Defying winter with one more fall quilt

Winter sure settled in fast this year and I am defying it by working on my last fall quilt of the year.  My aunt asked me to make her a fall quilt a while ago.  I decided that I would make sure to get it done for Christmas.  All her furniture is fall colors and it will be on display year round.  I went through lots and lots and lots of patterns and tutorials.  When I am making a table runner or mini quilt, I usually have an idea in mind.  However, when I make a larger quilt I invest time into something I really really want to make.  I creased a page in Quick Quilts Magazine Nov. 2009 edition to keep as an idea for later and came across it in my search through my patterns.  I am making all 80 seven and a half in blocks for this quilt.  I think in the end 60 of them will go to a quilt for my aunt and 20 to a mini quilt for me.

Here is a sampling of the finished blocks and their layout.

I usually don't square my blocks.  If I did they would always line up.  When I look at this pile of scraps after squaring each block, I am reminded that squaring takes time, but is totally worth it.

I don't have enough purchased fabric for the borders, but I was able to cut all the blocks from fabric I already had.  Even after counting the blocks over and over again to get the right amount, I still had three extra pieces I had cut and was short on one small triangle.  This quilt took a little longer than normal because I had to fold each piece in half to line up each triangle in the middle of the center square.  It was a pain but totally worth it.  80 blocks= 320 straight seams and 160 iron presses.  Madalynn helped me pressed the blocks when she was awake.  On the right...the process of sewing the squares.

Here is the stack.  I will get back to it sometime next week.  I have a week off work for Thanksgiving and will be doing a lot of sewing for Christmas.

Hope you enjoyed.

Infant/Toddler easy 20 minute ties

In my personal opinion, if you want a boy to wear a tie to church later on, you have to start when they are born.  That way, even though they are not comfortable, they are simply used to it.  My second personal opinion...is I don't really care for bow ties.  Yes, they are cute on some boys, but they are just wrong on adults and therefore I personally don't want to start a trend that he might like later on.  Like it said, personal opinion.

As I was getting my son dressed for church yesterday morning I realized that he was in need of a new tie.  The ones that I made him a year ago are just getting to short.  I used this tutorial that I had pinned when I made them.  They have been wonderful.  I made a white strap to go with all the ties and you can never see it under the collar.

The ones of the left are just folded in half.  The green strap was my first
attempt for a wedding a couple years ago.  The white strap is attached.
The ones on the right are layed out so you can see how long they are.
When dried the red one shrank, so keep that possibility in mind.  

My husband really wants to have some matching ties for he and Remington.  It is sad that I bought the fabric for matching ties last Christmas and never finished them.  I bought some Hawaiian prints for the next ties and Russ is going to love that.  I guess I better get started on those so they have ones to match this year.

Hope you enjoyed.

Living room Decor

Two years ago...the day before Thanksgiving, we purchased my grandparents home.  Certainly, I never dreamed that that would happen, but it was the right thing and the perfect timing financially for us.  Sadly, I took hundered of pictures of our remodel, before and afters...and about 9 months ago our computer crashed.  We always send copies of all our picture to my father in law, but apparently we were waiting to send those files until we were finished with a couple projects, so we lost all our house project pictures.

In the end, I am grateful that it was those pictures and not the pictures of my sons first 3 weeks that we lost.  My son was born Nov 2, 2012 (which I might add, I had an emergency c-section for that deliver because his heart stopped.), we closed on our home on Nov. 21, 2012 (while I was still healing), they hadn't finished cleaning out the house so we took three days to do that, we extensively moved walls, all flooring, base boards, all new paint, two new closets, all few lighting...by ourselves...all the while fixing up our rental, packing to move and moved in Dec. 23, 2012.  Yep, day before Christmas.  I did manage in our move to remember where I put all our Christmas presents, the tree and our santa hats.  At some point I will try and find a picture of Christmas Eve.  It was a pretty significant day of our lives.  I also have to add that...and don't freak out...I went back to full time work the Monday after Thanksgiving.  We both have hourly jobs and we couldn't do without my income for an entire month.  I sit at a piano, so it was ok.  Nothing too strenuous.  Being a mom with a 2 1/2 yr old is probably more work post surgery than playing the piano.  

