Happy Halloween!

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween and don't eat too much candy!! :o)
We don't get very many trick-or-treaters but we'll see how this year goes. Maybe it'll be an all time record of handing out candy. With our kids all grown up, I enjoy seeing the little ones in their costumes even more.

This pumpkin is a craft I made a few years ago. I think I saw it in a magazine. Then I shared it with my sister, Isabel and we made one for everybody, some with Halloween fabric and some with Fall fabrics like this one. They are styrofoam balls divided equally in six parts. Fabric sections tucked in the balls with a knife. The tops are corks painted brown and a fabric leaf with a little batting.

Hey Cupcake!

This is my daughter Ashley in her cupcake costume we finished up tonight. She saw a picture online so we tried to copy it but I think ours has better "sprinkles".

She's not wearing these gray pants with her costume but I was afraid if I didn't get a picture of her tonight, I wouldn't get one.
So if you decide to make yourself a cupcake for Halloween someday, we used 4 sheets of poster board and folded it every 2" accordian style and then glued the sheets together. We used 1" elastic to add straps for over the shoulder because that's what we had on hand. The "frosting" is polyester stuffing that we glued and pinned onto a white shirt. The "sprinkles" are these styrofoam crafty things I found at Joann's called Magic Nuudles. They are so cool. I thought they were just styrofoam pieces for crafting but according to the directions, you can dampen an edge, and stick pieces together to make all kinds of fun stuff. I guess we'll have to play with them later because tonight they were giant cupcake sprinkles. :o)

You can't really see it but we wrapped a piece of foam with brown fabric for the "cake". Ashley thought she should have cake in her cup (hehe) And it was a good idea because it kind of covers up where her cup ends and her frosting begins.

Did you notice her slippers? At least her feet will be comfy.

Pictures Posted

I posted pictures or my trip to Winslow on my webshots album. There are some great quilts that were shared by the group. If you'd like to see some nice projects, check them out. Some of those ladies are such over-achievers!!! :o)

I've got to cut out some costumes tonight for my daughter and her boyfriend. If I get something finished, I'll post a picture. We're talking about an Indian and a cupcake. Not exactly a "couples" costume. Well, I guess this tribe of Indian likes cupcakes! lol

Winslow Retreat

I went to Winslow, Arkansas for a quilting retreat this past week. The weather was a bit chilly and it rained but it was nice. Some of the group there I had met before and know them from my online swapping. Others were new to me so it was nice to meet some new people.

I had a great time but got a bad sore throat and a lovely headache and chills. I tried my best to not let it get to me. I just wasn't able to stay up and sew marathon nights like I usually do. I came back to work today and found out my coworker had the same thing since last Wednesday. We must've caught it at the same time and shared the nasty germs.
Winslow was so pretty this time. The last time I was there, it was 2003 adn it was later in the year. November, I think, and very brown. This time, Fall was in the air.

For two and a half days, I worked on this little wallhanging. I got the strips and muslin in a kit I bought at the quilt run this summer. I added the green for the star points and 1" hst's. After I quilt it, I will cut the border to have scallops. I love the fabrics they provided for the nine patches. That's why I bought it. It was $20 and I think that's the best twenty bucks I ever spent!

I left there on Sunday morning and this was the sunrise a little after 6:00 a.m. shining in our cabin window. What a beautiful thing to see first thing in the morning. CA probably has sunrises like this but I don't get up early enough to see it! :o)

Cherry quilt coming along

I "finally" got my cherry blocks all sewed together. I put them on point and used the same black pimatex fabric for the setting triangles. Since it was so long ago that I mentioned this project, the block is the Swapper's Star from Quilters Cache. The blocks are 9" finished. I lost some points on these since it was a swap and some blocks did not have the 1/4" seam allowance. With the light fabric against the black, that does show but I figured it would be fine since it's such a busy top.

Now for the borders. I tried this one but it didn't 'hit' me. There yellow print just blends in with the seed packet fabric.

Then I put a red polka dot against the quilt and the yellow gingham on the outside. It kind of works but the scale seems too small.

Then I tried the red with this green because I had quite a bit of it. Still wrong and even smaller in scale so no-go. If these were my only two choices, the yellow is better. So at this point, I emailed pictures to my sister, Isabel. I needed a second set of eyes. And of course, the genius said, "Try the green with that seed packet fabric."

So I did. And all was right with the world! LOL I love it.

