New Halloween Pillows

Do you watch as many home decorating shows as I do?  I just love seeing the makeovers and getting tips on how to update a room on a budget.  Its true when they say one of the easiest ways of adding a pop of color is to bring in pillows!  And you know how I love to make pillows.  My living room is rather dim, so I took these outside to get better light.

This past weekend I made these two.  The larger print pillow is just a simple envelope style pillow cover.  I love this print.  It's really nicely detailed and has all the essential Halloween motifs - black cat, spider, raven, bat, the words RIP and Boo.  Mwa ha ha ha.

This one is a re-designed version of my Halloween pillow from a couple years ago.  I cut my cat out in felt and appliqued her onto a woven cotton I found at the quilt shop.  Its softer than burlap, but not as tightly woven as muslin or quilting cotton.  I like the look of it, but I want to try quilters linen next.  My original pillow was in fun prints, but this one feels a little more sophisticated and doesn't scream Halloween.

Do you update pillows with the holidays?  I'm thinking a Halloween quilt needs to go on my to-do list!

September Sew and Tell

Can you believe September is more than half way over already?  Where does the time go?  Last month I moved into a new house and boy, the unpacking takes forever.  I see moving as a chance to become better organized and it always seems to take me a while to decide furniture placement and all that fun stuff.  Plus this house has a pool, so I have probably been treating myself to more down time than normal.  Its lovely to be able to enjoy the water right in my own backyard.  My nephew-dog Max likes it for sure.  Katie is part golden retriever, but she is not a water dog so she stays a few feet back.  Silly pooch.  Here's Max enjoying the sun after romping with the lizards.

My sewing room is still a work in progress, so I've set up a little sewing space on my desk in the living room.  Last night I got an itch for a quick project, so I made my first Granny square.  I'm a little obsessed with orange and turquoise / aqua / teal as a color combination these days.  It seems very Florida, between the orange for the obvious local citrus and bright blues for the almost always sunny skies.  They don't call it the Sunshine State for nothing!  My lil Granny is made with 2 inch scraps and a white border of about 2 inches as well.  Finished out at 9 inches square, with cross hatch quilting on the block itself, and some square echo quilting in the border.  Super simple and I finished it in one sitting.  Talk about instant gratification!  This will either go on the wall of my sewing room, or I may use it as a mug rug or a place to rest my iron.

 

I've also been working on some hexies.  This lime and orange one uses plastic templates that I bought at Joann's.   More citrus colors!

 

 

This one I started a long time ago using paper templates.  I definitely prefer the plastic because my hexies are more consistently shaped that way.  I'm not sure if I cut them out messy or if its because the foundation of paper is so much more flexible, but I seem to do better with the plastic.  Also, I really need to work on my seams.  I tried both ladder stitch and whipstitch to put these together and you can see most of my stitches in person.  Phooey.  Looks great in a photo though. ;)

 





Those little trees from Erin McMorris are so cute!  This one is appliqued onto a large scrap of purple waves and it is destined to become a zippered pouch for my hexies-in-progress.

My other project in the works is a jelly roll quilt with simple squares.  Once the cutting is done and you've got all the block components put into piles, chain piecing makes these blocks a breeze.   The fabric is Frolic by Sandy Gervais and as I work with it, I'm loving it more and more.  The colors are a great combination. I would never think to add in brown with the cheerful coral and turquoise and yellow, but I think this combo really makes the fabric pop.

 

 

Next on my to-do list are some X and + blocks for my circle of do.Good Stitches, and something fun for the Wicked Blog Hop next month. 

 

I'm linking up with the lovely Amy at AmyLouWhoSews with her Sew & Tell Friday.  Hop on over to see what other projects are out and about! 

  

 

Words to Stitch By

Moving into a new home is always an exciting thing for me, whether its only five miles or hundreds of miles.  This time it was only across town, but boy is it alot of work anyway.  There is still some painting to do, lots of furniture rearranging, and some serious organizing to do too.  And that's just the inside of the house.  I can't wait to get my hands on the garden.  So there may be some crafty before & afters in the coming weeks (including a hot pink wall in my sewing studio!) but for now I want to share some embroidery that I've been working on when I'm too tired for anything else.

A couple of years ago my shop carried a cute collection of metal wall plaques with various gardening related sayings on them like "Gardeners Know the Best Dirt," and "Don't Just Stand There, WEED!"  There were also a few general sayings, and one that really moved me was "Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You."  Turns out, this is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt and its a great inspirational concept.  Good for small business owners, good for shy people trying to be more outgoing, good for those of us who procrastinate on the hard stuff, good for learning new techniques in your craft.  Good on lots of levels.

