Sister's Choice Quilts

Halloween 2018

Once more we gathered for my family's Annual Halloween Party over the weekend.  I think it's been more than 34 years that we have been doing this, but who's counting?  That is my little family portrait above.  It would be perfect for our Christmas cards, don't you think?  My husband is a Pharaoh, my daughter is Cleopatra, and I am (drum roll) Cleopatra's Mummy.  I look a little tired, but that is what being in a sarcophagus for 2000 years does to a person.

Eva was Ariel, the Little Mermaid.  She kept taking that wig off and putting it back on, so it wasn't sitting quite right in this picture.  She was feeling the magic though.

Here she is with her cousin Johnathan.  They only see each other a couple of times a year, so they were racing around having the best time.  Have you ever seen anything so cute?

Except maybe this little cave girl riding her dinosaur?  She is standing on her own legs inside the dinosaur body, and those are little fake legs that dangle down the sides of the beast.  I laughed every time I looked at her.

Here's my dad.  At 93, he came up with his own costume and rented it.  He is a barrister.  His wig was itchy so he took it off pretty quick and went to bed by 8:00, but he tolerated the rest of our antics as he does every year.  We have the party at his house, so he is pretty much captive.

So here are the prize winners:

This family came as the characters from the latest Incredibles movie.  They won for "Best Group", beating out the Egyptians in the first photo.

This hot dog won the prize for "Funniest".  He is the daddy of the little dinosaur riding cave girl.  I tell you that family gets into Halloween.

This is Miss Havisham, who won for "Most Effort".  She is my sister, mother of the hot dog guy and grandma to the dino riding toddler.  I told you they were into the spirit of things.  Her husband is sitting on the chair in the background.  He was one of two skeletons.  Let's call him Skeleton #1

Sitting on the sofa is the other skeleton, let's call him Skeleton #2, who to me, was indistinguishable from Skeleton #1.  However, Skeleton #2 won the prize for "Scariest".  Skeleton #1 was bald, so some discrimination may have taken place.

I mean, really, can you tell that one of those guys is scarier than the other?  Skeleton #1 can't believe it either.  Hope he can digest that Diet Coke.  It may go right through him.

This is my other sister, who won the grand prize for "Most Amazing" or "Most Mind Blowing" or something.  Her flamingo costume was so awesome, she deserved it.  She made that costume out of 15 pink feather boas she got for $1 apiece.  The flamingo head on her hand was made from a plastic toucan she found somewhere and painted pink and made into a hand puppet.  She is married to the prize winning skeleton by the way.  And mother/grandmother to the Incredibles family.  Seriously these people have a lock on the prizes I tell you.  My jealousy is only appeased by the fact that she had to go back after the party and vacuum the entire house of about five pounds of pink feathers she dropped all over the place.

This guy must have been a party crasher.  I am sure I do not recall him attending the party in the past.  He just sat on top of the fireplace dividing wall and didn't bother anybody.

Hope you enjoyed the little costume parade.  Happy Halloween to you all!

 

 

Great Books to Read in October

October is such a good month to snuggle in with a spooky book.  I don't like horror or too much gore in my reading material, but a gothic or slightly spooky tale is right up my alley.  Here are some books that I have read this month and some that I think would be great to try.

I am currently re-reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, originally published in 2006..  It is very gothic in nature and concerns an eccentric best selling author who wants to tell the truth about her life to a young journalist.  The book is only $2.99 on Kindle right now, so if you haven't read it, you might want to get it now while the price is so good.  Spooky crazy twins, a mysterious fire that destroys a centuries old house, a ghost, the list goes on and on.  And there is a twist at the end.

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton, just recently released, was not thrilling me at first.  It did pick up steam towards the end though and overall I liked it.  Three stars.  I deducted points for the plot being a bit disjointed and skipping around in a confusing manner.  Also too many characters.  The story has a likeable ghost however which redeems many of its flaws.  A haunted house, a mysterious disappearance, a missing jewel, a drowning, a murder at a house party--there were lots of great elements in this story.

