Cool!

When the weather changes,

even early, before it's supposed to change...

When it's too cool for this time of year?

I just have to cook! 
Whole wheat egg noodles almost ready to cut,

 some veggies

 & some of that chicken from my brother's abundance...

will fill this:

And will fill our bellies the next few meals!

Yum!

meanderings

I have been busy doing some quilting for others...

a couple of them are to be surprises/gifts, so I can't share pics yet.

But, here are a few that I've done in the past couple of weeks that I can share...

Chris made a very cute wall hanging for her grand-daughter

that I got to finish up for her:

 Annette used her great creativity

and used her West Virginia fabric:

 She wanted the state flower stitched around and about:

 Lastly, this is Joell's great, king-sized finish:

 I meandered floating leaves all over it...

After quilting these beauties,
I'm trying to get myself motivated to work on my own gifting quilts...
So, I'm off! 
Finding motivation!

a few autumn-y things

There must be a HUGE weather system blowing in here.

Or something is going on with the barometric pressure...

My head that thinks it's a barometer

is really distressing today!

Maybe it's the changing of the seasons that's really hitting hard.

Anyway, to make me forget the sinus headache celebrate,

I have started to pull out a few decorations...

More importantly,

I have my Vintage Trick or Treat

hung in the living room!

The lighting is not great in this photo, but I'm still lovin' it!

And, I whipped up that little woolen table topper -

from the stuff I "had to purchase"

from the last quilt guild show that I got to visit.

It's beginning to feel Autumn-ish around here in Central Ohio.
Yep, I'm calling the headache Autumn-ish.

Come to find out, I watched the weather news,
and sure enough, there is the HUGEST storm system swirling
around the middle of the U.S. -
I knew I wasn't crazy!
Barometric Autumn-ish!

more coloring

I pieced and traced and color-tinted block number five of
Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage...

This piece is 18 by 30 inches. 

I haven't ironed off the excess wax/heat set it yet -

as I'm still looking at the shading.

I think it needs some more depth

in the rolled up warty looking bundle that's sticking out of the jar.
Do you think I need to add more shading???

I'm still working on stitching the section that is block two/three/four-
and it's almost done!

As a side note,

a friend is going out to Washington THIS week

 to join the Crabapple Hill gals in their retreat.

Can you imagine?

Stitching with the Crabapple Hill gals? 

Those stitching/designing/coloring

geniuses??

Yep, I'm just a little jealous of my friend...

I'll have to be content with living vicariously through her...

and working on my coloring here, I guess.

So, vicariously coloring here.

Welcome Autumn & Vintage Trick or Treat finish

Welcome Autumn - today being the first official day!

So, here's

Crabapple Hill's version of

Vintage Trick or Treat:

Yes, I've shared before that

I live "a little on the dark side"

in the fabric/quilting world...

so here's my version of
Vintage Trick or Treat:

You'll notice right off that my version is much darker -

darker in the threads chosen for embroidery stitching

and in the fabric choices.

Also, I didn't use the rick-rack or ball fringe. 

Nothing against that either, but I thought

my "darker version"

didn't need rick-rack or fringe.

I replaced the rick-rack

with a small quarter-inch finished "flange" with no cording. 

That did change the perceived size of some of my nine-patches,

though that doesn't bother me.

Also, I opted NOT to scallop my borders -

just a little too "frilly" looking for my tastes.

Then, on to the quilting:

The pattern maker chose to have hers quilted

with an all-over pantograph of pumpkins and leaves. 

I COULD NOT make myself

quilt over the top of

all of my hand-embroidery stitching!!!

So... I did block-specific quilting...

vines and leaves and a little "base" on each of the blocks:

 Ribbons and squiggles around the center goodie bag:

 And, a view of the backing and quilting:

Pumpkins and leaves and vines in the borders.

My "sample" was hanging in the local quilt shop,

since I was the "leader of the pumpkin gang" for this project.

But, now it is home,

so it's going on the wall in the family room -

I think it's about time to start decorating for Autumn!!

What are you working on,

and are you ready for autumn to arrive

and to decorate accordingly?

month five of five: Vintage Trick or Treat

This marks the last month of our stitch along!!!

Vintage Trick or Treat by Crabapple Hill

The last of the hand embroidery stitching-Whoo Whoo!!

Hoot Owl and Star Eyes!

Everything should now be hand-stitched and machine-pieced.

The stitchery panels get pieced together with the hand-embroidered blocks:

Stitch the "pumpkin baskets" to the sides of the center block.

