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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Thanksgiving Table Runners Finished and a New One Found

Well, yesterday was our weekly sewing day at my house and I wanted to start a new project (no surprise there).  I discovered quite by accident that I had a few little bundles of different brown colored bindings all made up and leftover from some other project.  So, in the interest of keeping my promise to myself to finish the things I make, I decided to use up all that binding on the Gobble Gobble table runners I started on last week and quilted earlier this week.


This piece of binding was just long enough to do with runner with a few inches leftover.  Not bad.

I love the colors in this fabric collection.  The dots and the swirly circle-like print (kinda looks like eyeballs almost) are my favorites I think.
I was glad to use up this binding instead of having it sitting around, but it was a little bittersweet.  It was the last of my brown modern circles from the Tranquility fabric line.  The fabric collection has been out of print for a few years but this one remains one of my favorite brown fabrics.


I tell you what, it must have been my day to finish things up because this (literally) fell on me while I was reaching to grab some brown thread.  I must have pieced and quilted it last year.  My guess is I finished it after the Thanksgiving holiday and then put it aside to start working on Christmas things.

I'm glad I found it.  It's the same Gobble Gobble fabric I used in my other runners for the house, so I figure I'll keep it and use it somewhere.  Now to figure out where...
What have you all been doing lately? Working on any special projects for the holidays?

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Gobble Gobble

Well, I didn't get as much sewing finished as I'd hoped for with the boys gone today, but I did get a lot of knitting accomplished.  The sewing I did finish I remembered to take photos of but they are not the best quality.  My house does not have very good lighting or many windows so it's hard to get many decent photos.  The sun was also not cooperating (read it was pouring rain and hail most of the day).



This long skinny runner is destined for my Thanksgiving table in a few weeks.

Most of the other ones will cover the serving tables or the counter tops. 



The fabric used for all these is Gobble Gobble.  I had a number of these charm packs leftover from back when I sold fabric.  I decided to use them up and decorate the house with them.  I have lots of Halloween and Christmas handmade decorations, but no autumn ones to speak of.  How is that possible? Autumn is my favorite season!

Sorry.  This picture is a little blurry.  Didn't even realize that until it was too dark to get any better ones.  Anyway, isn't the fabric great? I saw this at Jo Ann Fabrics a few weeks ago and could not resist buying some.  I don't remember how much I got - at least a few yards - but I should have bought more! I just love it!
These potholders are destined for my etsy shop just as soon as I can find the time to list them.  It has been crazy busy in my house lately.

These pot holders are going to be a Christmas gift.  Can't say to who as I'm not sure if they read this blog or not!  I have no idea how long I've had these two floral fat quarters.  I found them in a bin while I was searching for something else.  (Does this tell you how much fabric I have? It's terrible).  As soon as I saw them I immediately knew what I was making them into and who it would be for.  I can't wait for them to be opened on Christmas!
Well, that's everything.  I can't wait to get back to my machine.  I get grumpy when I don't have at least a little bit of creative time every day.

Hope everyone's day is going wonderfully! I'll be back soon with some more goodies to share.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Making Wall Art

Tomorrow I will be without the kids and will be sewing most of the day, so be prepared for lots of pretty quilt pictures.  Today however, I spent the day with the boys crafting and building Lego creations and block towers and following "pretend instructions" for lots of stuff.  It's only a little easier than it sounds.

Here's what we did this afternoon before lunch.

I taped each boys name to the artist canvas and let them paint away.

They had a lot of fun with this since they LOVE to paint.

I had purchased a 10 pack of painters canvas (these are approx. 8x11) from Michaels Craft Store during last years after Christmas sale.  I simply used masking tape to make the letters and then let the kids paint away.  After we had lunch and they played outside for awhile we checked the paint to see if it was dry.  It was, so we carefully peeled the tape off.




Kinda self-explanatory who's is who's.  They each picked a spot in their room where they wanted it to go.  Forgive the pictures.  The lighting is horrible in their room and the sun had disappeared behind rain clouds.
This one lives in the craft/school room.  Seemed to be a fitting place for it.  ;)

Here's the one I did.  It's above one of the bookcases in my room.
I think we'll definitely be doing more of these soon.  We all had fun painting and watching the letters appear as we peeled the tape off.

Now we're off to IHOP for dinner since the kids eat free and I don't feel like cooking something tonite.  Stay tuned tomorrow for some sewing and fabric pictures.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

New Table Runners in the Shop


So I haven't been able to do much sewing at all the last week since Jake's been home.  I did notice I had finished a few table runners that never got blogged or listed on etsy.  They can all be found in my shop here.


I used Flurry charm packs by Kate Spain for all of them.  The fabric placement varies for each one but it's all the same.  I think I have about 3 or 4 of them listed right now.  I'll be making more of this style of table runner in the next few weeks.
Here's a close-up of the quilting.  I decided to use a small stipple to keep it simple and quick.

