Oklahoma

While Jennifer and her kids were making snowmen in Idaho. My husband and I were visiting the oldest son in Oklahoma and we were planting pansies. (Disclaimier)Those aren't the ones we planted but a picture of mine from last year. They were having a cold snap, it was down in the 50's. I think we left colder weather here in Washington. We flew, and I crossed my fingers that we didn't get snowed in at the Denver airport. This time of year can be pretty iffy. I think there was some crazy weather going on last weekend. Hope everyone is warm and safe tonight.

A couple of weeks ago we picked a pickup load of apples and son number 3 did 28 gallons of juice. My husband and I did 15 gallons before we left on our trip. Well 3 of my wonderful children and their spouses came while we were gone and did a whoping 64 gallons of apple juice so that we wouldn't have to do it when we got home. (They now hold the record of most gallons done in one day) They cleaned the pickup out and cleaned up their mess and we couldn't even tell that they had been here with their 7 kids five and under. I was told that I should be grateful that I didn't see the house before they cleaned it up, which I was informed took 4 hours.

Halloween or Christmas???

It snowed yesterday. It was a pretty good snow storm and the snow was great for snowball fights or snowman building-- not so great for driving to work.


Here is our snowman. It was a blast to make, because the snow was sooooooo good! The only problem is we had a hard time getting the middle ball up it was very heavy-- so we used a wheel barrow which helped, but I think the neighbors thought we were crazy as we were the only ones outside and we were using a wheel barrow !!! Who uses a wheel barrow to put their snowman together? Tonight we will be putting on the face and arms.

A request was made to make Halloween trick or treat bags... so as requested this is what we have. My oldest helped cut them out and do the felt applique. She is becoming pretty good help, but she is too much like her mother... no patience at all and wants everything done right now!!!!

The kids love the bags-- and they were simple to make..... I have several tutorials that I had printed out on making totes... I ended up using a modified version of this one from cluck cluck sew. We skipped the paper adhesive since we did not need the extra stabilization with the felt and just sprayed the felt with spray adhesive (it worked fabulously) and I will be using the spray adhesive more often-- less work!!! and faster!!!!

Stats

Here are the stats-


1,000 square blocks (kind of square)
200 half circles
400 half circle curved edges seams
200 triangles
100 footballs
200 weird shaped pieces
6 yards of cream fabric
9.5 yards of green backing fabric
3/4 yard of bias binding for curved edges
8 hours of cutting
48 hours of sewing (late night hours)
6 hours of machine quilting

What do you get????

100 square inches of rings- a double wedding ring quilt to be exact.


This was a rush job. I kind of had an idea that my brother-in-law would be getting married and had already asked what their favorite colors where and had bought the fabric and pattern. I just thought I had at least six months. How wrong was I. They decided to head for Vegas one weekend and came home married. SUPRISE!!! So the sewing marathon began- the goal was to get the quilt done by the wedding reception. So, many many late nights.... a rush shipping to Mom to machine quilt it. (THANKS MOM!! She did a fantastic job on a rush order!!). Ship it back, make the scalloped edges, put on some bias binding and get it done. It was a tall order. One that I'm not ready to repeat... there came a point when it was not fun anymore and the quilt started to look ugly and I just wanted to cry or give them another quilt... but I had already spent the money and lots of time...... aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh just glad to be done. The quilt was finished at 12:38 am the morning of the reception. The package was delivered. It was hard to tell if they liked it or not.... either way at this juncture I really don't care, just relieved to be DONE!!!!! Did I say DONE!!!!!

So here it is in all of it's crazy glory.  Many things I would do different... if I ever decide to do another one.

 

A little closer view

 

 

Here is the free hand quilting...

 

 

Here is another picture.

 

Feathered Christmas and Feather Fancy

 This Christmas tree is cut out of green tonal Asian fabric.

 This is the cutouts before I placed them on the background fabric. They have Steam a Seam 2 on the back.I ordered the Accuquilt Go dies because I just love Cherry Blossoms Patterns. I am offering the cutouts in my store for $10 with the Steam a Seam 2 on the back. You have to furnish your own background and the pattern is separate also. You can specify any fabric in the store or you can go with the Asian green. Just go here to order: InchwormFabrics.