lets play.....finish the poem...

Alright ladies, I need you to put on your thinking caps! Here's a poem in a Halloween stitchery done by Cheri Payne when she was doing classes at Country Loft. Therefore I doubt there was ever a pattern for sale. I have that on good authority. But like I said...when a gal wants something, she wants it, so I'll make my own. Consider it an homage to Cheri...

I have a picture from the Country Loft Quilt show gallery, but won't show it here since it's not my picture. I'm ready to start stitching, however the last two lines are obscured and I swear, I can't think of what they say. So, If you'd like to play along...read the poem and give your best guess at what those last two lines are....

Ghosts
Bats
Pumpkins Alight
Black Cat
Spooky
Witches hat
eek a spider
*??erie sights...Eerie Sights!
*??ic night...Magic Night!

I was thinking Scary sights...but even spelled SCARIE sights doesn't work...it's "erie"

SO here's what I will do for you! The first person to either (A) find the right answer or (B) make up a new suitable replacement answer ....gets a prize!! How's that? I'll put together something very nice, I promise. ***** SaraRules! wins the prize...Sarah, I think you filled in in with exactly what was meant to be there! Even if it turns out not to be the original, it sounds perfectly good to me!
Frantic and Panic were good but didn't portray the magic of the night. Of course it made even more sense when I deleted the "s" on the end of Magic. Typo on my part! But of course I couldn't think of anything! Thanks for playing ladies! I knew I could count on you!

Sara send me your address by email and I'll pop and nice surprise into the mail for you this!! week!

fall is lurking...

Yesterday was 69! Seriously awesome...even though it's gonna hit 80 tomorrow, it's not expected to get above 70-74 for a while now. Cross your fingers it stays put. In the mean time I figured if I decorated for fall it would come running! To that end I got something else almost finished! Just needs quilting...

Plaid Pumpkins by Cheri Payne 23 x 23

Gotta love me some Cheri Payne patterns. I got 4 new ones from her yesterday and I ordered 5 more from Country Loft yesterday with some plaids.

Hit a bit of a wall today but I think some lunch will cure that and I'll get moving. I think really it was trying to find enough wool pieces to do the Nativity quilt was what got me frustrated and stuck. See we have no wool in the stores around here...no homespuns, no wool, no Primitive stuff for sale...nope, not happening. SO it's hard to run out and pick up a few pieces of wool unless you shop online for $200 worth of bundles to get the right few colors...and that ain't happening. **I think some of you thought I meant *I* had no homespuns. My wording, sorry.... I have lots. I just can't get wool locally or homespuns, Nothing of that sort is sold in my nearby area.**

So onto idea #2. Do most of the applique in plaid homespuns and the rest in a few select wool pieces. I'm gonna call Quilters Station for a few pieces I need. I need to send some $$ out to the best shopper I know and have her pick up some wool for me the next time she and her sista's do a grand tour of the fabulous shops out there.

Now for lunch! Hubby should be home soon...he came home half day today and is bringing me some Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup. I thought you'd like to see one of the kitty's...I found Pixel laid out at the foot of my bed. They like my side because I keep the sleep number really low and squishy and even their 15 pound bodies sink down into the mattress!

fish oil....

Man I love getting packages from Thousands of Bolts! They come in the coolest pizza boxes! I have about 6 of these in the closet holding projects that are waiting or on hold. Plus what can't you say about getting fabric at rock bottom prices...not bottom quality goods either, but first rate fabric. I got some big yardage of two nice homespuns.

Now I also wanted to show the Fish Oil I take. It's from Trader Joe's and reading the label was interesting...it's oil made from anchovy and sardines. Weird but okay, they are both very oily fish so I guess that makes sense. I do think it's helping a lot and next time I get my bloodwork done it just might show up in the inflammation levels. I'll let you know what happens.

Check.....

Christmas Elf Stitchery finished................................CHECK !


Christmas Mice Stitchery piecing done.................CHECK !!

Log Cabin Angel finished..................................................CHECK !!!

I don't want to jinx myself but I have been tearing up the September list of sewing goals! As with half the things I do, I changed the borders and stuff...much simpler! But I like them all the same.