Two years ago for my birthday I started this living room redo.  I have never loved stripes.  However, I found the striped fabric for my pillows for $2 a yard in the clearance section of the home decor store.  Ya, I couldn't pass it up.  I wanted to redo the pillows forever.  When we bought the couch I really didn't like the southwestern pattern.  After having a child I learned how horrible those strings on the edge of the pillows are.  We lost the pictures of the redo when our computer crashed, however, the picture of madalynn lying on the couch gives you a complete view of what the pillows were before.  I added rope to the edge of the pillow.  I kept the backsides of each of the pillows.  Russ helped me stuff the pillows...and I LOVE THEM.  I did them two years ago and I have loved them since.

In the living room my grandma had floor to ceiling rose colored curtains.  They were attached on a track on the ceiling with a pull chord.  There were shear curtains underneath the thick light blocking, heat maintaining rose curtains.  There was a long discussion about whether we would use them or not, but eventually my worry about having young kids in the home with a pull string curtain won out and we got rid of them.  Because of the curtains my grandparents didn't have blinds on the window.  For the first year we lived her we had a sheet permanently stapled to the front window.  After a while I couldn't handle that, so I took out the staples on the side and would pull it together and tie it in the middle during the day.  So.....I took to selling a few of the things in our home on KSL last fall, went to Home Depot, got a swinging deal on custom sized blinds (like 40% off, they were having a sale!!!), got them installed and the sheet went back in the cupboard.  Russ told me that he would install them if I got to making curtains.  I went shopping, but never found exactly what I was looking for.  I did however, buy extra long curtain rods for next to nothing in JoAnn's clearance section last fall.  Russ got the rod holder installed on the wall and they were attached alone to the wall for MANY months.  (This is the reason that I finally got the push to finish the curtains.  I got sick of looking at them.)

So one day this summer, I was sick of working hard and still not having enough money to do things.  It was just a harder than normal struggle this summer.  I picked up a couple new piano students and told Russ that their first months payment would pay for the curtains.  I went to Home Fabrics in Orem, walked around with my kids in the cart (ugh!!! They were awful) with two of my couch pillows (because seriously there are soooooo many shades of green), and determined I would not leave until I had enough fabric.  I found some stripes that looked pretty good with the pillows and I bought valence fabric that I have viewed and loved for years.  When I first went to make living room curtains in our last rental, I looked at paisley prints with green and brown A LOT.  I am so happy that I end up buying it several years later.

Well, the end of the story is....I picked out the fabric and sewed up the curtains for the rest of the day.  I love it.  Winter has now started and they block the cold without any problems.  I used a Jo Ann's gift card from one of my previous bdays to purchase all the grommets.  Last month when I was making my Halloween pillows I used the rest of the valence fabric and covered two other pillow forms for the couch.  I am glad I was able to tie everything together.  I have one of the table runners I made for our bedroom years ago on the end table right next to the couches and seriously, it couldn't match better.  

Hope you enjoyed.  

Christmas Dresden

I have wanted to make a dresden quilt forever!!!  Seriously.  I have pinned more dresden quilts than any other kind of quilt.  About a year ago I bought one of those easy dresden acrylic templates.  After reading several tutorials over the past few weeks, I also watched this youtube tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  http://youtu.be/lcy_p4pryE4

Anyways, this is a short post because I have to go get the kids out of bed and to the babysitter this morning before I head to work.  I decided it was time to try on of these quilts last night.  Soooooo, about 9:30pm I got out my Christmas Fabric.  Yes, I always sew really late.  It is the only time I have.  I ironed, picked out fabric, reviewed the tutorial, cut a 5 inch strip of fabric from 6 different fabrics and got going.  The chain sewing of each individual piece certainly made the sewing of 100 different blades go super fast.  At 10:15 I was ready to iron all those pieces which took about 20 minutes by the time I turned each one of them out.  I sewed one block together and ironed.  I pull out some white fabric to lie it on and here we are!!!!

