quiltathon pics round 3

Last of the quiltathon pics! You can't see it very well but I quilted "melts in your mouth not in your hand" around the last border of the multicolored ones. Its legible but not something i'll repeat beacuse getting the words to end at the right places is hard when free handing them.

quiltathon pics round 2

Three more pics from this weekend. The santa moon was a bitty panel given to me by a friend who was downsizing her stash. Its been bordered and basted for close to 2 years I think. The stocking was a rush project. My boss needed a decorated stocking to take to the district meeting and since she had no ideas I whipped this up in a couple hours. The people in the pics on it are me and my coworkers. The americana runner is bonus HST from a big quilt. I started that project 2 years ago and the big one got finished early this summer and now the runner is done to match it.

a new short list

I finally got all 5 off my short list from last week. That worked really well because I was trying really hard to avoid my queen(I'll post pics ASAP). So now I need to think of a new "short list"

• appy horse wall hanging(needs quilting and binding) done oct 9
• Halloween rr(needs quilting and binding) done oct 9
• Braid runners-6 (need basting etc) done oct 15
• holly jolly runners(still need assembling)-done oct 23
• library bags for donation(waiting on pattern)-18 mailed oct 23

There, that ought to be about right. That gives me 7 UFOs and 2 new projects. My sis talked to our hometown librarian about the bags, apparently they give out smallish bags to the kids who come to the library for the first time. One of the ladies in town has made and donated a bunch, but they are all flowery which works great for the girls but not so much for the boys. So I've pulled some juvenile and patriotic prints and as soon as I get the pattern I'll get busy on them. I could probably do them with out a pattern but I want to keep them close to uniform.

quiltathon pics round 1

These first 4 are only about 6 inches wide and 20 or 22 long. The first one i finished right before the quiltathon but since i had not posted a pic of it I figured this was a good time.
The octagon was pieced close to a year ago and never got finished because at the time i had big battings but no little pieces. So I finally found a small enough piece and got it done. Same goes for the Strawberry Shortcake dolly quilt. The HSTs are left overs from a lap quilt that I gave to my cousin's dd 2 Christmases ago. She will get the dolly quilt as soon as I can find the address to mail it. That was also my first try on turning the back to the front to bind. Worked pretty well but I had minor issues with the corners.

quiltathon

8 finishes...almost 9! that is my so far progress for quiltathon. I've got pics taken but i'm trying to keep all the pics on the upstairs computer. I will post the pics just as soon as I can convince the kids and dh off the big computer. I had to run into town to get binding for the 9th one. I can't feel too bad for buying it-i only bought 1/3 yd and its already cut out. I also went to a craft fair while i was in town, I bought a candle, a bib and a bread basket liner. The bib and the liner will be used as patterns to make more. Both projects will be fast stash users and a good way to get ready for Christmas gifts.

quilting advice needed

I need help....well I guess we all knew that but this is help that I'm sure I can get from the folks who read this. Any suggestions on how to quilt these? Thread colors? Designs? They are all wall hangings for my sewing room. The first 2 started life as round robins that came home last fall if i remember right and the 3rd one is couple of leftover blocks from a mystery quilt. I will probably quilt the mystery the same or similar to the little one so any suggestions should take that into account. All 3 are basted and waiting thier turn after the halloween quilt.

finishes!

I got all but one of my "short list" done! The only one left is the big halloween quilt. I needed Randy to help me baste it. So now its basted(that was a chore!) and i'm going to quilt it during Judy L's quiltathon this weekend.
So in order: 2 of the 3 mini's-the other one got left at work where I was putting the beads on; 3 of the 6 easter placemats since i figured everyone would get the point from the first 3; Cyris's baby quilt; and the spring wallhangings.

the short list

I'm going to put 5 project on this list and promise not to do anything else until these 5 are done. I'm hoping that helps to get me back into the sewing room again. If it works i'll post another short list when this one is finished.

1. Easter placemats-set of 6(need quilting and binding)done sept 14
2. mini wall hangings-set of 3(need quilting and binding)done sept 18
3. seasons wall hangings-set of 3(need quilting and binding)done sept 18
4. johndeere quilt for Cyris(needs quilting and binding) done sept 15
5. turning 20 again queen for my bed(needs basting, quilting and binding)done sept 22!

ok ladies-keep me honest. Make sure i get these done SOON!

Potatoes!

I wrote earlier this year about planting potatoes in an old trash can(well-2 if you get picky about it). I knew nothing about doing in except that it could be done. I was told simply to plant them in 12in of soil and keep adding soil as the tops grew. Thats all the instructions i had. Well it can be done! The tops grew great guns and the grasshoppers thought they were delicious all summer. So this weekend we decided to see what was in the cans.

So hubby and the kids started dumping and digging. This is what we found! Not a lot of potatoes and not very many big ones but the kids were thrilled to have grown thier own that it was worth it. We started with 2 cut up store bought potatoes and ended up with this. The biggest ones are about 4 or 5 in long and the littlest ones are about the size of a quarter.

Things to remember next summer: add less soil more often, find a way to deter grasshoppers(or whatever was eating the leaves), wait till maybe October to harvest to get bigger potatoes, consider different variety of potatoes to grow faster(perhaps the reds mom and dad always grew?)

A finish! and a new project

Finally a quilt related post! I got inspired by the piles of halloween stuff that has been floodign into the stores around here and pulled out the halloween fabrics i bought the last couple years this week. I had originally planned on 2 smaller quilts but the other half thinks that we needed a big one for our bed. I think he just liked the colors better than the red and blue one thats been on our bed for the last several years.

The 30's pillow is from leftover bowtie blocks from a swap a while back(last summer?) It was a good way to use up some more of the 30's prints i had left. I'm finnally down to just a few of those prints left.