Hocuspocusville - Block 1

I love hand embroidery. I love Halloween. I love quilts. 

I've wanted this pattern for awhile. I don't remember when I bought the pattern but it sat in my stash for awhile because I couldn't decide on background fabric or floss colors.  I decided to quit overthinking it and go with a medium grey fabric and neon embroidery floss in a handful of colors. I need to take a better picture though. As I said the fabric is a medium grey and I went with bright neon orange for block 1. I was thinking of using a glow-in-the-dark floss for the signs or at least the writing on the signs. I need to do a bit of shopping for glow-in-the-dark floss to see what colors are available. Not sure what I want for the writing but I would like some glow yellow for the pumpkin eyes.

I'm really enjoying working on this project when I just want to sit and relax and watch a movie. Hand embroidery is great for those times when you want to keep your hands busy but you don't want to do anything that requires thinking or math. It's even better when you don't have to change floss colors.

This is block 1 and if I decide to go with the layout in the pattern it will be in the upper left corner. I don't mind having the blocks around a center design but I doubt I will go with the on point 9 patches in the center. I might go simple with a fun Halloween fabric panel or create my own applique design for the center.

Happy 4th of July

Speed Podcasting Episode #17

I was fighting with my phone this week so I did a little speed podcasting. It was crazy but fun.

My beautiful bleeding swap quilt

Many, many moons ago I participated in several swaps either through a blog or Flickr. I was part of a Quilting Bee swap on Flickr for a year I think. I'm pretty sure my color scheme for this particular swap was rainbow.

When I was going through my wip bin I came across the quilt. It was already quilted and just needed binding. No clue why I never bound it but it's done now. I found a piece of binding in my binding bucket and it was almost long enough to go all the way around. I just added a small scrap that I stole  from another left over binding.

The shadow of my hand and phone makes me giggle for some reason. 

I just meander quilted it. It's my go to quilting because it doesn't need to be perfect and I love how it gets all crinkly after it's washed. Of course I used cotton batting so it could be crinkly. I also like how thin yet warm a quilt is with cotton batting.

The only problem I had is this one square ran when I washed it. I used two color catchers but that didn't save it. This isn't the first time a quilt has bled on me but it is the first time I couldn't fix it. I google for some solutions and asked on facebook but nothing I tried worked. First the red ran and when I got that under control the orange ran. After the third run through the washer I gave up. My daughter saw it on facebook and fell in love with it blemish and all so now it hangs on the back of her couch. All three kids have curled up on the couch with it so I'm happy. Even though it's Summer one of their couches is under an a/c vent and the ceiling fan and sometimes it gets chilly on that couch. 

Mandy told me every time she looks at the quilt she sees something she didn't notice before. Now I need to go back to the wip bin and find a quilt for the other couch. One for her brothers because I have a feeling that once it gets cool again she won't be sharing. ;)