I didnt' find my instructions sheet until later last night.  It has the template for the middle circle.  Mine turned out a 1/4 in bigger than the template.  Do you think it looks too big on the block?  I already whip stitched it to the block, but that only took 2 minutes so it is easy to pull off if i want to change it.  Whatever i decided on this one, I would follow on the other blocks.  I am planning on a small 4 block quilt.  I am also going to cut a set of smaller blades to make one Christmas quilt pillow cover like this.  Now, that will be super super cute!!!  I am so excited.  Now that I look at the picture again I wonder whether I should pull the center off all together and make it white.  I think I have enough of the fabric I used for the center circle to make the border for my quilt. That would be beautiful.  I want it to pop and when I look at the previous picture and this one the middle pops more when there isn't anything in there.  I really like that I chose the white background.  I was going to choose and off white fabric to match the tons of all the pieces in the block, but I love the white.

At the end of each night...that moment when all I want to do is go hop in bed, I always make sure to put away my rotary cutter and my scissors.  A curious 4 1/2 yr old is certain to hurt herself if she wakes up early and I leave them around.  I either lock them in my sewing box or put them on the top of my fridge.  Safety is a priority as a mother and I am always checking the kitchen to see what they could get into.  I have to mention that this is the child that would always find the one cleaner I left out when she was a young toddler.  Sadly, her dad taught her how to spray a water bottle when she was super little.  I called poison control many, MANY times when she was a toddler.  They are the most amazing people ever!!!  They are there to make sure that you and your child are fine and they often call for follow ups.  I like them more than my actual doctor sometimes and I love our pediatrician.

Anyways, random...Hope you enjoyed.

Puppets for a puppet show.

So, my father in law is AMAZING and he made this puppet theater about 12-13 yrs ago.  Randomly, I had started doing puppet show wednedays with my daughter a few months ago.  If you want to know more about what I am doing in our preschool homeschooling, you can check out my new blog learningplaydatewithmom.blogspot.com  I am pretty excited about our Museum Friday coming up this week.  However, that is off the topic here.  When my husbands grandpa offered us the puppet theater, I was stoked.  Serioulsy.  I didn't even know it existed.  I feel like my Father-in-law has presented me with the most amazing Christmas gift for years to come.  Each week Madalynn makes puppets from pages she has colored.  She cuts out images, tapes on a popsicle stick and the show goes on.

Madalynn with our finished heap of puppets.
Hers are the chickens on popsicle sticks.
Mine are the felt animal puppets.  

Picture of the puppet theater.  Description below.  

Two years ago I bought some puppet kits from Hobby Lobby to make Madalynn some puppets for Christmas.  I got the pieces glued on before I realized that I should have sewed the felt first.  I couldn't use my machine without gumming it up.  I got super frustrated and threw them to the bottom of a pile.  When I cleaned out our storage room a few weeks ago, I found them and put them in a bag.  We had the puppet theater by then and I knew that I needed to get them out and finish them.  Well, I pulled them out tonight and it became a family affair.  I tried unsucessfully to sew them with my machine again.  Russ got out the needle and thread and tried to sew them too.  Eventually we decided to just hot glue them.  They were super cheap and I don't care if the kids destroy them.  I just don't want to loose small pieces around the house.  We will see what happens.  I let Remington watch me while I was using the hot glue gun.  I let Madalynn hold the heat gun to help me glue.  Crafting projects are so fun when they become a family affair.

Madalynn wanted to do a puppet show when we got home today.  Oh, how I love our theater.  The turrets have two windwos to puppet through.  There are six backgrounds currently.  However I have some fabric I am planning on using to make a few new ones.  They are hung pull curtain rods.  The theater is massive and made of steel.  It take the space of our old bookshelves and computer desk.  There is plenty of room for a few adults to sit behind.  Every kids that has come over in the past 6 weeks since we got it has loved it.

