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.