Fall Is Coming!!!!

Yes you can start to smell it in the air, even with hot days and warm nights its beginning.

I love love love fall. The sad part is all the pretty flowers are going away.  Don't have much for fall flowers around here, maybe that's something I can work on next year.

With fall comes the changing of the way quilters think about their color and pattern choices.

Margie did this cute pumpkin quilt using a Buggy Barn pattern.

I quilted using a panto by Patricia Ritter - Pumpkin Patch.

This is a fun panto to work with.  I had a big big problem when I first started. We had chosen a beautiful orange thread to stitch with, but for whatever reason, I don't know, the thread kept breaking ever few inches.

This is so frustrating to start to stitch and have to stop and re thread over and over again.  After this happened several times and my trying to solve the problem, checking tension, re threading checking bobbin, change needle clean bobbin area etc etc etc, which took literally a few hours, I decided to change to a different thread.  I didn't have another orange so went with a purple variegated, which looked good too.

Now the bad part about changing thread is you have to rip out the orange that you started with.  This took hours upon hours even for 18" those tiny suckers don't come out easy.

Just as I finished frogging, my friend Annette Vance came to visit with her friend Sandy. We had a nice visit.

By the time they left it was time to fix supper.  Wayne didn't  wait too long after they left, like seconds, and asked whats for supper?

I started the quilt at 6am and in between loading, stitching, un sewing, company, supper I didn't get back to it until after supper.

The change of thread was a good one, it went so smoothly after that.  Manage to do a few rows last night before Packer game started and finished this morning.

Really liked working with this panto, wish I had another quilt with pumpkins or fall so I could use it again.

Maybe I will just have to make one.  Yeah, like I don't have any quilts.  I have five maybe six at last count that need to be quilted.  None of which I would use this panto on.

Quick and Slick

Received this quilt yesterday UPS from IN.

Loaded this morning, started the quilting.

Had many errands to run - including picking up KY.

Checked on "Lizzie"  she is still at the shop and has not even given a hiccup of a problem.  Its like going to the Doctor, you feel sick before you get there but all symptoms disappear as soon as you enter the docs office.

Repair is keeping her because we just know she is going to act up soon.

Back home and finished the quilt

Will be sending this back to IN tomorrow

Quick and slick in one day out the next!!!!!

SUMMER BREEZE

Whooo hoooo

My pattern Summer Breeze is now available on www.craftsy.com 


I now have 9 patterns in print and selling.


Each time I finish one its like giving birth.  So much goes into creating the quilts and writing up the instructions and of course doing my level best to get a decent photo that, hopefully, helps to promote and sell the pattern.

This is the picture I went with for the cover.

Now on to working on yet another scrappy quilt.

Sharing Something Beautiful

I have not been able to do any sewing today, but wanted to share with you some beautiful pictures of others and their creations. Had a little difficulty transferring the photos to this page.  This was posted on Facebook by Teresa Popanz owner of Twin Turtle Quilt Shop - Clinton WI  Enjoy the photos

.

Stash N Scraps

Going through the boxes and bags of stash this morning with the intent of sorting and making nice neat piles from the mess I have made digging and rummaging.

Instead of making neat piles I made these:

Strip quilt sewn the same manner as the Jelly Roll Race quilts

There is enough of this adorable fabric to make 2 baby quilts.  This is the first of the 2

Table Topper

Maybe if I keep trying to straighten out my mess I will come up with more finished projects.

The 2 top quilts will be put in my Etsy shop once I get them finished.  Still need to find a cute border for the top quilt and then I can quilt and bind and sell.

My Favorite Time Of Day

Early morning - 5am to be exact.

For me I love sewing and quilting early mornings.  By the time Wayne is up and moving around I have half a day of work (fun) done.

Peg dropped off a baby quilt last night, so of course that is the first thing I worked on this morning.

Back of Quilt 

This, believe it or not, is for a little girl, and from what Peg tells me, parents have chosen the north woods theme.

So to soften this up a little for a girl, Peg added the pink squares and we both agreed on pink thread and flowers/loops and butterflies.