The Silent Companions by Sarah Purcell was super creepy.  A pregnant young widow moves into the isolated country mansion her husband had been preparing for her.  There are spooky servants, weird artwork that appears again after being put away in the attic, an insane asylum...All the elements for a wonderfully creepy and spooky read.  Don't miss out on this one.  It will make your skin crawl, but in the most delightful way.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is a wonderful Victorian novel that features a young artist who has been engaged to tutor two young ladies in drawing.  As he is approaching the estate where he has been hired, he encounters a mysterious woman in white who he later learns is an escapee from a mental asylum.  He finds that this mysterious woman has a remarkable resemblance to one of the young women he is to tutor.  Unrequited love, murder, shady dealings and great writing will keep you engaged.  On Amazon, you can get the Kindle version for free, so what's stopping you?

A new widow, Alice, is forced to seek refuge with her bachelor brother Matthew.  Set in 1644 in the English town of Manningtree, Alice notes "Nine months ago, my brother Matthew set himself to killing women".  We learn that Alice is writing her observations while being incarcerated in an attic room, while her brother Matthew, believing that witchcraft is afoot,  takes it upon himself to persecute over 100 women.  The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown is based on historical facts, which makes it even more chilling.

The Girl Before by JP Delaney is a contemporary novel, but will set your nerves on edge and make you want to read it with all the lights on.  If you enjoy a psychological thriller (Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, The Silent Wife), this will be a hit with you.  Over a period of time, two different women apply to rent a very exclusive and unusual apartment, one after the other.  The applicants have to answer some very personal questions on the rental application, and when accepted, have to agree to some rather peculiar rules.  In exchange, they get an amazing house for a ridiculously low rent.  Only there is a catch. You find out right away that the first girl dies in the house under mysterious circumstances.  Some weird things are happening in the house, which makes the second renter suspicious that something sinister is up.  And she's right...

A couple of other classics that you might enjoy this month are The Birds, by Daphne DuMaurier and The Hounds of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  And let's not forget The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.  You can often get titles like this  for super cheap or even free on Amazon, for your Kindle.  They are short books and make for fun quick reads to get you in the mood for Halloween!

If you have some favorite spooky reads, be sure to share in the comments!

 

Where Does the Day Go?

Lately I have been wondering where on earth my day goes.  It goes, that is for sure, and I have been feeling I don't have much to show for it.  I was struggling with finding a topic to blog about, since I have not been sewing, when it occurred to me that I should just track my activities for a day and see what I came up with.

I have made a new friend who I have been walking with three times a week.  I clip my little Fitbit Zip to my waistband and it is incredible how quickly those steps add up.  We walk for just under an hour and the time passes so rapidly as we (mostly me) are yakking the entire time.

And it is a very good thing I have been doing some exercise, because I have also been doing some fall baking.  Nothing like cooler temperatures to put me in the mood to make home made bread or a nice pound cake.  I have been giving big wedges of that cake to friends, I swear.  Here is a link to the pound cake recipe.  It is really really delicious.  It is Taste of Home's Sour Cream Pound Cake.

Another thing I get an urge to do in the fall is to make slow cooker meals.  I wish you could smell my house as I write this.  I made a Stacked Enchilada Casserole from a recipe by Chunguh of Damn Delicious.  I have mentioned her recipes in the past, as they are reliably wonderful.  Chunguh is an adorable girl who grew up in a traditional Korean household, but who developed not only a knack for cooking American food, but who has a fantastic blog and a cookbook too. You have not lived until you have made her recipe for Shrimp and Grits.  Just saying.  It is worth visiting her blog just to see pictures of her dog "Butters", who may the cutest Corgi on the planet.

  

I have also been cleaning out the guest room closet in an effort to make more room for guests' clothing and less room for my bins of fabric and project boxes.  Those are going out to the shelves in the garage.  This has not been a particularly enjoyable project, but it needed to be done.

I am really going to have to get back to sewing because I find myself actually doing housework, like washing the kitchen floors.  No, no, no.  My time could be much better spent, I am sure of it.  

If things keep up like this now that my husband isn't under foot around the house all day, I am going to run out of things to do and end up getting back to the sewing room out of sheer boredom!

 

 

Spice It Up

Can you believe how gorgeous this fabric collection is?  It is Spice It Up by Jo Morton, designed for Moda.  The colors are my favorite warm autumn tones, and I can think of so many projects that this fabric would be perfect for.  If you are a collector of Jo's fabrics, you know that her new collections always "play" beautifully with her past ones.  You can achieve an amazing scrappy look by combining Jo fabrics from your stash.

