Happy Halloween

I know -- Halloween is almost over, only another 1/2 an hour but it's been a good holiday here in the cornfields. The rain and cold front we were supposed to get in time for trick or treating didn't show up, and dd LOVED going around to the houses in the neighborhood to get her candy. ("I LOVE candy mommy!" -- which is fine, love it all you want sweetie, you only get one piece per day) And she LOVED her costume (enter the tears and fight to get her OUT of it at the end of the night).

It made me feel all warm and happy inside that she loves it so much, and a little less guilty that it is the same costume she wore last year. (I know BAD mommy -- but, well, I may have spent a bit more than I intended on last year's costume -- and it fit again this year -- and um, I just hadn't gotten over the trauma of trying to gather and put in three layers of tulle in the underskirt, or working with sheer fabrics -- let alone sheer fabrics that had little "sequins" that were part of the fabric and a royal pain to work with all for a Tinkerbell costume that didn't look like a stiff wind would make it fall apart -- and she LOVES it, really).

I may have also gone a bit overboard on those wings as well. See, the original pattern (Simplicity 4949 Disney toddler princesses if you really want to know) said to make the wings out of wrapping paper. Um, don't know about you folks but wrapping paper wings -- for a toddler. Yeah, right. Especially since last year this time my darling was going through her "if it's paper I must rip it" phase. *shudder* So -- well, I may have improvised a bit on the wings and used materials that were a bit more sturdy (let's hear it for fusible fleece and Heat N Bond lite shall we? And yes, you can, if you are careful, fuse sheer fabrics). And, um, there may be a little bit of quilting in there as well. We won't even mention what using an iridescent nylon thread to do the edge zigzags and the eyelet buttonholes does to your sanity. Yeah -- a bit overboard describes it but getting two years of wear out of them kind of makes it seem reasonable. Kind of. Of course, next year I will probably do it all over again :0).

Anyway -- it's getting late, and while I do have more to share (lots of fun stuff while Mom was here, including one my top reasons to love living in a small town and some crafty goodness including a finished project and some new purchases) I'm going to get some sleep. I'll leave you with visions of cavities waiting to happen -- and happy pumpkins set out for display (though not by me). Hope your own Halloween was happy!

Too much homework...

to get any sewing done in the past couple of days, so I thought I would post a picture or two of some recently (this past October to December is still recent isn't it? I seem to be losing time these days) completed projects. One of my challenges to myself this year is to finish off some UFOs (more on that subject in another post). I had at least two quilts finished (sent out to be long armed) and just waiting for binding -- that had been in that state for over two years. YIKES!
This top was finished in 2004!! I got it back from being quilted in early 2005. And I finished binding it in September of 2006. Talk about delayed gratification. Here it is finished and hanging at my guild show this past fall -- no I didn't expect it to win anything, but it was nice getting some comments on my technique which is all I wanted.

I was so happy to finally have it done and it was nice to curl up under for Halloween this year -- finally! Since every fabric except for the backing and binding are Halloween or fall themed, it was a great way to finally USE all of my holiday fabric. Of course my dd hasn't let me put it away yet -- she loves picking out all of the cats (meows), bats, and moons. Who says Halloween has to end in October?

My other project that I finally finished in December is one that was even older. It was a wonky split rail fence from Jan Mullen's book Cut Loose Quilts. I started this one in 2003 and had it back from the quilter in 2004. Um -- anyone seeing a pattern here about binding? Yes -- I had a totally irrational fear of finishing a binding. Something to do with having to hand sew it down to get it to look right -- after binding four quilts this December I'm over it -- but it took that many for me to feel comfortable. On the plus side it meant I could finally give my cousin her long overdue quilt for Christmas.

This picture doesn't really do the quilt justice -- but it's the only one I have. All of the fabrics are batiks (I simply can't resist batiks -- at one of my favorite LQS's one of the ladies who works there always teases me about my batik addiction). They are all in luscious tones of burgundy, gold, rusty orange, tans and a hint of grey. There is also a fun batik that is black with cat outlines in the tans/golds. My cousin is a devoted kitty cat mom and I love the way this ended up looking like the cats were peeking out from behind layers of rocks.

And yes, my couch is covered in quilts here -- two others, one for my dd and one for my aunt are hanging out plus the usual assortment that are available for cuddling up in front of the TV. I'll post pictures of the other two I finished for Christmas later -- but they were actually started and completed in the same year -- go figure that. I also need to dig out the photo (an actual physical one, none that are digital) of the quilt I made for my mother for Christmas. Hmmnn -- looks like last year was really productive -- what is happening to this one?