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

Solids and Cabbage

It's not a healthy living hack of my blogger account, I promise.  There simply wasn't anything else to call this quilt!  Any suggestions for names will be taken seriously from my faithful readers.

I purchased two jelly rolls on clearance at a very nice little shop in Gainesville last year while on a quilting retreat.  Made some very quick strip blocks from them and zapped them together into a top.  I had to look around for a while, but I was CERTAIN there was a Kaffe Fassett fabric that would be perfect for the border.  :D found it.

Boy did I ever have fun doing a little bit of every kind of fill work I've ever seen, tried, heard of or thought up.  It's a little zany to look at the front, but it grows on ya'.

The back (I encourage you to click through for the enlargements) restores a little method to the madness.

Butterflies are amazingly strong and sturdy for as delicate as they appear, and I had hoped to capture some of that strength along with the delicacy in this representation.  It feels both over- and under-worked to me however.  I suspect this is due in large part to my lack of artistic ability - that is, my lack of ability to draw.  I'll probably try this again after i've had time to think about how better to approach it.

Whimsy.  I love getting to do whatever the heck I want on my own quilts.  That's a cameo of a butterfly above. 

Can't have butterflies without flowers of course!

This is a closeup of one of the butterfly wings' eyespots.  You should have seen me fiddling with my circles to get them lined up right.  Had my tongue sticking out the entire time.

Got my "Better Homes and Gardens" shot taken (always the last one I take of a quilt) about ten seconds after the rain started this afternoon.  Fortunately it was a very slow start and was just sprinkling.

First time I tried the flange binding.  I think it worked wonders on this quilt and I'll try it again sometime as it was pretty easy.  This one is too thick for my tastes though and it will get cut slimmer (the binding part) for the next run.

Two-Thirds Rail Fence

I found an inexpensive jelly roll at a variety store  last November.  The colors were interesting but I wasn't in the mood for fancy piecing.  A friend pointed out this pattern to me and it seemed appropriate for these fabrics.

WHOOSH!  the top went together in no time.

I have a pretty extensive stash that goes fairly far back in time, but even still i was surprised when i found this perfect border fabric right there in the stash.  A tiny bit of planning made the repeats come out very nicely.

A sunburst design with variegated polyester thread made short work of the quilting, which can be seen well from either side of the quilt.

Yellow and orange striped binding also came from the stash and was OFG's idea.

Spring time quilting at it's most fun.  Thanks for stopping by!

Decorated for Christmas

Got this one finished in time for the holidays, yay!  Again using a pattern found in Pam and Nicky Lintotts' Jelly Roll Quilts, I made up this version of Both Sides of the Pond in some green and red batiks with a liberal dose of Kona white.

Serious hat tip to Lori Kennedy of The Inbox Jaunt for her really cool christmas doodles from a couple years ago.

And with the addition of some grinchy flannel for the back (which you can just see peeking out the corner in the picture below...

...the house is now decorated for christmas!

Cheap Jelly Roll

I found two jelly rolls at a discount store recently.  They were priced so low I couldn't just leave them there.  Not the finest quality Quilte Shoppe cottons, but still usable.    Sometimes it's nice to make something simple be as perfect as you can get it, so all the corners are as accurately pieced as I could manage.

A few flowers were quilted randomly over the top and then wavy diagonal lines through all the points.

 

The back was made big enough to roll the edge over for a binding.

Paired with some plain white, they made the world's easiest quilt look modern.

Because these prints weren't first quality, the quilt might not last more than ten or twenty years, but it will be cosy and warm just like any other quilt and it was fun to make something this carefree and easy.