Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat for Halloween

Trick or Treat for Halloween

Trick or Treat for Halloween

I'm knocking at your door.

Don't know what songs kids sing today while out on the streets Trick or Treating, but as a young girl this was the song that we sang years ago. I only remember two Halloween costumes. My cousin Peg and I were Beatniks. Easy costume - large white sweatshirt and black tights. The other costume, I remember, was putting on a sheet and becoming a Ghost. Again, we may have had awesome costumes as kids, but I don't remember:) Of course, when you work in an elementary school, there were many Book Character Parades on Halloween Day. My favorite was the year many of us wore white shirts, white pants, black dots, dog ears and were 101 Dalmatians. 

Of course, DS was a dalmatian that year, too.

We are getting lots of mileage out of Rusty's costume. Yesterday, we attended a Halloween fundraiser. He was quite the star in his hotdog costume.

Wishes you with lots of treats!

 

Give yourself a treat this holiday season! Enter your favorite Christmas, Hanukkah, or any winter holiday quilt in SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show. The Christmas Quilt Show will add holiday joy all across Blogland. SewCalGal has collected a wonderful collection of prizes donated by generous sponsors. Check this post for more details about the Christmas Quilt Show.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Today begins The Bloggers Online Quilt Festival hosted by Amy from Amy's Creative Side. Twice a year Amy organizes an "online" quilt show. This is the fourth annual show. Hundreds of blogging quilters  post photos and the story behind their quilt. You will most definitely want to visit Amy's site to view the quilts. It's wonderful to leisurely view the quilts throughout the week and in weeks after the show deadline. Anyone can participate by blogging about their quilt and post to Amy's site during the week of October 29th  through November 5th. 

For some reason I had a hard time deciding on the quilt for this year. It has been my year of not finishing projects. Every Christmas I do love to make and give a quilt to a special friend or family member. My friend Kathy who treasures quilts (she GETS quilts)  is a friend who is like family. We both grew up in Louisiana, but met each other in our neighborhood. I  originally choose this quilt because the fabrics from the kit coordinate with Kathy and George's master bedroom. I don't think the quilt every made it upstairs to the bedroom. It lives in her family room. This past year Kathy had knee replacement surgery. It was gratifying to visit her and find her wrapped in her quilt. 

The quilt was a from a pattern and kit from our Stitch'n Sisters monthly program. Pat Wys, from Silver Thimble Quilt Company choose the pattern and fabrics for this kit. The pattern is from the booklet Garden Magic by Barb and Alma from Blackbird Designs.

Thank you, Amy for continuing to organize this fabulous quilt show!!! Amy was a guest this week on Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Radio show. I love listening to podcasts while sewing. Join the fun and excitement. Enter one of your quilts on Amy's site and enjoy the SHOW!

What Luck

It's no surprise. I love hosting giveaways and I love entering giveaways. I enter a good number. Occasionally, I'm blessed in winning. A book - a quilting book - a scrap quilting book was so me. As luck would have it, I was fortunate to win this super book from Monica at Diary of a Quilt Maven. Don't you just love the name of her blog? Monica's book arrived in the mail yesterday. I immediately sat on the sofa and looked at each and every quilt in the book. Several jumped out at me and began tempting me.

I've found myself taking pictures of star quilts lately. This one is appealing. Must be time to make a new star quilt.

Log cabin blocks are my most favorite blocks. I've not made a  Courthouse Steps quilt. This one is colorful and different from most.

What a great use of plaids! I truly love bear paw blocks. There is a bear paw quilt in my future. 


Thanks again, Monica for sharing this awesome book with me!

Back Home Again

"Ain't it good to be back home again ...."  The lyrics from the old John Denver hit keeps playing through my head. Last week, we were out of our home from Monday through Friday. Repairs were made to our hardwood floors and other areas from our "refrigerator flood" from last month.

 The floors were sanded, stained and a protective coating applied for three days. We could not walked on the floors during that time. Furniture was moved to different rooms.

Plastic sheets were positioned to attempt to keep the sawdust out of the upstairs and rooms on the first floor.

We choose to replace the carpet in our family room with hardwood flooring. After two boys, two dogs and years of living, the carpet was no longer "builder" white.

We choose a darker stain than originally on our floors. We went with the stain on the top. Our floors now look like our  dark oak kitchen table.

The laminate in the finished section of the basement was replaced, too.

 Instead of vinyl laminate, our neighbor installed ceramic tile in the laundry area for us.

Gratefully, the work is now done. I keep discovering sawdust on areas I thought were clean. Guess it will be weeks before I discover all the places the grit is hiding.


We were so blessed to have not one, but two places to live during our time away from home. DH's sister and brother-in-law welcomed us into their home. Not only were DH and I displaced, but so was our dear Rusty. Because he was rescued from a puppy mill, we don't like to board him in a kennel. Rusty was welcomed at Janice and Bob's home. When we are away from home, we normally have a neighbor or one of our boys on dog duty, but this time Rusty couldn't stay in our house either.

Midweek, we traveled to Lake Hartwell (on the Georgia/South Carolina border) to spend a couple of days at our friend's lake home.

It was wonderful being near the water. I loved watching the sun rise in the mornings. We did very little while at the lake. We drove around exploring the countryside, bought vegetables and apples at a farmer's market. We even drove about an hour up the road to visit Anderson and Clemson, South Carolina. When one lives with an SEC fanatic, the thing to do when in Clemson is to visit the football stadium.

