Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Organza Ghosts

This, unfortunately, is not a tutorial.  However, it a really simple and really effective way to add a little spooky shimmer to ANY quilt whether the blocks are Halloween themed or not:

I found this picture here and it's implied to be linked with a tutorial, but it's not clear as to where exactly...when you click the picture it just brings up the picture and the source isn't directly named.  So for now, this is here for inspiration!

Sweet Pea Manor

Well here's a throwback Thursday for you...

This is an oldie.  I got the pattern back when Judith owned the shop, and started it a few years ago.

 Let me start by saying, it's a (really) cute pattern.  It's got good bones!  But, and this may be shocking to hear out of me, that cover sample is just too much.  There is so much stuff going on, and it's all bright and while the colors are all very different...the tones are not.  Excluding the yellow (light) and the blue (dark), everything else is tonally similar and I think some neat details get lost in all that.

So, I changed it up.  I kept the bright colors, but added some more mid tones and black and white. I omitted the stars in the sky, And no, the sky isn't freakin' pink.

Almost there...

The center is complete!

The baskets kicked my ass for some reason.  I guess subconsciously I wanted them to be bear paws.

Well executed, but wrong. 

All that's left now is to get the borders on, which, I haven't decided what those are yet, and to quilt it up. 

Dino Dig!

Every now and then a pattern finds its way to me more than once, and more than twice.  It's not necessarily a bad thing!  That just means that A.) I know what I like, and B.) my family and friends know what I like.

This pattern found its way to me three times. 

It's a cute pattern!  The dino on the middle right has something strange going on (a long-necked herbivore with carnivore teeth? Exsqueese me?), but overall, it's cute.  So I made it and we kitted it up.

Nevermind my face...I was vexed at shorting myself just shy of 3" of border on that one side.  Damn it. And yes, the dinos all got button eyes after it was quilted.  No eyeless dinos here!

But, I do have to brag for a minute...

THAT CORNER, Y'ALL.  It is so sharp and so clean!  So much so I had to take a picture of it, because otherwise it may not have actually happened.  (Pics, or it didn't happen!)

Bucky McFinn

It's pretty rare where I find a book and I like every single quilt in it.  I think you probably can relate there, I can't be the only one!  Usually I will like a couple of things in it, but I also usually see a few stinkers.

Well, I have found one of those rare books in which I like every single quilt in the book.  But...it just so happens to be a kid's quilt book.

Animal Parade By Cheri Leffler is full of really cute quilts targeted to kids, but I fell in love with the sea life quilt in there.  I made it for no other reason than I liked the quilt and that we had the perfect, silly sea fabric to go with.

Most of you have seen this hanging in the shop already over the past few months, but I'm just now getting around to posting it on here...

I call the quilt Bucky McFinn because if you look at the shark in the border, he has a CRAZY overbite.  Mom and I named him Bucky McFinn - no one's afraid of him because he can only bite himself!

Friday Finish: I Spy Quilt

Okay, so maybe I finished this on Monday.  I'm trying to be diligent about these link party things, so it's a Friday Finish.  From Monday.

Let me preface this by saying (in general and for my mother's benefit): No, I don't have kids.  No, I'm not pregnant.  No, I don't want kids right now.  No, kids are not in my near future, and no, you don't need to ask me if I think I might be "waiting a little too long for kids." 

But I do love kids quilts.  Kids get all the super awesome fun fabric because apparently grown ups can't like super awesome fun stuff anymore.  And, that super awesome fun stuff did not exist yet when I was a kid...the fabric industry just wasn't there yet back in the late 80s/early 90s.

WHERE WAS THIS FABRIC WHEN I WAS A KID?!  IT HAS THEIR CORRECT NAMES ON IT FOR KIDS TO LEARN!

Ahem. It's stuff like this that makes me like kids fabric now.  This is awesome and mark my words, I will find it and I will buy it and it will be for me and not some kid.  That's the bonus of not having kids.  I get to keep the kickass dino fabric for me and it won't get drooled on (much). 

Annnnyway.  So I made up a sample of an I-Spy quilt I've had my eye on (haha...see what I did there...fine, fine I'm done), which means I got to root through the kids fabric for cool things for the littles to hunt for while they're in the shop.  

I liked this one so much because the pattern was really different.  It's like peeking through a key hole at all the I-Spy prints. 

Here are a few of my favorites (the blocks haven't been trimmed yet, I promise they aren't that wonky for real):

And here's a few of the finished product.  26" x 39"...not as large as I'd hoped it would be when I started and didn't read the size on the cover of the pattern (I know, I know):

 

Now off to quilting!

Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that we are already having to get ready for fall, etc, in summer. It's 94 today...I'm certainly not thinking of crisp fall air!  But since I work in a quilt store...I had to start thinking about Christmas in July. 

