Quilty fun

Oops, missed a day! I'll have to keep trying to post every day anyway.

Today, I have sewing pictures for you. First of all, I told you that I picked up a lot of fabric within the last month. I meant it! Here's a picture of it all, washed and folded. Actually, no, not quite all of it--there's a bundle of scrappy batik pieces that I forgot to put in the picture. Anyway, the purple and green at the top right are corduroy that I'm going to use for a couple of kids' cloaks. The gold brocade at the bottom of that stack will be the lining for a cloak made of dark green velvet. There's a good bunch of black twill there for a simple cloak, too.


This picture is one that I took when I got up from my sewing machine for a minute and thought "oooh, that looks pretty!" What you're looking at here is a whole lot of 1.25 inch fabric squares, sewn to each other on the way to becoming little four-patch quilt blocks.


Once they are four-patch blocks, they will be combined with these triangle pieces to become snail trail quilt blocks.


Like these! 8 down, 262 to go.


I designed the layout for this quilt, bought the fabric, and cut out all the pieces about 3 years ago. Then I got too busy to work on it, and put the carefully stacked pieces away neatly in a cabinet. I've pulled them out a few times since then, decided I was too busy to work on it, and put them all back.

Hopefully, I will soon get too busy to work on it again, but I just felt like the best way to get settled in for a bout of sewing was to put in some work on an old project. At any rate, it's going to be really nice when I get it done, and it will be beautiful and warm on my bed! Even if it does take me another 3 years to finish.

Yep, no doubt, it is definitely November.

I know, right....any idiot can tell it's November. We just turned the calendar page yesterday, so this is not exactly remarkable.

What I really mean, though, is that the whole November thing is pretty obvious, even without the calendar thing. My garden that looked like a lush jungle not too long ago has morphed itself into Halloween decorations. My email inbox is due to be purged of the thousand or so emails that didn't get deleted right away, but also didn't get read over the last couple months. The heat has been turned on.

Long, warm skirts feel so nice, and the sweaters are back in rotation. The laundry hamper gets much fuller much faster, due to the aforementioned warm skirts and sweaters.

And, most tellingly, there is an embarrasingly large stack of fabric sitting in the vicinity of my sewing room, waiting for me to wash it all. I spent a week in Utah, where there are quilt shops in abundance. Plus, I decided to make cloaks/capes this fall & winter, so I bought the babric when the prices were good, regardless of the fact that I knew I wouldn't have much sewing time until November.

And now it IS November! I get to wash the fabric, and start figuring out the details...what do I want to embroider on that green velvet cloak lined with gold dragon brocade? What kinds of appliquees do I want to use on those cute bright kids' cloaks?

I left it later than I intended, but I decided to list my sugar skull pincushions for Dia de los Muertos anyway. I just listed the first one, and I'll be getting more of them up this afternoon.

I need to find more tie-dye printed felt, because the sugar skulls I made with the bit I had were AWESOME and sold out within a day of getting them finished. I have to at least share a picture.


Also, I just found out that I won a prize! I am delighted! Go check out The Year of the Cats blog, where she has links to 10 other awesome blogs today.

Happy November!

Congratulations to DK Spins, who won the witchy towel giveaway. I'll be getting that package mailed out as soon as I can once I get the address.

To everyone who participated in the giveaway: Thank you so much for your input, your sweet comments, and your excitement. I've been having a wonderful time getting to check out some new blogs and shops, and following some new people on twitter.

I have several friends who are positively giddy that November is here, bringing with it an opportunity to try to write an entire novel in one month. I wish all of those crazy people all the luck in the world! I will not be making any attempt at novel writing this month. I am, however, open to the alternative possibility that is NaBloPoMo, wherein someone attempts a blog post every day for a month. Even that seems like a stretch, considering how frequently I have blogged this year. If you have any questions or thoughts about things you'd like for me to blog about this month, feel free to ask your question or suggestion in the comments and I'll see what I can do.

As promised, here is the costume picture! The bottom of the skirt is not showing, which is a bit of a shame. I took several different types of fabric, all black, sheer to some extent, and shiny or glittery, and cut them into long triangular pieces. I sewed a zig-zag stitch along the edges, which made them kind of curly. Then I layered them all up, attached them into a waistband, and had a skirt that really barely qualifies as a skirt. Then I used some tulle and ribbon and made a nice fluffy overskirt. The bodice, as you can see, is made of several different fabrics. You can't see it in the picture, but there is a crescent moon appliqueed on the back. The shirt under the bodice is made of fun sheer metallic spiderweb fabric. You know, that stuff you always pick up and WANT at the fabric store, without being quite sure what to make with it?


Oddly enough, this was the first time I've ever dressed up as a witch for Halloween. I guess it just never seemed necessary :)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Welcome to all the new followers. I'm so glad to have you here.

We went out for a fabulous brunch this morning, including lovely things such as grapefruit & ginger mimosas, elderflower mimosas, duck confit crepes, and shrimp & grits that were so rich and delicious that I couldn't finish.

When we got home, I finally got my halloween decorations up, and picked all the rest of the tomatoes hanging out on the vines. Now I'm contemplating a short nap before it's time to get dressed for the trick-or-treaters (and get the promised pictures taken!)

There is still giveaway fun going on! Today's giveaways are awesome and wonderful. There's a super witchy gift basket from October Farm in Salem here: http://www.confessionsofapagansoccermom.com/2008/10/giveaway-from-october-farm.html

and a full set of the Weiser field guides here: http://www.confessionsofapagansoccermom.com/2008/10/giveaway-from-weiser-books_31.html

PLUS my giveaway is still open until noon tomorrow. Here's the link for that one. http://www.confessionsofapagansoccermom.com/2008/10/giveaway-from-rains-stitchery.html

I hope you all have plenty of treats, and just enough tricks to be fun!

Giveaway Day!

Be sure to go check out Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom this afternoon, because my giveaway will be going up! Mrs. B decided to extend yesterday's giveaways a bit, so they're still up right now. She'll be putting today's giveaways up this afternoon, and run them along with the Halloween giveaways until November 1. Because we're all busy anyway, plus we have Halloween AND weekend stuff going on!

If Mrs. B sent you over, Welcome! I hope that you enjoy your visit.


Do you know what all the buttons, dials, and switches on your camera do? I definitely don't know, but I figured out what at least one of them does. Unfortunately, what that one DOES is makes pictures all completely blurry.

I took pictures of my costume and my setup at Moonlight Festival, but unfortunately the camera was on the super blurry setting the whole time. I will have to try to get pictures from some of the other people who were wandering around with cameras last night.

Meanwhile, I have put the camera back to the normal picture setting, and I'll get some pictures of my costume tomorrow night.