Yes, it's good to be home:)

Friday Night Sew-In

"Friday Night Sew-in" is a virtual sewing event hosted by on the blog Handmade by Heidi. It's a monthly event where quilters/sewers join together to sew their own projects on a Friday evening. On Saturday, participants post photos of their Friday night accomplishments. For many months, I've read about other blogger's progress during the sew-ins, but wasn't able to participate. This month, I marked it on my calendar. Even though, I wasn't home sewing I was able to participate. The third Friday of the month is our Silver Thimble Club weekend. I was able to sew with other "Thimblettes" for several hours on Friday evening. I continued to sew on the components for the blocks of my black and white Scrappy Nines quilt top. 

Bit by bit, this quilt top is coming together. One small step at a time, it might be completed in time to become a Christmas gift for my SIL.

A New Giveaway

My quilting buddy Gretchen from the blog Stella Bella Quilts has an October birthday. Gretch is celebrating her birthday with an awesome giveaway. She has patterns, fabric, books, and is adding until the priority mail box is full. Visit Gretchen at her blog, wish her HAPPY BIRTHDAY and enter her giveaway. Happy Birthday Month, Gretchen!!!!! She celebrates the entire month of October.

Virtual Sew-Along Day 2

As I expected today was a no sewing day. This morning was spent across town with DH at a medical appointment. Today was also the day scheduled to begin the work on our hardwood floors in the kitchen. Remember, our refrigerator flood?  Beginning on Monday, we will be out of our house for 4 or 5 days while the contractors are sanding, staining and refinishing the wood floors. It seemed like a good time to change the carpet to wood floors in our family room. The fellows are here today installing the new hardwood floor.

 I've been on "Rusty duty." He doesn't like the sound of the saws and hammering. He's content as long as we stay upstairs and he can sit right next to me. I had hoped to do some sewing on the black and white components that I pinned together last night. Instead,  I'm planning a project in my head. That counts, right? The truth is I have a UFO that I'm thinking of tweaking. I love the fabric. It's requiring some "unsewing", but I think the new version of the project  will be worth it. 

I just went downstairs thinking the flooring fellows would be finishing soon. They are almost done, but our neighbor is here to put tile in the laundry room. Guess, I'll get my "reverse sewing"  project. Rusty and I can watch the television upstairs while I use my brand-new seam ripper. I liked my first one so much, I bought a second one just like it:)

The Great Cover-Up

 Sinta and Sherri as part of Le Petite (a year of small projects) challenged participants to make a new ironing board cover as our first project. I was determined to use only items found in my sewing room. I remembered some left-over blocks from a completed project. Of course, I couldn't find them. I have a drawer that is reserved for stray blocks, but these 9 patches were not to be found. So I continued digging. I found some string pieced blocks from a very early quilting project. I liked the color and by combining some of the blocks this  made the blocks wide enough for the ironing board. I like a light colored ironing board cover. This blue and white yardage ( that I have no idea where or why it is in my stash ) coordinated nicely with the string blocks. I added some Insul-brite (batting/interfacing/reflects heat). I meant to add additional batting over this, but I remembered after I had finished the project. 

My ironing board cover is not bad for a first attempt. I absolutely love that I was able to use unwanted items from my sewing room. My ironing board looks much better. I know I can improve on this project the next time I need to add new life to my ironing board cover :)

Virtual Sew-Along

Last night as I was reading blogs, Thelma at Cupcakes 'n' Daisies mentioned on her blog that she was participating in a virtual quilting retreat beginning today. The event is hosted by Blackberry Creek Home Arts. The quilt-along appealed to me. I immediately clicked over to Blackberry Creek and signed up to participate. I knew I had some appointments this morning. I had an appointment for my mammogram and planned to get my annual flu shot. I wasn't able to begin sewing until a bit after noon.  The first thing I had to do was get organized. I pulled out an older project, but knew that it would take some time to figure out where I was in the pattern.

Just doing that is a big accomplishment.t I must do a better job labeling a project when I put it away. I plugged in my Itouch. It's loaded with audio books and podcasts. Listening to books or podcasts is my favorite thing to do as I sew. Today was a podcast day. I listened to  several of Pat Sloan's radio shows.

I sewed components of my Scrappy Nines in black and white. I'd like to finish the top for my SIL for a Christmas gift.

Between sewing parts of Scrappy Nines, I pieced some string blocks. Bonnie Hunter has a system with leaders and enders. Probably because my job required multi-tasking, I tend to multi-task while sewing. String blocks or rag quilt blocks work for me instead of leaders and enders.

I'm now at taking a break. I'm finished in the sewing room for the day. I have parts that need to be pinned together. I'm a BIG pinner. I also have one last section of binding to sew on my Autumn Ridge quilt. Friends still can't believe that I haven't completed it yet :) Last year was a very non-productive year. Enough said.

Before I begin, it's time for a snack:) Chocolate muffins and diet root beer. Yum:)

After my break, it's back to pinning and hand-sewing. I'm hoping to squeeze in some sewing tomorrow. My honey has some medical procedures scheduled for tomorrow. I'm his designated driver. If it works out, I'll report back tomorrow evening:)

Howl-O-Weenie

Last Saturday, DH, DS, DD (dear dog) and I loaded up the car and headed to"Howl-O-Weenie."  Howl-O-Weenie is the annual festival to raise money and awareness for the Atlanta Dachshund Rescue Group, Dream Rescue. Several years ago, Michael and I attended the festival with Rusty and he loved being around other dogs his size. The festival was at a different location. There were lots more people and dogs of all kinds. 

Dogs in costume

Avatar

Gone With the Wind

A Mardi Gras Parade

 There were lots and lots of dogs everywhere.

There were vendors with doggie treats, doggie clothing.......

Our Rusty (above) saw lots of dogs who looked just like him. He patiently endured a visit to the vet., got his yearly injections and had a manicure. Lunch was of course "Hot Dogs" and chips. Dream Rescue had dogs available for adoption and dogs needing  a foster home. Check their website for more information about the services of Dream Rescue and lots more photos from Becky Rentz Photography of the days event.