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Remember the Bunny Hill Pumpkin Pie applique quilt I started a few weeks ago?  Here's a reminder of what the finished quilt will look like:

Two of my friends are making this quilt too, and we decided to gather at the home of one of them about every two weeks; Sunday night we started working on "pumpkin 2" which appears three times in the quilt.  I finished the last of mine today:

While I was at my friend's house, her husband wasn't feeling well, and we ended up stopping early so she could take him to urgent care.  I thought it could be appendicitis, but it turned out to be something else that's serious enough to keep him in the hospital for a couple days but it won't involve surgery and he should be fine again soon.  Needless to say, she was able to finish her pumpkins while sitting in the urgent care and hospital waiting rooms.  I bet she'll always remember that experience whenever she brings out her finished quilt each year!

Oh, speaking of seasonal decorating, I KNEW I was a little late getting out the fall decorations this year--for me, at least--but in case there was any doubt about my tardiness, it was confirmed for me when I stopped at the grocery store today and saw they have small pumpkins for sale and some of their other decorative seasonal "produce" is out too.  I guess I'll have to decorate before too long, but it's really hard to get in the mood when the temperatures outside are around 100 degrees!

My couple days of vacation are over, Hubby is doing fine following his carpal tunnel surgery, and I feel like I haven't gotten very much done during the time I was off.  In fact, it seems like I've gotten a lot less done since I started dieting and exercising and putting in overtime at work too.  And after mulling it over for the last week or so, I've decided to pull back on blogging a little--when I don't have time to sew and I don't have anything quilt-wise to share, it's a chore to come up with something to talk about, and then I have even LESS time to sew.  Catch-22, right?  So don't look for me to post here every day--at least not for awhile.  That number in the title of this blog post?  That's how many blog posts I've written and I think it's been something like six years of writing almost every day.  Yikes!  That's a lot of talking!

So I'll write when I have something to say and/or something to show here, and that will probably happen a couple times a week.  And I'll keep doing Scrap Basket Sunday for now--I want to finish my Pie in the Sky quilt, at least, and maybe either a string quilt or a pineapple quilt, or both, so as long as I'm working with scraps, I'm happy to share those posts with you and encourage you to join in and link up with me.  So thanks for stopping by and I hope I'll "see" you again soon.

More Scrappy Stuff

Like some of you, I played around in my scraps again today.

I cut another 200 squares for the sashing of the Pie in the Sky quilt--plus I had a few leftover.  I don't know exactly how many I need, but I originally estimated somewhere around 1,000--with the ones I cut today, I have 1,100; I guess this week I'll need to try to calculate more exactly how many are needed for the quilt top.  I'd hate to stop cutting too soon and then have to try to mix in enough other fabrics to keep it looking scrappy.

Mister Stitch wasn't amused by the counting--he wanted me to feed him his dinner.

Ronda doesn't have a blog but loves scrappy quilts and wanted to enter the giveaway, so I told her I'd post her photos here on my blog to share with you and then enter her in the giveaway--if anyone else would like to do the same, please email me.  This first one is a scrappy blue quilt top she's been working on.

She also wanted to show us a pineapple quilt she'd finished.  This is always an excellent choice for scraps--the repetitive use of the white unifies all the scrappy colors.  Yep, a pineapple quilt is definitely on my scrap bucket list.

Thanks for sharing, Ronda!  And remember--if you want to be included in the giveaway, add your name and blog link to Mister Linky AND leave me a comment asking to be entered in the giveaway.  If you don't ask to be entered, I'll figure you have more than enough scraps already and don't want to adopt mine!  Good luck and happy scrapping.

A Different Kind of Scrappy Day

I don't have anything to show you from my Pie in the Sky project, although I AM planning to spend a little time cutting squares on Sunday.  However, I DO have a scrappy little tale.

You'll remember my Scrap Basket Sunday basket, right?  Well, when I finished the Merry, Merry Snowmen quilt top and then the Schnibbles Canasta quilt top, I added more leftover scraps to the basket, so now it's overflowing once again.

Then, in gathering oranges and blacks for the Twister Jack project, I pulled open my large scrap drawer . . . and found it too was stuffed pretty full.