I remembered that I wanted to look up some tutorials about how to make a stuff animal into a puppet.  We have like 50 stuffed animals that the kids never touch.  Well I found this tutorial and it is on the list of things to do this next week.  Madalynn sat in my lap and watched the youtube videos I found.  I can't wait to do some the week of Thanksgiving when I am off work.

My daughter loves creating things.   When I asked her what new puppets she wanted to make today, we end up googling chickens and she picked out a bunch of pictures to use.  She wanted to show the life of a chicken from egg, birth, to adult.  I love her concentration face.

We did do a puppet show before bed tonight.  Russ was doing dishes while listening so we didn't get any pictures, but it was fun.

Hope you enjoyed.

Can't Live without it- part 15

Ok so seriously who can do any quilting project without batting? I love to make small quilts and lots of them. I probably pull out my batting twice or three times a week. I wait to buy batting until I have a 40% coupon at JoAnn's and then I buy a King size quilt roll. It goes a lot farther and you get more for the money you are spending (since I am spending it anyways.) I personally use Warm and Neutral, or anything that is a little thicker.  I like the feel of it. It doesn't tear easily at all...and well, I just like it better then the other battings I have used before.

I always keep it in the bag so that when I get to scraps I have a bag to keep it in.  At any given time I might have two bags of scraps and a larger pieces bag.  I throw away very little batting.  If you have tons of smaller scraps, whip up a small holiday rag quilt.

Truly I have nothing more to say about this. If you are going to quilt you have to have it on hand at all times to finish projects. Don't be like me and wait until you have like ten UFO quilt tops before going and buying it. As soon as you have a top done, make the backing, baste the batting in and get it ready to finish. Nothing is better than finishing a project.  If a quilt top is already ready to quilt, I usually find time to get it quilted faster and enjoy putting out a finished product as decoration.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Purple Quilt--finished, new table runner

Remember this post?  Well, that quilt top got put away for three years.  I finally pulled it out and quilted it in Feb this year.  Then, I displayed it...even though I couldn't decide on a binding.  Because I am in a sewing stage where I am not allowed to buy any fabric, I finally just used the white and purple dotted fabric for binding.  I really like it, except that it blends in at the top and bottom.  I would have preferred a darker purple fabric, but I didn't have enough of any one fabric and I prefer binding to be all one fabric.

Well, here is a finished look.

Last year for Russ aunt birthday, I made her a table runner for her home.  Well, of course I knew that I would love it, so I bought enough fabric to make me one as well.  I finished both tops and got her done and gifted.  However, I never got to quilting or binding mine.  I have this ability to tell myself I can't work on anything new until the old is finished.  Before I started working on all my Halloween quilts, I finished this table runner.  I can't wait to put it up this next Spring.  Table runners are just so fun to make.  I can easily make a top, quilt it and bind it in a matter of a couple hours.

Hope you enjoyed.

Fall Quilted Decor

Well, this post is a bit of the new and the old.  I love Fall.  I love the warm colors of Fall.  My rocking chair is covered with two of my most recent sewing ambitions.  Last Monday, I had to cancel teaching because of a babysitter problem.  While Remington was napping, I got out my Fall fabric.  I have always wanted a tree pillow.  I have seen them in the quilting stores for a few years and have always loved them.  I pinned...oh, at least 60 different Fall Pillow ideas on my Pinterest Board Halloween and Fall Quilted Embellishments.  Even after searching for different ideas all over the web, I couldn't stop thinking about a fall tree.  So, I had Russ make me a leaf template (since I really suck at making any templates), I cut out the leaves from small scraps I had in my fall fabric, I used some steam a seam two small scraps I had in a bag, ironed them on, straight stitched around them, 1/4 inch in from the outside (I think it would actually be nice if they ever did fray a bit), used some muslin that I got from my grandma's craft room clean out and made the cutest tree I have seen.  

