Three Christmas Gifts

I took advantage of some time off work to finish up a few lap quilts I'm giving for Christmas.  

Wednesday I did some hand embroidery between some Thursday dinner prep - pumpkin pies with crust from scratch. The pumpkin was from the garden.  Thursday morning I got the  broccoli au gratin (a tradition with broccoli from the garden), deviled eggs, candied sweet potatoes (kids don't like them but grandkids love them), sage dressing (sage from the garden and bread homemade) and mashed potatoes (potatoes from the garden) as well as the turkey ready for dinner with kids and their spouses and grandkids.  I always like Thanksgiving because we use cloth napkins and grandma's china and everyone goes around the table to say what they are thankful for. Even the little ones look forward to telling what they are thankful for which is usually family. And, of course I wish I would have remembered to take a family photo for the scrapbook...but I didn't. 

And, without further ado...here are the quilts I've finished hanging out on the clothesline soaking up that good outdoor smell. 

 "Attic Windows" is for my daughter and son-in-law who love the great outdoors. I used some real looking animal 6.5 inch charms I swapped with the I Spy Yahoo Group last year.  And one square is mushrooms since they are avid mushroom hunters also.

 I wasn't sure how to quilt it so it wouldn't take away from the 3-D window effect. I finally decided on invisible thread for the front and tan for the back and quilted in what I hope are straight lines. I don't see well enough to stitch entirely in the ditch and that measuring bar that comes with the walking foot doesn't work anymore with my walking foot because the plastic that holds it in broke off.  This was also my first time stitching with invisible thread even though I have a couple of spools in my thread drawer that I tried to use for some hand sewing that didn't work out. I also figured out what those little mesh things that come with the sewing machine are for - to put over the unruly invisible thread that kept getting caught on the spool spindle until I used the mesh thingy.

 The back of attic windows - a collage pattern of outdoorsy things.

 "Autumn with a Twist" is a lap quilt for one of my sisters and her husband.  She and her entire family of kids and grandkids come out every Christmas for dinner and we all play games like we did at Christmas when we were growing up.

 These blocks were from a swap on the Mailblocks Yahoo Group. For all participants you had to make one 12 inch block, two 6 inch blocks and six 3 inch blocks in fall colors with cream colored background.

I quilted it with freemotion pumpkins and leaves. I used cream colored thread for the front and variegated purple on the back. 

 "How Sweet You Are" is for one of my sons and his girlfriend. It is a bunch of Happy Blocks with sweet treat centers - candy, cupcakes, suckers, etc.

I quilted freemotion swirls. 

 And I used a soft flannel sheet on the back that I found at the thrift store for $2.50 to make it extra warm and cuddly for my sweeties and granddaughter when they watch TV or cuddle up with a good book.

You will find me at the Sew Darn Crafty linky party. Party on! 
I'm also linking up at Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times (even tho' I don't have a design wall - just a design floor for now). And, finally, I'm linking up at Freemotion by the River. 

Halfway There

I'm halfway finished with my crocheted prayer shawl. Here's a pic of what it's supposed to look like when finished from the book The Crocheted Prayer Shawl Companion by Janet Bristow & Victoria A Cole-Galo. I liked the autumn colors in the yarn when I bought it. After I started crocheting I thought the shawl started looking like camouflage. Then I looked at the yarn label and saw the color was "green camo multi".  I still like  it. I'll be looking for some beads now for the fringe- probably wooden ones. It's getting cooler now and I'll need a nice shawl before long.

Linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

Autumn With a Twist

A few months ago 6 people (plus me) with the Mailblocks Yahoo group participated in an Autumn with a Twist swap. We were to make 1- twelve inch block, 2 - six inch blocks and 4 - 3 inch blocks for each particpant in fall colors with a cream background.  My blocks are as above - 12 inch Sister's Choice, 6 inch posy and 3 inch bow ties. I used a couple of my own sets to assemble the top.

And, now I have an assembled top but I think I will add 6 inch maple leaf blocks down each side and then call it a lap quilt.  So far, I love it.




Linking up at Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  and Linky Party Tuesday at Freemotion by the River. 

Autumn with a Twist

Blocks for a swap on Mailblocks Yahoo Group called "Autumn with a Twist".  For every participant I need to send 1 - 12 inch block, 2- 6 inch blocks and 4 - 3 inch blocks in fall colors. There are 8 participants and we had to sign up for different block patterns. After the swap, August 1, I think I will have enough for a great quilt. My choice of blocks: 12 inch= Sister's Choice, 6 inch= Posy, 3 inch=Bow Tie.