As we discussed last month,
don't forget to stitch some big, black fly stitching 
on the seam lines between these two blocks
(and the other sides' Scaredy Cat/Squiggle mouth blocks)!

Then add the top and bottom finished pieces:

And now to add some borders!

Don't just stitch some long panels of fabric on each of the four sides...
take the time to do it right.
Measure across the center of the quilt, side to side, 
to get the top and bottom border's cutting measurements.
Sew, press, and
now measure down through the center of the quilt,
top to bottom with those borders included
to get the measurement for the side borders.
Sew, press and

YAY!!!
A great job, well done!!!!

Thanks for following along (and joining in)! 
It has been a great project the last five months, hasn't it?
AND almost everyone has a finished top to show for it!

stew's almost done!

It's almost stew weather around here, and it feels kinda' good,
but I'm talking stitching...

Here's my almost finished Alphabet Stew

And I say almost,

because I thought it WAS finished and ready to frame,

but...

I still need to stitch

the tendrils on the green beans and the zucchini.

Don't know why I didn't do that already.

Well, I guess I do know why...

I was stitching with brown,

and the tendrils are supposed to be green floss.

I stitched all the wool onto the Osnaburg fabric with Aurifil's wool thread...

it's an 50/50 mix of wool & acrylic.

And I love stitching with it.

The old wool threads broke easily

and frayed at the needle eye

and were basically a pain to try to stitch with.

This is NOT.  Not a pain to stitch with.

Anyway, this Aurifil Lana that I used is number 8078 -

it's kind of a heathered brown

with just a touch of dark pine-y green. 

No, it's not shiny at all. 

The camera flash did that 'cause I was trying to get too close.

Now, to decide if I'm really making

vegetable stew for dinner tonight...

Happy Stitching!

I'm more than a little sad

I couldn't write about it right away.
I had to let it "sew" around in my brain just a little.

We in central Ohio had some bad news last week...
Not bad news as in storm and destruction, but
bad news in that...
one of our local quilt shops is going out of business...

See, I could hardly even write it...

The local quilt shop that I work for is closing.
There, I typed it out in cold, hard font.

When October closes it's door, the LQS shop doors will also close.

So sad,
not just for the owners,

but for the employees.

And for the thousands of customers. 

Customers that have become friends.

Friends like family.

There is no blame to the owners,  

as they tried their hardest. 

I think it's the economy -

the continual rising prices

of cotton

and fabric

and labor

and fuel for manufacture and
for transportation. 

Then, the rising cost of rent, utilities, taxes. 

Recently, fabric came in

that was priced at over $12.00 per yard. 

Really - over $12.00 a yard.

We stash builders may be sitting on

the proverbial gold mine. 

Which is also a minus. 

Who will buy $12.00-a-yard fabric

when you have a ba-zillion yards

of the stuff in your home already?

We are very lucky

in that we have many other quilt shops here in central Ohio.

But each had their own niche. 

And now one of those niches will be missing.

It's just a sad day.
What will I do, not having my couple of times a week fix?

We may have to have a "Friends of A.I.S." support group.

I don't think that I'm the only one having a hard time dealing.

Who did that?

Yesterday,

I traced all of the parts of some veggies...

and then ironed them onto some wools...

In preparation for this:

Vegetable Stew by Threads That Bind.

I had previously stitched the letters
onto a great piece of Osnaburg that I had added a little coffee stain to.

So, after I had traced and pressed the 30 little pieces?
I could not find the stitched alphabet piece!

So what ensued?
An hour search through all of my hand stitching bags and projects.
I KNOW I had stitched it.
Where could it be?

No luck, so, I took a break from searching
and went back to meandering on the "Big DD" quilting machine.

Then, after dinner, I HAD to search again. 
It was really bothering me.
I re-checked all of the places I had checked before.
Then I cleaned out my desk drawer.
Also cleaned out the scrap box on my cutting table.
I had a trash bag with me this time, so I was pitching stuff as I went along.
You know, scraps of paper, little snippets of fabric.
The packaging that my new pressing sheet came in- why was I keeping that?
Also pitched the little bag that came with my travel iron
that I NEVER ONCE have used for traveling as it isn't heat resistant.

Anyway, after cleaning and pitching for an hour plus,
I went out and sat in my easy-girl-chair
and went through the thoughts in my mind. 
Where could that piece of stitching be?

If I was a piece of stitched fabric, where would I be?
If I was putting stuff away, where would I have put it?
OK, I did put it somewhere.  Just where?!?

