I'm not really in the land of the lost...

I'll be vending at the Ashaway Holiday Stroll Saturday, so I'm frantically making crafty giftie things to sell along with my Six Gables Designs patterns. Stay tuned...

Still time to make this

My contribution to Cotton Spice's Gift Countdown went up on the Cotton Spice Blog yesterday. This is the casserole/plate carrier I made for my quilt guild's silent auction. Click here for directions. These are very quick and super simple to make, but the rings can be a bit challenging to find. You can use key rings, as I did here, but they are a bit pricier. If you can find packages of metal or nylon rings, I would suggest you stock up, as you need 8 per carrier and you will probably want to make several. Other than the rings, if you quilt, you probably have plenty of fabric and pieces of batting already in your stash.

Laume's Magical Yule Swap

Here is my Magical Yule gift for my as yet unknown swap partner. It grew from my original intention of making a weasel in its winter coloration watching the sun rise at the winter solstice. Turn the panel to the sunset side, swap the winter weasel for a summer colored one, and you have a summer solstice decoration.
"Why weasels?" you may ask. It all started with the two-hundred some-odd ferret angels I made for Chere to raise money for her ferret shelter. From ferrets it was only a tiny step to weasels, and I loved the idea of the winter and summer coats.

Ugly Quilt Number Two

Here, at long last, is the second quilt I made from other quilters' so-called ugly fabrics, fabrics I thought were actually quite pretty. These were Gloria's uglies. I immediately thought the striped fabric would make a good wallpaper, and the streaky white and lavender looked like whitewashed wood. The diagonal rose fabric looked like tiles. So I created a still life on a "shabby chic" table against a background of two coordinating wallpapers separated by white chair rail molding. I quilted circles in the corner blocks on the border to resemble the circular designs carved into old moldings at the tops of doorways.

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder- or is it?

I've posted here several times about my penchant for using other people's fabric. I've even told about using other people's ugly fabric. But what I've never done (until now) is use other people's ugly fabric to make a present for the giver of said ugly fabric.

Let me start by saying I have a lot of ugly fabric. Or, more accurately, a LOT of UGLY fabric. So when Listmom Linda of Fairiegoddessmothers asked for suggestions for a new swap or challenge, I rose to the occasion. I'm hosting an Ugly Fabric Swap. The rules of the swap are simple. Participants are paired off. Each person sends three pieces of ugly fabric to her partner. The partner has to use those three fabrics, plus no more than five other fabrics from her own stash, to create a small quilt, one nice enough that her partner would display it in her home. She then mails the finished quilt to her partner.

We are far enough along in the swap, that several of us have completed quilts. Luckily for me, I think most players are enjoying the challenge. I know I am.

Because we wound up with an odd number of players, I took on two partners. Both my partners promptly mailed their fabrics. Chris's fabric arrived first, so I made her quilt first. Let me start by saying I thought her fabric was very un-ugly. Not only that, two weeks previously, I had sketched a vase of moonflowers. I planned to appliqué this design in the near future, and tucked the sketch away in a safe place. When I saw Chris's fabric, it could not have been more perfect for this quilt. So, here is "Moonflowers Bloom at Midnight". Click on the photo for a larger view. Come back again soon to see what I do with Gloria's uglies.

Election Day

DH and I got up early and were at the polling place at 6:30 a.m. It was much quieter than I expected for a state that does not have early voting. Polls opened at 7:00 and I was the first person in my precinct to vote; by 7:12 I was back in my kitchen making coffee (no Starbucks here for my free cuppa Joe).  We both have Tuesdays off- I spent the morning doing 3 loads of laundry, running errands (grocery shopping, picking a couple things up at the Family Dollar, and going to the bank), helping replace the rotten boards on our back steps, and working on some quilty projects for sale. Now it's after lunch, I'm home for the rest of the day, and it's back to the sewing machine for me!

Pack up the candy, Halloween's over

I had hoped to have October go out with a bang, at least a few good photos from last night, but the sad truth was, Halloween was a bust! We both worked late enough to miss any little little trick or treaters who may have come, and only had two older kids. This is the one day a year I envy those people who live in housing developments where parents drop off their kids by the van full.
I did get to see a family all dressed up in coordinating costumes get out of their car and go into the restaurant next to where I work- Santa, Mrs. Santa, and elf, and even a tiny reindeer! Well, Halloween IS the beginning of the holiday season, isn't it?