In My Hallway

The colors in this quilt are just right for Fall. It was paper-pieced which is a wonderful way to get crisp points for miniature quilts. I believe the pattern is the Flat Iron so with that in mind this was named "Pressed Leaves".



Minis are one of my favorite quilt items to make. They are a great way to practice a new pattern or technique, get something quick done (compared to a large quilt), use up little bits of much-loved-kept-for-10-years fabric pieces, and to give that sense of satisfaction in completing a project.

Even though this mini stays out year round I had decided to rotate a mini or wallhanging out each Friday in my hallway. Then, on Wednesday, a member of the quilt group I recently joined shared a display tip. She stitches the soft side of velcro to the back of her small quilts and mounts the hard, scratchy side to a permanent rod. She can easily change out her quilts for display. Great idea! I could see having several of these bars to fit areas for minis and larger wallhangings. A constant revolving gallery to show off your art without using push pins. Her idea clinched my rotation plans.

Now off to get ready for a scrapbook convention today. Gotta oooh and ahhh over all the pretty paper fabric.

Enjoy your day.

Nothing in particular...

but still exciting. We had weather! Rain! The real stuff on Tuesday! Yeah, I know, big deal, but I love the rain and the way it makes the leaves greener and that bit of fresh smell and the thunder and lightning. Just love it! And, we had bonuses with it. It hailed first! Lots of nice, hard, rocky, little balls that melted the instant they hit the ground. You might see a few in the pic - maybe not. It stopped almost as fast as it started and I went running for the camera so kind of missed the few minutes of hail. We almost always go outside and just watch any weather that isn't just hot sun and more likely than not walk around a bit in it. Oh, to have REAL seasons!


Now, tilt your head to the right, maybe to the left a bit, rock your monitor forward just so. Do you see it? A rainbow. Who doesn't love a rainbow after a rain?


In celebration, I took a shot of this cute little quilt I made years ago. It says "I bring fresh showers for thirsting flowers".

Quilty Morning - That a Q not a G - :)

Getting a move and groove on this morning. Besides doing some of the necessary evils (a load of laundry, picking up, etc.) I've gotten a few quilty things done.

So far I've prepared a backing, cut some Warm N' Natural, and pinned the runner I made from Happy Zombie's pattern!


Then I started a list (embarrassingly long) of UFO's. Gave up on that because, ugh, I got tired of going through the project drawers.


Decided time would be better spent working on one of those UFO's so I pulled these

from this

and here is the back of a paper pieced log cabin mini ready to have a border put on and be quilted.


Not only that but I organized a bit more of my fabrics (it will get done eventually), paid a few bills (very depressing), read blogs, had my coffee, put up last night's dishes and it's only 7 a.m. Can you tell I'm a morning person?

Yeehah, I love it when a day starts out this smoothly and tomorrow is quilt group meeting. Double yeehah. I'm hoping to have the table runner quilted so I can work on the binding during the meeting. We'll see.

Til next time...have a happy and productive day.

Figuring out blog layout

Whew! I'm starting to figure out this page layout thing. Look. I got 3 columns! Will I keep it? Who knows. I figured out how to put an image in the title section too but can't get my title to sit anywhere at the very top edge. So, if it bounces from this to that to the other don't be surprised. Eventually, I'll figure it out and choose one...maybe.

Did it take you all a while to figure out your layouts and to finally stick to it?

ETA: haha - look at the little tiny title with a cutesy background to the left. Getting closer.

Pillowcase - a first sewing project

A sense of pride and accomplishment. That's what my baby felt when she completed this pillowcase last weekend. Even if she is not that interested in sewing now perhaps these simple little projects will encourage her to take it up later on. She has plans to make daddy a pair of flannel pajama pants and a cowgirl pillowcase for her friend for Christmas. Just her thinking along those lines shows she might find a continuing interest.

She says she is "Wilson" from Home Improvement in this photo...


(Oh, and, uh, I really don't let her wear those fake nails. She went to Walgreen's with her daddy and can talk him into anything. She's fascinated by those things because several of her teachers wear them. They come off before school. )

Free Basket Tutorial

Cute! Cute! Cute! and quick!

I found the link here! at This That and The Other and she got it from here - Pink Penguin! I prepared it last night and stitched it up this morning.

Don't cha love blogging!

In my hallway

Do you ever fall in love with a piece of fabric and buy it "just because"? No plans, no pattern, and no idea what to do with it. That is the way I felt about this fabric with a blue background and pink roses. I bought the fabric, took it home, and used it right away. It all just seemed to fly together. One of those rare times when I used a fabric I loved instead of saving it for "the perfect quilt".