Friday means Ky day.  I pick her up at 9.  She informed me the last time she was here, she needs to make a dessert for a picnic she is going to tomorrow for Karate class.  She has chosen Apple Strudel as her dish to pass.

This way she gets to play with the apple peeler again and bake.  Ever since she was wee little one, like about 3yrs old she has helped grandma in the kitchen baking and cooking.

I so enjoy doing these fun things with her.

Wish so much that my other grandchildren were closer so I could spend this "quality" time with them.

When Brittany, my oldest granddaughter was little I would do crafty play with her. We were always making something decorative and creative.  I don't recall doing much baking with her.  We would take her camping with us several times a year and she loved that the most.

 Now she is a big girl and has a little boy of her own, so no time to come play with grandma anymore.

Hung It

All quilted and bound and hung in the spot it was made for.  It looks much prettier for real than in a pictures.

Warm fall colors.  No matter how many times over the past 47 years I keep trying to change my color schemes, I eventually fall back into these colors.

When we first got married, it was hand me downs from all the relatives, so no theme there.

The color schemes have changed over the years. Done the warm fall colors, then the blues/mauve, hunter greens,back to blue and mauve, sage greens and now back again to the fall colors.

I'm sitting here typing and remembering all the places we have lived and remembering the different style of decorating for each place. 

We were married in 1964 and between then and now moved 20 times.  The longest we have stayed in one  place was Broadway St in Edgerton, the first home we owned.  We were there 13 years and our last home in Milton there 12 years.  In those years we have lived in Edgerton, Milton, Janesville, Rio, back to Janesville, Milton and now back to Edgerton/Newville. 

It sounds like we are nomads, doesn't it.  First you start with the one bedroom, just the 2 of you, then you start having children and you need more room, 2 bedrooms, more children and 3 bedrooms.  Jobs and career changes and you find it closer for work so you move again.  Also in the mix, you start to be able to afford nicer places. Then the children start moving out and now you don't need that space (you think, because they come back) so you find smaller places.  After finding the smaller place, you find out its too small, so you move again. The list goes on.

I often wonder how it must be to buy your first home and never move again.  Build all your memories, raise your children, grow old and never leave that one house.  The memories that would be stored in one home.

But then again, I wouldn't be able to purge things.  It seems the only time I would get rid of things was when we were planning a move.  

No I'm not planning on moving again.  

So if the color scheme changes its going to be because I buy new furniture not because we moved.

Staging

I am still working on my Pinwheels pattern, and tried staging the quilt outside.

Its a gorgeous day and with all the beautiful flowers available I thought I would give it a try, also tried on the fence, but the sun is not quite right yet.

Will give it another try later today when the sun goes down a little.

I think I like the idea of staging, but haven't gotten just the right picture YET!

Will keep working on it.

Someday I will get the hang of staging.

Drunkards Path

Finished sewing the top of my new wall hanging this afternoon

Needs to be quilted and bound and then hung.

Fall colors are some of my favorite colors.  You cant go wrong with golds/reds/greens and oranges. At least that's my opinion.

I'm really lucky to have enough scraps and stash to put together pretty much anything I like as long as Im looking for a scrappy look.

Special  thanks to 2 of my quilters Liz and Peg.  They have been very generous to have given me some really wonderful pieces of scraps.

This wall hanging came from both of their contributions and a little of my own.

This pattern is one of my favorites and I think I have made 2 or even 3 quilts using this pattern.  I, however, do not have a Drunkards Path quilt.  Each time I finish one I give it away, but its a great pattern to use up scraps.

Last class someone asked if I could teach the Drunkards Path pattern, I will bring this to August class in Clinton and see if they would be interested in taking another class.

The Drunkards Path is one of those patterns you could make dozens of different blocks/quilts simply by changing the positions of the squares. There are also different techniques in the making of the block. My personal favorite is machine applique as opposed to sewing curves.