Check out your local quilt shop, they may have it in stock.  If not, there are loads of places you can order it from on line.

Hope you all had a good weekend.  Mine was great, spent with family.  I am not seeing so much of my husband now that he has been persuaded to come out of retirement to work in the city.  We made the most of our Saturday and of our Sunday morning.  We even went out for lunch and had a cocktail.

A Zombie.  Yes, it was blue.  And had a brain floating in it.  But you know what?  It was actually pretty good.  Really.

Holiday Quilt Countdown

Here is a little sideways view of my almost completed red and white Christmas quilt.  I have been getting up into the sewing room sporadically and making the rest of the flying geese.  Only three more strips of ten geese to go, then I will assemble the sections.  The final step will be to add the outer border which I think is just going to be the Eggshell white that I have used for the flying geese and lattice squares.

I like the simplicity of that sort of border treatment, since the blocks are so different from one another.

The end is finally in sight with these darn flying geese.

I'd really like to finish this quilt up and get it to the quilter.  She is so good at getting things back to me pretty quickly, that I have a chance at having it in use by Christmas.

I need a new project to get excited about.  I may get out my Swell Christmas kit, as that would be fun to work on in November.  I'd love to get this done for Eva's bed for the holidays.  Thelma (Cupcakes 'n' Daisies) made it not too long ago and had some great tips for constructing the top.  I highly recommend you check out the link to her blog if you are thinking of making this quilt.

Bad Blogger

Sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately.  Life is just getting in my way I tell you.  Here are a few things we have been up to.

Eva and I made unicorn pumpkin cookies this weekend.  Now that is a concept isn't it?  We had the candy corn and while we were decorating the cookies, she got a brain wave that suggested the candy corn would make the perfect unicorn horn on our pumpkins.  I guess it works.

I mentioned in passing that I wished I could find a couple of lighted branches to stick in a fall floral arrangement, and the next thing I know, is my husband is presenting me four strands of lighted fall leaf garlands.  Well.  Thank you.  I think.  I am not sure how he jumped from lighted branches to four lighted leaf garlands, but more is more right?  So I have been trying to figure out where to put his contribution to our fall decor.  I have some pumpkins outside the front door, so that seemed like a good place for one of the garlands.  Three to go.

It's pretty lame, but I kind of threw the remaining three garlands out on the porch railing.  Actually, if we sit out there with our wine in the early evening, it is sort of festive and fun.

I have passed the half way mark with my scarf and am now decreasing stitches to form the triangle!

And this book, which I was honestly not enjoying much has finally picked up the pace and gotten good after 150 pages.  Not cool, but I have determined to stick with it.  Honestly, I don't know what happened to Kate Morton with this one.  There are too many characters, the story line is super confusing, and there is a ghost who is trying to tie it all together for the reader.  Not her best work.

Not much sewing, but I am probably going to get back to my red and white Christmas quilt any minute.  My husband has had a job offer that seems to be drawing him out of his retirement, so I will be my own boss in the upcoming months, as he will be living closer to San Francisco where the job is, and coming home just on weekends.  This is so funny.  He knows these people who are offering him the job.  The position comes up and they ask him to come in to interview for it on Thursday, and can he please start the next day?  All this before they interview him.  Ok, he's on board.

Hope your week is going well, and I hope to be posting more regularly!

What's Pulling Me This Week

I don't have a lot to show for my time this week, but I have read a really spooky, good book.  The Corset by Laura Purcell.  I bought this in London, and don't think it is available yet in the US.  If you haven't read her previous book, The Silent Companions, that is another really spooky creepy read, which is perfect for October.  This book is about Ruth, who can put all her anger and hate into her sewing.  So watch out if you happen to treat her mean and she ends up making your corset.  Just saying...

I've also been practicing hand lettering.  Not proper calligraphy, I don't think, but kind of a faux calligraphy that gives such a fun result.  Perfect for journaling or making greeting cards etc.  I will share more about this once I get more of a hang of it.

My ombre triangle scarf is just past the half way mark.  I have really been enjoying making this.  The knitting process and counting rows is almost meditative, it is so relaxing.  I am going to make another one of these when I finish this and give one of them as a gift.  The yarn is so soft and amazing.  

