It's Almost October.....

and here is a little early Halloween "candy" to look at:  a new thing... this is a fireplace mantle quilt....

 this is the left side of it, with the owls, cat and ghost sitting on a limb, and the bats hanging from it....

 the middle, with a witch flying in front of the full moon,

and the end of the mantle quilt .. "Trick or Treat", Mr. Bones and of course & JACK !

This looks so cute on a fireplace mantle, but, I thought, I need to find more uses for these stitches !  So, I figured out a way to add a rod pocket to the top, and it can be a window valance.  Also, with a little pattern manipulation I can make it into a table runner with scallops and designs on both sides.... I think I really need to make one of those for myself !

The last day of 2010 !

I can hardly believe it.... where did this year go? Busy year! What will next year bring? I guess we will see shortly !

Thought I'd post one last time this year, since I can now reach my keyboard with my mending shoulder! I think I will be starting PT next week, but am still wearing my little "strightjacket" !

In the meantime, I'll post a couple of pictures for the season.....

Above is a little table runner I made using the Easy Striped Table Runner pattern and a 60 degree ruler. I love this pattern and the first thing I usually look for when entering a quilt shop are and striped fabrics !

Here is the back, with the snowflakes I quilted on it. It's nice to have the table topper be reversible... I should work on something for Valentines day.......If you know of any cute Valentines stripe that I can use, send me the name of the fabrc, will you? Then I can start the hunt to see if I can find it. Sometimes the funnest part is the 'hunt' !

Next I want to show you a customer quilt that I just love..... I really like evergreen trees, and have a couple patterns that I want to make into quilts. I don't know the name of this quilt pattern, but if you do, please let me know !

Here's a little close up of the pinecone stitching........

Another pattern I found on my travels this weekend ( I'm in Minnesota for the New Years weekend....) is the Thimbleberries Trees by Starlight. It is the first pattern of their 2010 BOM. I had actually seen the block before, but hadn't seen it made into the quilt. I saw the quilt this weekend made up in Brainerd, Mn. and now want to do the full quilt sometime. Another wish for my wish list.

2011 should be a stash manicure year for me.... not sure if I am ready to commit yet.... I do, however need to get the stash organized. That is probably where I should start.

Well... I had best go now... we are heading out to a fun New Years weekend at the farm near the lake.... expecting another snowstorm...and a nice big bonfire tonite if the weather lets us.

Here's wishing you a safe and wonderful New Years !

Beth

UGLY BETTY

Hi Everyone. . .

What can I say, I've been BUSY ! Trying to play catch up here, not sure if it is working ! But, since my friend, LaRae, already did most of the writing, I will just post this.

This is the story of Ugly Betty. LaRae called me ( she lives an hour and a half away from me ) and wanted me to quilt this quilt that she was piecing for her local church raffle. She said she disliked the colors strongly ( not really the way she put it but you get the drift. . .) and she was tired of the colors, tired of the stars, and could I just put a quick overall stitching on it and send it back ? "Well, of course!" I said, and the next I knew, Ugly Betty was on my doorstep. Well, now LaRae and I could almost be twins, because we normally ( well, perhaps normally really isn't in our vocabulary ) like the same things, right down to pulpy orange juice. If I show her a pattern, she's already got it. If she shows me fabric, I like it too. Well of only a couple things that are different about us and our likes and dislikes, is that she is a pink person, and altho I might admire pink on others, it does not feel good on me. So I was shocked when Ugly Betty came to visit and I opened up the box and brought her out, and I just loved her ! I loved the colors, loved the fabrics, and I thought UB needed a good old custom quilting "spa treatment" so. . . she got one. Below is what LaRae had to say about UB and some pictures. Hope you enjoy her too !

quote: "Had to share a story with my friends and relatives about Ugly Betty...........................

Once upon a time there was a quilter who wanted to help out a local church with their bazaar. She wanted to make a quilt for the Englevale church so she said, "What do you want and what colors do you want?" Well, one of the church ladies said she had a perfect pattern. So the quilter went to the store and bought the pattern and had the shop ladies pick out all the fabric for it. The quilter sewed and sewed and sewed...all 1833 pieces! But the quilter was very sad...the colors were not her. She was more of a bright pink, purple, green person and now she was sewing on down to earth colors of gold, rust, browns and blues and it made her blue to even sew on it. She forged on and got it done but was very upset with it and all along was calling it "Ugly Betty" It lacked luster and beauty. She decided to let her fairy Godmother, Beth Cole, the quilting lady, have a go at it. Well, Beth worked her magic and turned it into a beauty! Here is the result of waving her magic wand and applying beautiful quilting stitches! You should see it in person! There are pillow shams to match also.

The Good Shepherd Church Bazaar is April 26th and I believe the time is 7pm to start but I can find out for sure. Hope you can make it and buy a ticket or two. There will be lots of things to bid on and lots of home baked goodies.

LaRae"

That was such a nice letter that she wrote and sent out. . . No WONDER she was sad about the quilt, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE PIECES ? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? well, let me tell you, LaRae did an absoutely BEAUTIFUL job of piecing this quilt, and I would be thrilled to be the owner ! I have some tickets to the raffle so I hope I win, and I really think we need to rename her. . . . .