And just to GET TO the scrap drawer, I had to move the bag of fabric that was leftover from the Bunny Hill Autumn House quilt project.  And I figured it was about time I redistributed those fabrics amongst my other stash fabrics, and of course there were more scraps mixed in with the larger pieces.

So all in all, I ended up messing around with scraps for a couple hours, and I thought with all these scraps that don't seem to lessen despite the scrappy projects I make, maybe it's time to stuff a Priority Mail box full of scraps and send if off somewhere.

 

Ah, but where should I send it?  Not everyone likes scraps, of course.

So what I thought I'd do is for anyone who signs up on Mister Linky (yesterday's post) to show a scrappy project they're working on this week or signs up next week AND leaves me a comment saying they'd like to be entered to receive MORE SCRAPS, I'll enter them in a drawing.  I've stuffed the box with a mix of stuff, including some Christmas and Halloween fabrics, and there are several large chunks of fabric in there--probably not quite fat quarter size but close--or maybe more than a fat quarter, but cut longer and narrower.  I'm really not sure.  All I know for sure is that there's a pretty good selection in the box.

I DO have to limit the giveaway to those of you in the U.S., however, since it's a U.S. Mail Priority Box--and sending something this heavy outside the U.S. would cost a lot.  Sorry.

What if you link up and post a scrappy project both weeks?  Then you can enter twice and have a better chance.  So remember to link up AND leave me a comment asking to be entered.  I'll announce next weekend when I'll close the entries and draw a winner.  In the meantime, happy scrapping and I'll look forward to seeing what you make!

It's That Scrappy Time Again!

I'm posting the sign-ups for Scrap Basket Sunday.  I hope you'll be able to play in your scrap basket or bin this weekend and show us what you've been working on by the end of the weekend.  Once you have something posted on your blog to share, please link up below.


My Friday was spent with Hubby, and it revolved around his carpal tunnel surgery for the most part.  He did fine.  We got back home around 5 p.m. and he was starving--as you might imagine--so I fixed dinner right away.  Afterward, once I got him settled in the recliner with a pain pill and some iced tea, I headed out to do a little shopping at Trader Joe's.  Now I think we're set for the weekend, at least.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a bit of sewing done, but I hope to fit some in this weekend.  How about you?  Will you get to spend a little quality time with fabric and thread?

Witch "Wilma"--the Buttermilk Basin Cat Pattern

As promised, I selected a winner for the pattern tonight.  And the winner is Frankie!  Frankie said, "I'd love a chance to win that darling Halloween kitty! Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and I love making things for it. Your post inspired me to find that owl pattern as well and I'm definitely making it so thanks!"

My rather unscientific method of picking a winner this time was to close my eyes and move my mouse around and around the screen, eventually clicking on something and opening my eyes to see what happened--the email that opened was the winner.  That was kind of fun, but I think my mouse is dizzy now.

Hubby's having carpal tunnel surgery tomorrow (by the time you read this, it will be "today"), so I'll be off with him for a couple days, making sure he can get up and down--with his muscular dystrophy, it's going to be particularly difficult.  Hopefully I'll be able to find some time to spend in the Sweat Shop while I'm home.  I'm also getting a bit itchy to break out the Halloween decorations and get busy in the house.  Maybe it's all that back-to-school rush hour traffic we've had the last week or two that's put me in the mood for fall.  It's always hard, though, to get super excited for Halloween when the temps outside are in the 90s!  So maybe I'll start on that, or maybe I'll put it off for another week or two.

Frankie, please email me your mailing address and I'll get this pattern in the mail to you.  Thanks, everyone, for playing!

Halloween, Cont'd.

Boy, you guys are as torn about what my next Halloween project should be as I am!  You know what, though?  Kigwit mentioned that she's working on another Buttermilk Basin project.  This one:

Yes, I even have that one too--as a KIT even!  I just bought it when I was in Seattle.  ARGH!  (And these projects don't even include the Sew Spooky BOM that I want to continue on.)  So who knows what I'll do?  But whatever it is, I guess sitting in the Sweat Shop shuffling patterns isn't going to get me very far.

