Great Treats This Halloween

Here she is in Africa!   I consider this a wonderful "treat" to find pictures and a new post (and e-mail) on this Halloween day.  If you are reading Hannah's blog, there is a new post this morning.  You will enjoy it. 

Then in my spam folder, I found an e-mail from Janet telling me I had won a stack of Moda Blush fat quarters!  Now that also is a wonderful "treat" to look forward to receiving.  Janet has such a great blog - she lives on a ranch in South Dakota and works along with her husband helping to get the many things done that come with the territory.   A lovely lady, it's a joy to read her posts.  And as flat as South Dakota is, she has some gorgeous pictures of the everchanging skies.  Thank you, Janet, for the very generous gift - I look forward to it.  (Click on Hannah to enlarge)

On Halloween!

Another very old wall hanging  I made this in the early 90's with some of the homespun fabrics I had at the time.  You don't see as much homespun being used anymore, but I still rather like the look.  This was machine appliqued with the invisible thread and the little quilting that I did was with the same thread.  It is pretty puffy and could certainly stand more quilting to flatten it out, but I will just let it stay as it is.  This probably would be cute in some of today's fabrics.  I have no idea who designed it so cannot give credit. 

Happy Halloween from Funoldhag!!  Hope you get good treats!!  (Click to enlarge)

Fashion Friday

 On this Friday before Halloween, I have chosen this scarey little creature as one of my subjects for Fashion Friday.  Who is this little thing- an animal, an alien - oh now, it is Hannah!  Looking frightening in her black tights, raggedy tunic and a really goofy mask, she is ready for the witching hour!  

 



I am an equal opportunity grandma and, even though this is not a Halloween picture, it is one that features a costume!!  And that is Wonder Woman!  Norah Lee was such a fan of hers and had these lovely Wonder Woman Underoos that she loved dearly.  So since I have put Molly and her pumpkins that she and Grandpa carved one October day in my header and Hannah in her scarey outfit for Fashion Friday, I must include this darling picture of Norah in her costume for Fashion Friday, also.  She is lovely in her dotted short pants and wonder woman shirt and very stylish white sandals.  And she has biceps!!  Happy Halloween, my sweetie pies!   xxxoooxxx  from Grandma      (Click to Enlarge)

Two Things This Morning

Here is what the green ladies look like now - I just wasn't happy with all the little spotty green hearts so I took all of them off.  She who sews rips!!   Much more comfortable with it now.  If you do enlarge it, you will see I haven't cleaned it up yet by getting all of the little green threads and glue residue off.  However, I think it can be fixed up without too much problem.

The second thing - my computer is running like a little rabbit now!  I called Charter and a fellow came out and got it downloading and hopping from one place to another just quick as a wink!  WOO HOO!!  I was getting pretty frustrated.  We do get so spoiled!  Now if the wind would just get to where it is going!!  
(Click to enlarge)

Kaleidoscopes

When I changed computers last spring, I lost the program that I could make kaleidoscopes with.  It had been a download and there was no cd.   I only play with it - it's fascinating  so see the gorgeous kaleidoscopes that come out of a single picture.  Recently, I reordered a newer version and they gave me credit for the earlier one that I had downloaded so I have this fun "toy" again.  You could actually print out the segments on fabric and make a quilt, but I don't see that happening.  It's just fun to put a picture up and every time you move it just a little bit you have a different gorgeous image.     Both images, above and below, are from an old piece of unfinished needlepoint that I showed in an earlier post.  I think they are so pretty showing the wool stitches.

 

This is part of an old wallhanging I did a long time ago with an appliqued basket on a watercolor pieced background.  Love the way the background looks.  If you check closely, you can see a teddy bear under the basket.   (Click to enlarge)

The Green Ladies

I have been working on getting these ladies together this weekend. I am not as enthused with this as I was when I started working on it, but that does happen once in a while. Without the dark green, it was very bland and with the little touches of green it peps it up a bit. However, when it's sewn together, pressed and quilted, I think it will look fine.

 I am having problems with my computer - it is taking forever to move around, so I am ready to shut it down and then tomorrow call the cable company and see why it's so very slow.  It has been just skipping right along and now it's rather like molasses in January.  We do get spoiled! 

 

On another and much better note, I am so happy to read Hannah's blog and her e-mail and to find her so positive about her stay in Africa.  The family she is staying with while she trains sounds like a great second family.  If you have time and the inclination, click on her picture at the top of my sidebar and read about the beginning of her time in the Peace Corps.  I am so very proud of her.   There is also a link on her blog to pictures.  It's at the top of her sidebar. 