After finishing the wall hanging today, it was obvious I had to do some cleaning and straightening of my room.  I tend to just dive into scraps and toss and throw and pitch fabrics until I find the "one" I'm looking for, which results in one heck of mess of discarded fabrics.

For 2 days off and on I have spent a few hours making nice neat piles of fabrics, and I still have many more hours ahead of me to make more neat piles.

Each time I clean and straighten I promise myself I'm not going to destroy the neat piles ever again.  Oh sure, I have been known to break my promises especially the ones I make to myself.

August CT Sunday Sew In

Yesterday I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do for the monthly Connected Threads Sunday Sew In.

This morning (way too early 3:00) eyes popped open and my mind kicked in.  Why couldn't I just roll over and go back to sleep.  Because that is not how my quilting mind works.  Once I get an idea in my head I either have to get up write it down and hope I can go back to sleep, or get up and start cutting and sewing.

The cutting and sewing won out this morning.  First step, start looking through stash for the colors I had in mind.

Fall is in the air.  Yes already.  The cool nights are telling us.

What better colors to work with.

I was going to attempt making a decorative quilt flag to hang outside, but instead, will be making a wall hanging for the living room.  There is a blank wall that needs something to fill the void.

The cutting and sewing began and this is what I have accomplished so far:

I have the circles appliqued to the squares - choices - leave as is and sew it together adding borders quilt and done.  Cut the squares in half shuffle the colors and assemble that way.  Cut into quarters, again shuffle the colors and assemble.  And lastly - cut into quarters and make a Drunkards Path.

Looked at it over and over and still cant decide which way I want to go with this.  Right now it looks pretty good as is, but it seems too simple.  

As the day goes on I'm sure I will finally make up my mind which way to finish this.

One and Done

Not much to say today so will make this short.

Friday morning, and already finished a quilt for customer.

Ironed and loaded last night so I could just jump right in and quilt this pretty blue/yellow/white.  I really love these colors together, and yet have never made a quilt using these colors, wonder why.

Large  meandering, simple but effective.

Its a good thing I have the loaner Tin Lizzie, or I would be missing out on quilting customer quilts and my own.

Had a problem with the loaner this morning, however.  For some reason the bobbin winder wasn't working properly. Its a good thing I know how to fix this.  I have had this problem with my own Lizzie in the past so a quick turn of the screw and it at least winds.  Does not shut itself off so have to watch carefully as to not over fill, but at least I could get the bobbins filled and continue on with my quilting.

Now that the quilting is done for the day, its time to get ready to mow the lawn.

Like I said not much to say today, just going to be a normal, average day today.

An Apple A Day

Or Maybe 200 or more

Kylee and grandpa and I picked 4 bags of apples today from the apple trees in our yard

OK so now what to do with all these apples?????????????????

Wayne suggestion ( he actually came up with a good one for a change )  Went to town and purchased an apple peeler.  It peels, slices and cores all in one step.

Kylee had such fun doing this.  We managed to do 2 bags today within a little over an hour.

Made 2 apple strudels, big pot of apple sauce, and an apple pie (no picture of pie)

Still have 2 bags full, and that will be for another day.

Ky got to take home a strudel and some applesauce and a small bag of apples.

We also managed to give Belle a bath and strip and wash the couch and chair covers.

Pretty sure that's enough for one day, so tonight its a mac and cheese supper night.

Pretty Panto

Another pretty quilt by Teri

I wanted to do a very feminine quilt pattern for this one.  She is giving to her grandma and searching my panto library found this "Crepe Myrtle" By Patricia Ritter.  I just love the way it looks with swirls, feathers, flowers all in one beautiful flowing design.

Maybe I have mentioned this before, but its worth saying again, Teri does a wonderful job on sewing her quilts.

I'm still using the loaner Tin Lizzie and thank goodness for that.

My small sewing machine is repaired, it was just packed full of lint I was told.  Don't know how that happened.  I usually clean it on a regular basis, but according to the shop, it was pretty packed.

Purchased the machine last year and I get one free cleaning, so I just used that.

