WIP Wednesday: Getting Ready for Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Dress up in costumes, ring doorbells and demand candy from your neighbors? What could be better?

Today at Ruth's Stitchery, Cathy taught a fun class that has me all excited about the upcoming holiday.

We learned how to use the "Twister Tool" to turn small squares into even smaller pinwheels.

Here is my Twister Jack as squares:

I made the mouth and eyes yellow to look like there is a candle burning inside my jack.

I got started marking the squares with the "Primitive Pinwheels" tool from Primitive Gathering.

Because of the black background and orange pumpkin, I had to use a white pencil and a black sharpie to mark  the squares. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Next Tuesday, I'll demonstrate the Twister Tool for Tuesday Tool. I hope you'll come back and see how this clever little template turns squares into pinwheels!

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Working with Winnings -- Design Wall Monday

My "13 in 2013" UFP Challenge quilt for this month is "Cobblestone Road" from Cozy Quilts.

 I'm sewing it with the Circa 1934 fabric I won in my very first "Schnibbles" entry. That was back in June of 2012 -- I guess the fabric has aged enough that I can actually sew it up now!

Here is the quilt so far. It is supposed to have two borders, but I'm leaning toward "Skip the Borders" for this one:

Linking up to Design Wall Monday.

Still raining in Colorado, but it's supposed to warm up and dry out as the week progresses!

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Sunday Scraps

Another rainy day in Colorado. The floodwaters are rising, but I am thankful my house is at the top of a hill. Sadly, one of my new windows is leaking -- luckily, I wanted to take a photo on the coffee table, and heard the "drip drip drip" of the leak!

Here is the project I was photographing:

It's a sailboat mug rug for My Little Sailor. There was an umbrella design in the pattern -- should have made that one!  The pattern is "Last Minute Mug Mat Extravaganza" from Doodle Time Designs by Faith Wellman. Mug rugs are such a perfect "scrappy project."

Linking up (at the last minute!) to Kim's "Scrap Basket Sunday."

I have a new quilt on the design wall -- come back tomorrow for Design Wall Monday!



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TGIFF - Quilt #41

Thank Goodness it's Friday -- and thank goodness it stopped raining long enough for me to catch a quick photo of quilt #41 for 2013!

We had rain steady through Wednesday night and most of the day Thursday. More than 4" fell, with more forecast for the weekend. I haven't had to water my lawn since June!

This quilt was a mystery project at Ruth's Stitchery this year. Even though I missed a few of the meetings, I managed to keep up with the monthly assignments, and finish my quilt the day after our last block party.

Linking up to Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at Quilt Matters.

And Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts.

Also "Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?" at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Only 11 more quilts to reach 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks for the third year in a row!


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BOM-Again Day

In order to use my design wall, I had to put together my quilt for Wednesday's Block Party at Ruth's Stitchery. It's a Debbie Caffrey mystery quilt, so I won't tell you the name.

The colors in my photos aren't especially true -- the background is the light blue shown above.

Here is the beginning of the first border, there are two more:

I'll have the borders on in time for Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!

Remember I was making a "BOM Block-a-Day" for the summer challenge?  Today I made 16! They aren't very big (each finishes at 3"!) but they are 3D and are tricky to put together, so I'm counting each one as a block. I haven't decided how I want to lay out the quilt, so they won't be sewn together until all the blocks are done. I'm only on month 4.

These blocks are from Jackie Robinson's "3D Patchwork Block of the Month." I don't know if you can see it in the photos, but the center of each "bow tie" is folded so it's 3D.

I also made two more "Vintage Memories" blocks, this is month 7:

I also finished one more Ryokan block, but it looks like I forgot to take a photo! I'll save that for WIP Wednesday.

Last "hot" day in Colorado, tomorrow the temp is supposed to be in the low to mid 60s.  Goodbye Summer!

From the desk of your

Saturday on the Road

DH and I are taking a little road trip today to enjoy the last days of summer. We're in Salida, Colorado for the Fiber Festival. Imagine my delight when I saw they also have quilts on display!

I'll try to share some photos with you. 

Love this "mod cow" quilt!

DH likes the saturated colors in this improv design. Hey, I could make one like this!

This one inspires me to hit the scrap basket!

Wow, my iPhone takes pretty good photos, doesn't it?

Hope you're enjoying the great outdoors today!

BOM-day

Today is a holiday here in the US, so I took a holiday from my quilts-with-deadlines to do a little Block of the Month Rehab.

First, a quick stitch for Sugar Block Club:

Here is the September block, "Come Fly With Me."

Amy's DH thought this block looked like a propeller, so I photographed it slightly off-kilter -- so it looks like a prop just beginning to spin!

I caught up on "Toes in the Sand," made with Tula Pink's "Salt Water" collection.

And I'm making progress on the next Scrap Squad quilt. My deadline is September 27, so the quilt will be up on the Quilty Pleasures blog around October 4.

Just a little peek, it's a secret until the magazine comes out! 

Be sure to check in with Quilty Pleasures tomorrow for a chance to win one of 25 copies of the newest "Quilts from 100 Blocks" magazine!

From the desk of your