A hodgepodge of projects and a little seasonal decor.

A few years ago I made dozens of fabric pumpkins. I always thought it would be fun to have Linus in the midst of them. This year I found a ceramic Linus figure at a thrift shop, but he was painted all wrong. Having painted ceramics profusely in a former life, I brought him home to repaint. My hands are not as steady as they used to be and it took me SO MUCH LONGER than I planned!
And when it finally came down to putting the stripes on his shirt, I used a Micron Pigma pen. The hair gave me enough grief with the tiny paintbrush. I wasn't going to attempt the stripes that way, too. But I am pleased to finally have Linus in the pumpkin patch, awaiting the Great Pumpkin! : )

"Floating Foxes" is under the needle. I am making it up as I go along. I have some of my quilt design reference books handy and when I get stumped, I flip through and find something I think might work. Then I try it on a practice sandwich before actually putting it on the quilt.

After basting this quilt, as I stood in the loft to take the photo, I thought it looked like the foxes were at a New Year's celebration at midnight, with confetti fluttering through the air. If you are not familiar with the pin covers I am using here, and you pin baste your quilts for FMQ, you may want to check them out.

I use the pin covers for a few reasons.
First, with the pin covers on, and using the Kwik Klip tool, I do not experience the hand fatigue I used to get when pin basting a quilt.
Second, while free motion quilting, I am always able to spot my pins and have never run into a pin (which can hurt your machine) while using them.
Third, while quilting, it is easier to grasp and remove the pins as I quilt, when they have these covers on them.
Fourth, you can leave the pins open when not in use. With the covers on, they do not get all tangled up, so it saves even more hand stress, and saves time. I do not have to open each pin as I baste, and I do not have to close them to put them away.

My first Country Roads from Lori's SAL is quilted and waiting for binding. I was going to use red, because I feel like I overuse black. But my personal research indicates that I didn't like the red as well, so it will be black--again!

The grid lines through the green chains seem to dominate the quilting. From the front you can't even tell that I have quilted around the black rectangles.

I had some tension issues that I didn't see until I was finished. I once told myself that I could no longer quilt black-on-black at night. Well, apparently I should be barred from any thread that perfectly matches the fabric. My top thread lays a little flat in many areas, but at the moment I am not inclined to unpick--too busy chasing foxes around my quilting table!

Caught up with the Buttermilk Basin Mystery BOM.  My sunflower is not as disciplined as Miss Stacy's. It is a bit tipsy--by design (or maybe it isn't just water in that jar).





October's block should post this week. I seem to recall that at the start of this Stacy had said there would be 11 blocks. I am really curious as to how we will be setting 11 blocks.
Here are my 9 blocks so far.

Block #9 for the Attic Heirlooms Ornament of the Month is completed now. Number 10 has posted, but I don't know that I will go any farther.

Obviously, I have not been making mine into ornaments. I have cut my blocks at 4 1/2", so they will finish at 4".


The fabric I have appliqued onto is from a thrift store shirt, so it made sense to me to finish the top with repurposed fabrics from shirts. Just played with it a little bit last night, and this is what I am thinking of doing. May add another red plaid as an outer border, if I can find one that doesn't overpower the whole thing. It will only be about 15" square without the added border.

I think I am happy with it as is, and would like to have it finished before the holidays get underway, rather than be waiting for another block to post so I can get it made.

Well, the foxes are waiting for me. I'd better get back to them.
Until next time,
Janet O.