Boo!

Hey ho, it's Halloween!  Which also means that it's the last day of October and November starts tomorrow. November! How did this happen? For our part of the country, the first of November opens the betting for when the first snow will fall. Let's hope it's not tonight, because it's pretty cold. Be sure to put those costumes on over a coat, kids!

This week, I finished the Halloween wall quilt, just in time for all the little goblins we expect to ring our doorbell tonight:

I swear that bottom edge is really straight!

This is much bigger than it looked in the magazine. It's about 32 by 16. I seem to have this condition where I'll look at the measurements for a pattern and still have no real concept of how big the project really is. In my mind this should have turned out about half this size. 32 by 16? Tiny. 60 by 80? Should fit a king, right?

No real problem, though, because they're very cute! I added the tabs to make it hang better in my house. Here is the very festive back:

Really, what else would I have used that fabric for? It's perfect here! And you can see behind it that we still have leaves on the maple tree. More raking in our future!

The only other thing I really worked on this week were some new Drunkard's Path blocks:

Gosh, I like this green so much better! And surprise--those pink corners make a very nice secondary pattern when they're together. The thing I like best about these blocks is that the print becomes the "neutral." I think I get stuck on the idea of using white all the time and forget that other fabrics can make very nice quilts too.

I'm really enjoying making these blocks. I never knew they were so easy or else I would have made them years ago! Really, they're each only two pieces. The curved seam takes a little getting used to, but otherwise they go together really quickly. And there are so many cool patterns! I already know that I want to make a second one using a different layout.  I have some turquoise, which I think will make some very nice blocks. Maybe I'll start on those next week. (So much for not getting carried away.)

Everybody have a great weekend! Tonight I'll be guarding the candy bowl and answering the door, then it's more library time for me on Saturday.

Gosh, I hope we have enough!

Hope you get to do something fun. It's cold, so we should all stay inside and sew!

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, crazy mom quilts, and Vicki Welsh's Drunkard's Path Quilt Along. Be sure to stop by!

Decisions, decisions

Well, hi there, folks! Hope you all had a great few days. I have hardly sewn a stitch! It was 70 degrees this weekend, so of course we finished up our work outside while dodging political phone calls. It was massive amounts of no fun, even though the weather was nice. Then I spent a long, long time in the library, which was productive in other ways. But I do have some sewing things planned for this week!

First, here is the Halloween hanging, all set up and ready to quilt:

Hey, if it's done by Halloween, it counts!

I laid out the blocks for RSC14, just to see how many more of each block I'll need. Here are the 9-patches:

Yes, that's the brown ruler print hanging off the edge there. Not to worry, I'm sure it will fit in just fine. I think I need 8 more blocks to finish this. I'd like to have the blocks be 5 across, with 4 in the alternate rows. I'm also thinking that I'll use the extra triangles I have to make 4 blocks that I'll put in the center. I'll probably use just a solid white for the sashing because there are so many scrap white-on-whites in here. I have a black and white print for the setting triangles, and I think I might want a multicolored polka dot fabric for the border. I could change my mind on that one, though.

And then here are the Odd Fellows:

Yeah, not the best picture, but it was so dark out when I was taking pictures at 5 pm. It just didn't work to hang them on the fence. Darned planetary tilt! And it's really hard to take pictures of big blocks!

Anyway, I seem to be missing a green. I'll have to look for that one. I decided not to make the brown block. Just not my thing. I could change my mind on that, too, though.  I think I need at least 5 more, because I want it to be at least 5 by 5. Odd Fellow's quilts are usually set without sashing for the secondary patterns to emerge, but I think I want a very small sashing to separate these blocks because the colors sometimes clash and don't really allow for those secondary patterns. It would also mean no matching, which is always good.

Thanks to everyone for their comments on the Drunkard's Path blocks. I think we all agree on the Wedding Ring layout, but I have to change the fabric. That green is just not working for me. Instead I have these:

This will be a much, much better green. The other was just too light. I essentially had two medium fabrics, which made for a really boring quilt. The only real goal I have for this week is to make some blocks and get this quilt going. If I have time, I'll also quilt up some of those projects I have basted.

Finally, because this post was full of boring pictures, enjoy this lovely fall picture from our front yard:

It was beautiful, but all those leaves are on the ground now. Ah, well.

Hope everyone gets some productive sewing time this week! Linking to Linky Tuesday, WIP Wednesday, and Let's Bee Social, and also the awesome Angela at soscrappy for RSC14.

