Happy Halloween

I arrived home late yesterday afternoon from quilt market (post to come soon) only to find that my grade school children still did not have Halloween costumes. I quick brainstorming session and trips to Partyland and Walmart and we were ready to go.

This guy kept telling me he wanted to be the "Shoulder Devil". I had no idea what that was so week looked it up on YouTube. HILARIOUS! He's from a show called Studio C on BYUtv (in Utah). If you're not local, you can find their videos on YouTube. His costume turned out great!

This girl wanted to be Taylor Swift of course. We bought a cheap wig that looked horrible so she went with her natural, yet straightened brown locks. I autographed her guitar with Taylor's name and put some eye make-up on her. It's driving me nuts how grown up she looks!

Here's the two together right before school. I sure hope that shoulder devil isn't telling Taylor to be naughty. :o)

While in Texas for quilt market we visited the little town of Old Spring. There's some fun shops and an amazing quilt shop there. I took a couple pics of some of the older, run down, vacant buildings. I thought I'd share them for Halloween.

This one looked so creepy. I'm certain a scary old man from a horror movie lives in there.

And this one is totally a haunted mansion. Ghosts roaming every floor I'm sure.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

A Halloween quilt of my own.

Would you believe that I've never made a Halloween quilt for myself. I've designed several patterns (Creepy Countdown, Which Witch, and Spook Alley) and made the samples for those, but I've never made one for me to use. Last week that all changed.

I've had these Lizzy House prints for a while now. I really like the look of them but never found the perfect application. I finally decided to use them in a Halloween quilt of my own but was stuck on a pattern. I knew I didn't want something cutesy so I googled "Halloween Improv Quilts". Of course I had a lot of images show up but one caught my eye in particular.

I absolutely LOVE this quilt by Sherri Lynn Wood from Daintytime. It served as my main inspiration for my quilt. (If you love her quilt like I do, it's for sale!)

Next I raided my stash. Isn't this such a fun part of making a quilt? I love pulling all these different fabrics together into a fun pile. A lot of what I had was bigger pieces (fat quarters and more) but I also had some 2 1/2" strips and even smaller text scraps leftover from other projects. I played for a while with my fabric selection choosing dark orangey-reds, pumpkin-y oranges and even some more muted oranges. I choose almost black browns but even threw in a couple black pieces that we're jet-black. I was really excited when I started adding the taupe toned greys (they're some of my favorites!). The larger number print has been in my stash for a couple of years and it was perfect. By adding that print I was able to bring in a few more lights, too.

Doesn't my pile look amazing!?

When it was time to start sewing I really had to let go of my inhibitions. Its super easy for me to just start squaring everything up. My friend Kati Spencer From the Blue Chair has made several improv quilts that I adore so I channeled her when piecing. I tried really hard not to square up anything and when I did I didn't use my ruler and tried to be a bit wavy with my rotary cutter.

As I made blocks I stuck them up on my design wall. Another thing I didn't want to do was over think the whole process. So, when I made a block I stuck it up and did very little re-arranging.

I pieced the blocks into rows, then sewed the rows together. I tried to keep the integrity of each block which helped keep the rows wavy and wonky.

Seriously I am IN LOVE with this quilt. I chose to quilt it with an 80/20 batting and a super dark brown minky on the back. All that's left is to bind it and then I'll have a snuggle quilt throughout the chilly fall months. Heck! Who am I kidding? This quilt is going to be my anytime-but-summer quilt. :o)

And that's the story of how I made a Halloween quilt of my very own. (and soon I'm going to get a real picture of it!)

HAPPY SEWING!

#Tula100 QAL- progress

For those of you following along the #Tula100 is coming right along. This week we're working on blocks 61, 62, and 63. You can see these blocks over at Sew Sweetness. 

It's been a little while since I blogged my progress so I thought I would show you all where I'm at.

A few weeks ago I showed blocks 1-51, minus block 36 since I hadn't found the right fabric for that one yet.

Well a couple of weekends ago when I was up at The Quilt Barn  I finished up quite a few more. 

These are blocks 52-75, including block 36!

All these blocks look pretty good on their own but smooshed together with no rhyme or reason except numerically in order their a little much for the eyes. Especially in my color palette.

To get the real effect I decided to lay them all out on my design wall similar to how my finished quilt is going to look.

It makes me a bit giddy to tell you the truth. I LOVE the way it's coming along! My original sketch has them turned so that each color row shoots up vertically like Tula's Skyline layout. My design wall isn't wide enough so I put them up horizontally. I might be on to something here- I kinda like it sideways. I'll have to see when it's finished which way I prefer.

Anyway, what do you think!? Hope you're having fun sewing away.

HAPPY SEWING!

So Charming

I spent last weekend up in Kimberly, Idaho sewing at The Quilt Barn. They have the cutest retreat space and I managed to not take one single picture! But you can visit their blog and learn more about it because it was AWESOME!!!  We sewed and sewed and sewed and I managed to finish a little quilt top. 

Some time ago I bought a Heather Ross charm pack from a friend on Instagram. They were remnant packs she'd put together of several cute prints. I knew I didn't want to cut them up so i sorted through my stash and found a few prints to play nicely with them. Then I sewed them all together. I love the character of some of the individual prints. 

These little alien guys are so cute. Love them!

And who can resist the VW bus print? 

I really like the seagull print too. I'd never seen that one before. 

72 charms doesn't make a very big quilt so I hopped over to the shop to find a border. I found this cute strawberry print that looked nice with the rest so I bought it. It didn't even occur to me until I started putting it on that it is Heather Ross, too! Duh! No wonder it looked so good with the rest of her prints. :o)

I think I'll quilt it up and save it for a baby gift down the road.

HAPPY SEWING!

Say Whaaaaat!?

I finally get to share the most exciting news-

I'm teaching at the

Small Town Quilt Show - In a Big Town Way

 

 

I am so giddy I can't even begin to explain and there's a whole list of reasons why.

So I'm gonna try. :o)

 

First, it's being put on by Natalia Bonner of Piece n' Quilt and her Mom, Kathleen Whiting. This girl is AMAZING! Not only is she a FABULOUS long arm-er (not really, SO GOOD!) but she's just released her second book. Plus there's a whole other list of crazy fantastic things that she does. Check her out!

 

Second, have you seen the list of other teachers?

Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Co. Love her! Always have. Since I started quilting her fabric has always been at the top of my list. Have you seen her newest Honeysweet? YUM!

Sandy Klop. Really. THE American Jane. Who doesn't love this gal. *sigh*

Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet. This gals applique leaves me speechless. Have you seen her applique patterns? Gorgeous. And what about her cute fabric collections for Riley Blake. Wowzers!

 

Um, can you see where my excitement comes in? I'm teaching among these ladies. Say What!? :o)

Oh, and there many, many others.

 

Third, I am teaching my new pattern HEX-PLUS!!! 

 

Oh I have been sitting on this pattern for some time and finally got around to writing the pattern. Now I'm teaching it at the retreat!

This class is going to be so much fun. Not only am I going to show you how easy it is- we're going to have a party while doing it.

 

Are you convinced yet? Are you going to join me there? Be sure to visit their site and learn all about it- this is one retreat you're not going to want to miss!

 

HAPPY SEWING!!!

HOPE

 

 In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month  I have converted this pattern to PDF and have it availble all month long in my Etsy shop for $5.

 

HAPPY SEWING!