Crazy Quilt Pumpkin

This is the pumpking I did for our round robin group.  You can see what it started out looking like here.
 Then after Meg, Cobi, Lyn and Rita added their fabulous work this is what it looks like.

Lucy Lu

I'll be walking myself today, thank you very much.










I will walk myself, or I won't walk at all.

Autumn RR

This is the last of the projects in the autumn round robin,  This was Meg's block and I added the silk flowers, bullion frog and orange bug. In my haste to send it off to her, I forgot to take a picutre of the entire block.
Now I can finish my pumpkin that was going around for the round robin. You can see a picture of the start of my project here.

Friday

Once again it was time for the monthly meeting with my friends Kathy and Jeanette.  This time we had decided to work on a sewing caddy that goes over the arm of a chair.  They both had bought kits for the project from our last road trip, and I some how neglected to get one.  I was going to, then I must have been distracted by a shiny object or something and didn't realize until mush later that I didn't buy one.. After a lot of fiddling around, they realized their kits didn't have enough fabric so after a call to the quilt shop, the shop owner is sending more fabric and the problem was resolved.

Kathy and Jeanette are hard at work.

It wasn't all hard work and concentration.

This is the progress that we made.

Jeanette served a wonderful apple crisp with cinnimon ice cream.

Picture This

This is another little wall hanging that I made from my pattern, Picture This, Post That.  This one I made for my daughters college roommate, Steph.  She brought the fabric and I had fun making it for her. As cute as my pictures are, I'll have to take them out as I'm pretty sure she wants to put in her own.

Michele and Lucy Lu

Are these two the cutest girls ever or what?

Misc stuff

My niece called me and had a few quilting questions, then asked if we could get together sometime.  She had asked about making some quick and easy Christmas gifts and had a interest in making tote bags. She called this week and asked if she could come over.  It's a 2 1/2 hour trip so she can't just pop over anytime. I was ecstatic with excitement at the prospect of another quilter in the family. I have two sisters that I have not been able to lure them into the quilting world.  My one sister might recognize a quilt if she saw it and my other sister loves and appreciates the time and love that goes into making them but really does want to make them herself. I had a vision of my niece bringing along a sewing machine and listening to the hum of she sewing and me explaining the importance of a quarter inch seam and such.  Well, let's just say, she had a different vision.  She brought 6 yards of fabric and a dress pattern prevalent to the early 1800's that she needed to make for her job. Lucky for her, I have make a lot of clothes in my time, granted  the last time was back in the 80's but my memory served me well and hopefully I helped her enough for her to make it. The great thing for her is that back then they didn't have zippers and women didn't wear buttons.

Then we moved on to other areas.  I showed her how to make a tote bag.  This one I'm making for my sister, it still need handles. I showed her how to make the box bottom.  You can see how it is done here.

I also showed her how to make quick and easy coasters and potholders.  Find out how here. This one is for coasters, but it's the same idea for potholders just cut the fabric the size of potholder you want.
Since we both have an over abundance of jeans, I thought I would try one out of old blue jeans and some red denim fabric I had left over. I didn't put anything inside since it is five layers of denim. I tried it out just to make sure it would work.  I worked just fine for taking baked goods out and setting them on the counter.  I wouldn't  try taking something out of a 500 degree oven and walking across town, but it's fine for what I need.

Joie also wanted to know how to needle felt.

She is a natural

Then she wanted to learn how to do the buttonhole stitch. She is a fast learner and a great student.

It was a tiring day for some, but a great time was had by all.

You can't keep a good dog down

I think I want to go upstairs.

I think I can.

 
I think I can.






Yay I did it! I knew I could do it.

 

That was fun, let me try another way.

 

Opps, I knocked the gate down.

 But I made it.
  
                                           




Now I'll try another way just to prove I'm smarter than my masters.

 

 I think I can.

 

Yep, I'm smarter than my masters.

That tired me out. Time for a nap.

Redwork Snowmen Done

I finished the red work stitching on the snowmen wall hanging and I can already see that Lucy is going to be very helpful.

Untamed Garden

If my garden had a name it would be called The Untamed Garden.


I just let my morning glories grow where ever they please.

With the tomatoes.

With the Clementius. I don't know where that one lonely pick one came from.

And amongst the grape vines.

My new addition

I don't know how I'm going to get anything done with this little face staring up at me. She is Golden Retriever, Cocker Spaniel and Poodle all mixed into one perfect little dog.

Tote Bag

This tote bag is for my niece Chari. She needed something to schlep around on campus.



She requested a certain size pocket for her Bible, so I thought if she needed her Bible she may also need a place for a pen, so I added a pen pocket too. Inside of the other side it has a smaller pocket for cell phone or keys.

Food and Fun at the Fair

Going to the Sate Fair at our house means three things, food, food, and more food.

Our first stop was Famous Dave's as I had heard about the Butt Cheeks with peach glaze and needed to try them. I didn't care for those at all but the pork sandwich that I shared with my daughter was wonderful.



Next we had to try the wonderful cream puffs with real cream.

I had to take a picture of this little table in honor of my friend Susan, her husband made a little cabinet for me for me out of old sewing machine drawers. You can see and read about it here.

Then we were thirsty so we had to have a Pina Colada smoothie and a Sarsaparilla float.


We stopped by Lena and Ole's and everything looked wonderful. It was a tough decision, but we settled on the Uff Da (you just can't go wrong with a name like that) It was a Krumkake shell with cheese cake and topped with caramel and pecans. Oh my, just thinking about it again sends my heart racing or perhaps its my arteries clogging, I'm not sure what that feeling is.

A stop at the milk barn is a must see for two reasons, one is to see sculptures carved out of gigantic cubes of butter. Twelve dairy princesses compete for the crown to become Princess Kay of the Milky Way. You can learn a little about it here and even more about it here. This particular girl is Emily Schueler and she graduated with my daughter.

The second reason is to have the world's best malt. Michele and I shared the rhubarb-strawberry and my husband had the raspberry.

My grease level was starting to drop so a quick trip the the food building for some deep fried cheese curds cured that in a hurry.

I needed to settle all the grease and sugar so I had a boat of delicious bread sticks with cheese dipped in marinara sauce.

Within three minutes the grease and sugar settled and I needed more, so what better place to go than the deep fried candy bar stand. These are Reeces Peanut Butter Cups dipped in a donut like dough, deep fried, then sprinkled with powered sugar.

I did take some time out of my eating adventures to look at some quilts.
This is a wool quilt made by Mary Chalmers, whom I know from our quilt guild. Her work is totally amazing. Unfortunately the quilt was behind glass and didn't photograph well. It has an unbelievable amount of crazy quilt stitches on it. If there was ever a quilt I was coveting, this would be the one.


These two are just random pieces I liked.


We topped off the fair with a salmon wrap, a boat full of sunnies and smoked salmon on a stick. These were all delicious.