I think about it from time to time, so I created a graphic with some fun fonts and started stitching.  Its not a proper sampler, but with its stem stitch, satin stitch and long & short stitches I think it has some interest as a stitchery and its almost done.   It may stay in the hoop, or I may frame it. 

Do you have any favorite inspirational sayings or quotations? Ever think of stitching them up into a little wall decor? 

Moving

Sorry to be MIA. I'm moving to a new home this week & you know how crazy that can be.

Katie is not sure she likes sitting in the uhaul.

Olympic Knitting

If you surf the discussion forums on Ravelry, you will know all about the Ravellenic Games when the Ravelry users knit and crochet and spin to their hearts content in honor of, and while watching the Olympic Games.  There are plenty of events, from WIP Wrestling to the Bag & Tote Backstroke and you post your finished items as though you were competing in an event.  Its tons of fun, and all in the spirit of enjoying the Olympics no matter where you live, or what yarnie craft you do.

Since I'm packing to move to a new home (next week!) I haven't had much free time for knitting, but it rained today so I got out a project to finish at work.  I started this cabled cap from Knitting Simple way back in February 2010.  At the time, my father was helping me get my house in Virginia spruced up to put it on the market, and we had 2 blizzards in a row.  My power went out, and I spent a little time working on this cabled cap to go along with a grey Prismatic Scarf (available on Ravelry) I had knitted for him and finished January 2010.  Apparently I never took a photo of the finished scarf though and I'm bummed about that.

Pattern: Cabled Cap, Knit Simple Winter 2006 / 2007
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky, Pewter (less than one skein)
Needles: US10

It's two years late, but its finished!  He will be here this week to help me get settled in the new house so its kind of ironic timing.  Hope he likes it!

Pets on Quilts 2012

Its August already!  That's a little jarring for several reasons, like I'm moving next week and the kiddos start school in a couple weeks (my nephew will be in middle school - nooooo - that's too old!)  and a bunch of other events that hammer home how quickly time passes.  But the fun part is, its time for the Pets on Quilts blog parade!  Pets on quilts and pet themed quilts are of course the focus of this fun blog hop, started by SewCalGal last year.  There are even prizes too!

The Pets on Quilts event runs from August 1 to 12.   Hop on over to Lily Pad Quilting (I had to say hop!) and check out the links to those posts that are already up. 

I'll be posting pictures of Katie & my quilty projects sometime this week, so I'll see you soon!

Flying Geese

Our July assignment for the Inspire Circle of do. Good Stitches was to use flying geese.  Thea will be putting together a boys quilt in orange and aqua, and a girls quilt in raspberry and citrine, along with white, navy or greys.  She has such great ideas!  I love these color combinations, and I had some good choices in the fabric stash already.

I've never done flying geese before, so this was another chance to expand my quilting horizons.  I've said it before, but I love being in a group like this circle where we get a new assignment each month.  Sometimes I get to learn a new technique, sometimes its a quilt block that I haven't tried before, and sometimes I stretch myself with new color combinations.  Its always fun, and the best part is that the blocks are put into quilts for charity.  That just makes you feel good inside!  To learn more about do. Good Stitches or to join, click on over to the main Flickr group.

Back to the geese.  Looking for inspiration, I found a recent edition of Quilter's World that had a pattern with flying geese in it. I followed the directions to make the geese and then improvised the sashing to bring it up to a 12.5 inch block.  The two shades of aqua make this block rather interesting, I think.

Then I remembered that Evelyn, a quilter in our circle, recommended using her favorite No Waste Flying Geese tutorial from Shannon at Pieceful Kwilter. This was super helpful, and my geese improved as I used the tutorial. Thanks to both Evelyn and Shannon! I like this one too, and the geese are tidier but I don't think it will work out very well in a full quilt because of the narrow sashing, so I get to keep this one.   It will probably become a pillow cover, or hang out in the WIP box until I find a good use for it.

On to the berry & citrine!  This time I made smaller geese using Pieceful Kwilter's handy sizing chart.  I really like this one, and my geese are getting straighter. It feels silly saying it, but bias really effects how tidy a block can be when it comes to piecing.   The citrine portions of this block are from Wildwood by Erin McMorris, which happens to use citrine, greys and berries all together. 

Can you tell I've become a fan of putting frames on my photos?  PhotoScape calls these frames Cali 11 and Cali 12.   Be sure to check out the No Waste Flying Geese tutorial at Pieceful Kwilter.  Its really helpful.