 

(Click to enlarge)

Fashion Friday

Mark and Bill - two little guys who were buddies and neighbors for over five years when we lived in Iowa.  Mark was just about one year older but the two of them were so much alike--they were so very cute and impish - lots and lots of fun.  Here they are so dressed up probably on a Sunday morning.  What good looking young fellows they are in the dashing red blazers.  Mark wears white shorts and white anklets with his coat.  Bill is looking so good in his long gray trousers and brown shoes.   They both have neat  crew cuts and complete the great look with beaming smiles!  I love this picture!!  (Click to enlarge)

Another of My Oldest Quilts

I actually posted a photo of this quilt as one of my very first posts which was back in 2008.  Good heavens, I have been running of the mouth for close to two and a half years.  I have found that blogging is as much fun as quilting - well, almost.  It makes me feel good that anyone would be interested in anything I have to say and it's great fun to "show and tell" which is what quilters love to do.  And only other people who share the same interest can know how wonderful it is to buy fabric, cut it up and sew it back together in the form of a beautiful piece that you are so proud of you just have to show it to another person who is similarly addicted to quilting. 

Another of my very early quilts - 1988 - Hitch Your Flowers to a Star is machine appliqued (satin stitched)and hand quilted.   The idea of a huge star came from a copy of the old Quilt magazine.  Blocks are large, being about 18 inches square and there is a wide sashing and border which are quilted with a wavy line of feathers.  This quilt, too, has a pillow tuck (a plain piece separates the body of the quilt with that part showing on the pillows.  There also is a block on that but it's under the pillows. 

The center and three of the big blocks.  In the center of the wreaths, I quilted motifs.  This quilt has been out for many years and the colors have held up very well except for a little fading of one of the greens.  Bits and pieces of the quilt show up in some of my blog pictures since I sometimes lay out things on that bed in order to take pictures. 

This is a wallhanging done more recently from a Piece 'o Cake pattern with some of the old fabrics leftover from the quilt.  It is also machine appliqued and some of my first machine quilting.  I have always loved the Piece'o Cake patterns.  (Click to enlarge)

Primitive and Really Old

This is a very old wallhanging - about 15 years old - and it was made when I still was doing satin stitch machine applique.  From one of the Red Wagon books written by some women in Liberty, Mo., I  really like this primitive style - but then there are soooo many styles that I like!  I had just hand quilted around the figures and that was all so therefore it was puffy with lots of unquilted space.  At the time, my machine quilting was minimal and I was not about to put anymore work in the piece.    It's kind of cute but didn't merit hours of hand  quilting.







It didn't take too long to do some quick and not really very good  loop-de-loop quilting in the background, some lines on cornstalks and pumpkin- - but then I decided to do some pumpkins on a string in the borders and completed one side.  WRONG!  They looked terrible - so spent quite a while ripping them out and then doing my usual wavy lines which went quickly.  So the little old wallhanging is now finished albeit not really very well.  However, at a distance it looks okay and it does look like autumn.   (Click to enlarge)



Fashion Friday

For this beautiful Friday in October,  here is a picture taken one day when Sherry and probably Lindy next door were playing dressup.  She is so pretty and stylish in an old dress of mine that I think was blue and white and was princess style.  She wears a fur collar and it is topped off with a very pretty hat that looks just a wee bit like a flying saucer.  Yes, I wore that also! 

Looks like the same hat to me!!  (Click to enlarge)

My Star

I have been rather obsessed with this the past three days and and have just now finished the middle of the paper pieced star and am kind of pleased with myself.  It isn't perfect but I did pretty well in matching the seams when putting it together.  Have made a decision not to put the pieced border around it - it is pretty on it's own  and I don't have enough of some of the fabrics.  Instead I will add the orangey swirl sashing and the background as the border and binding.  I would have changed a couple of the fabrics  but rather like the orange and blue that predomoniates.  In case you are wondering about the size, right now it is about 18 inches square so when finished it would be a good size for a table topper or a wallhanging.  Now I will square it up and add the sashing and borders and soon do some quilting on it.  Taking the class from Linda gave me some really good tips even though  I was only there half the day!!  (Click to enlarge)

I Love Autumn

Beautiful mum and some pumpkins on my front stoop

It's a beautiful day! I have always loved the fall of the year and wish October would stick around for two or three months. However, that just doesn't happen but we can certainly enjoy it while it's here. Last week I emptied some more of my containers of flowers even though they were still doing quite well. Anymore, it's easier for me to do it a little at a time than all in one fell swoop. All of the plants are put into trash bags and I haul them to the woods at the end of the street, empty the bags, and let them await the rain and snow and be turned into compost on the floor of the woods. How handy is that? Took some of the seed from the volunteer moonflower plant that was so gorgeous. I think Andy, my neighbor, might like to have some of it. I think there is enough on the ground to maybe have one or two come up in my garden next year.

There is one small plant that was near the base of the large one and it is blooming it's little heart out.

