Sweet news!

I can't keep it a secret! And since I don't have to, here's the news........my little blog earned an award yesterday. I follow American Quilter's Society on Facebook and had submitted my blog for consideration for their "Blog of the Week" award. And yesterday, I was checking their page when I saw that my blog was one of two selected! Two blogs were chosen because they didn't select one last week. They said ........ "We enjoy your mix of family and quilts, then and now." And, oh, how I love sharing those quilts old and new, and my family stories, too!!! I am just thrilled! You can go here here to see the official news! I'm awaiting the "official blog of the week" button that I can add to my blog. I have been smiling ever since yesterday when I read the post on Facebook. Even my husband was impressed. :-) It made my day, my weekend, my month! Thanks, AQS!!!
Smiling Sandi

Almost as good as going to Market!

Last Saturday, my friends, Laura and Sharon and I took a "girl's day out" and went to nearby Mankato for some "fabric fun". While lots of quilters were at Market this past weekend, we were not but this day was, for us, as good as going to Market! We started with a stop at FireflyQuiltShop and when you enter the door this is what you see...........
I've featured the shop before on my blog but here are a couple spots, I've not shared. I love this entry into the room where kids fabrics, colorful prints and 30's fabrics are located.

One corner of the room features this old wooden spool crib that Janice's husband made into a neat display for fabric and quilts. I love this crib.

I found it at our church garage sale several years ago. Some youth group kids were playing in it and broke the rails so nobody would buy it, so I took it home. I had plans for it. I wanted to make it into a garden gate or maybe a quilt rack. My husband was not enthused and he thought we should just throw it in the trash. Horror of horrors! Nope, I was determined to find someone who could use it, so I asked Janice if she would like it and she said yes. I am happy it has a good home. :-)

This quilt in the classroom really caught our attention and so did this floormat that Sharon is holding up. I couldn't get a good picture of it when it was laying on the floor so she obliged and held it just right for a photo............

The mat is partially pieced and then fabric pieces are layered and it's all done with ModPodge. There will be a class on this sometime in the spring and we are all thinking it would be a fun class to take.

This is Sharon (left) and Laura (right). We were having fun looking at the $5.00 fabric bags that Janice sells. I love the "grab bag" aspect of the $5.00 bags. :-)

We all found a little something we just "had to have"!

Thankfully, I remembered that I needed batting or it would have been like going to the grocery store for milk and coming home with everything but the milk!! I did find something unexpected right below the batting so I was really glad I remembered it. Those fabrics on the right are from the "Summer Solstice" line by RJR fabrics. I won a charm pack of them last summer and I cut out a totebag but had never finished it because I couldn't find any yardage of the fabrics locally. There they were, though, right next to the batting! I won't get this finished before Christmas but it's looking good for a January project!

We ate lunch at Panera ......

yummy sandwiches and salads.......

and then headed over to RiverCityQuilts .

This is the scene that greeted us as we walked in the door.......lots of Halloween fun!
We didn't know it til we got to the shop, but they were having a ten year anniversary celebration. That gorgeous plant on the floor was a gift from a vendor and I would have loved to take it home. We found all sorts of fabrics and patterns to look at........and, of course, we each found a little something that we just "had to have". I found some Christmas fabrics on clearance and bought some for backing on tablerunners, plus I bought a few Christmas fat-quarters. They'll show up in projects in the coming weeks. :-)

These two quilt shops in Mankato offer quilters are real variety of fabrics and quilty things. River City has a long wall of colorful bolts and lots of fat quarters............

and a real variety of prints and lots of samples. Somewhere in there I saw my first GO! fabric cutter and I can see how using one would really cut down the cutting time for projects. It's on my list for Christmas.....or maybe birthday. :-)

I love fabric. I've decided it's better than chocolate. I've given up Coca-cola and I think I could give up chocolate if I had to make a choice between fabric or chocolate. Actually, I don't even have to think about it.......I know I could give up chocolate for fabric. LOL!

Anyway, after we left River City, we had two more spots to visit......HancockFabrics and HobbyLobby. I mean, we were seriously covering ground that day. I couldn't resist these 75% off Halloween prints at Hancock. I know what you are thinking......

