Hello Fall Blog Hop

Hello Fall!  Hello bloghoppers!  Welcome to the Hello Fall Blog Hop!  You can go to the main page by clicking the button below:

Much as I love summer in Texas, I do enjoy the beginnings of a cool breeze come autumn.  Sadly that doesn't really kick in around here until next month.  September is usually a pretty darned warm month, full of very bright sunshine with all the neighborhood lawn sprinklers still in full flow.  So when Carla of Create in the Sticks announced her Hello Fall blog hop a month or so ago, I leaped on it with my recent finish, September Sunshine.  

All those orange and yellow fabrics really wanted to be crammed together every which way.

I've also been working on these easy pumpkin coasters to give to friends.  It was fun to use a bunch of homespuns in fall colors and I love the raggedy edges.

Still in the works for fall is my first attempt at crumble applique.  I like it, but it still needs a lot of work.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope all your fall projects turn out just the way you want them to.  

Go check out the other bloggers' posts in the hop, you'll love what you see!  I've put links to their blogs below.

Creatin' in the Sticks
Quilt Schmilt
Bumbleberry Stitches
Samelia’s Mum
Life in the Scrapatch
Storied Quilts
Songbird Designs
Quiltifications  you are here <<
Words & Stitches

for the love of geese

Box of Chocolates

Isn't that sweet!

Or as we say in Texas, "Idn'at swait!"

Found these adorable candies in a ten inch stack a year or so ago.  Had to have 'em and knew what I wanted to make with them by the time I got them home. They didn't want to be cut up; at ten inches there was just enough of each pattern to really show them off, so they were sashed, ribboned, and tied up with a bow.

The bow was way easier than it looks.  

I sketched it out on paper, decided what was foreground (red) and what was background (maroon), then enlarged it on some old packing paper, smoothed the sketch into something nice, and used the packing paper as a template.  Cut it up, pinned it to the appropriate color, cut out the pieces.  Satin stitch got it firmly sewed to the top.

In the chocolate squares the quilting is pretty innocuous as I didn't want to detract from the lushly detailed prints.  

The ribbon got some fairly dense quilting just to show off a little.

There were a few squares left over so they got turned into a pillowcase.  More and more I've turned to using leftovers for a pillowcase to match the quilts I make.  Even if the recipient doesn't want to use the case on their pillow, it makes a handy storage sleeve for the quilt when it isn't being used.

Merry Christmas to All

...and to All a Good Night.

She Likes It

Little Miss S approves, so mom and dad get to keep the new quilt.  :)  Very small humans are always so cute.

Bloggers Quilt Festival Autumn 2013

Welcome to the Bloggers Quilt Festival!  I hope everyone is having fun surfing through all the lovely quilts on display!  If you get lost you can click on the button above and go back to Amy's Linky list of participating blogs.

I buy panels when they go on clearance.  You know, panels for instant baby quilts, panels for embellishable vests, panels for stuffed toys and doll dresses.  I make up the baby quilts and have them ready for donations or emergency baby shower gifts, but most of the rest of them just hang around until there's some need.

BEFORE

Thimbleberries made this panel a few years back.  I snapped one up when they went clearance at my local discount fabric store, but the victorian child in the center really creeps me out.  (Yes, I'm one of those silly people who think clowns are scary.)  So I thought I'd try a deconstructed panel.  You know, like a deconstructed book, only with a quilt.

First thing I did was find a few fabrics that approximated the reproduction prints on the panel.  Then I cut out the spooky center pumpkin boy

and muah hahahaha! chopped him into bits!

 I built a four patch insert for the hole in the panel,

then used the pieces of the pumpkin boy to make strange jacobean style flowers to applique onto the center.

Quilting was fun with a feather border with variegated thread pebbles in the veins and swirls in the center.

No more scary pumpkin boy!

AFTER!

Thanks for stopping by to see my quilt, and have fun with the rest of the show!

Appli-Log Cabin Two

What is it about half log cabin blocks and applique?  I didn't realize until I started trying to think up a post title that this is the second half log cabin quilt I've combined with applique.  This quilt is huge.  My dd#2's best friend from high school who is an honorary daughter of mine wanted a big bed quilt in these colors:

 As usual I had just the wrong shades of everything on hand and had to make a few purchases.

The center applique medallion was my favorite part of the piecing,

but the whole thing went together so smoothly it was hard to choose.  I quilted one motif in all the red blocks (and the two green blocks that fit the pattern)

and a different feather motif in each of the green/beige blocks.

 I probably spent more time standing in front of Terpsichore going "um" trying to figure out the next feather motif than I did quilting.

Here you go, Mr. and Mrs. G!  Stay cozy!

Return on Investment

My scanner didn't do this handmade card justice, but you can probably see that there's a sewing table and dressmaker's dummy complete with a very stylish dress in the works on the front.  This was the first thing I saw when I opened the envelope from Miss S. who now owns Birthday Bubbles.  She was pretty excited about it - as you can see in the photo below where she's MODELING the quilt!

Below she's showing the quilt:

 

There is just no greater return on the investment in quilt making than this.  I hope it keeps her cozy for many years to come.

One more of the 24 quilts is finished!  

I took this one along to a retreat two weeks ago and finished up the applique work.  One of the gals there has a granddaughter who's birthday is coming up and I managed to get it quilted and sent off in time.  Hopefully she'll enjoy it for several years.

I just love this backing fabric, it seems so appropriate for the back of a quilt given as a gift.

 

Pink and purple aren't usually my thing at all, but I did enjoy working on this quilt because of it's odd beginnings and serendipidous finish.  Names for my quilts usually pop into my head while I'm working on them, but all I could think of for this one was Babs' Birthday Bubbles which seems kinda lame.  We'll let Stacy decide on a real name when she gets it.  :)

Hedgehog Holiday

Happy Valentine's Day!

Originally published as hamie the hedgie at lollychops.com and more recently seen on the shabby, I couldn't resist making one of my own.

Meet Valentine the Hedgehog.

 

We now return you to your regular quilt blog surfing. :)

THIS Will Be Fun

You might remember these fabrics...

from this post.  It took weeks to decide what the quilt was going to look like, but once that was taken care of...

it was a breeze to make the blocks.  Except the center block.  EQ6 doesn't help me much when I want to design applique blocks, so don't pay any attention to that center.  I wanted big splashes of green and Sarah Vedeler's GO! dies took the sweat out of cutting fabric.  Now I get to sew them down and embellish.  I'm thinking pretty seriously about piping the edge of this block with the dark red fabric before assembly, but then i'd also feel obligated to pipe the outer edge of the block assembly in the same fabric before adding the borders.  Suggestions welcome.

Worth Every Minute

There is just nothing sweeter than a brand new fresh off the press itty bitty baby.  This one is especially darling because she's my nearly daughter's first one.  The Swirling Vortex of Rubber Ducks now has a very important job.  :)

Welcome to the world, little miss T!

100 Day Hustle Wrapup

Kelsey's 100 Day Hustle sure helped!  Everything on my list except this quilt got finished!  I even got the small projects taken care of.  This red quilt is completed,

this christmas cutie is all done,

it started out as a panel and charm pack from Sandy Gervais' Reindeer Games line.

and I've already posted here and here about the other items on my list being done.

Thanks Kelsey, the linkups have been super fun to follow and it always helps to have friends' support!

You can see how everyone else did on their 100 Day Hustle list HERE.