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. 

We All Got 'Em; My Very First Quilt

In the great scheme of things, I'm a pretty new quilter. Sure, I've been around quilts, quilters and quilting my entire life, but it wasn't until about 4 years ago (when I was 21) that I really got into quilting at all. Logic says that it was around that time that I made my very first quilt...but that's not the truth. I still have my first blocks that I paper pieced with my mom from when I was 6. Let's just say that while my seams were all right, my color choices were enough to gag a maggot.

But I started my very first quilt about 9 years ago when I was 16. It was a yellow brick road style pattern, super simple and Mom had picked some cute Halloween prints from her stash to entice me into actually wanting to sew. It lasted for a few days until I realized that, hey, sewing isn't as easy as it looks! I got all my blocks sewn, but good lord was I terrible at it! My seam allowance was all over the place, my pressing left something to be desired and I managed to stretch those pieces into oblivion. I quit. A few years later I laid the quilt out and sewed the blocks into rows, and attempted to put the rows together only to find I was still terrible and nothing matched! I stuffed everything into a bag and didn't look at it again until 3 years ago. it was then that I took apart the rows and some of the blocks and fixed some pretty glaring errors that just weren't "workable." I got sick of looking at it and moved on to other things. About a year and a half ago I picked and put on an inner border, and away the quilt went. Well, after 9 years, 2 months ago I selected and put on the outer border and gave it to Frances to quilt.

Nine years later...my very first quilt is done. We chose a star pattern and a variegated thread to pop in the borders. As far as I was concerned, the quilt could only look better with quilting since it was so wavy and wonky from my lack of skill and patience. But now it's done and all it needs is binding!

Fall Tablerunner

My fall allergies dang near have me down for the count, but at least this fall tablerunner won't make me sneeze...unlike the changing season...

This little beauty goes off to the quilter tomorrow and then up as a sample at the shop. Now it's time for a heavy dose of Nightime Benadryl and a good long sleep.