"she just made several Halloween projects".....and that I did, but I would actually like to make a large quilt next year and I think all these fabrics (1 yard cuts) will do the "trick"........and it will be a real "treat" when it's finished! I had been in search of Halloween buttons for one of the projects that didn't quite get finished this year and found perfect candy corn buttons at Hobby Lobby. I also picked up a few Christmas crafting items and then time and money were running out................so we decided to end the day with ice cream at Culver's. It was an awesome day out, just as good as going to Market, and we are looking forward to doing it again. We plan to hit the local thrift shops next time. Always nice to have something to look forward to!

Sandi

"What's on the line?"

November has arrived and here in Minnesota that means cold weather is here for sure and will be for at least six months! I have always wondered how people survived the long cold winters before central heating. Perhaps it was old wool quilts like this one that would keep them warm for a night's sleep when winter winds blew in through cracks in the walls or along windows.

This old tied quilt is made from men's suiting swatches that were cross-stitched together. The batting on this quilt is very thick and it would be very warm to sleep under this quilt. It would also be difficult to move as it's kinda heavy. LOL! The quilt was bought by my dad for just a few dollars at a farm auction. He also bought the one below............

This one was my dad's favorite of all the quilts that he found at auctions. He loved the embroidery work on this one and so I took some close-ups so you could see the handiwork of the maker of this quilt. It's made of wool and a clue to it's age is a pink cotton backing on the quilt that is likely from the 1920's. It was a time when there was renewed interest in crazy quilting and fanciwork embroidery. It is also a rather heavy quilt.........tied, so it's not really a quilt by historical standards.......but I don't think it was used very much. It's in really good condition.

The photos for today's quilts were all taken yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful day with a bit of sun and no wind. You will notice that almost all the leaves are gone from the trees behind my clothesline. That's because last week's wind blew them all into the woods!

When the sun went down, there was a bit of a nip in the air but it didn't stop the kids and parent from going door-to-door! I had 34 happy trick-or-treating kiddies that rang my doorbell last night. My ceramic Jack-0-Lantern was full of candy and I nearly ran out but luckily there was some more candy in the pantry.

To add some "spookiness" to my front porch, I took an old sheet and draped it over those big teddy bears that live on my front porch (go here to see what the bears look like underneath their sheets). They became perfect ghosts and they each held a tiny pumpkin that had a blinking light inside so the kids thought they were really cool. As you can see by Kaiser's position.........he is not so sure they are cool at all!

I didn't make much progress on that last Halloween wallhanging that I'm working on but I did get that apron finished and I wore it as I worked in the kitchen today and when I handed out treats. I'm going to make a couple more aprons as they are really great to wear when sewing, too. I made extra long ties on the apron so that I can bring them around the back and then tie the apron in front. I used a pre-printed quilt block panel that I appliqued on the front of the apron and then the apron itself is made from a border print Halloween fabric.

Next post will be all about the Halloween treat that my friends, Laura, Sharon and I enjoyed this past Saturday. We had some seriously good fun visiting a couple of quilt shops!

All for now. Here's to a great start to a new week and a new month!!! Have a great day!
Sandi

A Halloween greeting........

To all my friends who celebrate Halloween.......

Have a great night!!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Once again, Amy is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival during the week of Fall Quilt Market. Just go here and you will see the on-line festival of quilts at oh-so-many-wonderful-blogs!!!
I'm going to share one that I've shared before but it is a favorite. This is a quilt that I made for the youth area of the Prior Lake (MN) Library. I like it because I thought of my kids and their friends as I made the fall side of the quilt that you see here.......

and then again when I made the Spring side of the quilt. The quilt is reversible! It was a commissioned piece and it had to represent the library and the community of Prior Lake. I drew my sketches and then used fusible to iron all the pieces in place. Most of the fabrics are cotton, but I found knits and other fabrics in my stash that were perfect for the jeans, sweaters, rug, etc. The picture over the fireplace represents the lake that is the "heart" of the community where we used to live. Elements in the Fall side are things that were in our home and those in the Spring side are bits and pieces of places we would pass as we walked to the library. To read more of the story in my original post on this quilt just go here .

One day, I would like to recreate this quilt so that I can hang it in our new home. It is like a storybook of our visits to the library and the books the kids would read when they were young. If I ever make the quilt again, I will do one thing differently. I will do more machine quilting. At the time that I made the original, I was concentrating more on creating the scene.....almost like painting a picture and I did not think about how the fabric might sag over time. I should have known better. :-)

No progress to share on the current Halloween quilt that I am working on.....maybe on Saturday.....or Sunday. :-) Today, I did some decorating on our porch with lights and stuff so the Trick or Treaters will know that they can come to our door for some sweet treats. And tomorrow, I am meeting my friends, Laura and Sharon, for a day out with lunch and fabric shopping. I guess you could say it's our "Halloween treat"! :-)

Have a great weekend! I'll be back on Sunday for sure with a Halloween post!