I told her I never would've thought of this combination but the green matches the seed print perfectly and there is just enough contrast to see when one print stops and the other print starts. And I bought this seed packet fabric specifically for this project so it's nice that it worked out without having to make any other purchases. I'm hoping I have enough cherry fabrics left that I can sew them all together for the backing. I'll see how it goes.

I've got to pack tonight for a retreat I'm going to on Wednesday. I might take this one with me to get the borders and back ready for quilting.

PPP Giveaway

Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shop...."PPP", is having a giveaway. You have to have a blog to enter so if you do, go sign up. And tell them BusyLiz sent you and I get an extra entry. Woohoo!

Finally, I can share!

My Brown Bag Swap buddy Joyce, "finally" received her package from me so I can share the picture of the project I made for her. As I mentioned in a prior post, the saying for this wallhanging is from Angela. It worked up really quick. The burgundy floss, background fabric, blue snowflake fabric and buttons are what Joyce sent me in her bag. I could make whatever I wanted with it but when I saw the little faint snowflake design in the fabric, I saw visions of snowmen dancing in my head! Only one made it out and onto the fabric though!!! LOL

The other little goodies I sent her were a tablet, some note cards, both with snowmen on them, and a little button box with a pincushion inside that I bought from Angela. Her stuff is so cute and it's nice to give crafters and quilters things that are made by other crafters. We SO appreciate every brush stroke and stitch in fabric. At least that's how I feel.

And here's some eye candy for you. I guess I just forgot to post about my guilds quilt show. I didn't submit any quilts. Probably cuz I can't seem to finish any! Just kidding....sort of. :o) But this first one is from Juanita Schwartz, who lives here in Fullerton. She is an older woman but stays active teaching at our local shops. She usually teaches hand quilting and trapunto, which she does beautifully as you can see from this quilt.

And I can't remember who made this quilt but she said she took Jodi Barrows workshop and made this quilt. She thought Jodi's technique was fast and accurate. Me and my friends are Jodi drop outs so I can't sing her praises but whatever gets the job done, right?

If you'd like to see more pictures, I posted them in my webshots album here. Now, off to try and do some sewing.

Brown Bag goodness

Before I share what I received from the Brown Bag swap I was in, I want to share a picture you will see if you come to Fullerton via the Amtrak. The train station is right across from where I work. It's in the hub of Downtown Fullerton. Isn't this tree pretty? Seems like it would bloom during the springtime but here it is Fall and it's pretty in pink. It was so pretty, I had to unload my bags in my arms and snap a picture.

And now onto my goodie I received from Joyce, my Brown Bag Buddy (BBB). The guidelines for this swap were you mailed a fq of background fabric, fq of focus fabric, some buttons, rick rack and ribbon. Your partner could use some or all of what you sent and they kept what wasn't used. I mailed Joyce the sewing fabric for the main part of this little trashbag and the blue that she used for the pincushion. Isn't this the coolest little trash tote?

I love all the other fabrics she used. That tan dot looks perfect with the fabric I sent her. And I LOVE all the fun buttons she used on it! Only a few of these were my buttons. She said she has quite a collection. The bag has a great little pocket on the inside and a velcro closure.

Joyce included lots of sewing notions inside like an air erase marker, more rick rack, a thimble, seam ripper (unfortunately, I always use one of those!), thread and a pair of stork scissors!

Joyce said she has made quite of a few of these bags for friends. People use them in their cars for trash because the pincushion holds it in place, for stitching while watching tv, and of course in the sewing room. This little grip is on the back to keep it from slipping and the pincushion is weighed down with sand so it really stays in place.

I can't share pictures of what I did for her just yet but I did mail it yesterday. I'll post a picture or two once I know she's received it.

After finishing the project for Joyce, I started working on my Berry Pickin' BOM #3 and added some of the setting triangles to my cherry quilt that has been sitting on the design wall for the last couple of months. I didn't get a picture of it yet because I only got half of the triangles on. I hope to have a finished top to share soon. :o)

Finishing touches

I made this little block quite a while ago. In March as a matter of fact. I had to go search my blog and found the post. I wasn't even sure if it was THIS YEAR that I finished it but I'm glad to say it was, even though it was seven months, 6 days ago! (Do I need to admit again that I have finishing issues.)


Basically, I've been moving this poor little block from table to bin to counter top in my sewing room. When I was cleaning up my sewing room the other day, I remembered that I had bought a couple of 8" square picture frames from Tall Mouse (our CA equivelant to Hobby Lobby stores). I went and searched for where I stashed the frame and look at how perfectly my little stitchery fits inside! I told my sister last night, "Now all I have to do is to find an empty table to display it." Eeegads, it's hard to have so many flaws!!

