My quilt is done!

MY QUILT IS DONE!

I have finally finished my quilt. I have actually been done for about two weeks, but was awaiting the right lighting to get the picture. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I stitched in the ditch for all the rows. I did some free motion quilting on the white part. I was trying to go for an all over meander in that area. It's definitely not perfect (hence, no pictures of the back), but I think it came out well for a first "real" quilt.

I learned how important a good quilting area is around the machine. I also don't have an extension table on my machine and I think I'll be putting that on my Chrismas list this year so I can improve. I think quilts of all sizes can make great gifts, given some time and pratice. Who wouldn't want to warm up in something that was handmade in love?

This is going to be a great gift to give. But, it does have special meaning to me, and I have become slightly attached to it. So have some others in the family.

Halloween Review

Dear blog,

I's been a while, again. I hope these next few posts hope you feel like I am keeping you up to date.

Halloween, 2008, Review

We had a great time on Halloween this year. It started early in the month, as my previous post talked about. We had pumpkins gallore between this trip to the patch, the field trip with Corinne's school to the patch, and some pumpkin gifts from friends. What do you do with so many pumpkins?

Painting them is a great option.

I have lots more painting pictures, but since I made the two of them strip down to minimal clothing...not a great idea to share on the WWW!

Trick or treating was a hit this year. We were visitors of a very friendly neighborhood, and boy did they go all out. Corinne got into it this year, wanting to run from house to house. She walked into any house when they opened their door too far! She also had NO fear of the scary houses. One was all decked out with smoke, lights, a moving ghost on a wire across the front yard, scary noises, etc. She had to walk through a tunnel with spooky lights to get to the house, and she went right up. No fear (ever). However, Nathan, he held my hand tight and didn't want to go anywhere near the noises. I truly feel that HE will protect HER one day.

The best part of trick or treating....checking out the loot on the return to the house!

A wonderful fall day!

Hello all!


Today, I got to spend the day sewing with my sister, and what a great day we had (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!). Although she didn't get much sewing in, I think she had a great time finishing up another project - staining a piece of furniture. And, I got to get a lot further on the quilt! All is done but the binding - final pictures to come soon!


How many of you have been enjoying fall? I don't know about you, but I think it feels so nice to have a crisp breeze in the air this time of year. Something about the coolness of the air, the leaves showing their colors, the angle of the sun, makes it so nice to be outside this time of year! My sister and I also got to get a great run in today, and it was a great treat to enjoy the air, the city, the leaves all on foot.

So, being that it's fall, I thought you'd enjoy the pictures of a trip to the pumpkin patch.

Searching for the perfect pumpkin.

Found!

(Yes, she picked out that outfit herself! I could not get her to change it...that girl has her own sense of style)

Hmmm...

This is it!

Attempt to get a group picture #1.

Attempt to get a group picture #2.

Flowers in the Fall

I am loving my garden right now. I have some great color going on. Not the oranges, reds, or yellows that you would expect me to be talking about at this time of year, but PURPLEY-PINK.

Absolutely gorgeous.

It was in this post that I first referred to these plants. I was wrong by calling them a hardy geranium. They are really Japanese Anemones, and what a winner of a plant. They started out small, and in two year's time they have really spread.

I think I can split them this fall or next, to spread the color throughout the garden. They are really a welcome plant this time of year.

A new cape!

No, I have not finished my quilt yet. I finished the stitch in the ditch quilting, now I have to move on to the free hand part...But, since the quilt is already late, I had to stop for a night and move on to fulfill an obligation. Way back in February, I made a Superman cape for a little boy for a birthday present (pre-blog days, so I don't have a picture). The mother liked it so much, she asked me in March to make a Batman cape for Halloween. So, it's been on my to do list since then!

This is the third cape I have made using this tutorial from Puking Pastilles. It's a great tutorial, a great gift, and such an easy thing to make and personalize!


This is a picture of the cape on my son, so it's long on him, but since the real owner is 4, it will be a great length!

Even the applique was easy!

Sarsaparilla Skirt & Vest GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Why not try again? This is pretty cute!

Sarsaparilla Skirt & Vest GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Tools of the Trade

Remember, in this post, I mentioned that I had signed up for a quilting class? I loved the class, and learned a lot. In that class the instructor had us sandwich a mini-quilt. She taught me some great tips that I used in the past two weeks when I finally sandwiched the quilt top I referenced in my last post. She taught us the time-saving tricks of:

• Always leave your saftey pins open when they are out of the quilt, they should only be closed when they are in your quilt.


• Add all pins to the quilt, without closing, then when all pins are in, go back and close them.


• Use a tool, called a Kwik Klip to help close the pins.

In the past two weeks, I have sandwiched, and then re-sandwhiched that quilt top. The first one did not turn out so well. The back had all sorts of lumps in it WITH the pins in it. Which meant if I had gone ahead and quilted it, then it would have been a very sloppy back. So, out came the pins and back to the drawing board I went!

My tools and timesaving tips:

• Don't use painter's tape. Nope, it didn't hold down my backing enough. Hence, the lumps. I used Duct tape the second time, and it went much better.

• Who needs a Kwik Klip, when you have a Strawberry topper-cutter?

Seriously, I don't know what this little utensil is called, but we use it in the summer time to cut off the tops of strawberries. It works great in that aspect, but I found a new use for it with the quilt. It holds the bottom of the pin perfectly, so I can just push down on that safety pin and close it up.

With about 100 or so pins in this blanket, your fingers can get really raw trying to hold that little pin in place. This little tool was a big timesaver!

Tasks for this week: Get to finally finishing up this quilt!