Halloween Felines

The best part of Halloween 

is letting little kids dress up and pretend.

BEWARE!

 

there's a little lion on the loose.

And this little black kitty

will play with

  your heart.

Happy Halloween.

Until Next Time-

It Just Takes Two

Finally,
after 10 months,

I am caught up with my red and white

It Just Takes Two  blocks!

The third section is complete with 

one more section to go.

Occasionally, I needed to adjust some of the math.

But so far the external measurements are close to 

the dimensions given.

I'm loosing  momentum.  

It's easy to wander off when you're sewing on 

the same quilt for a year.

I'm anxious to get this quilt top done!

To keep my mind from wandering too far,

I've been trying to decide how I'm 

going to quilt it,
 machine quilted,

Hand quilted or
a combo of both.

It would look good hand quilted.
We'll just have to see.

Until Next Time,

It's Friday

The week has gone from
 being able to do this

 to wearing

winter hats

Unfortunately, the week

included this

 Until Next Time-

Peek-A-Boo

 My grandbabies love to play

peek-a-boo.

It makes everyone giggle 

and they want to do it over and over again.

That's a fun thing.

But when you applique,

 peek-a-boo is not a fun thing.

Appliquing is the process of 

stitching pieces on top of pieces.

Sometimes the piece below wants to

be noticed even when it's not suppose too.

When I finished appliqueing my giant moon

on the Midnight Silhouette quilt,

my bright harvest moon 

had turned rather dull.

The black background was interfering.

The solution is to remove the black from behind the moon

to eliminate the shadowing. 

Ever see a snowman quilt and the 

snowmen look dull or have

unwanted designs from the background fabric below?

Sometimes that background has to go,

 it has to be done carefully,

so ONLY the background is cut away not the newest applique piece.

There are special scissors that can prevent this from happening.

 They're odd looking,

with a pelican bill,

 but the curved blade slides 

along the bottom and doesn't mistakenly poke and

pick up the bottom fabric and accidentally cutting it.

So with the background cut away,

 the color of the moon will be true and bright again

when it's laid on top of the white batting eventually,

Look how much that black background was shadowing.

This is the back side after the background has 

been cut away.

See how much of a shadow the black cat makes.

That's how much the moon was being eclipsed.

Until Next Time-

A Great Read

It's been a long since since I've been able to 

sit, look at and read through a new book.

When I got home on Friday 

I had this waiting for me.

I had seen the book on line recommended by someone,

sorry I forget who,

and bought it sight unseen.

And I am so happy I did!

The over 20 quilt projects in this book

 are beautiful with

a creative scrappy twist.

Linda's recipes for turning scraps into spectacular quilts

is a delightful and informative read.

Her practical down to earth approach is

refreshing and doable.

Her stories and advice make this a must have book.

I would love to start with quilt #1 and just

keep going.

 Of course, books published by Quiltmania

are phenomenal because of their quality 

of photography, layout, and yes, the book

is also written in French along side the English.

It makes you feel so global!

It's been a very long time since I've written a book report

but

If you  love scrap quilts, 

If you love antique quilts

If you love making antique reproductions

and have a ton of fabric,

Scrap Quilts (mania) 

by Linda Koenig

 definitely needs to be on your list

of 

"must haves".

 Until Next Time-

Midnight Silhouette

When you think of Halloween,

one image that might come to mind 

is a black cat.

Throw in the bewitching time of midnight

and you have the begin of a new group quilt-along

project for the Quilting Buddies.

We've all been in love with the pattern
Midnight Silhouette for quite awhile.

No time better than the present to start
a fantastic Halloween quilt.

Other than a loosely designed timeline,
we have no rules,
no pressure
no competition
no Quilt Police

But guaranteed
fun,
a chance to be creative with glorious fall colors
and a delightful quilt that will make you smile.

This project is  not for the
appliquer who loves iddy biddy pieces.
No, way.

 These are great big, simple shapes.

 The moon is about a 22 inch circle and
the cat is 17 inches tall.

With a couple more good nap times here at Nana's Nursery,
I'll be spooking along.

Until Next Time-

Warm From the Oven

 Right now you can find pumpkin recipes 

for everything.

And the good news is that you can

actually find pumpkin on the shelves at the grocery stores this year.

Last year I got organized and 

made a recipe folder specifically for all

those delicious pumpkin recipes that 

I've made and collected over the years.

The one that is always on top are my

Kyle's Great Pumpkin Cookies.

These are the best ever pumpkin cookies for sure.
You can get the recipe by clicking here.

 Finding the right pumpkin 

for the front porch can be 

fun and exciting.

but a pumpkin can be more than that.

Pumpkin is a great source of many

good things, like vitamin E, B6 A, C

and many more.

Besides that it tastes good, it's challenging

to see how many different ways you can use it.