I'm finding that exercise is a bit of a road block to productivity too.  Not because I'm too tired to sew after exercise but just that it takes up a lot of time and then I don't feel like there's enough time left to get started on anything--in addition to the fact that I've been putting in a little overtime at work.  So I'm feeling kind of stuck.

My daughter-in-law, the Lovely Wife, came to her first Crossfit class with me tonight and she did well--she has more stamina than I do, that's for sure!  But she whispered to me about 15 minutes into the class, "I don't know if you wanted me to come because you like me or because you hate me!"  Ah, I really DO like her, and I thought it would be something fun for her to try in a very non-threatening, non-competitive environment.  So we'll see how it goes for her.  I was thinking about it and I think one of the reasons I enjoy Crossfit as a form of exercise is because the work out changes each day, so I can't anticipate with dread what I'll have to do later that day.  Odd thinking, I know, but I think it's true!

So back to quilting stuff.  I wanted to ask those of you who have done the Twister Jack pattern about the fabrics you used.  Did you use the same fabrics they used in the pattern, or did you put together your own combinations?  Did you use as much of a variety as the pattern shows?  I've been looking at it and pulling out a few scraps but I'm just not sure.  I have a small FQ bundle of black fabrics from Renee Nanneman/Need'l Love and I probably have a bunch of oranges from her lines but I wonder if I need that variety.  I hate to cut into that many FQs just to get a couple squares from each.  And I think I'm a little overwhelmed by the thought of trying to put together a ton of colors and shades when I'm not sure how it will look in the end.  Input, ladies? What did you do?

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Do you think "double, double" means four?  Because that's the number that's causing me toil and trouble.

Remember I said I had a Halloween project in mind?  At the time, I was thinking about the Twister Jack pattern by Need'l Love.  But when I went looking for it in my patterns, I found three more Halloween patterns I had sort of forgotten about, but they're among my favorites.  (Admittedly, I'm sure I have a couple more "favorite" Halloween patterns that I just didn't come across before I stopped looking--yes, I'm hopeless.)  So now I have four possible projects and I can't decide which I want to work on.  Or I should say, "which I want to work on first."  Because of course I want to make them all, but who knows if I'll even find time this year to get to making a second project.  So I have to pick carefully.  And I'm kind of leaning toward the Buttermilk Basin pattern.  Do you want to know why?

Last year I made this other Buttermilk Basin pattern, and I just LOVE it!  So the owl would go pretty well with the black cat, and really, the cat was fairly quick to make.

I was kind of surprised I still had the pattern for the cat.  What do you think?  Do you like it?  Do YOU want to make it?  Because you know me--I usually give away my patterns when I'm done.  So, if you'd like a chance to win this vintage-looking black cat pattern (PATTERN only--the framed wool piece is staying right here!), please leave me a comment asking to be entered in the drawing.  I'll pick a winner Thursday night and announce the winner on Friday's blog post.

So maybe I'll make the Buttermilk Basin owl.  But darn it!  I really love the All Through the Night pattern--wouldn't "Boo Kitty" look cute with the Buttermilk Basin black cat?  After all, I am kind of partial to black cats.  Then again, maybe I need to see the wool tablerunner by Nutmeg Hare on my autumn table.  How cute is that?  And it's not just Halloween either so I'd be able to leave it out until it's time to decorate for Christmas!  Yeah, but the Twister Jack . . . that's what really started all this in the first place.  How will I feel if I don't make that one?  See what I mean?  Double, double, toil and trouble!

Sometimes You Just Have to Work . . .

I was right--Monday turned into a day of chores too, just like the rest of the weekend.  After cleaning the kitchen really, really well and pulling about a pound of dust and a few cat toys from under the kitchen hutch, I headed into the Sweat Shop to undertake a few chores that I'd been putting off.  How to you store things like rick rack, zippers, Velcro, elastic, lace, snaps, buttons, and other sewing odds and ends?  I keep my buttons in glass canisters and jars on a shelf, and the rest of the sewing "stuff" is stored in small boxes (shoe box size) on a shelf in the Sweat Shop.  My boxes of "stuff" had gotten out of hand and needed some sorting and rearranging.  Once that was done, everything fit where it was supposed to fit again--yay!  That was probably the biggest, most time-consuming job of the day, if you don't count the kitchen.  There was a little more organizing in the Sweat Shop, but after I was done, I just couldn't settle down to sewing.  Do you want to know why?  Well, just look at this!