Don't forget that you can click on the pictures ( or maybe just some of them ) to have a closer look !

'Tis the Season

I've been trying to hold out for December 1 to post this quilt, but I guess we are close enough now. Thanks, Georgeann for letting me quilt this ! She did a beautiful job of piecing, and appliqueing. If you click on the picture for a close up, you can see the white and off white log cabin blocks and if you look real close in the white blocks you can see the quilted holly and berries. She used many different white and off white fabrics for this quilt, and it really is so gorgeous. I'm thinking that someday, I would like to make one like this for our house !

This quilt sure put me in the Christmas mood.

Here's hoping all your Thanksgivings were happy, and that you all are getting in the Holiday Spirit !

Now I need to get a crackin' there's more Christmas quilts to be quilted !

Pleasant Pheasant Pfabric - Pheasant Country

Well, now, isn't this a perfect quilt for this area ! Pheasant Country. . . . We have pheasants all over up here, and MANY pheasant hunters !

and how about this pleasant pheasant phabric ? sorry, I have wanted to do that for so long, I just couldn't help myself !

This quilt piecing pattern was a free pattern found on the Quilting Treasures website and my customer Kathy did a fabulous job of piecing it up in these gorgeous fabrics. Now, I personally have over 3,000 quilting patterns and thousands more available to me. . . and do you think I could find one . . . . . . . . . just one that would do this quilt justice ? na. . . . . but. . . I can have one designed ! Look below at the Pheasant Country quilt back for the quilting pattern we came up with ! It took 3 of us, Kathy, me, and most of all Laurie Thomas, the designer. I used a color of thread that blended in with the top, so the quilting wouldn't overpower the beautiful fabrics in the top. A special thanks to Kathy, who used a quiet tone on tone fabric for the quilt backing so the quilting can shine.

I just find myself drawn more and more to the quiet, tone on tones now, just to let the quilting tell it's own story.

Don't you just love T-Shirt quilts ?

Here's a picture of our nephew and his then girlfriend ( now wife ) on their graduation day with the t-shirt quilt that I made him. Actually, in full disclosure, this was before I purchased my longarm, so I pieced this quilt, and then had it quilted. This probably was the catalyst for me to get my own machine, though ! Now, my niece-in-law has asked me to make her a t-shirt quilt too ( no hurry she said. . . . ha ha . . . she doesn't know HOW LONG my project list is ! and my project list even includes a t-shirt quilt for me. . . anyway, she made it on the list. ) OOPS I probably just spilled the beans, because my niece also wants a t-shirt quilt, but she has a sewing machine and is just starting to learn to quilt. I told her that I would be very happy to show her how to piece one of these and then would quilt it for her, but that she would have to make the top ! Her quilt is for her son who is graduating this school year.

Don't forget you can click on the picture to see an enlargement, and look near my N-I-L's wrist, we put a picture of our nephew on photofabric of him singing in a concert in the quilt too !

Anyway, the quilt in the picture turned out so nice, and the backing is flannel, and we all know how cozy that feels to wrap up in !

Back from a BUSY SUMMER !

Oh I have been a bad girl and have not been posting. What can I say. . . it has been a really busy summer ! Then it gets to be awhile and you feel like you need something REALLY good to post about. Well, I am ready to break the ice with my Haunted Table Runner. It is a wholecloth, stitched with orange thread that glows in blacklight, and bound in a cute candy corn binding. This was so much fun to put together, I think I need to do another one for a gift !

WHIRL INTO WINTER Bloggers GIVEAWAY !

Winter is surely here, and so is this fun giveaway ! Click on the SNOWFLAKE icon to visit more blogs participating in the Whirl into Winter Quilt Blog Giveaway .

If you would like to enter to have a chance to win this Gooseberry Patch Every Day Calendar, and the LAST quilty item that I made in 2008, please leave a comment, and your name, and for fun, and to help me do some planning. . . please let me know . . . " If you were going to design yourself a new sewing room or quilting studio, what is the one thing that it would have to have ? " Hopefully you noticed that the Snowman in the Woods table runner is really a too-fer. . . . one side has cute snowmen and all their woodland friends, and on the otherside has quilted snowflakes ! I know you have seen the snowflakes before in an earlier post. . but these snowmen wanted me to quilt them here too ! and YES it is ANOTHER Easy Striped Table Runner ! ( Who has time to piece ? ) If you do not have a blog, please leave me an email address too, in case you are the winner . Don't forget, you can click on the picture to see a close up ( just to be sure if you want to enter or not ! )

Good Luck, and I look forward to your suggestions !

a n d HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 !

Another Easy Striped Table Runner

I realized that I never shared the DIL's table runner. . . here it is, still on my quilting machine. . .and before it was trimmed and bound. It looks much better now on her table ! This is made from the same fabric as her quilt in the previous post. Click on the picture to check out the primitive stitchin' ! OOPS ! I see after checking out the close up, that this picture is before I quilted it ! Well, it has the same quilting as the border of the quilt in the last post. Next time I am at the DIL's I will try to remember to take a picture of the finished runner and post it.

