Boo!

Happy Halloween!

We spent weekend before last decorating for Halloween.  Hubby found lots of great Halloween decorations on his yard sale haunts and really went to town for the holiday!

We were inspired by the great Halloween decorations we saw at Disney...

On our cruise...

The Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom....

And here are our spooktacular decorations (well, maybe a little heavier on the pumpkins than on the spooks)...

 Here we are channeling the Haunted Mansion...

He even found some Mickey decorations (Luanne, too cool, huh????)

And, here are some of my Halloween quilts hanging in my kitchen....

And even my office at work is decorated with my favorite pumpkin quilt!

I hope we get more than two trick-or-treaters this year after going to all this trouble!  You should see all the candy we have so far (although with my husband around, it might not last until Halloween!)

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013

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My entry for this Fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival is a quilt I made to donate to the Wounded Warriors charity event my son & DIL hosted earlier this year.  I am entering it into the Throw Quilt category. This was a very special event and I wanted to make a very special quilt to be auctioned to raise funds for this cause.  My DIL's uncle passed away earlier this year on a dive trip to support the Wounded Warrior Project.  He was very involved in helping to raise money to send vets and their families on the Wounded Warriors Cruises and my kids wanted to honor that.

I chose Elizabeth Hartman's Marmalade pattern...

I had such fun making this quilt and I will definitely make more.  Elizabeth's instructions were great and, while it looks more complicated, it was very easy to put together!  I pulled all of the scraps to make the strippy diamonds from my stash.  Since this was such a modern design, I went modern with the quilting...

And I found the perfect print for the backing, incorporating the grass greens and teal blues....

I wasn't sure how a modern quilt would go over at the event, but I heard it drew a lot of interest.  And, I was thrilled to find out that my DIL's sister fell in love with the quilt and was the highest bidder and took the quilt home (in fact she told me she bundled up in the quilt to sleep that night!)

Please visit the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side to see all of the other entries!

It's a Plus!

I couldn't get back to my sewing machine fast enough after we returned from vacation last week.  I had been working on a quilt I saw in last month's issue of Quilty Magazine before we left.  I'm really liking this new magazine a lot.  It's geared toward newbies, but I'm finding a lot of great patterns in it and the stories are fun too.

I saw two quilts in this issue that I had to make.  Apparently, immediately, because I put aside everything else I was doing to make the first one.  I'm kind of liking the one of the cover too.

May I present...It's a Plus...top completed...

It's supposed to be wonky, but I think I went a little overboard on the wonk, but that's okay.

I used two layer cakes of Comma by Zen Chic and some Moda Bella Medium Gray solid.  I'm loving this fabric line...

Called Comma, because, well, COMMAs!

The great thing is I have a bunch left over to make another quilt...

I'm thinking of doing a variation on a Chinese Coins quilt.  I eve sketched it out and had grand plans to maybe submit it to Quilty to see if they'd publish it.  Then I saw that someone beat me to it  - I saw it on someone else's blog but I can't remember where or I'd show you.   Oh well, guess I'll keep my day job.

This is the next Quilty quilt I've got on the list...

I've got a Philly Modern Quilt Guild retreat coming up next month (YAY!) - maybe I'll work on this!

A "Snap Happy" Birthday Bag

Hi again...we're finally back from vacation (two weeks, but it seemed longer).  We had a great time, and I even made a bunch of neutral hexies while we were on our cruise - and then left my sewing bag on the ship!!!  I was very, very unhappy with myself for awhile, but I'm (mostly) over it.  I think Disney Cruise Line Lost & Found is getting a little tired of hearing from me.  I know exactly where the bag is - night table drawer - and I'll just bet no one has used the drawer since we left.  So, I'll give it another week or so and then buy some more templates, Gingher embroidery scissors and the really cool needle threader I had just bought.  Luckily, I still have more of the fabrics that I had in the bag, so I'll be back in business soon.  And will do a much more thorough check next time!!

But, before we went away my very favorite sis-in-law had a big b-day.  We surprised her with a dinner party - at her house!  We came with dinner in hand (her mom even brought the wine glasses!)  She was really surprised and we had a great day.

I had made myself this cute little Snap Happy Bag not too long ago. You use pieces of 1" metal  measuring tape for the "snap" part.  It's very cool.  

So, I thought I'd make one for Cathy in her favorite color - purple!  I added a bunch of little gifts - some earrings, special tea bags, a scarf and a scarf clip - and she loved everything.  She's so easy to buy for - if I like it, I know she'll like it!

 Some shots of the day...

Cathy's sister Peggy (a NEW quilter who just moved near us - I'm going to make her as obsessed as I am - LOL) on the left - birthday girl on the right....

The birthday girl and hubby (my very favorite brother)....

The day before the surprise party, my PMQG-challenge cushion cover was on display at the PA National Quilt Extravaganza with all of the other PMQG cushion covers!!  It was so exciting (hey, it doesn't take much)...Here are the photos of the display...

And, here's my cushion...

My seat has never been so famous!