And the back.  I love this fabric! I can't remember where I got it or who makes it.  I've had a few yards laying around for awhile and used most of it up as the backing for these runners.  It's such a nice red isn't it?  The binding for these runners is also from Kate Spain but it's from her previous collection called 12 Days of Christmas.  

I've been trying hard to use up fabric I already have.  There are soooo many wonderful, beautiful, exciting and drool-worthy fabrics out there, with more being released constantly, but I just can't do it.  I have so much fabric there is seriously no room anywhere to hold anymore of it.  I just have to use it and appreciate it and quit hanging on to it because I can't bare to part with it.  

Do you ever do that? What are your favorite fabrics that you just can't part with?

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Fall is in the Air

It started raining here in WA a few days ago.  Finally.  Not that the summer wasn't gorgeous and rare and appreciated, but we really really need the rain.  It's been so dry and hot.  Besides, for me, the rain and the crisp air and the leaves swirling around my feet all signify that the autumn season is officially here.

This morning, Jake and I went outside with the boys so they could have a Halloween Egg Hunt (they've been begging for a week to do it) and I was so excited to see that virtually overnight fall had arrived.  The leaves were covering the ground in all their beautiful fall colors, the wind was blowing a wonderfully crisp breeze and the sun was shining for all it was worth.  It seemed to be saying, "I'm still here! I haven't been pushed aside yet!"  



The best part, the part that completed the morning for me, was looking at the apple tree and seeing so many beautiful bright red apples laying on the ground and falling with a soft thump onto the crunchy leaves.  The boys went inside with Jake after awhile and I stayed out in the quiet of the morning and picked apples for quite some time.


This was just a part of the apples I picked this morning.  Doesn't it look lovely? The boys helped fill up a few buckets and Jake taped together a wide flexible drain hose and rake to create a make-shift apple picker.  It worked wonderfully! Sorry to say I didn't get any pictures of that, but maybe I'll try to later.  We're going back out this afternoon to pick the rest.  



What does all this mean for me? Lots of applesauce, apple butter, apple pie filling and dried apples in my very near future.  Maybe I'll make an apple crumble for desert tonite.  And there's always apple breads, apple cake, baked apples, glazed apples... aaaahhhh... I love fall.

What about you? What's your favorite time of the year? Do any of you can and preserve? Do you have any favorite apple recipes to share?

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Pumpkin Patch

Today we took the kids to the local pumpkin patch at Latin's Cider Mill.  They have tons of pumpkins as well as lots of other types of squash.  The kids love the fresh apple cider and pumpkin spice donuts and I love the warm gooey apple fritters (seriously the best apple fritters I've had in my life).  There's also goats to feed, a petting zoo, a few carnival rides and a super BBQ stand with insanely good pulled pork sandwiches (my personal favorite part of the trip).

checking out the turkeys

this goat really liked him! it followed him around along the fence.

Odin was too scared to get that close to the goats, but he gave Aiden his goat feed and watched him  do it from a safe distance.
it started raining while we were there so i was glad i thought to bring the boys extra clothes and rain coats.  i, on the other hand, got soaked.  i should really get a rain coat.  i do live in a pretty rainy state after all!

 the search for the perfect imperfect pumpkins.  we love to get the ones that are "different" and often over-looked.

they found two long ones which they wanted.  i realize now that i didn't get pictures of the whole wheelbarrow  full of pumpkins.  i'll have to post some pictures after we get them all finished.  we'll start painting them next week.

I'll be back next week with some pictures of painted and decorated pumpkins.  How many of you still carve/decorate pumpkins? Do you do it with your favorite little people or is it something you enjoy doing even without little ones? I'm sure Jake will still be carving pumpkins and decorating our entire house long after our kids are gone! :)


Monday, October 8, 2012

A Quiet Morning


Not much to say today.  I started knitting a new sweater this morning while I was sitting outside with the boys.  They ran around the yard and played for awhile and I got to knit and drink hot tea.  It was a wonderfully relaxing way to start the morning and much needed.  The last few days have felt busy and full.  I needed some time to recharge my batteries and find some quiet for my soul.  The boys apparently needed it to.  After a nice peaceful morning we all ventured inside together and they had some hot tea with me and ran off to build some wooden block towers.

I hope you've managed to find some peace and quiet lately.  Wishing you a peaceful morning today.

Monday, October 1, 2012

I'm Back!

Yes, it's been awhile.  A long while.  But I'm back feeling refreshed and I have so much to share with you! So... since there's a lot of photos to share and I'm sure you'd rather see the pics than listen to me drone on about them, here you go! (Just be aware that the pic quality may not be the best on all of them as I could not get the lighting right.  I figured it's better to share what I have then keep waiting for "perfect" pictures.

