Getting Ready for Halloween

This picture was taken a couple days ago. Parker is going to be the Wolverine for Halloween. There is no school today so I haven't gotten any work done and haven't had any time to play in my sewing room.

Parker and I had dentist appointments this morning too. Parker had a good check-up. I have a cavity and have to go back in two weeks.

Somehow I need to find time to get myself ready for guild tomorrow. I am teaching the guild how to make tote bags. Hope all goes well with the class!

Crop Circles 1

This is what I have been working on as my art project for this week. I'm calling it "Crop Circles 1." I have had this idea for a while but flying out of Alamosa last month for the wedding reminded me of it again. After I got home I drew a quick sketch. I'd like to make a larger version of this idea sometime so right now I am just trying different things. On some of the circles I am zigzagging around the outside, on others I am using a straight stitch. Some will have no other stitching inside, others will have circles or lines quilted inside. The small little orange wedge on the top row, middle circle will have little rectangles to represent the farm house and out buildings. I had planned to hand sew circles and lines in the "fields" but I used scraps from my pre-fused fabric stash and not all of my fusible is condusive to hand sewing. Maybe next time.



Here is Maggie sunbathing on the back of our sofa. Notice the cord coming from underneath the quilt in the bottom left of the photo. Yes, there is a heating pad underneath the quilt for the early morning before the sun hits the back of the couch. I hope that when I am the equivalent of 19 in cat years I will be treated as well as her.

Reading in Bed

This morning when I went into Parker's room to get him up for school he was already up. Reading in bed! Yesterday our Scholastic book order arrived at school and he came home with the starter pack, first 8 books, of the Magic Tree House series. I wasn't prepared for how excited he would be to get these books. He had the books in hand when he got off the bus. The first thing he told me was, "look what my teacher gave me today!" (I'm not sure he realizes that I order these books and pay for them.) His first grade teacher read a couple of the books to the class at the end of last school year. I thought they might be a bit above his reading level but figured he and his dad could read them together. Well, he can read them himself. My little boy is growing up so fast! (sniff, sniff) But I am so glad that he enjoys reading.

Not much sewing in my future for today. I've got lots of work to do. But I left the basting tables up from yesterday's squaring up session in hopes that I will be able to baste together the next quilt I need to quilt. I've two in line - my Funky Santa quilt and my nephew Zeke's quilt that my mom pieced. I'm not sure which one will be next. I'm thinking I need to do something for me next. I plan to quilt Funky Santa in the ditch to stabilize it, then add some more appliques and do a lot of custom quilting. If I get Funky Santa started then when I get stuck and need time to think a bit before continuing, I'll have Zeke's quilt to focus on. Sounds like a plan.

Sister's quilt - my part done

I squared it up this morning and sewed the binding to the front. My part is done. I hope she likes it!

Sister's quilt in progress, Part 2

The quilting is complete! I've made the binding, she is using the border fabric as the binding also. I will attach the binding to the front for her and she will stitch it to the back herself. I just did an all over large stipple for the quilting. If I had more experience and/or a long arm machine I could have done a more interesting pattern. But I think this will be sufficient for how she plans to use it. In the shot below you can see the backing fabric she chose. It is a nice complement to the top.

Sister's quilt in progress

I'm taking a break from quilting my sister's quilt. My hands and wrists get tired after a while since I just have my regular sewing machine to quilt on. Her quilt is bigger than I thought. It filled my basting tables so that's about 72" by 80". My machine does not like one of the fabrics she used. It's a white on white she used as background for the pieced blocks and an inner border. The fabric is not a true print. This means that the little white stems and leaves are applied to the white background and are slightly raised. I don't know how this kind of fabric is made but I think the appliques are fused to the background somehow. Anyway, this fabric gums my needle and was causing my machine to drop stitches. She chose a flannel for the backing which didn't help. I was panicking until I realized that my machine was only dropping stitches when I crossed a seam that involved this white fabric. I quilted one hole length of the border with no problems. So off to the quilt store to purchase every kind of needle they had in a 90/14 size. I started with a quilting needle in the 90/14 size which is what I usually use with flannel backing. So far the denim 90/14 needle is working fairly well, but I'm on my second one. I don't know if the first one had a defect or what, but my top thread kept breaking. Thus far with the second needle I haven't had that problem. On the up side, I am getting lots of practice at starting and stopping while quilting.

Painted Pumpkin

Today was the last Farmer's Market of the year. I bought a few Jonathan apples, a couple pounds of fingerling potatoes and a blackberry pie. At the last one they set a table up for kids to pick a pumpkin and paint it, for free! Here is Parker's creation.