Really, I have been working on things

but I have been a bit slow to finish much. I seem to be scattered -- you know, working a bit on this and a bit on that. But I finally have some things to share. First up is a crocheted scarf. Doesn't look like much I know. That's because it is a twisted ruffle. Several of my folks at work have been learning to crochet and all their requests for help got me interested in crocheting again. I had this yarn hanging around and this project was just small enough to be quick and fun.

And, yes, that is a little 2 foot ladder with a carpeted top. I don't go anywhere without my 2 foot ladder! And this one is at my cutting table in my quilting room. It makes a handy seat. Ages ago I did the tracing for this Buggy Barn pattern. And made the trees. And set aside stacks of fabric for the houses. And that's all.

I have finally chosen the fabrics to use and put the rest away. Soon it will get cut out. Yeah, soon! I think it will be one of my next projects. See, what happened, is after I made the trees and selected some fabrics I saw this made at a quilt show in Christmas coloured flannels. It looked absolutely terrific. It was used as a tablecloth at one of the quilt shop booths so I couldn't get a picture. It made me want to make it from flannel. So I set aside what I had done.

But sometimes these cut and swap around quilts end up with skinny slivers of triangles and this one certainly has lots of small pieces some of which will be quite small. I think flannel is better suited for larger pieces. And simpler blocks. It likes to shred and stretch so. Bottom line -- back to the original plan. Only about a 2 year detour!

I had made the snowball blocks for this quilt last year right after I saw it on Kim's blog. I decided I wanted to change the words around it (because I am probably the only person on the face of the earth who does not like pumpkin pie) and rather than use wool like she had, use fusible applique. But I wanted my letters to be all different. So I hunted around and found several types of scrapbook letters to trace. Then traced them, ironed them on to my fabric, cut them out, and -- nothing. It sat and sat. I sewed the words on a few weeks ago. Now it is pinned and ready to quilt as soon as I decide how to quilt it. That could take awhile, though, so I though I would share it.

And last year I decided when I was putting away Christmas that I would replace the corner yarn ties on this tree skirt I made way back when with buttons. So I dug around in my buttons, bought some additional green ones, and, ta da, actually got this done BEFORE Christmas. I used my 18 foot to sew on the buttons and only broke 2 buttons and 2 needles in the process. Yup, I am pretty darn proud of myself!

Oh, and I have worked a bit on my fall decorating. Fall is my favourite season but I don't seem to be able to get much done with my decorating. But at least I have done some.

This little wagon is a recent thrifted acquisition. I love the little ceramic leaf the pumpkin girl is holding. It is the only thing I found last year at my favourite Christmas craft fair. It's a keeper, though, I think.

And one more finish to show. In my kitchen eating area I usually have a long skinny quilt hanging as a kind of valance. I took a picture of the one that has been there and of this one when I put it up as part of the fall decorating. But it's hard to take a picture of a window during the day, so you will have to just imagine this as a valance. This has been made a long time too, but not sandwiched and quilted. But now it is finished!

Well, I am off to Scottsdale to teach the AP class. Just when I was getting used to the nice cool fall weather I am heading back to summer! Oh, well, it's only temporary.

Getting around to Sisters

Hard to believe it was almost 3 months ago now. Hard to believe it has been almost a month since I posted. I have no excuse. Well, I do have an excuse for last Sunday, my usual posting day. I was sitting in an airplane all afternoon not getting home from a visit with the grandkids.

Well, obviously, I finally did get home. After running through airports. Then of course my suitcase didn't run, so it didn't make it. Funny how you pack favourite things when you go on a trip and then when your bag doesn't show up you wish you had packed things you don't like much. But my bag finally showed up so I have my favourite things back again. And I did have a good time.

Anyway, back to Sisters. Mr THQ has gotten the first batch of pics off his camera so I have some to share. First up, proof positive that we were really there. Isn't this the classic shot of the Sisters show? Main Street bedecked with quilts.

These are what are called in the biz, "ambiance" pics. We went really early so it wasn't super duper crowded. Still hard to get a good shot sometimes without part of someone in it.

This was actually the first quilt we walked up to. Entered in the youth group. I absolutely love, love, love this quilt. And made by a young girl. Really impressive. I love everything about it but especially the colours. I guess I should warn you I was in a bright colour mood that day so you will see lots of bright quilts.

Here's one of those that I wonder about later. Maybe those big white snowballs looked better in person. I do like the little square border, though. Looks kind of like a filmstrip.

I'm having my customary difficulty tonight getting the pics in order. You will just have to put up with me. It's too hard to fix them especially since my head is stuffy from allergies. Funny day today, the fall allergies hit with a vengeance during our morning bike ride yet for supper we had local fresh corn on the cob. Weird weather this year.

Anyway, back to the quilts. Another ambiance shot. You know, I always thought that all the buildings in Sisters were old but they are not. They have all been built to look like an old western town, though. Guess when I just saw pictures I was fooled. