Happy Halloween!!!

Hubby and the kids carved a few pumpkins this year. The pumpkins were rather small this year. Very disappointing.

Here in Florida, pumpkins die real fast! We have been having record highs this month. It's been around 80 at night and close to 90 throughout the day. Makes trick or treating an adventure. When we look at costumes, how hot they might be is the first thing we think about.

This is Robbie's. This was the first year he was able and willing to carve it all himself. He also got to light it too. It's the little things like lighting his own pumpkin that makes him smile :)  When I first saw it lit up I thought it resembled Elmo lol.

Justin carved a heart for his girlfriend. Awww, young love.

Daddy had fun as usual carving his.

Mandy was the only one who used a stencil to carve hers.  We heard alot of mumbling while she was carving lol. It was worth the aggravation though. It came out great!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!!!

October Schnibble DONE!!

One finished Schnibble. I was cutting this one close lol. Just in under the wire. I used my newly acquired I spy stash for the center. I was very fortunate to receive a tub of fabric from my neighbor earlier this month. That is where the white inner border and the red outer border came from.

I used a light green thread that worked well with those green snowball blocks to quilt the center. The outer border is quilted with a red thread.

The binding is a blue and white sort of check looking fabric. It reminds me of a guys dress shirt fabric. This also came from the very generous neighbor. Thanks Angel!!

Now it's time to go grocery shopping....

Almost finishes...

I managed to quilt 5 quilts from my pile. These are mainly lap size quilts so they were quick to quilt. Today is binding day. That leaves 12 more tops to quilt. Yikes! It's just too easy to get started on a quilt top...

Pile Pushing

I don't have any finished projects to show you today. I am mainly moving quilts from one pile to another. This is my current needs to be quilted pile. There is also a Christmas tree project under there somewhere. I can just see the green flannel poking out in the bottom of the pile.

The Gracie Jane Project

My daughter Mandy decided she liked the DNP block. I had purchased a handful of 4" squares off ebay recently. I couldn't pass them up since they were only $.39 with free shipping. Unfortunately, the squares weren't all cut to the same size. This made it a bit frustrating for Mandy to sew together. I told her not to worry if the seams all matched, with this pattern it would all blend together. It is a great size to teach Mandy how to quilt and do binding also.

After it was all sewn together, I trimmed it down to a 20" square. Once it is quilted it will be donated to The Gracie Jane Project. I've been wanting to make quilts for the babies in the NICU but hadn't found a place to send them yet. I think Barbara's project will be perfect for us to send to. Plus, a 20" little quilt is a great way to practice techniques.

Fall table topper

This will be my fall table topper once it is sandwiched and quilted. These blocks are from a swap I did in one of my Yahoo groups that I haunt. I really need to remember to check the sizes of the swap blocks I receive. These were a bit off so my redish sashing is a bit off too. I didn't worry about taking it apart because I plan on having a stuffed turkey in the center of the table next month anyways.

 

Way, way back when I was in 5th grade (1980)  the whole class (including the boys) were taught to hand stitch a quilt block. If I remember correctly, the teacher was going to put them all together into a quilt for an ill teacher from our school. I have been browsing for a few weeks now to find the exact pattern we used. I wanted to start making my own hand sewn quilt blocks and I remember really liking the pattern we used. It's so hard to get the fuzzy picture out of my brain and onto paper to be able to search it out. I think the star in the lower left corner is the block we did. Only we used what I would consider 30's repro fabrics and each star pedal was one piece of fabric and did not have different tips like the one in my topper. Before I go on another search, does anyone know the name of this star block?  I would be very grateful for your help. I'm sure it is a very common block, but with all the different blocks out there...I could get lost and find too many new things to make in the process lol!

How is your holiday sewing going? Is your list getting smaller or bigger?

Spooktacular top

I finally put my Spooktacular blocks into a quilt top. I purchased a box of Halloween fabrics and found this green spiderweb fabric in it. I knew the green would work nice with the Spooktacular blocks. I'm just glad there was enough. I think I am going to bind it in orange. I'm leaning towards just straight line quilting around the blocks. I might do a bit of outlining free motion in the theme blocks. I'll know better once I get it all sandwiched and it "speaks" to me. When it's all finished it will be going on my bed.