I just love these snowmen though ! ! !

Birthday Quilt

Hope you all had a wonderful and safe Holiday with the ones you love, we did, except for missing our son who is still in NY on base, but home from Iraq and we are thankful for that ! We expect him to be home for good, sometime next week.

I thought you might like to see a couple pictures of the quilt I made for his wife, for her November birthday. She loves primitives too, and when I saw this fabric I knew she would love it. I don't have much time to piece, especially at this time of year, so there is a one yard panel in the middle with 3 borders. Click on a picture to see the cute snowmen that I stitched in the border and in the middle of the quilt. My friend and I liked this so much that I have one to make for myself in the red colorway and hers is just like my DIL's. So I can plan on stitching this out at least 2 more times ! I backed DIL's quilt with a warm, cozy flannel. She was happy with her gift, and it goes perfectly in her primitive decorated home. It also matches the Easy Striped Table Runner that I made her last month.

I'm busy now thinking of Christmas decorating, we got some of the outside lights up before our little snow, and now I am taking count of the inside trees that need tree skirts and I will soon post on a little tree skirt project! Till then. . . .enjoy the holidays. . . .

A Bit of Halloween. . .

T
The 2 pictures above are of the table topper I pieced last year and quilted, I did get it bound this year in hopes of enjoying it on my Halloween table, but it is currently residing where the table runner below is. . . . . This table topper is another easy piecing pattern, made from a panel. I used plain black for the backing so the pumpkin stitching shows up ! I just love these pumpkins !

Here is my table runner that I made for myself. If you look closely you can see the spiderwebs I quilted on it. Since this picture was taken, I actually put binding on it ( ! ) and instead of residing on my table, it is currently on display at a 3 week quilt show at a local bank. The last day of the show is Friday, Oct 31st ! So. . . either I leave my Halloween decorations up for a few days, or save it for next year ! The pattern is a free pattern on the internet, from http://www.ttfabrics.com/ and is called the Easy Striped table runner. Now when I enter a quilt store I head straight for the stripes ! Since I am the quilter, I don't get too much time for piecing, so I love it when I find a fun easy piecing pattern ! oops. . . I just checked the website, and it WAS the right website, but they must have retired the pattern. If anyone wants to know how to do this, just let me know, and I will try my best to explain it to you.

Happy Halloween everybody ! May your all your quilting projects finish for the correct holiday !

Beth

Catching up on Business. .

I had better finish up about an earlier post, I mentioned that we went to JunkFest, what a great time. DIL,DH and I went and had a great time. DIL found a few things, the best among them was a large primitive blanket chest that fits perfectly in her entry. She has the best eye for primitive decorating.

I found a cute little bookshelf, it is oak, and stained black ( not necessarily my preference, the black stain, but it is growing on me) but a perfect size for neatening ( a new word ? but it works! ) my magazine problem ! here it is. . . . I have 3 spots, the women's magazines I need to catch up on, on the top left, below that are just the fall quilting magazines from this year and from some other years , the bottom right are recipe magazines and the top right are DH magazines and a dictionary. Now that I have the magazines tamed, I need to get them read ! I really like the size of this bookshelf, in fact, it sat empty for about a month while I considered the best place for it, it would have worked well as a nightstand, it almost had a place in my sewing room upstairs, or my quilting room downstairs. . . but for now is holding down the end of the couch in the living room. We will see how it behaves there, for now. Who knows where it might end up ! It certainally is a versitile piece of furniture, and is deceptively heavy !

Beth

Time to Type !

Let's see. . . there is lots to catch up on, as it has been a super busy month ! Most notably and happily to report, is that our son, is back in the good old USA after his 2nd Iraq tour. He came back last week, and instead of taking his leave, coming home for a visit then flying back to New York to his Army base to begin processing out, he decided to stay there and "get 'er done". His wife flew out for a few days, and as for me, I am just thrilled and content knowing he is "home" and I can pick up the phone and call any old time I want. E.D.T.A. ( estimated date of TRUE arrival home ) is early December. After waiting and worrying all this time, that is good enough for me.

Also have been busy with fall yard and garden work, DH has been canning salsa, pickles, carrots, etc. while I have been quilting. I am getting ready for a QOV sew day in Fargo this weekend, and we are hosting our own QOV Sew day in our town on Sat. Oct 25th. So many things to think of and organize, and difficult because we have no idea how many quilters will be coming ! But the basics are done, have a location, have helpers, the notice is out to the papers and radio, and next week it will be time to iron out the fine details ! That is a guarantee that next week will go fast also !

Check out our QOV website: www.qovf-um.org

Did I tell you that I belong to the funnest bookclub in town ? ( Maybe I did. . .) anyway, we took a girl's weekend and went to Duluth. . . had a great time. . . scenery was beautiful. . .. . they even let me go to a quilt store ( right on the shores of Lake Superior) ! It was a great time and it would be a good idea for me to post some pictures. . . . but for now, I gotta go, there is some sewing I have to do yet before I leave for Fargo tomorrow !

Beth