Halloween

It looks like Halloween out my window today. The wind is howling, the trees have no leaves, and the sky is grey and full of low clouds. We've got 4 days yet to see Trick or Treaters walking down the sidewalks with candy bags full.

Unfortunately, with the cold Fall weather that we have been experiencing lately, come bad colds. Jeanne has been suffering for over a week. Now our little sister, Jo, has a cold and Jeanne's husband is the next to succumb. I am trying to stay clear and have all my fingers crossed that I am sucessful.

But, in the meantime, the stitching continues with lots of phone calls and emails flying back and forth. PLUS-my cleaning of the sewing room continues. Jeanne has taken one load of fabric to the sewing ladies at her church to make charity quilts. It felt good to share some of the fabric that was just sitting on our shelves. Yes, it is VERY hard to pass fabric on. (I bet you know what I mean!) But, really. Do I absolutely need fabric that I bought 5-10 years ago and have just let sit on the shelf??? Ok...maybe not.

I have two more shelves to clean this weekend. Then it's on to the yarn!

Mid month and a reality check

I'm not sure if it is because we are mid-October and I'm starting to panic about getting Christmas presents finished, or what! But I finally admitted that I need help with projects. Jeanne and I hurried to design a new set of placemates and we have had a riot picking out fabrics, floss, and doing the stitching. They look great! (No-you can't see them quite yet!)

But they need to be machine stitched now and I really don't know what I'm going with that. I am the one that loves hand quilting, remember? I'm the one that can hand quilt a king size Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, after hand piecing all the hexagons for a year. I think my issue is that I have never really sat next to someone who knows what to do and why. I get tense just thinking of it.

So yesterday we met with a good quilting buddy and I asked for help. The response was "Sure". We are leaving the design up to her and she can do what she wants. I'll add the bindings and we'll be ready for sharing then. What a relief. And we'll be trading some fabric for her time-good for everyone.

What part of quilting are you not really comfortable doing??? Time to admit you may need help-it's not a crime!

10-10-10 and Fall Harvest

Funny to think about these numbers. Just think we can only have two more -11/11/11 and 12/12/12 and then it's all over-I think. That kind of higher thinking is sometimes beyond me.

We have been enjoying glorious Fall weather with blue skies and lots of sun. Perfect for walking through leaves and watching the trees turn. But that also means that we're trying to dig through the back of closets and pull out all those long sleeve tops and sweaters that we stuck away in a hurry when Spring hit. And that leads to pulling out the winter quilts and checking things over.

I put a flannel quilt at the bottom of the bed last week when one night the temperature was supposed to be under 40 degrees. It looks great against the lighter colored quilt that I use during summer. It's a simple quilt of 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 squares sewn together with a greyish 3 inch border and it backed with off white and blue ticking also in flannel. It's a mish mash of flannel squares all mixed up and then I hand stitched in the ditch around each one.

I also put one of our Fall Harvest wall hangings over the living room couch. All the burnt oranges, dark greens and muted steel blues look great with my dark green couch. I'll show you later when I can find the card for my digital camera.

How do you make the change of seasons in your home decorating???