The quilt on the rocker is very special to me.  When I was making my first fall quilt 8 years ago, I had to cut of the corners of some square blocks, leaving me with 60 or so triangles.  The pieces were reasonably big...2 1/2 to 3 inches.  I kept them in a bag in a drawer for the next 6 years.  One day last Christmas Break I was cleaning out some of my craft stuff and came upon the scraps.  I was in a tossing mood that day, and determined if I didn't use them for something I was going to just chuck them.  So I put them on the cutting mat, squared them off to all equal dimensions, got out one of my favorite quilt pattern books and go started.  I finished the top and threw it in the finsihed top pile and there is sat.  This sept, when I was again in a tossing mood, I determined that I couldn't start any new project until I finished my pile of tops.  Each quilt I make has its story of timing and interest.  I got it out, machine quilted and bound it that night.    Here is a picture of the first fall quilt I made, and then the picture of the smaller quilt.  Amazing how different they are!!  I am always amazed at how the same fabrics can be combined to make all sorts of different things.   

So, remember this table runner I made several years ago?  Well, similar story.  I had 3 fat quarters left over and some of the jelly strips from the packet.  I got out the pattern for the table runner and the fabric that was just sitting in a drawer and determined how I could use all the fabric and make myself something.  The colors in this table runner are just the oppposite highlighted fabrics.  I love the yellow/orange border.  I am so that that I had that fat quarter left.  I whipped this up in a couple hours last weekend and I couldn't love it more.  At one point in time I had a fat quarter of the striped fabric, but I used that to make a tie for my son to wear to church.  If I remember, sometime I will take a picture of the tie when he is awake and I will add it to this post.  The pillow below is now my 5th seasonal pillow cover.  I used the rest of the strips that weren't big enough for the table runner to make pointed triangle ends for this pillow cover.  When I came in to show Russ this pillow cover his exact exasperated words were, "Why do you keep making pillows?"  He is worried that they are going to overtake the couch and make it hard to sit on.  I kindly informed him I would not stop and they were only decoration not for permanent use.  

The table runner my best friend made me for Christmas 4 years ago.  It is a treasure for sure.  I love the raw edges she left on it.  I put it on the end table right by our front door so I could see it everyday.

The next quilt I made 3 years ago.  I joined Quilted Club of America about 4 years ago.  They have these forums and quilting groups.  I decided to join a fabric swap.  It sounded fun and I was interested in learning to like doing more scrappy quilts and also try out a new pattern.  The guy that hosted the swap told us how much fabric to buy, how to cut it, and where to send it.  We each got a package back in the mail a week later.  I quickly whipped the quilt up, but then it got put in the never ending pile of unfinished tops.  I pulled this out last Christmas when I worked on the triangle quilt, found some hideous backing fabric from my stash and got it finished.  I left a row of blocks off the quilt.  I made them into a table runner for my piano.  I haven't yet put it up for main display, so I am doing that this month.  I like it quite a bit.  It is definitely not my normal style and some peoples choice of "Fall" fabric was very interesting.  However, I enjoyed doing the swap and seeing pictures of other peoples quilts as they finished.  

This is a panel I bought and finished two years ago.  

Well, I am actually working on a quilt for my aunt for Christmas right now.  I got all the squares cut out and hope to get the top made this week.  Her home furniture is all deep rich fall colors.  I am not sure if it will end up being a lap quilt or twin.  It just depend on how many 7" blocks I decide to make.  Once I finish that quilt I will actually be nearly out of fall fabric.  Yay!!!  One of my goals is to cut my fabric stash in half this year without buying anything new.  We will see how that goes.  Using a gift card to buy something that is needed doesn't count...by the way.  

Here is my quilt display in Sept.  I am glad that I took two months, Sept and Nov to put them up, because then I could display my two larger quilts for their own month.  

Hope you enjoyed.  