*****DETAILS for those who might ask later:********
Christmas Elf's official name is Welcome Christmas by JoAnn Mullaly (jampatterns@cox.net) ... I got it at Country Loft. Christmas Mice is from Cinderberry Stitches. Left side bar gives you places in the USA where you can purchase patterns.

With that I also made the final two Dresden plates for my four patch quilt similar to this. And...I'm 3/4 done on my version of a Cheri pattern of fall pumpkins. I say version only because I don't have the pattern. I guessed at the sizes and they work for me. If you can't tell, I do this a lot...seriously, a LOT! BUT, I also buy lots. I just got 7 Cheri Payne patterns, some old and some new!

Now I have tons of hand projects to do and that may take longer due to the time constraints with my trigger finger problems and the tendon. It's getting much better though and I seriously think it's because I'm taking 1100 milligrams of fish oil everyday that has other junk in there too. Nature's anti-inflammatory. But I'm still working and making tracks!

YEP.......I probably just jinxed myself good.

new find...

I knew I wanted one of these, so last week I headed up to a local quilt shop and got one. Actually it's my sister's MIL's shop in Williamsburg, VA...her husband makes the ladders and they are spectacular. Solid oak and about 7 1/2 feet tall. First time I ever had to tie down my car trunk...even with the seat slid up and folded down I was missing a few inches of clearing the trunk. Quite an experience, but when a girl wants something she will find a way!

It's not full because I'm still thinking what to put out, I don't have all that many fall quilts, plus my brights and 30's quilts seems like summer and I wanted more fall colored quilts out. I'll add them as I make some more and pull some out.

**Don't pay attention to the 2 pictures shoved behind the ladder, just a bit of picture rearranging going on and they'll be up in their new home soon.**

mind the fingers and toes...

hubby's not invisible so parts of him show when holding up finished quilts. At least until I get my medium quilt holder up on the wall. It needs a coat of polyurethane to protect the quilt from the stain. Anywho...

She's all done!

I swear I know that meandering is boring...but it's also F*A*S*T! I feel like I've been quilting for days. Mostly I just did in the ditch quilting and then I crossed all the brown blocks. She's all ready for the wall in November. I've been working nights doing the Christmas Elf stitchery too and it's almost done. A few more nights and then the piecing to do. My Christmas List of projects is getting smaller and smaller!

I discovered a few very cool tools for quilting yesterday. Roxanne's Basting Glue and MaryEllen's Best Press! Two years ago at the quilt show I bought a tiny bottle of basting glue to try out. Never cracked it, but last February I bought a big bottle. yesterday while I was placing a few dresdens on backgrounds I thought about that glue. Pins didn't suit, so what the heck. I popped it out, spun on the tiny needle like tip and started gluing. Man o Man is this stuff fantastic! Tiny drops and my dresdens are all placed on the background ready for sewing and NO pins to mess with at all. Washes out too.

The Mary Ellen's is the most fabulous stuff for ironing. Stubborn creases come out like magic with this stuff. Get some if you run across it, you won't be sorry.

Now lastly, I'm sure you've read before that we have been doing a swap with Carol, Darlene, Sharon, Wendy and I. We all shipped out some cool presents along with our last package of blocks. These were my presents...well one of them. I made small quilts out of the scraps and some extra bits for everybody. This is mine. I added an extra 9 patch to mine...along with that backwards hst. The 9 patch was on purpose...the backwards placement was NOT! Oh well. Not ripping out stuff after sewing. Not on mine.

I also sent all the gals lime green notes cards that had their initials on the front.

Tomorrow I'll show the new quilt ladder I got at a local shop!

More gifties...

Finally Wendy got her present so we can show what we got from Carol for the end of our rail fence 30's swap. Wendy lives in Canada so it take a bit longer for her...no need to ruin the surprise!Along with the last bundle of blocks, Carol made us each a machine cover from the fabrics we have used in the swap! She also added some very cool initial super sticky post-it's and a cool mini gel pen. I use tons of post-it's so these were perfect!

Now to take it off, eat some kisses and get sewing on the last 3 cabin blocks!