Hotmail going crazy :(

I don't know what has been going on lately but my hotmail email account has been acting up. If you have sent me an email in the last couple days and haven't heard from me it's because my inbox is going haywire. I have  MSN messenger so I get a little pop up when a new message arrives. I go and click into my inbox and briefly see the header and then the entire email disappears. I checked them last night and saw 9 disappear right before my eyes. Darn hotmail!

Anywhooo....here's some pictures for you  to look at.

Last month the kids and I went out and played tourist. We spent the better part of a day out at The Shell Factory.    I think we took over 200 pictures that day. I will try to post a few every now and then to spice up the blog a bit. When you first get there you can stop and feed the fish and turtles. We decided we would try all the tourist things so we put in some quarters and fed the turtles and fish. There are a few places around town just like this one and we always stop to feed the turtles. It's just simple fun :)

These were some BIG fishies...

This fish was strange looking.

There were duckies and swans here and there.

I had the kids pose like tourists lol.  Robbie has gotten so big. I swear he grows an inch over night sometimes. I told him I was going to put a brick on his head to stop him from getting any taller. It won't be much longer and we will be eye to eye. Rotten kids (that's what my Day used to say to all of us)

Another Christmas quilt checked off the list

This one is for my grandson DJ. Just a simple stacked coins. The binding is cut from one piece of fabric that had large stripes on it. The backing is a soft light blue sheet.

Isn't Robbie a great helper? I asked for someone to hold up the quilt for pictures and he jumped at the chance!

Another DNP

When I saw this quilt over at Piece N Quilt   I knew I would be making one very soon. When I ordered my Schnibble pattern for October, I also picked up some Darla. This is such a cute line of fabric. I ordered both from Quilt Taffy. She has such wonderful service and the delivery is very fast. She has had the Schnibble pattern ready on the first both times now. I like that since I can not wait to get the pattern in my greedy little hand lol. Even though I may not start it right away. At least I know I have it when I am ready.

Hubby thinks it's alot of pink but I think it is perfect for a new baby. Most Moms like their little girls to be all wrapped up in pink. Once again I took the pic before ironing it perfectly flat and trimming it up. I like doing all that just before I sandwich it. It gets all folded up and added to the to be sandwiched pile so it gets a bit wrinkly anyways.  I think I will make one in blues next but first I should get some of the quilt tops turned into actual quilts first.

Witchy treat bag

In my box of Halloween fabric that I recently acquired, I found a panel for this adorable Witchy Trick or Treat bag. Very cute!

(back)

Nice and simple. Just the way I like it sometimes. It's always a good thing when you can whip out a project without much muss or fuss. I love the long term, thought provoking, need to pay attention projects too, but a quickie is good too :)

Check out these feet! The feet have two layers of cotton batting in them.

The bag portion has batting on the front and back also. Gives it nice body.

I just quilted a quick outline to hold it all together.

The panel said to use fusible interfacing for the handles but my fusible is in the bedroom closet and Hubby was napping at the time. Not wanting to wake him, I used some Halloween ribbon instead :)

(lining)

I was going to put it up in the shop but Hubby said to please put it up for our first Granddaughter. OK Hubby, you win this one since I love this bag!!

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

Not really sure where that phrase came from but I just love it.  I printed out everyone's comments and had Hubby and Mandy chose the winners. Click on the day to see what they won!


Day 1...

Humel   http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/



Day 2... 

Egater    http://egaterileiud.blogspot.com/

Day 3...

Lil' Frankie     http://littlelandbigf.blogspot.com/

Day 4...




Shari     http://mumsyblossom.blogspot.com/

Day 5...

Country Pickins   http://countrypickins.blogspot.com/




Day 6...

Renee G    no blog




Day 7...

Carol    http://ascotintennessee.blogspot.com/


Day 8...

Search Families  http://craftlady-searchfamilies.blogspot.com/




Day 9...   

Ladies please let me know which pattern you would like :)  Hubby picked an extra so there are 4 winners today!

Granny Lyn  http://justgrannys.blogspot.com/

Country Pickins    http://countrypickins.blogspot.com/  


Heather  http://overthetoporiginals.wordpress.com/

Renee G   no blog

Day 10...

Granny Lyn  http://justgrannys.blogspot.com/


Day 11...

Susan  http://thelazystitcher.blogspot.com/




Day 12...

