Pumpkin Decorating Contest

It has become a tradition at our elementary school for each classroom to decorate a pumpkin as a character from a book. The students bring coins from home and vote for their favorite pumpkin. The money raised from this event is given to the American Cancer Society. Each year I'm amazed and marvel at the creativity of the students, teachers, and parents as they transform ordinary pumpkins into works of art. I just had to share these creations with you. It's a celebration of creativity! Hope you recognize some of the books and characters from those books. Some of the books are classics like Charlotte's Web and others are new hits with our students, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Franklin's Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois

Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Gracias, the Thanksgiving Turkey by Joy Cowley

Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems

Friday Favorite

Melisa at Sweet Home Quilt Shop has a special give-away on her blog on Fridays. Visit her blog to enter her give-away this week - Shangri-La charm packs and yardage. Visit and enter, but I have my fingers crossed wishing for this one!

Tricks and Treats

All it took was a "tempting" e-mail from Melisa, aka The Evil Temprest, to lure me to Sweet Home yesterday. I e-mailed Brenda, aka The Quilting Cowgirl and we made plans to meet at SH. Melisa had Halloween decorations, homemade baked goods, coffee, "treats" with coupons, and new fabric lines. This is my idea of a perfect Halloween celebration. See Melisa's blog entry entitled "The Witch is In" for great phots of the shop.

I wasn't the only "Thimble" to be lured into Melisa's den of temptation. Sarah, Brenda, me and Ann display some of our "treats" or treasures from the day.

All the blogland talk about the new line of fabric from Moda's French General, Rouenneries, had me lusting for my own stash. I found a layer cake and purchased yardage for borders and backing for a project in the second book from Pam and Nicky Lintott (new book due out November 14th according to Amazon.com) Earlier in the day there were other bolts of Rouenneries, but we learned that Kristie had already purchased the rest of one bolt!

This is the quilt I hope to begin soon with the Rouennerries fabric. Yippee!

Thanks, Melisa. Kris and Mike for a wonderful time!

Secret Blogger

Rusty, here, reporting on a strange event. It began on Saturday morning. I like Saturday mornings. My people sleep until I remind Mom that it is time for her to let me out into the backyard and serve me breakfast. On Saturday mornings, the weird beeping sound at "dark thirty" is not heard. Well, most Saturdays that is. This morning, my Mom did strange things. She got up at "dark thirty" when the beeping sound went off. Michael and Mom loaded me in that blue noisy box in the garage and we left our house. We arrived at a place and they put this puffy thing around my body. It would have been intolerable except that my "BFF", Coco, who lives across the street joined us. She had a strange hat and cape on her, too.

I heard someone say she was a cute little witch, but they must have confused the words and meant b....

Lots of other people were in this place, too. Some of the other people especially the little people were in funny clothes, too. After a while, we began walking down this wonderful trail with lots of people and doggie smells. I was just hitting my stride when the wet stuff began falling on us. My bottom side got really wet. Even my "buns" got wet and were dragging.

I wonder if Mom has been getting some of these strange ideas for all those books she reads. I got a good look at one of her books. I didn't like it at all.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy, who blogs as Park City Girl is again hosting an online virtual quilt show. The first quilt show was last Spring. It was an awesome event with many different quilts and stories about the creation of the quilts. This past week when I read that another quilt festival was planned, I knew I wanted to participate. Not only was I able to visit many wonderful blogs, but I met some wonderful bloggers.

The quilt that I chose for this festival was originally made for our older son's wife. It's from a pattern by Buggy Barn called Blaze's Heart. I collected the pink and neutral fabrics on my first Atlanta Shop Hop. It was the first quilt that I choose fabrics for instead of replicating the fabrics from another quilt or kit. It was so rewarding to have the fabrics work together. I wasn't sure that our son's wife appreciated quilts and quilting, but went ahead with plans for this quilt. Much to our regret, their marriage didn't endure through tough times. I reassured our son that I had made this quilt as a gift and that it was her quilt to keep. I only hoped that it wouldn't end up as a charity donation. When he brought his final possessions home, he returned the quilt to me. I don't know if she values quilts, but I do know that our son values, and treasures the time and love put into a quilt. This quilt has come home to rest. It is put away for now. My prayer is that he discovers a new woman who will love him in good times and bad. One day this special quilt will have a new home.

Dad's Bag

Today, I'm on the road driving to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to visit my Dad. Dad will be 87 next month. Dad is no longer able to care for himself. We moved him from our hometown last month to Baton Rouge where one of my brothers lives. My brother and his family are visiting Dad daily and helping tend to his needs. He is in an assisted-living facility, but there are still areas that he needs additional support.

This Friday is one of our teacher furlough days in my county school system. Monday is a holday so I took this opportunity to drive to Baton Rouge to give my brother and his family a break. I'm bringing one of my portable sewing machines to make some adjustments to Dad's clothing. I'll have my "knitting" and a novel. I'm hoping to visit a quilt shop or two in the mornings. My cousin's wife Niki gave me a wonderful fact sheet about quilt shops in south Louisiana. Dad is no longer an early riser so I should be able to shop and run errands in the mornings.

I've packed my LSU T-shirt to wear while watching the LSU/Florida game with him on Saturday. This is the wheelchair tote I made Dad to hang on the back of his wheelchair to carry his mail and other goodies.

I'm guaranteed great meals. You can eat most anywhere in Louisiana and get awesome meals.

Not Quite Socks

I love socks! I want to knit socks. It makes no sense. I can purchase perfectly great socks, but I want to knit a pair or two or three. The main problem is that I don't really know how to knit. Well, that never stopped me before. I normally fall in love with a project and jump right in without the necessary skills. I did that with counted cross-stich and quilting. Soooo, I decided to start small with knitting. Even I can see that I'm not ready for socks. I can't figure out the pictures in "how to knit socks" books. I made a couple of scarves, but don't wear scarves so washcloths seem to be the best project. It had been so long since I had knitted that I couldn't remember how to do the Purl stitch. A consultation with a teacher at school and studying my "how to book" solved this problem. Online videos were helpful, too.

This is what I've been working on in the evenings and during Saturday football games. It's College football season. Football is one of DH's passions. We see lots of football games this time of year. Geaux, Tigers!

I'm getting better at this knitting thing. I'm beginning to make some sense of the dishcloth pattern. I think I can even recognize which stitch is which. Atlanta quilting friends, does anyone know how to knit socks? I'm thinking I need a private tutor. My knitting guru at work took a class, but didn't finish the project. Kristie.... Brenda.... Anyone to the rescue?