October Quilting

Hello and happy Sunday!   Since I have changed my sewing room to the living room, I have been busy working on some old projects left undone, and then also managed to whip up a couple of Halloween things.  I am a big fan of Lynette Jensen's patterns and fabrics.  I also have a lot of her books.  I made this little Halloween pillow the other day from the Treats No Tricks book.

I debated whether or not to do any quilting over the appliques, or to use same color thread if I did.  But I wound up just doing a meander all over the top.  I am  loving my new machine, but was having some trouble with the free motion foot, and knew it wasn't installed right, as the fabric was not easily gliding along, and the needle was too close.  Finally, after nearly finishing it, I realized that I had to move the needle position, and then it was smooth sailing.  But I got some pretty wide spaced stitches during the troubleshooting.  Oh well.  This is how you get better at machine quilting.  You quilt everything you can get your hands on.
The pillow back is also a Thimblerries fabric from several years ago.  I love this pillow pattern because I like to do the envelope fold over style of pillow for easy laundering.  And also, this makes such a nice crisp, neat back for the pillow too, when using a large piece of fabric doubled to size, using the fold as the opening pieces.

Once you sew the back to front, the entire piece gets bound exactly as you would a quilt.

I thought it turned out really cute.

In the same book, I used the pattern sheet to make up some appliques for another Halloween piece.  And actually, this isn't a quilt.  It was just to do some practicing on my new machine.  I have never had the blanket stitch on my machines.  I always did it by hand.  But I was really wanting a machine that had this feature to secure appliques onto a quilt top.  I just took a scrap of lighter background fabric, and using heat n bond, I adhered the appliques to the background piece.  And using three leftover pumpkin appliques I had from a group project I was part of years ago, I did the same thing, leaving the edges free for easier sewing, as these were already two thicknesses of fabric.  I had a long time ago, used my older Viking to try to do blanket stitching using another similar stitch.  That was done in a beige color, so it is still visible.  Like I said, this is for practice.  Note to anyone who is trying to blanket stitch for first time on applique pieces......do NOT use small shapes with lots of curves and sharp edges!!!  Do hearts, pumpkins, circles, etc, but NOT what I did.  The spiders and the witches were murder I tell you!  Since I have done it in dark thread, the oopsies are not quite as easily visible.  But you can see my bloopers all over the place!!!!  I wanted to put some leaves on the pumpkins, but not necessarily with fabric.  So I thread painted them with green variegated thread.  What fun!  I have done a little bit of this before on some pillows and it is fun to play with.  Just use your free motion foot, drop your feed dogs, and go.  I did trace out a pumpkin leave onto freezer paper, and then ironed the paper onto the quilt, and simple went around it on my machine.  Then peeled it off and did the veins.  I went over them all several times, taking so special care to stay on the previous line.  In fact, the more wiggly it gets, the better it looks.  Since I was just playing, I did not use any stabilizer on the back to prevent for distorting the fabric.  I will certainly do that the next time.  

If you have not tried using freezer paper before, it is some great stuff.  You draw out your shape on the dull side, then cut out and iron onto fabric with the waxy side. It will stick very well into place for you, and it can be removed and used over and over.
I was going to bind this, but then I had a lightbulb go off, and remembered a frame I had in the garage that was about the same size.  Sure enough it was, and even though I had to hide the green borders on the sides, one side shows a wee more, because it looked best in the frame slightly off center to show the stars and moon.  I used my stapler and tacked it down on the backside of the frame, and voila....

I am limited and learning with my machine quilting.  I have really only done meandering.  On this I tried my hand at some echo quilting around the black shapes, and then some free hand waves on the border.  It was fun to make.  Just for play.  Certainly not worthy of gifting, but good enough to put up on my fireplace.  I call it Pumpkin Patch At Night.
I have begun to turn my old sewing room into the new guest room.  I still have much to do in there.  The closet still holds my things for sewing, and the walls need some patch and paint.  A rug for the side of the bed, maybe some pillow shams. But it is a nice room for a guest room.  So bright and cheerful.  We have a sliding french door that goes out onto the patio with a view of the pool and grove beyond.  We had our first guests last night.  Our two granddaughters Hannah and Claire.

I left the bunting up in this room, and with the quilt I used for the bed, it fits perfectly.  The only room in my house with soft and feminine colors.  I had this wreath in my living room, and after cleaning it, and drying it, I thought it would like nice on the wall in here.  The pretty little wooden scalloped tray is just for pretty.  I removed that as soon as the girls arrived.  I smile every time I walk down the hall and see this room.

Those two wooden chairs are extras for my dining table.  I want to find a small comfy chair for one of those corners.  A place to toss your robe.  I have removed the closet doors in here, and wallpapered the inside of my closet in a tiny pink rosebud paper.  I love it.  I made a floral curtain to hand low enough to cover the things stored on the shelves in there, but high enough to clear a head peeking in.  I had my friend Jae's husband, Tom install an electrical outlet inside the closet so I can have a small lamp inside, with a pretty soft glow for the night.
I put the carved wood table that was in our entryway in here, and also a lingerie chest I brought down from the cabin.

This room was our oldest daughter, Gennifer's    I had gotten this white eyelet pleated duet shade for the room.  It was so pretty and feminine.  As well as private for the night time.  But she loved to burn candles in her room at night, and the shade got sooty.  I have no idea how to clean it, and restore it to it's original white.  I never had it drawn when I used the room for my sewing room.  But for sleeping in here, it is a must.  

 The girls arrived and were raring to go!!

We had a really great time with them.
That was our weekend.  Geeps is out back grilling up some hot dogs.  We are having chili dogs tonight.  Easy peasy.  Geeps and Gramma  are kind of tuckered out!
See you soon!
Kris