Sandi

The Halloween projects continue......

This is not a finished project but it's getting there. Two years ago, I made a set of Nanette's Christmas Cottages in Halloween fabrics. I finally sewed them into a quilt top this past Monday. I laid the quilt top on an orange tablecloth for the photo and it does not look good on the orange. Oh, well, I'm planning to bind the quilt in black and add some embellishments for pizazz.

The tutorial for her block design can be found here . It's a fun and easy project to do. The cottages go together quickly, although "fussy cutting" the scenes for the windows adds a teeny bit of extra time. I changed one little thing in the block....... I put the window in the center of each side of the cottage instead of right next to the door. You'll see what I mean when you check out her tutorial. I made a set of Christmas Cottages for the swap that Nanette coordinated ... go here to see them ... and you will see that they are made as shown in her tutorial. For all the cottages, Christmas and Halloween, I added rick rack or trim along the edges of the roof. It doesn't show up in the photo above. Really need to get a better photo for you all. When the top is finally quilted, I will add tiny pumpkin and spider buttons for door knobs. :-) I'm also planning to add a ghost or two after the machine quilting is done. This is all I'll do on this one for this Halloween season, as I don't plan to do the quilting til I get a new machine. I'm hoping that will be soon. :-)

This next photo is just fabric and I didn't turn it into a quilt but instead I made an apron from this fabric. It's almost all finished except for a bit of hand-stitching. I'll post a photo when it's done and that will be soon.....I want it done in time for me to wear it to cook up some witch's brew this weekend. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!
Before I get to any cooking, though, I'm going to stitch up this project that has been in the Halloween fabric pile for a couple years.

There are six preprinted blocks with different scenes and the coordinating border fabric that you see in the background. I'm not sure how I am going to piece this but I'll know by Friday. That's the deadline I set for myself to get this one sewn into a finished quilt top.

I may "scare up" a couple more projects before Halloween arrives on Sunday but once it's over.........the Halloween fabrics go back in the box until next year!

We have had a big wind storm that is still howling outside my sewing room window. This has been some storm that has hit the midwest. We are fortunate that it has just been wind here and no damage. I was happy that I did not have to go anywhere except downtown to the post office. Even walking the dog was interesting as I had to work hard at standing up when we were outside yesterday! Hopefully the winds will be gone by Thursday. Reality has set in ............ summer weather has been fully blown away, and even fall will soon be gone......those winds have been a sharp reminder that winter is just around the corner. That's okay..........got plenty of projects to keep me busy through a long, cold, snowy Minnesota winter! :-)

Have a good day!
Sandi

"What's on the line?"

Halloween fun is on the line today!! This is another photo that I took a few weeks ago when the weather was much warmer. That will be the case from now on. The weather here will not be good for outdoor photo sessions! Yesterday's weather was foggy and gloomy, so that was great for staying indoors and doing lots of sewing! Since this is Minnesota, it won't be long before the weather could be snowy!

The quilt is called "Boo-tiful Halloween" and is one of the twelve small quilts I made in 2000. It has loops and hangs from a tree branch when it's hung for Halloween. When I designed this little quilt, I thought of houses that we would pass when we were kids trick-or-treating in my hometown of Lehigh, Iowa. Granted, there were no tombstones in anyones back yard but I do remember spooky looking trees!!

There are two more little Halloween quilts to share...........

I just cut a group of patchwork shapes and stitched them together and then added some shapes that I sketched and cut from cotton (backed with fusible and ironed in place). I made two of these in 2000 - one for me and one for my daughter.
The year before that, I made this little sampler quilt. If you want to make one, too, you will find the pattern here . It's quick and easy. If you have any trouble printing the pages, just e-mail me for a pdf file.

I have never been fond of the color orange but when autumn rolls around, I love it. And for Halloween, I really like it!!! I was going to post a photo of the current orange themed Halloween project that I'm working on but I got so busy sewing that I never got to any picture taking. Maybe by tomorrow, I'll get a couple photos taken and show you what I worked on this past weekend.

Have a good Monday!

Sandi