The patio and little garden look bare now except for lots and lots of leaves and the two containers of flowers left. There is the little moonflower at the edge of the cement. Happy Autumn! (Click to enlarge)

Paper Piecing Class




Here is Linda, one of the ladies in our guild.  She is a master in the art of paper piecing and even designs her own patterns on EQ 7.  She taught a class this past Tuesday and this is the wall hanging that she taught us how to piece.  My Tuesday was a comedy of errors and I didn't get to the class until it was half through - along with one of the other quilters.  I was absolutely certain it was on Wednesday - wrong!!  However, I have done quite a bit of paper piecing but really picked up some great tips from Linda and did put in some pretty small pieces that I never thought I would ever do.



The pattern is in 16 segments and I have done three of them so far.  I was not happy with the little bit that I did get done Tuesday, so spent quite a bit of time working out the colors today.  Still not completely satisfied but don't want to buy any more fabric since I have so much in my stash.  It is looking pretty good, though, and still have some more to add that will be the star in the middle. 

So here it is - not very far along but I think it will be okay. 
On a different note, I was so happy to find an e-mail from Hannah and a new post this morning.  She has been on my mind and out of touch for about a week.  Sherry and Barclay actually talked to her today and were so thrilled  to hear her voice.  Isn't this technology something?  Wow!  If you are interested in reading her post, just click on her picture near the top of my sidebar and it will pop right up.  (Click to enlarge)



Fashion Friday

Our model for this Friday is a cute young fellow who is very fashionably dressed for a summer day on a trip with his parents to Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  We drove Sherry and her friend and fellow girl scout, Gail, down to the Girl Scout Camp Pinoak for a week's stay.  Bill, Ray and  I stayed for a couple of days on a mini vacation.  In this photo, Bill is looking great in his cutoff shorts, cool plaid shirt and a really sharp plaid hat with a band.   Handsome young fellow!!  We stayed at a place called Dixie Cottages and Live Bait - that was what was on the sign in front of the cabins.  This was in the mid to late 60's.   

Pretty, Pretty Fabric

 Here is a group of Christmas fabrics - I think they are really pretty.  Don't they look as if they are all from the same place?  I think they look just like a "line" from one of the fabric companies.

 . 

Actually, they are from two very different places.   In the following two pictures, they are separated to show where each group came from.



This group I bought today at Joann's - I first spotted the third from the top piece and thought it was so pretty.  As I was looking at the rest of the bolts I noticed some of the others that had the same colors and were coordinated.  Checking the ends of the bolts, they were all marked something like "Holiday Inspirations".  The polka dot is wonderful and so is the the one that looks like candy cane pieces.  A nice stripe would make a great binding, too.  When I got them home, I thought it was a shame there weren't more darker color prints.  Then I had a light bulb moment---



I thought of some Moda fabric I found on sale at Hancock's of Paducah's website.  I had ordered four or five one yard pieces and two charm packs with the intent of making some table runners for Christmas.  When I went down to the basement to get them, they blended right in with the pieces from Joann's.  You cannot tell them apart when it comes to the feel of the fabric and also the colors are right on.  Some of the charm pack pieces and also one of the yardages will be going in a BOM I have been saving each month called Snowbound which is by the same designer that did Tisket A Tasket.  It should be a cute piece, also.   Fun to find something unexpected - and it was on sale, too!  (Click to enlarge)

Feather Fenced Flowers

Here is one of my oldest quilts and it is the one on my bed.  Machine satin stitch  appliqued and hand quilted, it was done on the polished apple fabric that was popular back in the 80's.  It was very pretty with a satiny sheen and needled so easily.  Each block was outlined with a small feather motif, hence the name.  I did a "pillowtuck" which is quite a large just quilted space that tucks under the pillows - I don't think that is done much anymore.  Quilters generally use the quilt flat on the bed with pretty pillows along the top.  On this one, I did a long appliqued motif that is on the pillows when the bed is made.  All together there are nine very large motifs that I took from some applique patterns designed by Pat Andreatti.  I have quite a few books that she has written. 

Above are six of the nine blocks.   This quilt was done in and around 1989 and my color pallette back then was not quite as scrappy as I make them now.  The backing is a plain ivory cotton and that is almost unheard of now, also.   Everyone pays close attention to the backing and many backs are almost as pretty as the front.     The center block is the one with the birds and in that one I quilted my initials and the year 1989.  You can make out CDB above the birds if you look hard, but it is impossible to see the year below in the picture.  (Click to enlarge)

A Quick Note

If you are following Hannah's blog about her exerience in the Peace Corps, there is a new post which you can read by clicking on her picture near the top of my sidebar just to the right.  The blog and e-mails make her seem closer!  Technology is amazing.  New posts always show up in the list of blogs I follow, also.