Remington's Bed room

Well, I am playing blog catch up and posting pictures of past projects.  Remington's room is going to be awesome...in a couple years.  Right now I just did his curtains, table runner for his dresser and his crbi quilt.  We are going to be building him a loft bed...like his sister.  Ugh.  I don't even think I have ever posted pictures of her castle bed, but I will.  I am hoping someday to have some time to refinish the dresser in his room to look like older wood and match the tree house.  It is an amazing dresser that we got to keep when my grandparents passed away.  We used the mirror that was a attached for a framed mirror in our half bath.

The quilt was time consuming and somewhat frustrating.  I originally started quilting it with swirls.  I hated it!!!  I took four months to unpick it while I sat at work and then did a stipple stitch.  I LOVE it now.  It was totally worth the work.

The back is one of my favorite parts.

The quilt is a tumbler block design.  I made a small pinterest board dealing with tumbler blocks when I was researching quilt patterns for his bed.

We are going to be building him a tree house.  It will have a rope ladder, murals on the wall, a full tree built into the corner of the room.  I am currently collecting material to make log pillows and such.  It is going to be fun.

The curtains are lined with a heavy dark denim on the back.  When I was sewing them, I couldn't find the dark green corduroy that I have been using on all our curtains to make them more black out.  I love how these turned out.  I am imagining some kind of tree looking or wood curtain rod when we finish his room.  Russ says he will start his room when we put him in a toddler bed.  We won't put him in a toddler bed until he starts climbing out of the crib or he starts nighttime potty training...so basically probably another year.



Hope you enjoyed.

Can't Live without it- part 14

Most of my posts of things I can't live without, I have tried to find the cheapest and best price for the product available. Well, this is probably my most expensive item that I constantly buy. However, it is the best basting spray that I have used and I would not be able to machine quilt on my own domestic machine without it.

This is called 505. You simply spray it between the layers (the top, batting and the backing) and truly even on my really large heavy Levi quilt none of the layers even shifted. The stickiness lasts forever. I have basted quilts before and come back to a month or even a year later and the layers are still completely in place and don't shift. On my larger quilts I do pin them with safety pins just in case. They used to sell really small bottles that wouldn't last that long, but now they are selling 00 ounce bottles. It is usually around $22-$25 a bottle depending on where you buy it. They now sell the small bottle in JoAnn's stores. Walmart also has it on their online store. (If you are looking for an online place I would suggest Walmart site-to-store. Free shipping and the same price you would buy it at a regular store.) I am really glad that both my LQS are selling it now in their stores so I can run and grab some when i run out. This bottle has lasted me at least 10 wall hangings and two quilts and is about 2/3 gone. That is pretty good.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Pillow Cases

Yesterday, my son had a bad nap.  He never went to sleep and eventually when he had a messy diaper, he pulled it off in his bed.  Nasty, I know!!!  At least he just left it alone, but unfortunately he sat on his ladybug stuffed animal pillow.  Yep, it just went in the trash.  After sleeping with two kids over 3 1/2 yrs it was just time.  I simply didn't want to try and clean it.  So, he got a big boy pillow last night.  I was really sad.  It just means that he is growing up.   I have had some fun bug printed fabric in my stash for quite some time.  I bought the ends of some rolls in a clearance section about 7 years ago hoping to make some baby blankets from them for my etsy shop.  That...never happened.  So I followed this Tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Co.  It is super easy and super quick.  Each one only took 15 minutes from cutting, pinning to sewing.  I left out the 2 inch lip because a little boys pillow case doesn't need it.  I took me probably twice that long to just pick out the fabric in my storage room.  The two on the left are my son's.  The two on the right are my daughters.  She will get hers for Christmas.

Hope you enojoyed.