Melinda Cornish  http://melindasfabricfancies.blogspot.com/




Day 13...  


Drum roll please............

Carmel    http://mellowisme.blogspot.com/

Hubby and I are just sorry that we couldn't send something to each and everyone who stopped by. Thank you for visiting and be on the lookout for the next give a-way. I don't think it will be this large next time though lol.


If you see your name listed go ahead and shoot me an email at....  rsisland  at  hotmail  dot  com  with your mailing address.  Your prizes will go out in the mail this weekend. If I don't here from a winner within 3 days, I will draw another name.

Stuffie pattern testing

I recently tested a couple patterns for Whosies and Whatnots .  These little gals are adorable in my opinion :)

This little lady is from the Square Pegs pattern.  This is the first time a stuffie I made actually resembled the original pattern lol. I always seem to tweak things a bit here and a little there. This pattern is well written and very easy to follow.  I love the little skirt! I didn't add a shirt but I like her just like she is. She has a new home with our neighbors' granddaughter Emily (3).

I also tested an owl stuffie pattern from Whosies . I have been looking for an owl pattern for a bit and this one came out so darn cute! I used some of the new Halloween fabric that I recently received.

I love the wings :)

There is a Flickr pool so you can see some of the other stuffies people have been making.

Halloween Give a-way

I came across another great give a-way....

Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shop!!!

I spy a Schnibble

I finished the quilt top for Octobers' Schnibble project. It still needs to be ironed and squared up.

I recently purchased a box of I spy fabric and decided it might look nice with this pattern.  This quilt gave me a bit of trouble. Lots of colors and squares to keep track of when cutting and piecing. I don't think it helped that my son (10) had a friend (11) sleep over and they were getting loud most of the day. I just couldn't concentrate. I probably should have left it for another day, but I really wanted to work on it.

For this one, I would sew a row together and then immediately sew it o the row before it. I was worried that I would get too confused when it came time to put it all together.

This is the Cindy Lou Who pattern. It really is an easy pattern. I just needed to actually concentrate on this one.

A couple finishes

I've been slowly working my way through my pile of quilt tops and getting them finished.

These two jungle quilts are made from one crib bumper pad. I took it apart and added the light green strips from a sheet I picked up at Walmart last year. I was going to put these up in the shop as a set for some twins but decided they would make nice quilts for our grandsons instead. I already had a couple quilts ready for Nathan (1) and Jacob (3) but thought it would be fun for them to both have very similar quilts instead.

When Hubby and I were at JoAnn's looking for fleece for his Giant's quilt I told him I also needed a green for the back of the jungle quilts. This is what he picked out. Perfect Hubby! Thanks! The binding is from the same sheet that I used on the front.

I also finished up this quilt top from a swap I did earlier this year. I think this one will be the quilt I send to Craft Hope for Project #5.

A Downy Quilt

Downy fabric softener is collecting quilts for kids in hospitals. They have a program Downy Touch of Comfort where they will send you the fabric for a quilt and then you put it all together and send it back. I signed up on Monday or Tuesday and by Thursday morning UPS was dropping a package at my door!

The package has a label, the directions, and the fabric for the front and the backing. You provide the  batting.They tell you that you can either use the pillowcase method or use the method where you use the backing and bring it towards the front for the binding. I plan on just using the traditional method of binding it. I will use something from my stash that matches.

The best part was that all the pieces are already cut for you! The four patches are done in a strip piece and the novelty squares were already cut to size. I have to say that whomever did the cutting did an excellent job on it! That made this a very relaxing quilt to make.

It is such an easy pattern that I had it sewn into a top before work at 5 pm! I love the fabrics they sent. Very kid friendly. Now just to get it quilted and bound. They allow 4-6 weeks to get it completed and I should be done well before that. They also ask that you send a second quilt that you made in the same box. That should be no problem, I have a few extras.

I really like this pattern. I'm sure I will "copy" it in the future.

It works!!

 Our living room table has always been cluttered. I am as much to blame as hubby and the kids but I think Robbie is the biggest culprit. Sorry Robbie but you have the dropsies sweetie.Whenever he walks past the table he seems to just drop whatever he is holding.

Just putting out the witch table topper didn't seem to control the clutter. Add in the stuffed pumpkin and it is a miracle lol. This seems to be a good combo for our house. Nobody seems to have the dropsies as much anymore.

