Halloween Quilting

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I had time this past March to make one quilted item for Halloween (Stack N Whack) which I sent to the quilter 2 weeks ago. I found no time this season to sew any other quilted items for Halloween. Val (of Val's Quilting Studio) is having a Linky called Tuesday  Archives with the theme of Halloween. So I decided I would post all the photos of Halloween items I have made in the past on today's blog.  

This year's Stack N Whack runner

A fairly large wall hanging or tablecloth with letter patterns I am designing.

A wall hanging for my daughter.

A wall hanging taught as a class from a published book.

A small ppp used in the wavy banner (below) that I designed (a pattern on PatternSpot.com)

Table topper using extra scraps of Halloween fabrics. 

Trick or Treat bag

Felt Jack-O-Lantern gift bag

Happy Halloween to you all!

Have a Spook-tacular Day!

Donating Past Projects

I have been organizing one room into a sit down sewing room. For a few months I was standing and sewing at a higher table. What this did was give me chondromalacia patella! (Thank goodness it is curable with physical therapy.)  Who would have thought? They do it on TV shows quite often!

Well, in arranging for a sit down station (that was there but buried), I found so many projects from the past that I realized were fun to make, but no longer needed in my collection. So I gathered them up and donated them to the fall craft bazaar the church is having on November 1.

Thought I would post some of them as a "good bye" post. 
Placemat sized projects:

 Tablerunners:

 Hot Pads:

Candle Mats or Table Mats:

One Tote Bag:

Fall is Here

On Sunday I went out in the yard and was met by this beautiful sight! 

My cell phone camera did not capture the bright colors of this Maple tree. 

We have watched it grow taller over the 23 years we have lived here. 

I knew I needed to take a photo that day after the weatherman talked about 

the big storms headed our way for tomorrow. 

Every year when this tree shows its colors, 

the mood to quilt with bright, fall colors is awakened in me. 

This year I am in the middle of organizing another area of my sewing room,

so cutting fabric for a quilt will have to wait.

Do any of you find that the colors of the seasons stimulate a change in your quilting palette?

I looked on the internet and found a number of different color palette generating tools. One that I played with a bit was Adobe's Color CC.

Giveaway Package Arrived!

I returned on Oct. 5th from a quilting retreat and a package from Jan of Sew and Sow Farm was waiting for me. I had entered her Have a Cow Why Dont Cha giveaway. She reviewed Mary Jane Butters' book, Milk Cow Kitchen, which looks like a very thorough, yet eclectic, book on milk and much more. I was so very excited to get this package of beautiful, luscious Aurifil thread. And I can't wait to begin using them! Thank you, Jan.

Sewing and Mail

This is a catch-up post. 

A little over a week ago, I received this pincushion in the mail from Laila in Norway. She sent a postcard, too, so I could see where she lives.  

My pincushion swap partner, Debra, received her pincushion from me about the same time. This pattern was one I found free on the website for the magazine SEW IT. . . TODAY.

And a few days later, I got my October pincushion from Debra. She embroidered her own ribbon tag to sew into the seam to remind me who made and sent it. That was a clever idea. 

This pincushion swap was organized by Beaquilter.com. And it is still fun. I enjoy looking for new pincushion ideas. 

SEWING BEE 

I organized a sewing bee for today. The 3 ladies who came helped sew potholders (8" square) for the church craft bazaar. This is a photo of some of the 15 we got finished. It was nice to get together and simply chat while sewing. 

I put together some orphan blocks and made a placemat set from them this evening for the bazaar. 

Thank you for stopping by. Happy Sewing! 

Quilt Retreat and Unexpected Surprise

This past weekend I went to a quilt retreat with 11 other ladies. Some were from the Tall Pine Quilters Guild, some were friends.  It was relaxing and fun and with only 12 of us we had more room than normally is available at a retreat. 

It was held at KETTUNEN CENTER in Tustin, Michigan. 

In 2004 I had attended a quilting retreat here with another group. Only two of the other ladies had been here before. It is owned and operated by the Michigan 4-H Foundation. There are 160 acres and a lake and unfortunately it rained while we were there, so we did not get to explore the grounds. 

But we did a lot of quilting. I took projects that were nearly complete. I do this when going to retreats because I can bring more items to work on and usually get most of them done. I don't have to cut much more than bindings, backing fabrics or small pieces. 

And these are the things I finished: 

I sewed bindings on:  

The Give and Take quilt I made
after taking a class from Susan Purney Mark
at the 2012 AQS Show in Grand Rapids, MI

Small Square in a Square quilt for me.

A small Square in a Square quilt that will be donated for the church bazaar.

A Christmas table runner for the bazaar.

For the bazaar: 9" and 12" table mats from orphan blocks I had.

A 15" table mat quilted and bound, for the bazaar,
made from an orphan block given to me by a friend

Another block given to me by a friend. I added the 4 corner triangles,
quilted it and bound it (bazaar donation). 

Another Christmas table runner that I quilted for the bazaar.
This is made using the Triangle Frenzy Pattern.

A table mat for donation made from a leftover block I made
using Quilt Smart Interfacing.
I sewed backing and front right sides together with the batting.
Then I quilted the curves of the center "flower".

I sewed the sashings on these slash and sew blocks I made a few years ago.
This flimsy will be a small quilt that could be a wall hanging,
child's quilt or used on a table.

Pillowcases for my daughter to go with the Chevron quilt that we made. 

Now, for the strangest occurrence at the retreat. 

I attended a retreat (at a different place) in the early 2000s, where I supplied a kit and showed the ladies how to make a 3-D flying geese block. Some of them chose to keep their blocks, others combined them to make quilts for auction or giving. While exploring the various areas of the building this weekend, I found a stairway with lovely quilts which had been donated over the years by retreat groups. 

And I found the quilt, shown above, hanging quite high on the wall; but I saw right away the 3-D flying geese made from the fabric I had supplied. And sure enough, when I searched the names, they were the ladies who had been at the retreat when I taught that block. You can see 2 of the blocks in each of the 4 corners. Some of the fabric around the signature blocks have geese flying in them. This quilt was donated to the Kettunun Center in 2008, atleast 4 years after the retreat! I am so happy to see that they used the blocks in the quilt they named: 

What do you take to retreats to work on? What kind of quilting retreats do you like to go on? 

Have you ever had something from your past show up in an unexpected place?