 I decided to try a new cookie this year.
It's called

Pumpkin Caramel Kiss Cookies

They're like a snickerdoodle cookie with pumpkin
and of course,
 a Hershey Caramel Kiss.

The recipe is from the blog
Something Swanky

I did change a couple of things.
I used all butter, no shortening,
I would increase the amount of pumpkin pie spice,
and not bake them on parchment paper,
 I like a crispier bottom cookie.

You"re right, cookies aren't the best

way to get all those nutrients from a pumpkin,

but they sure are pretty tasty.

Enjoy the vegetable of the moment,

PUMPKIN.

Until Next Time-

Keep On Spinning

This week is my official week 

of starting to watch both of my grand kiddos.

 Sanford 10 1/2 months

 Everdeen 12 weeks 

Did you ever watch the Ed Sullivan show

and be enthralled by the guys who would do the 

plate spinning acts?

With a few substitutions

that will be me.

 

 Keep on Spinning!

Until Next time-

Baby Memories

Why am I showing you this picture?

One of the things I wanted to do 

while I was away from home on my sabbatical this year

was to work on some of the piles of pictures that

had accumulated over the years.

We all have them, in shoe boxes,

cupboards, or drawers,

unlabelled and quickly they become mystery events.

When my youngest daughters were in 4th grade, 1994,

we became acquainted with Creative Memories, 

the scrapbooking organizational method for 

keeping our precious photos and memories safe.

We loved it.

We organized, 

cropped 

and archivally mounted 1000's of photos into

very creative and fun albums.  

Scrapbooking is a lot like quiltmaking.

It involves color and pattern,

creating and exploring,

making something permanent,

and cutting and putting things back together again.

It's a fun creative outlet.

And it takes time.

My goal was to actually do my

two youngest daughter's baby albums. 

Gosh, they're almost 28!

So in the past 9 months, ha ha ha,

I have put together an album for each of them,

documenting their first year of life.

Fortunately, I didn't take as many photos

as new mommies do now.

It was back in the film era.

I know at this point digital scrapbooking is faster

and probably easier and less expensive,

 but I need 

to finish what I've started.

So now you know, 

if I'm not stitching in the evenings,

I'm cutting and pasting memories.

  Until Next time-

October Treats

Some of my favorite quilts in my collection 

are fall designs and 

with those rich autumn colors.

 It seems to be a favorite time of the year for many of us even

though  I've added a sweatshirt to my wardrobe and put
flannel sheets on the bed.

 This is one of my very favorite quilts. 

55" x55"
2006

It's from the Halloween Threads book 

and the pattern was designed by Janet Miller

I loved doing the embroidery

 with different the stitches to accent the pumpkin shape. 

The border fabric was the inspiration source for

the colors I chose.

  It's one of those

delicious ticking fabrics that I had collected.

There were several of my quilting buddies

 who were working on the same design at the same time.

 That's great motivation.

 I love how everyone adds their own special uniqueness to their quilts.

 The second quilt is from the book,

Seasonings,  by Jan Patek and Sue Spargo.

56" x60"
2002

The pattern is a single pumpkin with Jan's typical folk art design.

 Instead I made four and
used the design to teach an appliqué class.

  Each square gave the students a different technique to try,
  needle turn, freezer paper, fusible, and machine appliqué.

 The prim style is perfect for beginning appliquers.
The shapes are so forgiving, large
and quick to do.

Add some more fun on the back with your labels.
It's the only way I could possibly remember when I made this.

Fall is definitely here.
Go gather a few pumpkins,
crunch through a few leaves,
and bring out a few fall quilts to enjoy.

  Until Next Time-

Mountain Trail Sew Along

My days are pretty scheduled.

Playtime, nap time, bottles and baby food, ...

So when Lori at Humble Quilts started her newest quilt-a-long

I knew it was the perfect project

 to give me some unplanned creative sewing time.

To add to the challenge,

 I decided to use the " dump and sew" strategy.

What is that exactly?

Beth at, Love Laugh Quilt, 

suggests you dump your scrap bag and see what happens.

 The perfect solution for a mini scrappy quilt.

Out came the scraps.

A couple of years ago I passed on most of my scraps,

 so what was in there was relatively new.

Even then

sometimes you need to ask for someone else's opinion.

I did noticed two themes.  

Reproductions

Blacks, browns, blues, shirtings, with a cheddar cheese trail

Modern Brights

Leftover Kate Spain, Fig Tree, Sandy Gervais maybe with a bright Raspberry trail.

No problem having two themes.

Just make two quilts.

With a little more sorting

and cutting

 these mountain trails are beginning to take shape.

This has been a great exercise is 

exploration and discovery.

Christopher and I must have 

a little bit in common.

Until Next Time-