Other Halloween stuff

I found these pumpkin theme orphan blocks in the Guild Flea Market.  I think they might have been the leftovers from a BOM from a few years ago.  

I figured they might make some quick Halloween gifts.

I used 3 blocks to make this table runner for my daughter-in-law. She really enjoys decorating for all the seasons.  I almost always send her some kind of squishy package for Halloween

I used this fun Halloween fabric for the backing.

I showed the table runner to my daughter and she said she liked the blocks, tho' she did not want a table runner so I trimmed 2 of them down to potholder size and quick turned them for a Halloween surprise for her. 

I still have two left.  Maybe I will make some potholders for myself?!

I love working with orphan blocks,  It feels a little like cheating,  but hey,  I only have so many hours in the day for serious sewing why not get help where you can?  And these blocks were really so cute!

Happy Halloween!

Cheers, Claire W.

Taking pictures can help with balance of value...

I had to laugh when I looked at this photo.  How did I put both of those darker valued four patches in the upper left and not notice?!

Something so clear in the photo completely escaped me while sewing this top together.

This top was made from a collection of orphan blocks some of which were pretty old.  I guess I was to focused on just getting them all to fit together.

I have a large amount of various shades of chocolate / tan / brown calico orphan blocks.  I guess this was a popular color back in the 70"s?!

Well I'm always looking for more masculine color schemes for my vet quilts so I dredged these out of the brown stash of Orphan blocks and I think it's OK but the upper left corner did give me a moment of pause!  LOL

On to other orphan blocks...a little more contemporaneous.

I think these maple leave blocks (about 12" square) are maybe from the 90's?!

They made a nice quick thank you gift (table runner) for a friend who hosted us recently. 

It's funny how styles change.  Big 12" blocks like these use to be the standard size,  now it seems like blocks are smaller.  Is that a Dear Jane / Farmers Wife influence, I wonder? 

Orphan blocks are a great way to whip up a quick top or gift without going to too much effort and you can smile because squishy gifts are always appreciated and you repurposed something that might otherwise have been thrown away!

May all your orphan blocks find homes!

Happy weekend!

Cheers, CW

Borders Straightened Out

I really loath back stitching.  I have on occasion spent more time trying to figure out how to correct a sewing boo boo without back stitching than just sitting down and picking the darn seam out!  Sound familiar?
Well on this occasion after about a week of grumbling to myself I finally sat down and picked the offending border out and realized my pattern wasn't as far off as I'd thought.  All I needed to do was reverse one section from the top to the bottom and all was set right!
And while I was grumbling to myself about that I did manage to get the border on the right sewn.  So that's a long way of saying... I am still working on my Halloween quilt and I have made some progress. 
It's clear I'm not going to be powering through to the finish any time soon but I'm OK with that and now that it's had a good start I'm pretty sure I can finish it by next Halloween. LOLOLOL!

And in my defense... while I've been dithering around about my Halloween quilt I have not been idle. I managed to finish a couple of charitable quilts! 

The center of this quilt was a flea market find.  All I needed to do was slap some borders on, quilt and bind.  I'll take advantage of free labor any day! 

 It's another 36" x 48" for Wheel Chair Bound Vets.  I have a hard time sticking to subdued color schemes so finding a brown and tan color scheme ready-made was a good start for me.

I quilted it very simply; loops and swirls all over.  It's fast and easy and lays down so's the fabric can do the talking! 

And I found this wonderful flannel for the back.  So soft!

I also finished this quilt.  I think I finished quilting it in Sept.  But being a rather  it large quilt (58" x 68') the urge to finish the binding had to wait awhile.  But you know how frustration with one project helps to motivate finishing another project... 

I quilted this one completely with random width parallel lines using my channel lock.  Very Modern!  This quilt will go to Camp Aaron which is a camp program here in Santa Cruz for kids who have / had family members who have/ are suffering from cancer.  Each kid who comes to camp gets to pick a quilt for their bunk when they arrive and then take it when they go home.  It's a great program.

Well enough rambling from me.  I hope you all have great weeks!

Cheers, Claire W.

Squishy Package arrived!!