Wednesday I received block #3 of the BOM I'm doing. I messed up cutting my pink border (flaw, flaw) on block #1 so they were sending me another strip with this month's kit. I still had to piece my border but I didn't care. I figure when it's quilted, no one will notice and if they do, I'll kick them out of my house. LOL So I finished block #1 and sewed it to block #2. This is going to be such a pretty quilt!! I don't what came over me with this one. I don't drink tea, I don't have pink anywhere in my house and I'm don't usually like sparkly. I folded under pressure from Robin, Peggy and Michelle!!!!

This is a peek of my project I'm finishing up for Joyce, my Brown Bag Buddy. I got the binding on last night but I think it might need a little bit of embellishment. I used my Juki to quilt it and it's been a while since I've quilted anything. I marked some parts first so I might do it a little more even.

Since it's a smaller project, I just signed the back. I need to get a new marker. This one was a little bit dry.

My girls are having a yard sale at our house tomorrow. I hope to get some sewing done and put out some Fall decorations. Hope you have a nice weekend.

Sewing workout!

Well, this was a sewing trip at a workout place but the only working out was filling the car with tables and chairs, sewing machine, cutting tools, kits, etc.!!! :o)
Me and a few buddies were going to try and go up to Lake Arrowhead for a sewing date but that wasn't working out. Susan, one of the newer quilters and friend, owns a Curves that just happens to be right next door to a quilt shop. We loaded up the cars with tables, chairs and the kitchen sink and had a play day.

This is my daughter Kelley, working away. You can see on the left her scrappy blocks up on the design wall. She is my artsy daughter and there will be "no following a quilt pattern" for her. She likes scrappy.

And she happened to see a scrappy quilt online somewhere that had cute embroidery in with all the blocks so she drew on some bleached muslin and embroidered a block. She'll probably do a few others and then start sewing her parts together.

Below is the project Neena and I worked on. I had no business getting out a new kit but I did anyway. :o) Neena and I went to my quilt guild show last weekend and this was just too cute for either of us to pass up. I think I'll give mine to one of the kids for Christmas.....which means I have to finish it! LOL I loved the colors. It's young and fun. Not like the traditional colors of red and green that I decorate with.

And here I am stitching on another project. I actually handed my camera to somebody else so I can prove I'm there too!

This is Neena. You might've seen a picture of her on my blog before. Look at that face. She's a nut!

And Susan is usally happier than this. Especially when she finishes a project!!! She finished her little Christmas quilt panel. Isn't the little checked border cute? She shared her scraps with me so I could do that on my panel too. Woohoo, another project!

Off to finish some cleaning in the sewing room so I can actually try and cut something on the cutting table!!

Cute lil' birdie!

My friend Angela participated in the Pincushion Swap we did on the Yahoo groups site, Backporch Friends. I have gotten some really cute pincushions and I'll share a picture of them once I have them all out to swap. In the box she sent was a gift for me of this cute-as-a-button birdie helper.

Look at what a little gem she is! Her little basket is filled with teeny tiny little scissors, a red thimble, a needle threader and a pack of needles. ALL THAT in that little basket that probably measures one inch!!! Angela makes some lovely Raggedy Ann dolls and lots of prim deco stuff that she sells on Etsy so if you're ever needing something that looks like it was in the dirt and then got run over (LOL), she's the gal to call! ;o)
She has been going through medical treatments so if you said a little prayer for her, that would sure help send some blessings her way!

We got tickets to another Angel game last night. My husband works with a guy who is a season ticket holder with GREAT seats. This was our second game in five days....for free! On Saturday, a neighbor we haven't seen in years knocked on our door with tickets he was trying to give away. They were in the nose-bleed section and it was HOT up there but it was still fun to be at the ball park. It cooled off for about five minutes yesterday!!! LOL We had nice temps of about 80 degrees so it was a great night with great seats. And the Angels won 5-0!! Whoohoo.....c'mon championships and playoffs!!!

I finished the little stitchery I started for my Brown Bag Buddy, Joyce, after we got home from the game. (I can't show you in case she's peeking!) hehe Then I got in my stash and pulled out some fabrics for borders.

In Joyce's brown bag, was the fabric on the right, the kind of gray-blue snowflakes. I pulled out some Christmas fabrics and found a cute Thimbleberries print that I thought would work perfect. I wrote Joyce and asked her if I "needed" to use her fabric. LOL She said "No, surprise me!" So what do you think? The three on the right, or the three on the left???