Maybe I had blue in my house at the time but there is no blue to be found anywhere now. So it hangs in the hallway just outside the sewing room door.

I still love it and enjoy it every day and I'm so glad I used it instead of waiting for the perfect quilt.

No dogs allowed

Poor Rosy. She knows she's not allowed in here but she still tries anyway. Inch by inch and step by step. Her favorite spot is always under my feet and that just doesn't work when you're trying to sew. So, the rule is "NO DOGS ALLOWED" in the sewing room. Why do they want to sit right under your feet anyway?

Please can I come in? She's learned that this is as far as she can go.


She must have known I was going to put her photo up. I'm just sure she posed for the photo below. Isn't she too cute? She has a great personality. BTW - she's half Jack Russel and half Australian Cattle Dog. In other words, a hyper, ball-obsessed, highly shedding, nut. But we love her.

Rambles over the completed dog quilt top

Yay! I finished piecing the dog quilt top yesterday for DGS-yet-to-be-born. I'm pleased to have it done but had arguments pro and con with myself over it and even thought of not giving it to him for 5 years or so. So I slept on it and worked through the pros and cons.


Con - it's not very baby-baby. Not the typical quilt perhaps for a newborn.
Pro - it reflects the love dgs's parents have for dogs. How will he not be able to love them too. It will give him something fun to look at and point out as he starts to notice these things.

Con - it's big for a baby quilt. It's too wide for a baby bed and too small to fit a twin for later on.
Pro - it's big enough to cuddle under and mom or dad can cuddle under it too (and maybe a dog or two). Hubby made brownie points last night when I was second-guessing myself and said "he'll be able to enjoy it longer". Big smooches to him.

Con - it is squarish. Not exactly square because it's 2" shorter than wide - 52"x50". This is because the top and bottom row of blocks are 14"x14" and the middle row blocks are 14"x12" - this is on purpose. I wish now that I had added another row of 14"x12" blocks and considered taking it apart and redoing but... yeah, right.
Pro - the top is done and the baby won't care. My son will just be shocked that it's done before he turns 10 and hopefully dd-i-l will be pleased that it was made especially for dgs.

So, those were my arguments as I hung it up and looked it over last night. It is overall cute though and I was able to get the weiny dogs fully on the border. They have 2 of the little stinkers - a red one and a black one. (They also have an old pit bull rescue dog who is one of the sweetest, gentlest, most chicken dogs I've seen. She looks scary, but she's not. They just lost their chow/shephard mix who was a sweet but scared rescue dog. What a mix of pooches!)

Have not decided how it will be quilted. It would be cute to do dog bones or something all over except on the pics of the dogs. I'd quilt around the square/rectangle for them. And, I have extra dogs that I can choose from for a label.

What else doggie can I make? Hmmm, a stuffed weiny dog would be fun. I still have until 10/30 to go. Plenty of time. :)

Oh, and don't mind the "off" picture. You know how it is to photograph a quilt, one side always has to wave at you so I just cropped the darn photo to hide the white walls behind it. The border is 4" all around. I decided to use a solid black for the inner border because it needed a rest between printed dog blocks and a printed outer border.

Fall?

Being Midwestern born and raised then transplanted to the dry, hot desert I'm always surprised at the first signs of Fall. It's not in the cool, crisp mornings - it's still in the 100's during the day and 80's at night. The leaves aren't changing color - the plants are still shades of brown from the long, hot summer. I haven't really noticed scarecrows, cornstalks, or gourds in front of houses - they'd just fade out in the sun.

Where is the first sign of Fall?

My daughter's doll and toys. After seeing Halloween goodies out at the store (over 2 months ahead of the day - geesh) she wasted no time in getting in the spirit (no pun intended). Here's her little "sister" JJ with her old friend Bluebeary. JJ gets to snuggle Bluebeary during the day. JJ is wearing a Halloween sleeper to keep her warm and to get ready for trick-or-treat. The next photo is Bluebeary after being hugged and loved for 7 years along side Newbeary.






Hard to believe Bluebeary ever looked like Newbeary. Did you ever see the commercial about the missing favorite toy and the mom bought a new one and did all sorts of things to it to make it look old? That's what I was thinking when I bought Newbeary but dd found him hidden away and promptly named him Newbeary. Heaven help us if Bluebeary ever comes up missing because Newbeary will not work the same magic. It would be drama to the max!

For some reason both these guys have worn sweaters since day one but, Fall it is, since the dolls and bears are getting redressed. Now I just wish it would cool down.