My friend and fellow blogger Randy  (Barristersblock) organized a mug rug swap.  She matched me up with Kevinthequilter (links to both are in my follow list) and yesterday I received a squishy package from Kevin!!  The back story to this match was that Kevin and I both love chickens.  Kevin asked me what my favorite color was and I said purple, green and blue?!  And Kevin sent me this wonderful purple green and blue chicken!

I have already this AM enjoyed using it.  Most mornings I sit in my easy chair, enjoy my AM coffee and check my email right next to my Great Grandma's tredle Singer Sewing machine. The perfect place for my new mug rug!  And the two coasters keeping my chicken company were gifts from Randy.  I think there's some kind of symmetry there?!

I love getting Squishy packages!  Thank you Kevin,  your mug rug really makes me smile!

Happy Weekends to everyone!

Cheers, Claire W.

A little progress...

Wellllll,  last week was pretty busy in other departments of my life so I did not get a lot done on my Halloween quilt.  But I did get all the units for the inner border sewn and I'm still liken' it!

I got the left side sewn on and it was not 'til I put it on the design wall that I realized I had messed up the pattern on one end*^%#!$%^&*!!!!! 

I usually don't bother with particular sequences but for this I did and when I botched it up it just stopped me in my tracks!  What do I do?  Rip it out or ignore it and keep sewing?!   Well, this is definitely a small blip in life's scheme, especially if you listen to the news!!!

May all your blips be small, have a great week!

Cheers, Claire W.

Halloween Quilt Update

Weeeeell I've been struggling with that space between the center and the outer border (see last post); but, one thing I decided was I was not going to  weenie out and use a solid strip for the third border of the center!  So I worried over that for a couple of days and then sometime in the early AM of Sunday this solution came to me and I quick sewed a sample (before I forgot my idea) and I'm liking it!  At this rate I'm not sure the Halloween finish date is realistic but, I'm sure the rest will get filled in ..         eventually!
                                                              Have a wonderful week!
                                                                     cheers, Claire W.

Thanks for the feed back!

Thanks to those who sent along there opinions regarding the background fabric on the border.  It was unanimous for the Spider Web fabric.  I was kind of leaning that way but it was real nice to get a strong response for that choice. 

Now I'm working on the middle ground between the border and the center.  I realized two things as I started to work on this part of the quilt: 1- I did not want the quilt to be just orange, black and white which is what all the fabs are to this point.  2- I was really not loving all the graphix of the companion panel that goes with the lady in the middle!

I'm not particularly superstitious but I don't think I want to have images of skulls and psycho kitties on my bed. Might make a great wall hanging but not something to sleep under?!

And even tho' it's kind of interesting, what the heck is that?  Finger puppets from the French Revolution? 

I liked the panel with the lovely ladies but I just could not figure out how to incorporate them into the patchwork.  And I wanted to include more colors.

So here's how it stands.  There's still a lot of empty space but it's starting to fill in.

I had only enough flags for three sides of the border so I put the big Happy Halloween banner at the top.

Finished all the flags around the other 3 sides...

Thanks again for the feedback!

Happy Tues!

cheers, Claire W. 

Halloween Quilt Update

                                                            Happy October 1st!
 As a child I remember feeling that from October 1st to the 31st lasted an eternity.  But being older (and somewhat wiser)  I know the 31st will be here in the blink of an eye!

  I figured maybe I'd better get a move-on with my October quilt.  My first post about this was here:
http://cspoonquilt.blogspot.com/2017/09/halloween-october-quilt.html.

Since then I have done ZIP.  But today when I looked at the calendar I thought to myself 'YIKES!'
I think I've made a good start.  I got the center figured out and sewn together and I cut out a bunch of the outside border; but , I'm a bit stuck on what to use for background on the border.

I auditions a whole bunch of things.

                                                 And I got it narrowed down to these two.

                                                     I just can't make up my feeble mind!

I like this one 'cause the tone of white is better with the background of the triangles.

But I like this one 'cause it fits the theme so well.

What do you think?!

I'm determined to at least get the top done by the end of the month.

Wish me luck!  

Have a great week!

Cheers, Claire W.