Finally finished Friday

Hi all! So, I had visions of getting a lot of quilting done this week while I was also busy doing actual work that people pay me to do. Guess how that worked out. Yeah. I must have been delusional or something. But I did finish up at least a few things that I can show you, so it was not a complete failure.

First of all, the Fiesta Pinwheels quilt (from June, for heaven's sake) is finally all quilted and bound!

Love it! This quilt comes pre-certified as cuddly. True story: I trimmed the quilt on the table (because who can crawl around on the floor anymore?), measured it, and left it folded on the sofa while I went up to make the binding. I came down to get it to sew the binding on, only to find that Mr. AQ was already using it.

Our conversation went something like this:

ME: Didn't you notice that the edges weren't finished yet?

HIM: Yeah, I wondered about that.

ME: Well, give it here and I'll go finish it and then you can have it back.
HIM: Can it wait until this inning is over?

Really.

Anyway, I really like how it turned out, and it now lives in our otherwise tastefully decorated family room. And I love the pictures from the park! Never took one there before, but you can bet I'll do it again. One guy gave me a funny look, but who cares? He's probably not a quilter or else he'd totally get it!

Another thing that I did was make up some more Drunkard's Path blocks and try out some layouts. I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but there are so many options! (Marti Michell has a very helpful page with many layouts HERE.) Here is one very traditional option:

(Ignore the wrinkles--they all need to be pressed!)

A very cute option, which would have been absolutely fine if I hadn't tried switching the colors:

I like this better! This actually looks like a path through a garden or something. I would have started stitching these into blocks if I hadn't also found this layout:

Fabulous! So now I have no idea what to do. I want a traditional layout, which both of these are; I just can't decide which one fits the fabric better. Anyone with an opinion, help me out! Of course, I could make two quilts. . .which would be me getting carried away again. Thank goodness I don't have enough of this fabric for two quilts, or we all know what would happen!

And, last but absolutely not least, I got confused for a little bit about this month's colors for RSC14. For some reason I was thinking "brown AND black" and not "brown OR black." So I have these three more 9-patch blocks:

Oh, well--the more the merrier, I guess! Not sure that brown ruler fabric was a good choice, but it seems okay. We'll see when it's time to lay out the quilt, which is coming soon.

Everybody have a great weekend. I will be trying to make my way through the pile of things that need to be quilted up. The sewing room is getting to be too crowded with all of those unquilted projects laying around!

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, crazy mom quilts, Vicki Welsh's Drunkard's Path Quilt Along, and SoScrappy. Be sure to stop by and wave hello to everyone!

Goals are nice

Hi folks! Well, we put a lot of the garden to bed for the year this past weekend, so now it's time for me to put some quilty projects to bed too. Here is what I'll be working on for a little while this week amidst all the stress and general mayhem. I have a very hard deadline for something very important this Friday, so I may not get to everything, but its always good to have goals.

First, I want to finish (and quilt up!) the Halloween paper-pieced project. I think it would be nice to have it actually finished in October, don't you? Here is it's current state:

It needs the remaining details and then quilting. By the way, if you're considering making this, the fabric amounts listed in the pattern are greatly exaggerated. For example, the pattern called for 3/8 yard of the green, but I only used a 3 inch strip, so plan accordingly. While I was piecing this, I had to tape some sections together because they were too big to print in one piece. I used a tip from Bonnie Hunter and used "paper bandaids"

These are just labels used instead of tape. They worked great! I sewed right through them and they were easy to rip when I removed the paper.

I've also been cutting out a bunch more Drunkard's Path blocks.

I decided to keep the original green. I want to start putting some blocks together this week so I can see what they look like together. While I'm thinking of it, does anyone have a good use for the leftover "bites" that get cut out of the squares? They seem like such a waste, but they're an odd shape. Maybe I'll just stitch some of them together into circles. I hate wasting fabric!

 I also have a small pile of things to be quilted, so it's time to get a move on!

Okay, it looks like a small pile, but believe me, that will take me a while.

I also have two quilts that are all quilted and sitting here waiting for binding.

Pretty backings, aren't they? Wait until you see the quilts!

That looks like a pretty ambitious list for me for the week, so we'll see how far I can get!  

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday, and Let's Bee Social. Happy sewing, everyone!

One final note: I had to disable anonymous comments on the blog because of a very persistent spammer. If you want to say something but don't want to register, go ahead and email me: academicquilter AT gmail DOT com. Thanks for understanding, friends!