Beginning to Look Like Halloween

Ghost on Front Door

On Sunday I decided to start decorating for Halloween.  I pulled out all my favorite Halloween things.  This fun ghost is on my front door.  I made him about 1994.  He could use another coat of white paint but I don't want to repaint the face, so he won't get the coat of paint this year. 

Ghost in side by front door

Right by my front door on the inside I have this little welcome sign.  I also painted this decoration.  I'm not a real fan of painting, and I'm very grateful to be able to use stencils.  I only paint when one of my friends from church teaches classes, she makes it very easy.  I have a different ornament for each month.

 

My newest ghost

This beautiful ghost I purchased last year after Halloween.  Yes it is a Jim Shore Design and yes those are quilt blocks in his sheet.  I didn't find this design on his website this year. 

Grim Reaper

The Grim Reaper was also a after Halloween purchase last year.  It was really fun to pull them out of my hope chest and to place them on display. 

Of course all the Halloween quilts are also out.  In this post from last year I have a slide show of all but two Halloween quilts.  Enjoy! 

Now if the weather gets cooler it would be perfect!

Look Who Has Been Busy



Cardinals

  I have had a busy week in more than sewing.  On Wednesday I had to take my cat Rosie in for surgery, she is doing fine, but it is never a fun thing to take a person or a pet in for surgery. 
That was my day off then I was three days over on West side of town for work.  Luckily I have a very nice quilting friend I stay with.  I finished the binding on this first two projects at her house. 

The Cardinals I started at Quilt camp.  Those are pine cone buttons in the middle. 




Painted Desert



This beautiful 15" square batiks and fairy frost is called Painted Desert, it was in the Fall 2004 for the Love of Quilting by Fons & Porter.  Those pieces are very small, and this picture doesn't do it justice.  I kept the quilting simple, just in the ditch, I didn't want to detract from the stars.  There are 13 stars.  Yesterday I decided I would enter it in the Arizona Quilters Guild Show in March of 2011.                                                                                                                                     

Mystical Horses

Today I did some more quilting on my Mystical Horses.  I think I am about to the half way point.  See it doesn't touch the floor any more! I need to have it finished by Saturday morning.  One of my friends wants me to quilt a medium size quilt for her so she can sell it at a Boutique.  Anyway I am happy with the quilting so far. 



DJ Blue Work

When I was on vacation I had

lunch with a friend I meet in Blogland.  Lorene and I visited for a while before lunch and I admired lots of her stuff.  Well she showed me her Dear Jane blocks she is doing in red work.  And let me tell you I fell in love with them.  I have never been drawn to red work, but these just grabbed me.  So I went to the quilt shop to buy my red thread and they didn't have any, so I went with my favorite color, blue.  The work up really fast and they are perfect for those evenings I don't feel like sitting at my machine.  They are mindless and relaxing.  I am not going to make them all and I might mix them with some Dutch Treat blocks I have and do an unusual setting.  Time will tell.  When I get tired of them I'll stop.

Well even though I am not tired now, it is time for me to go to bed.  Monday morning work day will come very fast now. 

Happy Stitching!!                                        

Man Cave Update

Mr. B & his Helping Hands

 
 Mr. B. has been making some progress on his Man Cave and has finished placing all the tar paper on the wood frame.  So now the wood is waterproof!

These are the final tar paper pictures, it took him three Saturdays to finish it from the last pictures.  It is still very hot out there.



Tar Paper all done!! 9/25/2010

He was going to work on finishing the insulation form boards on the ceiling inside yesterday but two things happened to prevent finishing that little job.  He couldn't find his blades to cut the form boards and he was paged.  Mr. B. is sure he has new blades someplace but couldn't find them.  You know how that goes as soon as he buys more he will find the rest.

He was on call yesterday for work and had to go fix a computer problem at one of the hospitals.   That was the only page he had for the day and the night so we had a nice dinner out with a dear friend and slept all night long.

Favorite Tools - Large Ironing Board More Info

Deb G. in VA asked some questions about the Large Ironing Board and I am going to answer them here.    Deb thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

Do you remember what kind of wood was used to make it?
              The top is 3/8" plywood, the nicer board not full of knots and not ply board. 


Is it heavy?
              I can lift it by myself and I can carry it by myself from my sewing room to another room or out to the car to pack it for camp.  It is not light but not too heavy. 

Did you finish the wood before you covered it, i.e. paint or coat it with polyurethane?
             The wood is unfinished, the edges are rounded a little and sanded smooth. 

What did you use to cover it with, regular batting and fabric?
            The bottom layer is a piece of carpet felt, 2nd layer is warm and natural batting and finally covered with muslin.  The muslin is stapled to the bottom of the board.  The top two layers are cut to the edge of board and not tacked down.

Carpet Felt

Here is a picture of Carpet Felt. I hope that helps.

Happy Stitching!

Favorite Tools

I'm not sure how many new quilters visit my blog.  I know many seasoned quilters do.  For the new quilters I wanted to give them some ideas of tools of the trade that make quilting easier. 

Many quilters have favorite tools and what I like works for me.  That is part of why they are my favorite tools.  I decided to share some of these tools every once in awhile as they might be something you might want to try.  I had this idea while I was pressing my mystical horse quilt before placing it on the frame. 
As any good quilter will know pressing is very important for good results. 