Buckeye Beauty - A Finished Quilt

Last year on the Block_ swappers Yahoo Group we swapped what were called "Buckeye Beauty units" quarterly. The units consisted of two HSTs and two 4 patches in fall colored (not necessarily themed) fabrics plus cream or tan. None of the fabrics could be repeated in the units. 

And so I just finished a Buckeye Beauty quilt this weekend and I'm linking up at "I Love a Good Swap"  over at Pigtales and Quilts.  Quilt measured 88 x 108 before binding. 

Closeup of some of the fabrics and blocks. 

I'm glad I went with the red binding because brown would have been too drab for me.  I don't have a long arm and am not too good at quilting other than straight lines but I got adventurous on my little Janome since I've taken the Free Motion Quilting challenge (see sidebar for link). I quilted some leaves in variegated thread since it is a fall themed quilt. My leaves come in all shapes and sizes and some are even a little deformed. And 15 bobbins later I'm a little deformed from sitting over the sewing machine. 

And here's a peek at the back. 

This year we are still swapping HSTs and 4Ps over on Block_swappers; however, we've divided it up into two separate swaps and the HSTs aren't fall themed anymore. I'll probably make a broken dishes or depression block quilt with the HSTs. I don't know about the 4Ps yet. 

Buckeye Beauties in Fall Colors

This is a quarterly swap I'm participating in with members of a Yahoo group. Sets are 2 HSTs and 2 4 patches in cream and fall colors. The can be combined in many ways to make many different types of blocks. I think this is the layout I will use. I love how secondary patterns form. And I love all the different fabrics that show up in the swaps.

Why and How? I Don't Know!

This is my work on Lisa's Autumn block and the last in this RR. I wish I could give good tips, tutorials or instructions on what I do but actually I don't give the process any conscious thought. Sorry. My job demands detailed and logical thinking so when I get home I want mindless activities. When I first get a set of blocks in the mail I "ooooow" and "awwww" over all that has been done before me and then read the booklet of likes and dislikes. Then I look through all the blank blocks looking for one that jumps out at me. Sometimes none of them do so I put them back in the bag for a few days. After I have chosen a block I know exactly what I am going to do but most times I don't. In this case Lisa had a lot of textured fabrics in her block so I guess I thought I needed some texture in my stitching. My next step was to look through some of my embroidery books for some Autumn appearing motifs.  I found the one on top right and stitched it on to the fabric. I like variegated threads to used some brown variegated DMC and some sage colored thread for the leaves. When that was complete I looked for another motif for the other corner. I found one that I thought would look good with bullions and this time used brown and coral threads for the flowers but used a variegated thread for the stems and leaves. Then I thought the middle needed filling and since Lisa mentioned in her booklet that she liked vines I meandered a stem stitch vine in gold through the blank spaces, added some leaves here and there and then added  kiko flower stitches in either a variegated white and a variegated pale yellow  here and there. So, I guess some might say that the vine now leads your eye off the block and I probably should not have done so or some might say that the gold vine doesn't match the other colors of the block or some might say the whole thing looks like crap. But I really don't think of such things. I don't understand such things. I'm mindless.

To Everything There is a Season

An Autumn wreath for Margreet. Margreet included a button and some trim that she wanted each person in the RR to add to her block which was a fun exercise.  This was a RR over on CQI Yahoo Group.

Summer DYB RR for Ritva - another RR at CQI.

And this is my Season to Season wallhanging. I am trying to decide whether to keep it for myself or to put it into the Family "Dirty Santa" drawing. Each of these blocks were from a swap on CQ for Newbies Yahoo Group. In this RR we made a block and embellished half of it and swapped with a partner who embellished the other half and then it was returned to owner. Gina embellished Spring, Violet did Summer, Gerry did Fall and Lauri embellished half of Winter. I added binding like a quilt and added a rod pocket on back for hanging. For purposes of this picture I added a yardstick to the rod pocket just to see how it would hang.

Autumn

My work on Rita's Autumn block. How does one capture the glory of Autumn in thread?

These are Rita's Autumn blocks so far. L to R - my work, Ritva's work and Beryl's work. I made the scarecrow purple to pick up the purple in the other two blocks. Maybe I'm learning something.