And since they are all for sale in my etsy shop now, I'll just share the link to my store home here instead of giving a listing after each quilt as I usually do.


This one is a favorite of mine.  It was my first attempt at doing an improv style block and I love it!  It's a mix of some modern Log Cabin blocks and a few truly improv pieced blocks.

The quilting is all in slightly wavy straight lines.  I haven't done a quilt with this style quilting pattern before and decided to try it out.  Boy do I love it! Not only is it pretty easy, but it just looks so great with certain quilts.  You'll be seeing a lot of this quilting in the future I'm sure.

I love the fabrics.  This quilt could easily go for a boy or girl.  It would also make a very nice wall hanging I think.

Here's the pieced back.  I thought for sure I would use up all this fabric I have, but nope, several quilt tops and mug rugs later and I've still got some left.  It's a Denyse Schmidt fabric collection, can't recall the name right now though.  

And this one... this guy was fun.  I used long strips left from cutting out pieces to another quilt and then pieced in a few  small stragglers I couldn't bare to part with.


This one is small.  It would be a great size for a stroller or car seat.  

Nicey Jane fabric collection.  I used up almost all my fabric from this line putting together the patchwork squares and then...

I pretty much finished off these two pieces for the back.  I'm sad to see this fabric all gone.  I really like it.

I have some better pics of this quilt, which I'll try to find soon.  Jungle Bungle it's called.  
 

This quilt... oh, this quilt.  I adore this quilt.  I am so, so sorry I didn't make it bigger.  I so very much want to keep it for myself but it's just enough too small for me to snuggle in that I don't know if I can keep it.  I like it so much I even contemplated hanging it on my wall somewhere, or saving it for the new house when I get my own studio.  It'd look great on the wall in there.  I figure if I still can't get enough of it by Christmas, then I'll keep it.

Don't you love all the color? I used nothing but my scraps for this quilt.  It felt so amazing to use up all these small pieces of fabric left from other projects.  I only wish I had been able to tell I'd used my scraps afterwards, but it somehow looks like my scraps grew after I finished this quilt.  I know, it sounds crazy to me too.

See? Even the back is pieced together with leftover fabrics.  And the color is really off in this picture.  In reality, the large piece of fabric on the left is mostly purple and the bottom left is a soft buttery yellow.  


More scrap basket quilts.  I've been having fun making these quilts.  

Here's a better view of the whole quilt.  

And this quilt actually started out to be the backing to another scrap quilt, but I loved it so much I couldn't hide it on the back of another quilt so I added a few more fabrics to make it a bit larger and then pieced something else together for the back.  It's not my favorite quilt ever, but it's growing on me.  

This quilt top has actually been finished for longer than I care to admit but I finally pulled it out and quilted and bound it.  I had fun finishing this one.  Compared to everything else I've been doing lately the colors were so soft and muted.  It was a nice change.

and the pieced back.

I made a toddler size and adult size quilt with these fabrics and still have way too much of it leftover.  

Even after using large pieces of it for both the backs and not saving the small scraps (I still can't believe I threw out scraps!).

I also made up a little collection of mug rugs with the smaller pieces I did have on hand already.  These guys are so cute! I love the nice spring feel to them.

Halloween mug rugs!!! Now these were fun.  All of them are log cabin style blocks.  I used up way less Halloween fabric than I was hoping to, but oh well.  There's probably close to 20 of these I made.  

And they all have the same black cat fabric on the backs of them.  Now that piece of fabric, I think I may have finished off.  There was a lot of it.

Spooky Eyes mug rug

This is my favorite Spooky Eyes mug rug.  I think if it doesn't sell, I'll end up keeping it for myself.  I made about 4 of the Spooky Eyes mug rugs.


So, there you have it! This is (most of) what I've been working on over the last few months in between vacations, helping my brother move to Portland, OR and homeschooling.  I do still have a few things that are in the works currently and will be showing those to you soon.  I'll try to spread them out over a few weeks and not assault you with them all as I just did here.  :)

I should thank my wonderful husband for holding all these quilts up so I could actually get them photoed.  I asked him if he would mind holding up a few quilts for me so I could photo them.  He said sure even though he was getting ready to leave for a motorcycle ride.  And when I asked him to help me carry all the quilts out he said, "Just how many quilts do you have?"  I assured him it was just a few and stacked about 15 quilts into his arms with my best I love you soooo much face.  He was a great sport.  Holding them all and waiting while I got everything just right.  Then holding them again when I changed my mind.  Even when his dad was pacing the yard with motorcycle gear on he still didn't say anything and even helped me fold them all back up and put them away for me.  He's a great guy.  I think I'm gonna keep him.