But aside from Christmas and Halloween projects...Thanksgiving gets lost in the mix. For a holiday that begs for table decor and whose themes are good all season long, there are certainly a real lack of cute Thanksgiving patterns. But we found one and it is cute as hell. 

This pattern by Kimberbell Designs is definitely a Thankgiving themed pattern, and while there are turkeys, there isn't a cooked one in sight. No cornucopias, etc.  I think this fits well into any fall decor, and so it has a longevity that the few other Thanksgiving patterns don't.  I have to admit though, the only think I wasn't wild about were the color choices. Personally, my eye went right to the black int he quilt because of how much it contrasted with the lighter cream that was used, so I changed mine up a little. 

Please excuse my toes.  No one will ever accuse me of being a great photographer. 

VICTORY IS MINE!

Happiness is finishing a project you didn't think you had the skill to do, and not only that, but doing it well.
I'm really, really happy with how this tunred out, and I don't have any [major] oopses. The hand embroidery is a little shaky, but that too will get better with practice and maybe a little stabilizer too.

'Tis the Season to be Spooky, Part Tres

ALMOST DONE. All that's left to do is the little bits of embroidery, then put on the borders. I'm debating whether I want to do the scrappy pinstripe border or not, and I'm thinking this needs a tone-on-tone black border rather than just a plain solid...nothing too flashy but just enough to give it a little interest.

Here's what's together so far!

My favorite one! What can I say, that glittery fabric is awesome. 

Here's the whole kit'n'caboodle. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I'll get the embroidery done in the next couple days and get those borders on, then it'll be off to Loretta to get it quilted! She's got all kinds of really really cool halloween patterns. I'm thinking jack-o-lanterns and candy corns!



'Tis the Season to be SPOOKY, part dos.

More pictures! I'm moving right along...of course, yesterday I had to take a break to go see Horrible Bosses with my roomate Lauren. Very, very funny movie, and I completely forgot how attractive Jason Bateman was until now. Woo!

Anyway, on to the pictures...

The graveyard is finished! My applique is definitely getting better...it dang well should after all those curves and points. Good grief.

Can you see that purple? Yeah, me neither. So I decided to outline the lettering in the Hot Fix Ribbon. Not easy to do with a regular sized iron!

MUCH better. The purple pops much more in real life though.

Yeah, I always intended to applique it down. My thought was that with the ribbon plus the blanket stitch, it would look like stripes. Success, I feel!

Cute little candy corns. I decided that in all the pieced blocks, instead of doing solid black, I'd to a nice polka dot. Actually, this quilt is filled with polka dots. Whaaat? I like polka dots... <3

Ghosties! Their faces will be embroidered on later. Right now, they have such blank expressions! Oh yeah, gotta love the [candy]corny jokes! I'm on a roll! lol

Just a basic Card Trick....that took me 3 (non-consecutive) hours to do...some moron *ahem* kept cutting it wrong.

Right-o! So that's where I'm at there. Tonight I'm thinking I'll start on the houses and the flying geese. Should be cute! 

This one is for "Pearl's Potions" I'll probably re-name it. I think this one is my favorite so far!

'Tis the Season to be SPOOKY

My blog has been neglected these past 2 weeks. I have no excuse. Can I just get away with it for a slap on the wrist?

So, it's July and you know what that means...I'm gearing up for Halloween! For those of you that don't know me, and who have ignored to title and design of this blog, to say that I'm a Halloween freak is somewhat of an understatement. I LOVE IT. Real bad. Yeah, as much as I love Christmas (and, oh, I do) I have to say I love Halloween more.

"Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat for Halloween!" I'm almost 24 and I STILL love this cartoon as much as when I was almost 6. I love that little witch! I feel like her at the beginning, dancing around on Halloween! :D

Be that as it may, the other afternoon, we got our Halloween patterns in, and knowing full well that I'd freak right out about it, Mom showed me Booville:

It's so cute I'm gonna DIE!

How stinkin' adorable is that?!?! I love it and naturally, that means I have to do the sample for the shop. Ow, ow, twist my arm, right? lol. So I have my fabrics and everything picked out and now I'm beginning the process. I have 3.5 chunks done: The Punkins house, the square-in-a-square row, the "Trick or Treat" block and I'm about halfway through appliqueing the graveyard together.

Punkins House. Well, it will be. The sign is suppose to say "Punkins." The Grammar Nazi in me will probably change that to "Pumpkins."

"...for Halloween!" Hehe. The blanket stitch here was a pain in the butt. Turned out cute though!

This is the graveyard block in progress. Holy ishballs, Batman, it's a lot of teeny curves and points. The way I see it is at least I'm getting practice on my machine blanket stitch between this and the lettering...

I can't wait to get the rest done!!