I'd been putting off making a new cover, but I just couldn't put it off any longer.  When I was working on the Canasta Schnibbles quilt, the iron spit out a little water and I picked up a nasty stain from this ugly cover--I had to replace that piece in the quilt.  Yes, it was definitely WAAAAAY PAST TIME to replace the cover.  So that was the next task on my list.

Ah!  Much better!  They never seem to make covers to replace the ones that come with these small tabletop ironing boards, so I always make mine by cutting out a cover a couple inches larger all around and sewing a casing along the edges so I can run a heavy-duty string through and gather the cover around--after replacing the "padding" with several layers of batting.  It works pretty well and lasts a year or two but eventually they need to be replaced again.  Oh, and I use a heavy weight, home dec type cotton fabric for the covers.

I mentioned yesterday that I'd organized my larger chunks of wool by rolling them and putting the rolls in a basket.  I took a photo to show you what I mean.

And more rolls of wool.  The white basket to the right holds a ton of wool scraps that are just too small to be organized very well--at least I haven't come up with an idea yet.  How about you?  How do you keep your wool scraps?

So all work and not a whole lot of play for me this long Labor Day weekend, but I accomplished a lot and I'm happy and comfortable in my home again, now that it's clean and better organized.  At least SOMEBODY was able to relax while I toiled . . .

It's almost 9 p.m. and I COULD go play in the Sweat Shop, but I think I'd rather just take a bath and head to bed with a book.  Back to work again tomorrow.  I'm glad you could stop by for a visit!

I Need a Holiday!

Whew!  I planned to clean house on Sunday, but I didn't expect I'd spend the whole day doing it!  But it had been awhile since I did a REALLY thorough job, and on top of that, I was sick and tired of my wool stash being all willy-nilly, helter-skelter, so I reorganized most of it.  I'll have to take a photo to show you, but basically I ended up rolling any pieces that were larger than scraps, so now I can better see what colors of wool I have too--NOT that I was able to organize it by color.  THAT's something I'd like to do one of these days, but what I did today was time-consuming enough; I really needed to move on with the rest of my "chores" so the color sorting will have to wait.

And I cooked.  I roasted a chicken and made chicken soup for the coming week.  I cooked apples in the crockpot, so I have something a bit like applesauce that makes a reasonably healthy dessert.  Unfortunately the one thing I didn't get done today was to clean the kitchen; I'll have to do that on Monday.

I didn't mention it yesterday, but I spent much of Saturday at the office--too many things to do there and not enough time to do them meant the only reasonable solution was to work on Saturday.

So . . . I need a day off.  Since it's Labor Day weekend, I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday.  Once I get the kitchen cleaned, I hope to spend my day in the Sweat Shop.  Although I have to confess, that's another room I didn't clean today and I KNOW it needs a lot of organizing, so who knows?  I have a feeling that once I get in there, I may just spend a lot of time getting things tidied away and put in order.  But maybe not.  There's a Halloween project that's calling to me.

How have you spent your weekend?

A Different Scrappy Project

I thought I'd have time to work on cutting scrappy squares for the sashing of my Pie in the Sky quilt today, but my time was more limited than I expected, and I opted to finish the Schnibbles Canasta quilt instead.  I figured because it's also scrappy (since I used leftover fabric from the Merry, Merry Snowmen quilt), it would count for Scrap Basket Sunday.  Here's what the finished quilt top looks like--

Our office has been doing a few things over the past couple weeks to raise money for the American Cancer Society's Making Strides for Breast Cancer--we always have employees who participate in the annual walk, and this year the Sacramento event will be held on October 20th.  I thought I'd quilt this Schnibbles quilt and offer it to the people at the office in a silent auction to raise money for breast cancer.  I'm hoping a couple of the attorneys who have a little more spendable income will get interested--and competitive!  I'll let you know how it does and of course I'll show you the quilt when I get it quilted.

So, have you hugged your scraps lately?