Halloweeeeeeeeen!

I love Halloween, second only to Christmas as a favorite holiday. It’s not as much fun without the littles to go trick or treating with, but I still have costume pics!

Leia was Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony. 

Inspiration photo

Mary made the entire costume from thrift store finds, including spray painting the boots. So cool!

Donovan and his mom had a Star Wars theme going. (See top right photo below.) I asked Leia what her dad dressed up as… “just grumpy old dad.” 😂

Leo was Ruby Gloom, from an animated TV series, 

complete with Iddy the cat dressed up as her companion. 

 Leo and Iddy

Leo even got a bubble backpack so Iddy could go trick or treating with them. Iddy is one patient kitty - she liked the bubble and will willingly get in her carrier so she can go in the car with Leo. 

Jaclyn was a werewolf princess, practicing her howling ⬆️

 Indoor trick or treating. Leo won a prize - $20 gift card - for her costume. Whoooo!

Gary, Cheyenne and Gary’s high school buddy, Rob, came by to show off their costumes (actually they came to raid our trick or treating candy. Surprise! We didn’t get any this year, for about the first time ever.)

Gary said they are going to a costume party tomorrow night but dressed up tonight to give out candy (16 bags!!) at their new house. Happy Spooky Day, y’all! 🎃🎃

Halfway

Three placemats are finished with four more at the half way mark.

 Size: 13.25 x 16.75”

I’d planned to do a sewn-on binding, like a quilt, but in researching it looks like most people do the simpler closure (leave an opening to turn it right side out, then topstitch around to close it up) so I went with that. Cuts the time to make these waaaaay down. 

 Left over blocks from a finished quilt. 

It also looks like most donated placemats are done the self-binding/no batting method. This is my first time making these, so it’ll be interesting to see how other guild members are doing theirs. 

Note: use 45° marks on 5” square ruler to trim corners. Size: 13.25 x 18”

Hoping to finish up the last four tomorrow, but my sewing machine is acting up - 3 broken needles and multiple thread jams in just 2 days. I’m wondering if Koko needs a break or if we’ll be taking another trip to the repair spa soon. 

 These 3 all have the same backing

Note: layer 1) oversized batting, 2) oversized backing face up, 3) top face down. Trim to size after stitching 1/4” around - leaving an opening to turn it. (I forgot that 2 out of 3 times tonight. 🙄)

Note: used this on flying geese mat, worked well.

Kryptonite and Fooseball

Pop got the new fooseball table put together in time to surprise Donovan today.

It took D a few minutes to figure out how the sticks worked… and then he whooped Pop’s b*tt (repeatedly!) Looks like this is going to be a big hit. 

 3 and 4 yard pieces for backings

I love fabric that’s on sale, it’s always the first thing I look for in a store or online shop. But sale fabric at Roxanne’s in Carpinteria is my kryptonite. There’s no point in even trying to resist.

Already cut into 3 of these tonight 

All I needed was a fat quarter of something deep violet… In my defense, the two daisy fabrics, along with the pale green and the lavender, were 50% off - which means I have at least 2 quilt backs for $7/yard. When you need 3 or 4 yards (or more!) per quilt, it really adds up! 

Placemats

Decided to try my hand at quilted placemats, based on this photo…

Pulled a bunch of orange fabric (and added more half way through)

to make the FPP flying geese, 

then based the size/dimensions of the mats off that. 

They look nothing like the inspiration but I’m pleased with them.

This one’s my fav

I also found some half-finished/leftover bits from past projects and they’re becoming placemats too.

Going to see how many I can make in the next couple of days, then spray baste and start quilting them on Sunday. All will go to the quilting guild for donation to Meals on Wheels and other groups.

Also, Tangled 1 and 2 are enjoying their visit to the quilting spa. Hope to have them back late next week. 

Work In Progress

The scariest words around here are when hubby says, “Honey, I had an idea” and “I have a plan!”

Once the pool table was relocated to Gary’s house (here), he told me the rest of the story - move everything out of the fiber/fabric/suitcase storage room upstairs, 

turn that back into a bedroom for when the kids (ok, and their parents…) visit, and turn the downstairs room into a playroom for Donovan 

Foosball table is in the works

and storage for me (along with the earthquake supplies.)

Since it’s visible from the front door, I asked for it to be not ugly “pretty”, 

so he built walls around the storage racks and suggested hanging quilts on them. Smart man!

Which is a long way of saying I haven’t gotten much quilting done recently. 

 Folded tonight

I’ve been folding and sorting and being thankful I gave away sooooooo much stuff to the guild’s spring fabric sale (here) and don’t have to move that downstairs too. 

 3rd row is 2 bins of fat quarter (sorted into cool/warm colors), 1/2 yds cuts and 1-3 yard cuts

Most of the fabric is sorted and put away, either in bins or on the shelves in my sewing room. 

 My little rainbow

Which leaves the weaving/spinning/other craft stuff that needs a home or to be given away. 

 To be sorted…

I really thought it was time for the weaving yarns to go… but I’m not ready, so they’re staying. 

 Earthquake food on the left, weaving on the right

With Cyrus (Addy) possibly moving in next fall, I’ll have a crafting buddy in the house and she’s interested in learning to weave... That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Tangled 2

Done!

Ok, done-ish. Hoping to do backings for both Tangled quilts this weekend and take them for quilting next week. I love patterns that look complicated but are actually simple to do and this one definitely fits the bill. 

Ghosting Again

 I might have made two more ghosts…

and mailed them to Colorado for Rachel and her BFF. 

Tanya is a big Disney fan so she needs a Mickey ghost, right?

And Rachel’s has a little mustache - It’s a Pop Ghost!

Ok, now I’m really done with Ghost Party… for this year anyway.