When you sew as much as I do, an annual cleaning is a must, just to be certain you get all those dust bunnies out from their hiding places.

Last Wed I taught the class in Clinton.  A couple of the girls there had a really neat seam ripper with rubber tip to brush away those tiny threads.

They told me where I could purchase one, but I, instead came up with my own little invention.

Stuck a pencil eraser on the end of my ripper and now I "erase" away those tiny threads.  It really work!!!

Here's what I have been working on in between making and quilting:

Table toppers and candle mats.  I'm going to be quilting these all at once on my LA.  I use the same backing using a large backing, batting, and lay these on the batting.  From there I just start quilting one and then go on to the next, and roll them just like I would a large quilt.  Save time and much easier for me than to load a tiny piece one at a time.  Not to mention I can not do free motion quilting on my small domestic sewing machine.

Now its time to get cleaned up, do some housework and get ready for the meeting tonight - Edgerton Quilt Committee.

Loaner Working Fine

To be certain I am familiar with the loaner Tin Lizzie, I quilted Ky;s quilt this morning.

She is calling this Kylee's Rubix Cube.  It took forever to get the blocks laid out so none of the colors were touching the same color.

Its ready for the binding, and she is going to do this one herself.  Told her its time!!!!

Small 54x60. She picked all the colors from my stash, and as usual, she goes for the neon looking ones.

Lucky we had enough of the cream to complete the blocks and the borders, and still have enough to bind with.

Can you believe it, my stash is actually running low. Never thought I would say that.  Thanks to Alice (Dee Dee, after raiding her stash) I had a huge selection to choose from. Now not so much.

Time to get serious about building it up again.

Plenty of tiny small pieces but not much for good chunks like I have had to work with.

Darn I just might have to buy fabric one of these days.

Lizzy Went To LA Doc Today

Yes Lizzy finally went in for repair, and as long as I was going that way took my domestic sewing machine to repair also.

Bought the new Brother last year in October and now it doesn't want to go over seams.  Good thing I have a spare to use, because the last time I dropped of a machine for repair it was 2 months.  Lady figured 3 weeks, heck I would be happy with 3 weeks.

As far as Lizzy goes, I did pick up a loaner to use until she is fixed, so all set to go for more quilts.

Stopped at Joann's and got some batting to do one of Ky's quilts.

Off to grocery shop at Sam's Club, Walmart, from there drugstore, dollar store, bank and finally home.

Thank goodness Ky was with me today, she helped, actually did it all by herself loaded and unloaded all the groceries.

We put them away, proceeded to go outside and weeded 2 beds.  Not here favorite job, but she earns money from me for batting and fabric.  After an hour or so, she said "Yay I'm Outta Here" or something like that. Her dad came to pick her up, so I set her free.

Here is what is blooming new at my house

Black Eyed Susan I rescued along property line they were overgrown with thistle, next year will be a better year for them

Hydrangea tree

Again Diane told me name, forgot, but now I know to look for them.  i was told by someone (don't know who) these plants were weeds, come to find out they are actually a good plant/flower lucky I didn't rip them all out and will look for them next year

Diane told me what they were, and of course I forgot

Hydrangea bush that I was given by Ken and Deena and Kids - June

Does anybody know what these are called

These next flowers I planted, annual

So pretty had to show you, thought they were goners because of drought, but managed to keep them going

I'm so looking forward to next year to really enjoy all the flowers again. Sigh this year is almost over, can you believe it. I know its only August, but everything is so far ahead of itself, starting to look like the end of the year instead of the the middle of the growing season.

By tomorrow I should have a new Hibiscus blooms to show you.  Months ago I transplanted from thistle to pond mound the Hibiscus bush and its starting to bud.

The Rose of Sharon bush , blooms best in the morning, so I will try to get some good pictures of it tomorrow. We lost half the bush to wind and rain the other day, but it was a weak part of the bush and more than likely the rest of the bush will get stronger.

Big plans for tomorrow, nothing new.  Might quilt Ky's quilt, but will definitely be out in the yard.  We are looking at 70's, just my kind of weather.