And Not a Moment Too Soon

Done! All my indoor decorating and housecleaning is done--mostly. I still need to get some pumpkins later in the week, and Soccer Son will come over in a couple days to help with some outdoor skeleton decorating, but the majority is done. Just in time, too.

Because in the morning, I'm having carpal tunnel release surgery on my left hand/wrist. I had the right one done over a year ago, so this time I know what to expect. In the next couple days, I'll probably post briefly. I might miss a day or two but possibly not. I've taken photos of the Halloween decorations, so I can at least post a few photos on days when the hunt and peck method of right hand typing gets old. And I have a little giveaway planned--nothing too exciting, but it's something I have two of and thought someone else might enjoy having one.

Now it's time for me to finish getting ready for bed so I can try to get a little sleep before the alarm goes off super early in the morning. I'm not sure WHY surgeries have to be so early, but I guess it's just as well to get in, done, and out again. Thanks for checking in on me!

Lincoln Halloween

I've continued to work on getting the house decorated (and cleaned!) for Halloween but on this, the second day of my decorating labors, I found that more frequent breaks were necessary to rest my legs and back which, at this point, feel like they'll never be the same again. So what did I do during my breaks? I put the blocks together for the Halloween tabletopper I've been working on and added the borders too!

This pattern is a Schnibbles pattern called Lincoln; I've used many of the same fabrics that are in the bed quilt I showed yesterday, and this one will serve as a tabletopper on our dresser. Maybe tomorrow I can get it basted and quilted--or at least started. I'll still need to piece a back--it's a little too large for a single standard width of fabric.

Thanks for all the complimentary comments on the Hallowe'en 1904 quilt. Some of you said it was on your list of "someday" quilts--as it had been on mine. It's really great to finally get it done after working on it over the course of the past three late summer/early fall seasons. And, of course, it's just about time to go crawl underneath it for the night. I'm glad you stopped by!

Hallowe'en 1904--Done!

As planned, I spent the day decorating for Halloween. I still have the kitchen to do tomorrow, but I've made a great deal of progress. And now that I have my bedroom put together, I can finally show you the completed Hallowe'en 1904 quilt.

And remember the vintage quilt I bought at a thrift store when Hubby and I were on vacation? I wanted to use it somewhere but I didn't want it to get too much wear, so I finally settled on putting it on top of the armoire.

Some of you commented yesterday that it's still too hot where you live to think about decorating for Halloween. Here in Sacramento we're in the 80s and 90s too, but I never let that stop me. If I was going to wait for it to cool down, we'd probably have Thanksgiving before Halloween! So I just figure mid-September--when it's almost officially fall--is a good time to get busy decorating, even if the weather doesn't cooperate.

Time for me to go to bed now and rest my achy body because there's another day of decorating ahead. Good night!

Starry, Starry Night

Did you participate in the Friday Night Sew-In this month? I finally remembered to take part--most months I remember after the night has passed! This time, although I got a late start, I spent several hours of quality quilty time and made the star blocks for this quilt I'm making from the Schnibbles pattern Lincoln.

My weekend plans involve getting the Halloween decorations out of their boxes and artfully distributed throughout our home. I've arranged for Soccer Son to come over on Wednesday to help get the new skeletons in place (neither Hubby nor I are up to climbing onto the roof any longer, and I want one of these guys up there). I stopped for groceries at Trader Joe's tonight and found they had pumpkins for sale. Oh, my! Now I feel I'm LATE with my decorating! The pressure's on; I'd better get a good night's sleep so I'll have the energy to get going in the morning.

I hope you have a good weekend planned! I'm glad you could stop by and visit.

A Year of Applique?

In 2011, I made a commitment to myself to try to finish 11 quilts that were "in progress" or needed to be made for one reason or another. I don't know if I'll get 11 done this year, but it's been a pretty good goal--at least it keeps me from drifting too far off the path. And I'm not saying quilting needs to be structured like a "chore"--just that for me, I have a habit of not finishing what I begin, and I wanted to make more of an effort to complete some projects that had been lingering long past their "best before" date, you know?

For some reason, though, I find myself yearning to do some applique. Yep, I know many of you don't enjoy applique or are just plain scared of it, but I find it a relaxing and creative pleasure.

I've been thinking that maybe 2012 will be my year of applique.

Remember when Gran and I went on that mini shop hop a couple weeks ago and I picked up some fabric for the Halloween quilt? Gran was looking for some fabrics to make this quilt:

Last Saturday, when my stitchery group got together, we started talking about it, and I was the only one of the six of us who didn't already have the book! So as soon as I got home that night, I remedied THAT little discrepancy by placing an order with Amazon.

Our group decided we would work on this quilt together at our monthly get togethers, and there are a couple of us who are willing to demonstrate our applique methods to the rest of the group, so we'll all learn something new in the process. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? (Well, maybe not, if you don't like applique, but that's okay too.)

I have a couple other applique projects I've started and not finished. At one point, I began designing a 12-block applique quilt--but I only finished the first two blocks and drew up the third before I put it aside. I think I'd like to get back to that one.