Quilt top on big board


Many years ago my husband made me a big board or a large ironing board topper, that might be a trade name but there is no other name to describe it.  It is big and goes over your ironing board.  It is a 60" x 24", so there is no narrow end which makes ironing big flat pieces of fabric easier.  Well let me show you a picture, because after all a picture is worth a 1,000 words.

Those seams on the back need to be flat

My husband place 2" strips of wood on the bottom the same width as the ironing board, so it doesn't slip around.  It sure makes ironing easier. 

It is important to press those seams flat. 




 Happy Stitching!

Mystical Horses

Mystical Horses on the Frame

While I was on vacation last week I did start quilting Mystical Horses.  I am about a 1/3 of the way done. 

Close up of quilting

I am doing a rugged landscape type of pattern, well that is what some people call it.  I used it on the Bermuda Triangle Quilt, the raffle quilt my friend Jan & I made for the 2007 Quilt Camp.  There it represented water to me.  I also used it on my Winter 9 Patch Pizzazz Quilt and there I called it snow drift.  So it is very versatile.   Maybe in this quilt I should call the quilting The Horses' Paths.

Happy Stitching!

Fall Get-away 2010

Let me start off by saying I had a really good time at Fall Get-away or what I usually call Quilt Camp.  I ate too much, laughed a lot, and did a fair share of talking.  I also did some sewing. 



mequilter with Topsy Snowman



The first thing I finished was my small quilt for the silent auction.  Don't let the title of the auction seduce you into to thinking it is a tame event.  Those ladies can sure bump you around with their hips if they really want something.  Luckily they are all soft bumps. 

The weather was a lot cooler in Prescott than here in Mesa.  I actually had to put on my long blue jeans on Thursday night and wear a sweater each evening and morning.  I'm not complaining.  I'm ready for the cooler weather to come!



Topsy Snowman



If you would like to check out more pictures of came you can go to my album on my Webshots page.  There you can see some of the other quilters and some of the sites of the camp we go to in Prescott. 



mequilter and Painted Desert



Here am I with another project I finished the top on.  This project I started at the Fall Get-away in 2004.  It took me most of Friday to piece the borders and sew them on to the center.  Those are very small pieces.  It is from the July/August 2004 Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting. 

Those items hanging behind me are some of the auction items.

 

Painted Desert



Here is Painted Desert all by itself and basted and ready for quilting.



me sewing

Yes I did actually sew, and there I am with my sweater on. 



My Camp Projects



Home again and here are my camp projects. 

From Left to Right:

Christmas Cardinals,

Tumbler table runner,

Painted Desert.

I also started the Yellow Brick Road quilt.  I purchased this fabric in Orland Florida in May of 2009 when Richard and I were there last year.  It is on my list of quilt to finish this year.

So there you are a little bit about quilt camp and the sewing I did.  I came home on Sunday and relaxed and began unpacking.  Monday I did more unpacking and all the weekend chores, because you know how it goes, if you aren't here they don't get done.  I was back to work on Tuesday.  This has been the first chance I had to blog. 

Happy stitching!

Mystical Horses and Snowman

Waiting to go on the frame

One of my goals for the weekend was to have my Mystical horse quilt on the frame.  Well it is on the frame but not in the way I can quilt it.  It is just draped across the frame until I can piece the back.  Luckily the weekend isn't officially over, there is still tomorrow, Monday is Labor day.

Mystical Horses with Borders

I was able to add the last border this morning.  Mr. B is holding up the one side so I could take a picture of the whole quilt.  I just realized that I have a couple of names for this quilt, I guess I should be more consistent.  I have it labeled in my pictures, as Mystical Horse, and plural as Mystical Horses.  In EQ6 I have it as Mystic Horse.  I just check and Laurel Burch called it Mythical Horses.  Very interesting, I guess I better decide on it's real name before I finish it. 

Topsy Snowman

I also made some progress on the Topsy Snowman, he is all appliqued and quilted, the binding is on the front side and most of his embellishments are done.  He just needs a few more buttons up his front.  Four more wakes ups before I leave for quilt camp. 

Man Cave Update

My husband, now doesn't that sound boring, I think he needs a blog name.  Some gals refer to they husbands as Mr. B or P depending on the name of their blog, or last name or first name whatever the case might be.  In my case that could be Mr. M. or Mr. B.  I wonder is that original enough?  I think not.  Sometimes I call him "Ace" and when I look up the definition I find excellent; first-rate; outstanding and/or  a very skilled person.  Plus the usual and some I hadn't heard of definitions like the fighting pilot and a street name for a drug.  My husband is a great guy, first rate in many ways.  So I think this will fit him well as his blog name.

First round of tar paper, north side

So anyway Ace hasn't been working on the man cave mostly because it has been too hot and because he needed some helping hands.  So yesterday Kinsen was off and they were up early and added some tar paper to the wood. 

South side

Maybe they will get to do some more tomorrow since it is a holiday.  He isn't planning on doing any more major stuff until the weather cools off, mostly likely in October.

I just told Richard his nick name and he didn't like it, he wants to be Mr. B.  So he will be Mr. B.  I have to laugh, sometimes we are so different. 

 

Topsy Snowman

After my Genealogy Society meeting I had a few minutes before the local fabric store closed so I ran in to buy my embellishments for my small auction quilt for Quilt Camp. 

Embellishments

I'm going to go sew for a few minutes before I go to bed.