job on the mailbox, but it should be replaced, and DD is getting the accident report and so on. This took a good bit of time, but I did manage to shred a lot of old documents, reducing the number of boxes of papers to bring home from 6 to 3, and my daughters and I packed up 3 boxes of dishes and stuff to bring. There's still a lot more, and I don't know when we'll get it. All 3 of my daughters and my granddaughter came over Saturday to help me go through stuff, and take some of their stuff to their homes, so we actually had a pleasant time. We left early Sunday morning so we could get home and get some rest before DH had to be back to work Monday morning.

This last week, we had new ceramic tile floors put in our bathrooms, with radiant heat in the master bath. We were actually without toilets for 3 days, and the one in the master bath still isn't reinstalled. We do have a Porta-Potti for camping, so we used that. The floor in the hall bath was fine to walk on Friday night, so we were able to use the shower in there, though DH didn't get the toilet installed until Saturday night. The floor in the master bath had to cure another day because it's thicker because of the heat mat, and it should have been finished today (Sunday), but we need an extra wax ring for the toilet, so DH will get that put in tomorrow. We did have a tile contractor lay the tile.

Maybe this next week, I can find time to get the pictures posted.