And I have an appliqued duck quilt that I'm designing--I only have two more blocks to applique before I can start to put it together, so I'm not that far from finishing it really.

Then there are all the wool projects I've been wanting to work on but have put off.

I've done a tutorial on using plastic template material in applique on my blog in the past, but I don't recall doing a tutorial to demonstrate the applique method I use for everything else--which is pretty basic, really. I'll try to do that before long so maybe those among you who are intimidated by applique can give it a try. And maybe you'll join me in adding a couple of applique projects to your quilt list for 2012. I hope so! It will be fun.

Mid-Week Break

Sometimes the most appealing idea for after dinner "entertainment" midweek is taking a warm bath and putting on my jammies early before heading off to bed with a cup of hot chocolate (or iced tea in the summer) and a good book.

This is what's on my nightstand tonight (click link at "this" to see the book at Amazon):

What's on yours?

How Cool is THIS?!

There's a story on the internet about how Target customers overwhelmed the stores and crashed their internet site several times today because they were anxious to get Missoni-designed-for-Target goods. I was in the Hundred Dollar Store today and was completely clueless about Missoni because THIS is what really interested ME--

Why didn't someone come up with this idea before? After all, isn't the Hansel and Gretel story one of the scariest witch stories of all time? People need to have parties centered around decorating these things. I'm excited! Aren't you?!

Sew Now What?

Is anyone else out there surrounded by freaky people or is it just me? Is there a full moon or something?

Our younger cat Stitch (yes, I'm lumping him in with "people") usually sits/lays on the desk next to me while I'm on the computer, but he was acting really spooked tonight. When I petted him, he jumped a mile in the air, and he kept looking down off the edge of the desk as if there was something down there. Ghosts, maybe? Certainly nothing I could see! Finally he just jumped off and went and sat in the hallway to wait for me. But, of course, that wasn't the oddest thing of the day.

I called Hubby at home, late in the morning, when I knew he'd be up. After our initial exchange of greetings, he said, "Where ARE you?!" Somewhat perplexed, I replied, "I'm at work. Where should I be?" "Isn't it a HOLIDAY?," he asked. Seriously, I'm thinking it's been WAAAAAAAY too long since Hubby's had a job or done anything else that required a regular schedule.

I finished the Hallowe'en 1904 quilt the other day and put it on our bed, but I haven't taken a photo to share with you yet. First, I need to do something about the pillowcases and those panels on the wall above my bed. I'll show you how it turned out as soon as I tweek the surroundings to match.

In the meantime, our project for the Le Petite club this month is freestyle--we can pick our favorite Schnibbles pattern and I picked one called Lincoln. That pattern alternates star blocks with rail fence blocks. I'm using the leftover fabrics from the Halloween quilt so it will make a nice companion tabletopper for either the desk or the dresser in our bedroom.

I finished the rail fence blocks tonight; tomorrow I'll start on the stars.

Finally, the winner of the witch block is Carol of Carol's Crafty Creations. I'm sure Carol will find something cute to make from the block and I'll look forward to seeing what she does. Carol, please send me your snail mail address and I'll put the witch on her broom and point her in the right direction. Congrats!

Halloween Leftovers

I'm guessing there's at least one of you who would like a witch block to make into a Halloween something-or-other, right? I was originally thinking about a small wallhanging but the idea of a tote bag or pillow just popped into my mind. I'm almost tempted to keep it! But I know I have plenty of Halloween projects already so I'll share.

Here's what it looks like now--it needs some trimming.

The legs dangle. Cute, yes? This orphan block is leftover from a quilt I made from this Buggy Barn pattern. It's in their Frightfully Crazy book:

When you make the whole quilt, you make nine blocks so you can do all the switching around of "parts" that's needed. That means there's one leftover.

If you'd like to adopt this orphan block, please leave me a comment, letting me know. I'll pick a "winner" tomorrow night and announce it on my Tuesday post. Good luck!

Remembering 9/11

I've watched several television documentaries lately that looked back on 9/11. Can it really be ten years since it happened? Sometimes it seems like it was longer and sometimes it seems like just a couple years.

Back then, it was my habit to turn on the TV as soon as I got up and watch Good Morning America while I got ready for work. On that day, as I watched, I saw footage of the planes hitting the towers. In my mind, I remember watching the first tower burning and then seeing the second plane hit, but now I wonder if that was live or a replay of earlier footage. Before I left for work, both towers had fallen. It all seemed surreal--it still does in many ways. And, of course, there was the third plane that hit the Pentagon and the fourth plane that crashed before hitting a target.

On Saturday, our stitchery group spent the day together and we could hear the planes from a nearby air show--the sound, which was very loud at times, was quite startling at first, particularly since this was just a day before the ten year anniversary of the terrorist attack and that's been on our minds.

A few years after 9/11, I painted the top of a bookcase in my bedroom with star quilt blocks. This was one of the blocks I painted:

It's hard to see, but the top left corner has a 9 and the top right corner has an 11. I never made a 9/11 memorial quilt, so I suppose this is my memorial to the tragedy. Of course, I don't think any of us who were around then need anything to remind us--we'll always remember.

What were you doing on 9/11? Did you make a memorial quilt or anything else?