Trunk or Treat and Some Stitching

I have been stitching.  I guess I finally got some sewing Mojo back.  

Last February, when I was in Anchorage, my granddaughter was given some fabric at a local quilt store.  I promised my granddaughter that I'd make something with her fabric.  

Gwendolynn's fabric

Well, I'd bought a used Accuquilt Studio in January, and I'd seen a cute pattern on their website.  I ordered the Go! Dresden Plate die.  

I finally started pulling fabrics to go with Gwendolynn's fabric.

Cutting most of it out on the Accuquilt was quick and fun.  Stitching the Dresden plate pieces was quick.

Dresden plate parts

That is enough parts for 16 placemats.  I'm making 12 placemats for my son's family (they already have 5 kids, so they need more than 8 placemats) and 4 placemats for us.

I made the bases of the placemats first, then quilted them.  I stitched the binding onto the front of the placemats before I started adding the 'turkey' parts.  I added the turkey tail feathers, and stitched them down.

Then I added the turkey legs and stitched them down.  That was harder to do, since they are such skinny legs.  It's hard to see under the walking foot.  Stitching the turkey's tummy down was pretty fast.

I stitched the turkey's nose and eyes to the head before I fused it down and then stitched around the head.  Now I'm stitching the binding down on the back of the placemats.  I've only finished the binding on 2 so far.  

Saturday, our church had Trunk or Treat again.  We had about 100 children attend (not counting parents, etc.).  It was a good turnout.  We decided to do a covered wagon this year.  I got to wear my pioneer dress and bonnet that Thelma (Missouri TOGA) made me.  

hubby & I in our costumes (well, I'm in costume, his are his regular clothes)

our covered wagon

Here are some of the other decorated cars.

Gru & Minions

Jurassic Park/Trunk

inside Jurassic Park

Cousin It (Addam's Family) and Waldo

scarecrow & 1950's poodle skirt

carnival

Candyland

Christmas, they had ornaments that could be decorated

Super Mario 

Cookie Monster

I'm glad the weather on Saturday was nice.  We're expecting snow on Halloween and windy conditions (Brrr!).  Poor kids.  I hope we still have lots of Trick or Treaters, since I still have tons of candy (I don't want to keep it around, or I'll eat all the candy).

Happy Halloween!

Friendship Star block exchange

I love to participate in the Treadle On Block Exchanges (TOBE's).  Blocks for these exchanges must be made on a 'people powered' sewing machine (either a hand crank or a treadle).  This is the last exchange I'll be participating in this year.

For this exchange, we are making 9 inch Friendship Star blocks. This block comes in 3 sizes and is a free block online. 

Our blocks are using bright white, either solid or white on white as the background, and brights, either solid or tiny prints for the 'star' parts, with the centers white so that we can sign the center blocks.  (I still need to sign my blocks).

Each set of blocks was made on a different machine.  Having the booth at the Faithful Circle quilt show really helped, since I had to pull all the machines out.  I worked on 3 sets at the quilt show, and made the 4th set on the machine that is always set up in my sewing room.

1921 Singer 66-1 Red Eye decal hand crank

1923 Singer 128 La Vincedora decals

made on machine below

1914 Singer 66 Lotus decals

1927 Singer 15 Tiffany/Gingerbread decals

Sorry, I put the 1914 Singer 66 away before I remembered to take photos.  

Now to sign these and mail them off.  

Not much sewing, but busy

I haven't done much sewing lately.  Instead, I've been helping families find charitable homes for their loved one's stashes.  I was contacted by another lady about her sister's stash.  I was told it was a quilter, but when I picked everything up, it was almost all garment fabrics.  Hmmm....what do I do with garment fabrics (lovely fabrics, but I don't sew clothing, and don't know anyone who sews clothes).  Well, after asking two different groups of quilters, I found a home for everything.  This afternoon, I took buttons to one lady, that will be used for children's sweaters that one of her groups makes and donates.  Then I took 2 sewing machines and all the rest (notions, fabrics, TONS of buttons, etc.) to a church that works with refugee's.  These things will be given to refugee's who can sew, so that they can make clothing either for their families, or to sell so that they can support themselves.  Woohoo!  (now I can get back into my family room again ;).

Back on September 16th, hubby took our kitchen sink out, to replace it with a new one.  Oops!  3 of the 4 corners of the new sink were cracked.  Too late to put the old sink back in.  

no kitchen sink

Well, the new sink arrived after it was shipped from another state (no cracks) but, the pipes didn't fit in the same places as the old sink.  Hubby & our son finally figured everything out, and our new sink works.  It took 2 weeks to get everything hooked up, and a few days longer to finally get the little leak fixed.  Meanwhile, no cooking happened at our house for over 2 weeks.  

new kitchen sink

Now I have to cook again :(  I didn't miss cooking much.

I have gotten some stitching done (not much).  I finished the last block for the Angels Among Us quilt.

December block

I've cut most of the sashing strips and border strips for this quilt.  Now to get them stitched together. 

I've also stitched over 300 HST's for 4 different projects (Angels Among Us, Family Reunion quilt, Quilt Guild raffle quilt and last set of Friendship Star TOBE blocks).  I still have more HST's to make for the Family Reunion quilt.  

Last summer I started a Leaders & Enders project, the Omigosh! quilt. I've been slowly making 9 patch blocks for this quilt.  I've made over 150 9 patch blocks so far (I need 550 total 9 patch blocks).  

150 teeny tiny 9 patch blocks

These 9 patch blocks are 2" unfinished. I do have lots of parts of this quilt cut out, waiting for their turn to be stitched.  This will NOT be a quick project!

Another reason I haven't been sewing much is that I seem to have lost my sewing mojo.  I'm hoping that it comes back soon.  It's been a busy year for me (LOTS of family travel and issues).  Those issues just seem to keep happening (no more travel lately, thank goodness).  I don't mind travel, but it would be nice to travel for a vacation instead of all family needs/emergencies.  Since I finally got home in late July, I sit in my sewing room and just watch movies, with little sewing getting done.  All of my energy has gone into finding homes for 'other' peoples stashes, not using my own.