Happy Halloween - treats and a scare!

I just made one of my seasonal favorites; rice krispie treats.  So simple, yet classic and elegant.  Speaking of classics, I listened to Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Slow, but good.

My buddy Norma made the ceramic pumpkin and also sent me the napkins.  Thanks Norma!

This is a great time of year to make Apple Crisp.  I found an easy recipe here.  I used 4 different apples and it was delicious.

Now the scary part....coco had a close encounter with another dog at dog day camp on Wednesday.  We were straight off to the vet with a torn ear.  Poor thing.  They glued it and taped it.  We wrapped her head to prevent ear shaking and flapping.

Doesn't she look sad?  She's on the drugs.  They gave her a tranquilizer.

Yesterday she was still zonked out.  Here she is keeping it elevated, lol.

Today, I'm happy to report she is back to her old self.  We took a walk through town.  She was wearing her Halloween halo.

Our town has a scarecrow event every year.  This was my favorite today:

I didn't dress up this year, but I did make funny cartoons of me and Rich.

If you want to waste a little time and have a little fun you can make your own here.

Happy Halloween!  See you next week with a long awaited finished project.

Playing House with Alice Payne

On Thursday I had carpeting installed in 3 bedrooms.  While they were throwing old carpeting and padding out the window, and booming there way through the installation, I kept busy with my new applique' project.

I've decided to make 9 blocks from my antique quilt.  This quilt was made by Alice Payne and dated 1858.   See the original post here.

So here is the original quilt:

My Illinois quilt group replicated this quilt and Jan sent me a set of tracings from their project.  I'll try to get a photo of the finished quilt they made.  

Here are the first 3 blocks~

I took quite a few liberties with this block~

I also recut the shapes for this block

It is so fun to have a new applique' project!

Here is my sewing room in its current state.  The mint green carpeting is gone, but now can't see the carpeting!  I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

*******

A Cat's Tail (tale) - for Hanna who misses the cats while away at school.

The other day in the kitchen I noticed that Starbuck was down stairs - what?  Since we got coco, 4 1/2 years ago, the cats usually stay upstairs.

Next thing I know, Luna comes to the kitchen.  It's a beautiful day, so I open the door to the deck.  They used to like to go out on the balcony outside my old sewing room.  Before coco, they used to like to hang out in our yard.

So here they sit, contemplating their past life outside.

"What's out there?"  "I dunno"  "Should we see?"

Starbuck, being the man decides to take the lead.

"I'm the leader, I say when we go.......let's go" (favorite movie line from Aristocats).

"Let's go by the grill"

"yea, the grill...."

After several minutes of checking things out.  Here they come, back to the comforts of home.

Wait for me!

Remember when we were actually outside.....yea, we'll have to try that again some time.

I hope you have a great week and a better cleaner sewing room than mine!

What a (re)Treat!

Thank you all so much for your encouragement on my Jubilee quilt.  I feel so close to the finish line.

Oh, isn't it wonderful to run away from it all with quilt friends?  Last weekend was my retreat to Rosa Mountain House in beautiful upstate New York.

What did I work on?   Nine Patches, of course!! Her are my rerpo patches.  This setting uses exactly 100 - Bingo.  I just happen to have 100.  I still need to decide on the outer block colors.

Here are my modern patches.  I'm setting them with a grey polka dot and a black and white script.

Our hostess, Pat served us delicious food

This is the beautiful view from the dining area.

You may remember last spring that we planned a challenge based on a page from a magazine.  You can see that post here.

Margaret's:  "Memories of India" pattern is Elephant's Walk' by Bunny Leighton.

Nancy's (who ended up with a horrid cold and couldn't come :(  we missed you!

Susan's:  Mad-hattan

Pauline's -

Norma's - (sorry, it was against a window and you can see the other side)

Mine:  Our Mother of Mexico; Frida Fashionista

Aren't they fun?  I think everyone did a great job interpreting their magazine pages.

Thanks, Norma, for helping me with my modern blocks color placement.  I can't wait to see what she does with hers.

She kept busy making blocks with selvages.

Pauline worked on these four patch posie blocks.

I forced her into a "we-fie"

The sewing room also has a lovely view.  Renata is busy with prairie points and Elizabeth is sewing away....

Next time I have to get a group shot!

Back here in CT, we are getting new carpeting in 3 bedrooms on Thursday, so we've been slowly emptying them.  Good bye mint green carpeting and good riddance!

The sewing room will re-open next week.  In the meantime, there always hand quilting on the Jubilee Quilt.  Hope you are having a beautiful fall!

Hello? Anyone Home??

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to post about.  Then I have to many little things.  Oh well, here goes.

I've been working really, really hard on my Jubilee quilt.  You know it's bad when Mr. Fun says "you've been working on that one a long time...."  Wha?  We did actually move our whole lives during the quilting process.....

I only have 1/2 of 1 border left to quilt!!!

I switched up Andrew and Sigs (and guest) bedroom this fall to feature cheddar.

Mary B. made me this lovely hand dyed quilt.

I love how she quilted it

The other nightstand has this little cheddar beauty that I made years ago.

Speaking of Andrew and Sig - we had a lovely day at the zoo yesterday.

  

who can resist face cutout photo boards?  not us.

And we fell in love with the baby goats.  These 2 were born to Peaches last Friday.  There were some that were born on Sunday.  I want one!!

I have had several readers ask how I hang my quilts.  Here it is:  The Hang it Dang it.  I was introduced to this by my friend, Elizabeth O'S.

These are available on-line at several websites, just google it and order one.

It has changed my life!   It is a bold statement, but true.

I have just hung my 4th hanger in my sewing room.  It takes more time to find a hammer and nail than to hang it.  It only takes 1 nail and is self leveling.

The instructions are super easy to follow and changing a full sized quilt takes less than 5 minutes, which is how I enjoy different quilts throughout the year.

here is my new hanger and an older quilt "Lollipop Garden"

Sometimes I like to offer a behind the scenes shot of the UTTER CHAOS going on in my life.  This shot taken right after the beauty shot as I walked away from the mess.  As per usual, coco looked bored to death, literally.

Photo cropping has also changed my life......have a great week.