Deck-ade the Halls - Trim the Tree

Only have the cocoa mugs and the assembly to go now.  I should have a new Christmas quilt with any luck.  I made two of these panels, the other one I'm going to use as a backing on my fall door hanging.  I just can't pass up the opportunity for making it reversible.

Halloween Flimsy

Here is my Halloween flimsy.  a panel, and lots of borders.  Hopefully, it will be cute, and not too scary.  As you can see, I'm design wall challenged.  I'm also making a wall hanging to hang on my front door, but it is just a panel that I'm going to finish.   This is pretty much a 1 monther, but the one for the door will make it through 2 months, as it it fall -harvest.

When my niece and her family were here we made a trip to Ikea.  I have the mail sorter and the pen holders to this and I couldn't resist the trash can for less than four dollars.  I'm weird I know, but I like trash cans (and clocks) all over the place.  I have at least 5 trash cans in my sewing room.  This one was sitting empty, and then after having my yarn rolling all over the floor I had a brainstorm.  It is perfect for my yarn and my partially completed afghan, and there is lots of room.  I can carry it easily from room to room and it 'feels' pretty.    

Nabby's Dowry Blocks' Seven

Not much sewing going on, but this one is easy to keep up with since it is just little bonus HSTs.  The hardest part is finding enough that aren't the same colors.  I haven't finished my August BOM's yet, but I think that even though I'll fall behind, I'm going to concentrate on getting a simple Fall-Halloween-Thanksgiving quilt and wall hanging done first.  I'd like to have them done before the first of October, so I'll have more to show than good intentions, lol. 

August OKCMQ BOM

No skating by this month,  Each block was a little time consuming.  I see that I was careless with some of my points, but I still like the blocks.

Nabby's Dowry Block 6

Block 6 of Nabby's Dowry.  On the left the controlled scrappy for a doll quilt, and on the right the wild anything goes scrappy for my wall hanging. 

Block 1 thru 6 of the doll quilt.

Experimenting.

I was playing with my blocks and with the Paint program on my computer this morning, and I came up with this.  After 4 more months of RSC, I could make 2 of these.  The bottom half, except for the orange and pink, would be filled with 2 each of the new RSC colors from September through December.   Just one idea.  With 8 months of blocks, there are enough to play a little.  I'm thinking that I may make doll quilts for my nieces 3 littlest girls from my small 9 patches.  I have 16 of those now, and 6 each with sashing and borders might make very nice little quilts, the same but different
. 

My great-granddaughter from Germany will be visiting in the fall, and I've already decided to make 2 blocks each week from the Nabby's Dowry quiltalong for a doll quilt for her and a wall hanging for me, and I picked up a doll from Cracker Barrel.  Her outfit isn't exactly the cutest,  I got another coordinating, but more girly outfit to go with her.  So far my little GGD is a girly-girl.  I think there's a bit of tomboy too, though.  PS.   Red hair was a requirement, so she would match, so this was the only one with red hair.
 

And here's her little more girly outfit, it's shiny and lacey. 

August RSC - It's Red All Over

Sixteen and Nine Patches

Scrappy Trip Along, or Scrappy Bargello

Scrappy Kaleidoscope 

Nine Patches and snowballs.  Now, I have to get ready to go to a baby shower, but if you want to see more RED, go to SoScrappy and they will be lots, here.

Baby Shower Initial Pictures

I got advice from Joanna of Applique Today on how to make her Initial pictures, and here are mine.  The D is for Dominic, big brother (4 years) to Everlee, about to be born in October.  We will use these for shower decorations and then give them to Mom and Dad as part of their shower gift.   She is a lover of gray, her wedding colors were gray and yellow and her shower colors are gray and pink.   Hope she likes these.  I also made a baby quilt in pink and gray here.

Deck-ade the Halls - Another Step Done

All the steps together, in no particular order.  Just the cocoa mugs left, and then it is on to borders and finishing.   Hopefully on the back of my couch for Christmas. 

And the wreaths by themselves.  My middle bow doesn't show up very much, especially in the picture, but I'll live with it. 

Start of Mackenzie's Doll Quilt

While making block 5 of Nabby's Dowry and wading through a ton of little HSTs with light pink polka dots, I decided that I had enough for at least 2 little quilts, so I picked out enough for another 5 blocks to make a doll quilt for my great-granddaughter who is visiting from Germany in October.   Not perfect, but she and her new dollie (Cracker Barrel has really cute soft dolls with red hair and brown eyes, like her) won't care.  Only 5 more weeks to the sew along and hopefully, I'll have a cute quilt for my wall, and an equally cute quilt for a special gift.

Lights

Nabby's Dowry Sew Along Block 5.  Good advice would be to turn on the lights when pinning, especially when pressing seam open.   Bad center.

Gators and Dowrys

I started it Monday and I finished today, Friday.   It's an easy quilt, but still not too bad.   Sorry, it's upside down.  It's big, almost twin size.  I tried some new batting that I got half price at Joanns, plus 25% off.   $30.00 batting for a little over $11.00, not bad.  It is Pellon brand cotton batting and I really liked it.  It's very flat, and very uniform and sturdy.  I'm wondering if it will fluff a bit when it's washed. 

I used the leftover fabric on the back, so it's almost reversible. 

Four blocks down, and probably a fifth one done tomorrow.  These go quick, since I'm using leftover bonus HSTs.

Shopping and New Projects

Not too much sewing going on the past few days.  Went to Camp Blanding (a military camp where there is a beautiful lake) and had a family day with my brothers, nieces, nephews, etc.  It was beautiful, but some kind of little bugs had hatched over night, and they were thick.   I brought about 100 home in my car, but I think they are all dead now.   These fabrics are for initial pictures (hopefully, like the ones Joanna did, below) to be gifts and decoration at the baby shower for my new great-grandbaby Everlee.  The blue and robots are for her big brother almost 4 year old Dominic.

Here are two from Joanna's blog Applique Today, and another one here.   And so I can remember where to find it later, a delicious looking recipe that she shared, Bacon and Egg Pie.  I think these are so cute, hope mine turn out half as cute.

One of my nieces requested a Gator Quilt (University of Florida) for her husband, so my brother bought the fabrics and I'll be making the quilt.   I'll use the same pattern "Just Can't Cut It", that I have already made several Gator quilts from.  Here are the ones I made for my brothers.

Everlee's Quilt Finished

It's finished, my quilting was rusty, so my mediocre meandering is even more mediocre, but all in all, it turned out cute. 

You can't see the back too well here, but it is really cute kittens. 

Sweat Sweaters

I've knitted these (1 is crocheted) plus 5 more in the past few weeks, I think I need to either get back to quilting, or expand my pattern choices.  It's so easy to just sit down and knit a square though, and they feel very soft and cushy at the gym.