Finally, I decided that I had been working at my desk,
reorganizing a couple of weeks ago, 
so possibly,
it could be in a project bag at my desk...
So, I went through all 5 of the project bags again, piece by piece.
Nope. 
Not there, again!

It was now after midnight.
I should just go to bed.
I should sleep on it and look for it again tomorrow.
On the way out of the studio,
I went back to my cutting table and put away some stuff that I had moved to dig through.
You know, putting stuff away,
back onto the shelves above the cutting table.

On this shelf:

In that stack of  brown, cream and tan fabrics?

I found my piece of stitched fabric!!!
It was wadded up and jammed into that stack of fabric!!!
Who would have done that? :)
Why would I have put a stitched piece of fabric into Stash Fabric???

I think it was probably me...

anyway,

Today while I'm watching the football game
from my easy-girl-chair,
I'm going to be doing some stitching...
YAY!

Happy Stitching to you!

work, not

At last week's guild Quilt Show,
I was really there to WORK. 
Yes, work. 
I was "working" for the LQS at the shop's booth.
I was there to vend on Friday.
I was also there to do a demonstration.
My demonstration was "Fabric Embellishment with Color".
Or, Let's play with Crayons on fabric!!!
Yep, that's work! NOT!

So, my demonstration was the two latest projects that I've been coloring/stitching...
The new Crabapple Hill patterns,

Which Witch's Boot:

and Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage:

That sure was hard work!!!

Sharing my tips and tricks for

"embellishing with color" :)

Me and my box of 64 Crayolas!

Also,

I already shared that I NEEDED more wool

for an already started project,

so I got a big chunk of white wool...

Well,

I also purchased a few pre-cuts of wool...

How can you turn this down when it's this cute??

Just needs a little stitching and wa-la, finished table mat!

Then,

I saw this pattern across the isle...

not very eye-catching, is it???

But then I saw the sample that was made:

Yep, bought that pattern!!!

That sure was a fun job/day, let me tell you.

WHAT is wrong with me?!?

I picked up more wool.
MORE WOOL!


I have a project that I've been working on,
(read that as:  started & in a pile on my ironing board :)
It is called "10 cents a Chance"
and was a McCall's Quilting magazine Web Bonus LAST summer.

Anyway, the "kit" had a chunk of blue fabric printed with white stars.

BUT, if you cut the blue star fabric into the size required for piecing,
it cut THROUGH the stars.
I don't think that is acceptable for a "field" in a flag. 
No flag should have partial stars in my book.
So, I decided that I should applique stars onto this quilt. 
And, I should have a few shades of creams/whites in wool. 
This would "make" the quilt, I decided...
So, at last weeks' guild quilt show, I hit up the booth of the "wool lady".
Thank you, wool lady.

I now have plenty of wool. 
Like I didn't have wool in my life already!


Only 288 woolen stars to cut and applique!

labor on Labor Day

Well, that sure was fast!
Can't believe we've gone through June, July and August.
Where does the time go?
We went from 100 degrees, sunny and VEERRYY humid
to mid 60's and rainy in only the past couple of days.
And with the change of weather on Labor Day Weekend,
it was good to stay inside and do some more stitching!


Here are a few things I've labored on over the past week:
Forewarning!!!
Be careful how you store your quilts!!!

The following quilts were

layered over an unused bed

when Ann inherited them:

 (This one is a white muslin whole-cloth quilt)

 and the little mice families made a nest (or ten)!

 (this one is a beautifully pieced Mennonite top 

with white muslin backing and hand-quilted)

The largest hole (shown repaired above) was 6 by 9 inches...

I know, white muslin doesn't photograph well,

but it must make good little mice-y homes!

Two quilt repairs down and one more to go. 

I'll show some before pics of it -

it must have been good mice-nest making material on the top, too!

Also this past week I got to do some meandering on a couple of panels...

This is Stella's. 

Her son has a place in Alaska that he has to fly into -

and that's where they go to salmon fish!

So, when she saw this,

she had to have it for a wall-hanging for his Alaska place. 

 Next, Shirley's baby gift.  Too cute, isn't it?

Then, a change of subject:

I was at a guild quilt show the Friday of Labor Day weekend, and that was fun!

It was great to see all of the great work that everyone is doing!

Soooo inspirational.

I saw a two-color "Dear Jane" that was stupendous.

Great job, Joyce!

It got Viewer's Choice AND Best of Show, and it deserved both!

My camera battery was a goner, so no pics, but, really, the show was truly amazing!

I know some GREAT quilters, I've decided!

OK,

back to work for me;

Hope your Labor Day was wonderful, and

Happy Stitching this September (already)!!!