And then this happened.  It turns out that The Clockmaker's Daughter was the Book of the Month Selection for October, so good thing I didn't buy it in London and haul it home with me, right?  It arrived this week and I just read the first couple of pages and I am hooked!

Hope you all will have a great weekend, and wish me luck that I get back into the sewing room and finish up all those red and white flying geese for my Christmas quilt!

Another Fiber Art

Every year or so, I get the urge to knit something.  My knitting skills are basic, at best, but I love to crank out a scarf or two every now and then.  I am someone who would really benefit from taking a knitting class, or joining an informal knitting group.  I can knit and purl and make scarves, but my abilities pretty much end there.  How fun it would be for me to make little caps or baby sweaters or socks!

There is a little knitting shop not too far from me, and I wandered in over the weekend and was inspired by the projects the shop had all about the place.  It is so smart of quilt shops or yarn shops to display finished projects so customers can see what they might accomplish given the right materials and instruction.

So this happened.  I purchased a $40 ball of varigated yarn and some circular needles.  The shop attendant promised me I could make a triangular shawl with no trouble at all.  I told her I might be back tomorrow for help and left the shop with my wallet considerably lighter.  I watched forty five minutes of YouTube videos on how to increase knitted stitches, and after some false starts and additional practice, am on my way.  It's still a scarf, but a little trickier than a rectangular one.  Wish me luck!  Hopefully there will be socks and caps in my future.  Maybe even a cable stitch.  I can dream, right?

Four Bindings, Done!

I'm proud to say I applied myself to the task and completed the bindings on four quilts over the weekend.  Three of them were table runners, but they are done and I am enjoying them as part of the Fall decor.  That's my dining table above.  The runner is my own creation.  Inspired by a quilt I saw on Pinterest, but ending up nothing what so ever like it. 

My hall table.  Inspired by a quilt I saw on Pinterest.  There are variations of this block to be found in lots of places including in the book Moda All Stars Mini Marvels.

My coffee table.  This quilt is an adaptation of a larger quilt from a book called Maple Leaf Quilts.

The upstairs railing overlooking the foyer.  Halloween Bounce, a Miss Rosie pattern.

This quilt has been finished for years, but I thought I'd share What's On My Bed with you all.  Birdseye, another Miss Rosie pattern.

It is amazing what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it.  My fingers are sore from the hand sewing, but I am so happy to get these quilts into circulation for the season.  

If you have not done it, you might want to read the comments from my previous post on how folks organize their bindings.  I sure got some great ideas and tips from those comments and know I will benefit from them in the future. 

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Glorious fall weather here.

A Profusion of Bindings

Well, I have somehow nodded off and woken up to ten quilts needing bindings.  How did that even happen?

This one has been sitting on the back of the couch in the library for a month, waiting for me to hand sew it down.

Five more unbound quilts are lined up on the upstairs railing.  One is sitting on a quilt rack in the guest room, and my quilter tells me three more are scheduled to be delivered today.

I am in big trouble.  Lesson learned?  Don't wait so darn long to cut and apply the binding.  The hand sewing is a chore, but at least if the bindings are machine stitched on, you can't lose them, right?  I am really annoyed because for at least two of the quilts that need bindings, I can't find the fabric I am pretty sure I set aside somewhere.  A year or so ago.  Ahem, no wonder it's gone missing.

I read somewhere about a quilter who always, always cuts her binding when she finishes her quilt top.  She has a designated basket for bindings and as soon as she gets the quilted top back, she applies that pre-cut binding.  I want to be her.  I have been very lackadaisical about my binding fabric practices and now I am paying the price.  

My biggest problem is that I really do not enjoy sewing bindings.  It seems the least creative part of the quilting process and I find it so boring.  Right about now I am sure wishing I had taken a bit more care to plan out the bindings for these quilts.  For heaven's sake, the binding I put on the quilt that is sitting on the back of the couch doesn't even go with the quilt top.  Ugh.  I really need to get better light in the sewing room.

From now on, I vow to plan the binding fabric at the same time I am making the quilt, and cut it out and have it ready to sew on the minute I get a quilt back from the quilter.

Do you plan your bindings in advance?  What methods do you all employ to be sure your binding fabric doesn't get separated from its intended quilt?