Can't Live without it- part 13

One day I was at my aunt's house. She uses her kitchen table for sewing...an excellent place to sew. She was cleaning up after a big project. She went and grabbed a broom, dust pan and her kitchen garbage. We were talking about that. She had all the scraps from sewing all over the floor. She said that she doesn't clean it all up until the end because she just has to do it too many times. I suggested that she get a garbage can for just sewing and put it next to her. It drives me nuts literally when I don't have a garbage can when I am sewing. I can't handle the cut threads on the table next to me, or getting on my sewing foot if I have to throw them on the ground.

That is when I realized that this is one of those things on my list of "I can't live without it." This is mine. My daughter used to empty this all the time when she was 15 months and so does my son who is now 2yrs old.  I have been using it as a great teaching opportunity for my kids on learning how to put things away.  Trying to use small moments like this as learning moments rather than getting upset.  Yep, patience is a virtue that sometimes has to be learned over and over again over time.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Halloween quilts

Ok, I has been a LONG LONG time since I have posted on my blog.  Raising kids and working 40-60 hours a week is no small job.  However, that doesn't mean that I haven't been sewing or quilting.  I am going to have to post pictures each month as I put up new quilts to post all the ones I have made since we moved into our current home.  Today's post is all about Halloween.  Pictures of all the quilts that I finished before I put them away for another year.

If you want to see the list of quilts/pillows I looked through and turtorials I found come over and follow my Halloween and Fall Quilted Embellishments board on pinterest.  I have already started making some of the Fall stuff and can't wait to finish them.

Remember Jack the pumpkin?  It is the quilt that is sitting on the rocker behind the pillows.  Sandy Gervais made this line of fabric and the pattern.  I made the three pillow covers this month.  LOVE THEM!!!  I have had those three pillow forms just sitting in my quilt cupboard for years.  I have always wanted three pillows that are specific to decorate with for each  month.  Well, I got 1 of 12 months done.  I am hoping, really hoping to get some fall pillow covers done this month.

I made my own pattern for the witches hat.  I simply cut pieces of fabric in random ways and sewed them together and applied it with steam a seam 2.  I just used a zig zag stitch to make the spider web in the top left corner.  While I was not really excited about the green fabric.  However, this years goal was to use only fabric in my stash to finish projects and put backing on them.  When my grandma died I got most of her fabric and she had a ton of solid colored fabric.  I think that I will be using much of that for pillow covers.  The Happy Halloween came from a panel of fabric that you will see near the bottom.  For the Oct. 31 pillow, I used my cricut machine to cut the letters/numbers using the Happy Hauntings font.  I applied them with heat and bond and stitched around the edges.  When i started this project I finally unboxed all my fabric from our last move.  I found the orange spider web fabric and I am so glad I did.  It is by far my favorite fabric I worked with this year.    

The work in progress.  It always take me time to decide on the embellishments

When I bought the charm squares to make Jack 4 years ago, I bought four packs.  I made this table runner based of a free pattern I found...and loved!!!  Super easy.  I have a second set cut out.  I just have to sew the blocks together.  That will unfortunately have to wait until next year.

I put borders on this Halloween panel I bought at Hobby Lobby 2 years ago.  The binding: jeans.  I made a Levi quilt many years ago for my sister in law and made too much binding.  I have a stash of extra binding that I look through before finishing each quilt.  It was the perfect color and it will be plenty sturdy.  Haha.

I made this spider web table topper for myself.  Tutorial link.  I wish I had had enough fabric for making the entire quilt in the tutorial.  But, I like these small ones and the quilt I made below.  I finished whip stitching the spider web quilt....oh, today.

I made this one for a relative for her birthday.

The following are quilts I finished in prior years but i am not sure I ever posted pictures.  Yep, pretty much, I went through my fabric and finished every project that I meant to start in the past 4 years.

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This is the one that I hung up for viewing this year.  Loved it.  

Putting it away is probably my least favorite sight.  :(  However, there is always something fun to pull out which makes it so much better.

Sadly/happily I bought some new fabric for projects to work on next year.   I bought 4 panels and fabric for placemats and napkins.  I was hoping to make the stack of fabric smaller this year.  I truly did, and then it became the same size.

Hope you enjoyed.