October update

I love this tree! I think in some sort-ov way it looks like a lady tree, hitching up her skirts and running! This photo is from a walk School Boy and I took last weekend. We also went by these camping cabins - if you can call them that. They are more like permanent tents with simple bare bunks & a ladder built inside and some sort of counter to put your things. Very rustic! Part of a campground though so you can go to the bath-house for showers/toilets/etc. Just think of it as a tent, but maybe the ground is a bit more waterproof should it rain! The green part is actually heavy-duty plastic of some sort. I thought they were neat in anycase.

1st things 1st in October - catching up on my rest after a busy summer season. 2nd thing is always paperwork. MOST of my paperwork is done for the month, so onward to happier things - like quilting! Well, other than our bread baking - which has turned into a 2X a week event since we all love that sourdough bread so much! We just keep adding to the starter in the fridge now that we got it started - and seeing it sitting there just makes you want to make bread, you know! Mmmm.

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Anyway - those 12 crazy patch stars couldn't sit long and I started sketching out some ideas in my quilt book (really a leather portfolio with handy-dandy built in calculator from an office supply store - I keep all my design ideas in there) for a quilt to set them into. Yes, I have EQ, but it is an older version and very clunky - I usually find it much faster (and relaxing) just to sketch out my ideas. Well - other than the math bit as math isn't so very relaxing for me, but once I get an idea in my head I usually can figure out the measurements. So - here is the winning sketches and I've been piecing in bits and pieces - here and there. I've got the 40 string border blocks done for the border - amazingly enough sewing just 4 a night added up pretty quickly, I've made 6 crumb blocks and now here you see the sashings with little squares that will become star points for the crumb blocks. I have them laid out on the sketch the way I want them pieced so that I don't lose my place.

And in other sewing news... here is a photo of the great fabric I picked up at Marden's for under $5 total! The Halloween costume for School Boy is almost done - no, not a cow... he is going to be a dalmation, and a very cute one at that! As a bonus - there is plenty of fabric left over to make a stuffed animal!!! I started 2 weeks ago and figured I would do 1-2 steps at a time, nice and slowly with no pressure. The costume is just about done now - ears and tail still need to be added. But before I could do that, he desperately needed a new pair of pants so those have been sewn (and worn and washed already!) and a 2nd pair is all cut - just waiting to buy more elastic to finish those. Hopefully this week I will manage to take more photos... stay tuned!

Scraps to Stars

Slowly but surely...

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July 2oth - I had 12 crazy patch blocks - foundation pieced on the back of phone book pages. In September, every now and then I would turn a few into a star - here and there. Now, here we are in mid-October and I've got 12 Crazy Patch Stars! OK, so I only have a photo of 3 of the stars, but trust me - there are 12. Some of them have slightly different colored star points because I didn't have enough of any 1 fabric to make 12 matching stars. That is what I like about scrap quilts - mix and match!

2 weeks ago I showed my fairly NEW quilt group (we just started up last year) how to make these. It is exciting because some of these ladies have very little sewing know-how while others are very exacting and precise. Such beautiful work! And the hand quilting that goes on in this group, oh my! Me, well, I guess I just have my own crazy style! Another quilter and I were paired up to give a demo on paper-piecing - she did the detailed way - and I did the crazy patch way! Talk about extreme opposite results, but it was really fun to do the 2 together. I thought that this would be a fun little project to get some of the newer sewers - sewing. So, I brought in pre-cut squares of phone book pages (I think I cut maybe 3.5 and 4.5 squares - I found the 6.5" size in these stars a bit finiky -it gets harder as the square gets bigger). I brought in my tote of scraps. Gave a little demo. Shared my scraps. Guess what? MANY of these ladies have ZERO scraps. ZERO fabric. Honest. Some of them come to the meeting with 100% of their sewing supplies AND stash in a little tote bag. Can you imagine!!! But rotary lessons are being given (not by me), rotary cutters, rulers and mats have been purchased and I am seeing some new fat quarters being brought in to be admired and a pattern to be picked. Then again, there are others in the group with a very good working stash. We aren't just a quilting group either - we are a quilting/needlework/knitting group. Got lots of bases covered!

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And everyone is having F-U-N. Or, at least I think they are. I am anyway! Here are photos of the 2 group quilts we made last winter... The smokeshed quilt raised $6,000 for our local Rotary group!!! They aren't barns - they are smoke sheds for smoking herring in... there is appliqued smoked fish in the corners and swimming fish on the top and bottom borders. All designed from a photo of an actual smoke shed. Cool, huh? The little 9 patch was a fund raiser for our group. We have a new pattern all picked out for our winter quilt project and it is going to be a beauty! We didn't meet all summer because of gardening, company, etc. But we did have a fabulous quilt show! Speaking of... 2 weeks ago a group of us took a road trip to go to a quilt show - we were gone 12 hours and had a great time! OK, so a good portion of that was spent traveling - we weren't AT the quilt show for 12 hours, and we had to eat too (2X), plus hit a fabric store and the mall too. All in all, it was very fun. And no - I didn't buy ANY fabric for quilting, but corduroy to make School Boy some pants.

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Fall Leaf Project

SB and I did this project last week... it was a 3 day project for us.

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Day 1 - go for a great leaf walk, carrying bags to collect all our goodies.

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Day 2 - sharpen crayons (with my eyeliner pencil since I haven't used it in ages anyway) and iron the crayon shavings and leaves in between wax paper (low iron heat - just enough to melt the crayon)... in between newspaper! Tape the edges and tape onto the windows. This really is pretty when the sun shines!

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Day 3 - get out our Tree book and identify as many leaves as possible. Oak, aspen, maple, etc. Talk about maple syrup, acorns, those helicopter seed pods, etc.

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We always made these in the fall when I was little. Lots of people who have seen School Boy's have asked me how we made them. Making them was the easy part - getting the craft area cleaned up of crayon shavings - and my ironing board (well, of course some got spilled) - now that was the tricky part.