Halloween Joy Luck!

The weather is changing, fall is here! It’s beautiful outside right now. I love the leaves turning a bright orange or dark red, it’s amazing. I was lucky this past weekend and was able to attend one of my very best friend’s wedding in Montana. Catherine and I go way back, to the 9^th grade. We did everything together, shared boyfriends, worked at the swimming pool as life guards, had sleepovers every weekend. I am lucky to still call her a friend, and we have been able to see each other often since graduation. I love her! Her new husband is a great guy, and I am so happy for them. This trip to Montana was really great for me because I was able not only to see Catherine, but my family as well. I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in Billings, and it was fun to catch up with them.

Their kids are great, and I was kicking myself for not bringing my family with me (even though I really couldn’t). After the wedding I drove to Wyoming to see my Grandma and my other Aunt and Uncle. The drive was gorgeous and it kept just bringing back all of those memories from growing up. I got all sentimental and was just so happy!

So, this past weekend was great. In between wedding photos, checking out the flowers and attending dinners, I was able to go to a quilt shop. Of course I wouldn’t miss out on some shopping. I looked online before I left for a shop that looked good. I found Four Winds Quilting in Billings. The owner Nancy runs it out of her home, it is only open on the weekends I think, but she sells primarily online, go check her out. I happened to go on Friday morning. Her basement was full of the most awesome fabric! It was hard not to buy some of everything. Here is the stack I walked out with. Nancy says she plans on opening a store front soon, good luck! She has great taste in fabric, and she is very nice, I think I’ll be a long time customer :)

While sitting at the airports waiting for my connections, I brought my Halloween quilt with me to bind. I was stitching away when a lady walked up to me and asked if I quilted. We ended up talking for an hour about quilting and friends, and how much fun it all is. That’s great isn’t it? Here is the Joy Luck Schnibbles quilt complete.

Christina inspired me, her blog, A Few Scraps is really nice. She has all kinds of ideas for free motion quilting. Since this is such a small quilt I dove in and tried out some new quilting. I found a lime green thread and wandered back and forth with it all over the colored fabrics. Then I used white thread to make these weird spider things. The texture of the quilt is really nice. Thanks Christina!

October WIP

This month I’ve been working on a cross stitch (shock!) Here is my progress on Bent Creek: Snapperville so far. It’s coming right along.

I’ve also been quilting my little Schnibbles Joy Luck. This little Halloween quilt needs to be done before Halloween. I’m trying some fancy-schmancy free motion quilting on it.

The Hexagon quilt has 3 rows completed. These triangles are a pain to work with, but the result is pretty cool don’t you think? It took me an hour to do ONE row. I got to be best friends with my seam ripper, holy moley! That’s okay though, we all have to learn sometime haha!

I have basted my second “quilt from my stash” quilt also, that is patiently waiting for me to quilt it. Sorry I don't have a pic of it right now.

And I wanted to say Thank You to Denise of “My Life in Quilts”. She chose my blog for the Sunshine Award! Awww! How nice. I’d like to pass this on to some of my other favorite blogs as of late. Here are my regular reads if you are interested.

Posie Gets Cozy, Quiddity Quilts, The Sometimes Crafter, Suburban Stitcher, Oh Fransson!, Red Pepper Quilts, The Twisted Stitcher, Happy Zombie, LaVieEnRosie

THAT quilt is finally finished.

In between school starting (hello 4^th grade homework??!!!), Taekwondo (Curren earned a new belt!), Cub Scouts starting again (teaching 8 boys to make a leather wallet), house decluttering (million trips to Goodwill and counting), decorating for Fall, I’ve been able to fit some sewing in!

I decided on my layout for the Hexagon quilt I am making. I’m going with the big stars. Look at all of these triangles waiting patiently to be sewn together.

There was also a quilt finish!! I was talking to my BFF Becky today on the phone and told her I finished the blue snowflake with sparklies quilt, you know that one?? And she says “yes Heather, the one you’ve been working on all year?? The one you bought two years ago??” haha! Thanks Becky for putting it into perspective for me. Yes I finished THAT ONE.

The pattern of this quilt is called Starry Night by University Moda. It's a big quilt measuring 86" x 86". I put a light blue flannel on the back, and used a striped fabric for the binding. This is a kit, from Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe I bought two years ago.

I had it quilted, and the binding sewn on back in July. Well, I finally finished hand sewing the binding down on Sunday and Monday. I am in love with it. Mark asked what this quilt was for. I told him to put on the end of our bed during the winter. He just looked at me, you know the look… the “you are crazy woman” look. I am glad he still loves me!!

I will now go back to my crazy fun life, see you next time.

Hexagons!

I couldn’t help it, I pulled out the hexagon quilt along project I started, and haven’t touched all summer. I paired the strips, and sewed them together on Wednesday night, and got most of them cut out. I finished cutting them on Thursday. So, now it’s all about the layout of the blocks, there are several that I like. But… I cannot decide to save my life. What do you guys think?

Since the fabric has busy prints on it, I was leaning towards this one.

This pinwheel one though?? Too cute.

I am using Heather Mulder Petersen’s book called: Sizzlin’ Sixties. It has so many great quilts cut from a 60 degree ruler! You can use Jelly Rolls to make these quilts, awesome. Julie over at Jaybird Quilts started this whole hexagon quilt along. It’s her fault! If you are wondering what fabric this is. It’s called Plume, designed my Tula Pink. It’s pretty and bright. The solid I am using is an off white. I was thinking of getting some light creamy yellow, or a light aqua, but I won’t. I need to use what I’ve got and not buy more :)

Jessie took over after I was done and made lots of designs of her own :)