My Halloween Knight

For Halloween last week Daniel was a knight. A very handsome knight. One too busy putting his armor on to have the ketchup wiped off his face and mustard off his pants.

We made his costume from Dollar Tree parts. It was $6 all together. Thanks Dollar Tree.

LOVE him :)

Tommy said that whenever given the chance, Daniel selected tootsie pops, over every other candy. Even Reese's and Butterfingers.

(Notice the ax on his back.)

I stayed home and passed out candy with John 3:16 printed on them.

A Wedding Quilt

Jammin' out to Weezer on our way to see Derek Webb (before I even knew who he was) in College Station (wonder if her soon to be Mr. was there at the time).

My friend Stephanie is getting married January 1st.

So I made a quilt for her. The biggest one to date. A twin size.

I used the pattern ara jane used for her red letter day quilt. She talks about the dimensions in the comments.

I told Stephanie that if she didn't like it, she had to be honest, because I would keep it in a heartbeat. It was difficult to part with, because Lord only knows if/when I'll ever see the quilt/Stephanie again. I took lots of pictures outside and am wishing I had taken a few with more direct light and not splotchy sunlight through the trees light.

I think of them as pluses, but Daniel calls them crosses. Kinda like You+Me+the Cross=Marriage

I quilted straight lines on the diagonal. Some were more straight than others. Some were "organic."

Mmmm, they're both so yummy!

I had planned on making a giant pieced plus/cross for the back, but just couldn't get into it so I went the simpler route and used the biggest scraps I had left.

The fabrics were a good mix of stuff from my stash as well as a few fat quarters and a bit of yardage from JoAnns. I love that some are modern prints and some more traditional and they mix together so well.

The scrappy binding helped use up some of the leftovers.

And that's Daniel's butterfly in the background. He made it in Sunday School to remember that butterflies change, but God never changes. How sweet is that!?!

I hope Stephanie and Nathan enjoy many years of cuddling under this quilt!

And let me just say that when your kid takes a 3+ hour nap, you can finish binding another quilt, talk 2 hours to a much missed friend overseas, and still have time to blog and eat a cupcake! I love it!

Note To...

The Previous Owner of a Five Dollar Bill,

I hope I have helped to teach you the importance of keeping your money in a safe place, lest it fall out of your pocket while on a field trip. Besides, I am sure it went much further at Rosa's Taco Tuesday than it would have at the zoo.

Happy Fall Y'all

The Farmer is trucking his pumpkins and gourds into town.

I wish I could say I haven't blogged in 2 weeks because I've been busy crafting, but that would be a lie. But I've got my game face on this week and hope to get a few things knocked out.

In other news, I have decided it is officially fall. I made this decision upon reviewing our electric bill for September and came to realize that it is less than half of the August bill. Some days we don't even turn on the AC. But I could still stand for the temperatures to drop another 10-25 degrees from the mid 80s averages we've been having.

Last week we went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch with some friends and enjoyed the free bounce houses and hayride.

Check out the carving on that tree! And U.R. Nex's tombstone.

The pumpkins were way over priced (we're talking $20-$30 each!) But Daniel had fun trying to pick them up. "Heaby!"

This was probably the coolest part of the patch. Too bad we didn't get a family photo.

To Do

My crafty to-do-list grows faster than I can knock things off! I hosted a craft night last Saturday and didn't get much accomplished craft wise, but had an excellent time with some of my favorite ladies.

Trinity, Kaitlyn, Rachel and Twyla discussing their crafty schemes.

Martha and Tiffani; veteran crafter and beginning sewer.

1. Back, baste, quilt and bind quilt for friend getting married by October 15.

2. Bind 3 quilts that lack only binding

3. Make pillowcases for our bed and for Daniel's bed

4. Make hooded towels with initial appliqué

5. Design and make a fall bunting, like these.

6. Finish making 9 patches and make into a quilt

7. Make Daniel's second year album

8. Appliqué pillow cover to go with the other 2 I made.

9. Make rag quilt letters

10. Visit Goodwill

I'm kinda glad I don't have a little girl or I imagine most of my time would be spent making her clothes! There just isn't much to make for boys.

And pretty soon I'm going to have to start thinking harder about Christmas!

And I'm toying around with the idea of doing some kind of felt food swap. Yummy.

Free Motion

When I first tried free motion quilting, it was awful. And I'm not being modest. There were jagged points, skipped stitches, overlaps. It was generally rough and uneven. Everything I read said to keep practicing.

While it seemed like a waste to make something so far from good, let alone perfect, I kept at it. I practiced on a few small quilt sandwiches made with scrap batting and junk fabric. I even made a baby quilt for practice. It hasn't been bound because I can't imagine giving it to someone with such terrible quilting.

I think that getting my mind to think in reverse was one of the more difficult things to overcome. If you doodle on paper, you move the pen over the paper. Quilting is like moving the paper under the pen.

After I began learning how to even things out and control my hands and the fabric I realized that what seemed like a mistake at the time I sewed it, I often couldn't find when I went back to look for it after finishing (I am too lazy/imperfectionist that I rarely undo and fix mistakes).

Free Motion quilting that I knocked out during naptime today.

Betcha can't see any mistakes from here!

A Finish and Pillows

You may remember that I completed this top back in May. Then when we went to visit my parents in last month, my mom and I visited Sunflower Quilts where the sweet owner helped us choose the backing fabric, which my mom generously bought for me. I finished quilting and binding it the day before Daniel's birthday party.

After living on the back of the couch for a while, I decided that our previous blue and yellow pillows no longer matched. I also realized that my fall decor looks so sparse in the house as compared to an apartment. New pillows were in order.

I knocked both of these out today, they were super quick and I was happy with the somewhat improvisational techniques I used. The left one is a log cabin, something I've wanted to try for a while, but felt overwhelmed by. No longer; it was super quick and easy to throw together. The one on the right used a technique I had wanted to try for a while, and I was really pleased with the results.

I'd like to make one more using this idea, but I need to get the right appliqué iron-on stuff.

This is Daniel's "Say Cheese" face.

Both of the pillows are backed in the leaf batik print from my stash and were made from scraps leftover from the quilt. It was nice to work on a project without having to buy anything! I hear so many other sewers talking about how pillows are great projects because they are so quick and you can try new techniques. I absolutely agree.

Next on the List

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this quilting thing. I finished one the night before Daniel's party; I have another basted, waiting on thread to be quilted and bound, and one more waiting on binding.
And I'm thinking about what my next project will be. I have a friend getting married in a few months and I want to make a quilt for her and her Mr. There are a few patterns I like, but I can't decide which to use.




















This great tutorial makes this quilt seem a cinch to make.































The quilt from this site looks like alot of fun too. It makes me want to buy graph paper.

























Something about this quilt looks so fresh. And it doesn't hurt that it's by one of my favorite bloggers.

And of course there are the half square triangles. With a ridiculous amount of variations.

There's just not enough time.