I guess I need to make a Christmas tree for December...

This pumpkin was made from a panel. I traded for a box of Halloween fabric and this fun pumpkin panel was in it. It actually looks real from a short distance. Our oldest thought I went out and bought a painted pumpkin for the table. Good job to whomever designed this panel. Great colors.

feeling a bit blue today

This is the year of the quilt at my house. Most everyone on our Christmas list is getting a new quilt. My step daughter LOVES anything blue. I grabbed a bunch of blue fat quarters and started winging a quilt top. This is the result. Now to turn it into a finished quilt.

Go Giants!

Hubby is a big New York Giants fan. When I said I wanted to make him a quilt he immediately requested a Giants one. I ordered the top cotton fabric months ago, but we hadn't decided how to work the rest. Hubby finally decided on a fleece backing with no batting in between. A quick trip to JoAnn's and he picked out a very nice and soft blue fleece. It works great with the blue in Giant's fabric.

Doesn't he look happy? Hubby's tall (a bit over 6 ft.) and has a hard time keeping his toesies covered. I think he will be fine with this quilt. He keeps it on the bed and nobody and I mean nobody gets to touch it lol.

I love the different shades of blue in the fleece. It is soooo toasty warm...not that I have tried it out or anything lol.

Day 13

COMMENTS CLOSED

OK...we are at the last day of my 13 Days of Give a-ways! I hope it has been a fun ride for you because I have had a great time seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I have enjoyed checking out everyone's blogs and finding new ones to follow.

This quilt was made from a quilt top I won earlier in the year from Barb. She purchased the top a few years back at a garage sale. I decided since I won it I would go ahead and finish it and pass it on to the next person.

The top is all hand pieced. The fabric feels like cotton but of course there is no way for me to know for sure. I added some Warm & Natural batting and a white sheet for the back. I free motion quilted it using white thread. I quilted it pretty close together just in case any of the hand quilting came loose. I have prewashed it and it is all nice and crinkly :)

The quilt is 42" square. It is a good size for a baby or a lap quilt. It could also be used as a wall hanging. It's yours to do as you wish.


Now for the rules.

Just like the last 12 give a-ways:

1. Leave a comment and earn 1 entry.

2. Become a follower of this blog and earn 1 entry.

3. Grab my give a-way button and blog about it and get 1 entry


 


I will draw the winner on October  20th. The winner will have 3 days to send me their address. If I do not here from the winner within 3 days, another name will be drawn.


Leave a separate comment for each thing you do and I will use the random number thingy to find our winner.

Good Luck everyone!!


Don't forget to go over and see what the Ghoul's Guild is up to. This is their last day of give a-ways/sales also.


**Did you go back and enter the other 12 days of give a-ways?**

Columbus Day

Since the big kids have graduated and lil man is homeschooled I didn't realize it was Columbus Day. No school and no mail today. I still get the "pleasure" of going to work though.

My 13 Days of Give A-Ways is winding down. Tomorrow will be the big quilt give a-way WooHoo!  I hope everyone has been having a good time and enjoying the prizes. Come back on the 20th to see if you are one of the 13 winners!

There is also a couple days left to join us in our sigornament swap.

Here is the block we will be making:

and what you might decide to use them for:

Could be a quilt, a wall hanging or a table topper. You could also just stuff them and make them into ornaments for your tree.

Day 12

Today's prize is this crocheted Christmas stocking scarf. This is a fun little scarf for the little ones in your life or as an accent scarf for you.

Now for the rules.



1. Leave a comment and earn 1 entry.

2. Become a follower of this blog and earn 1 entry.

3. Grab my give a-way button and blog about it and get 1 entry




I will draw the winner on October  20th. The winner will have 3 days to send me their address. If I do not here from the winner within 3 days, another name will be drawn.


Leave a separate comment for each thing you do and I will use the random number thingy to find our winner.

Good Luck everyone!!


Don't forget to go over and see what the Ghoul's Guild is up to. They are having 13 days of give a-ways/sales also.


**Come back for the last day of give a-ways**

**Don't forget to go back and enter the first 11 Days also**

**Day 13 will be the quilt in my blog header**

COMMENTS CLOSED

How many pumpkins in a jar?

I found this little give a-way tonight. Hubby and I made guesses within one number of each other. Don't bother guessing...we got it right lol.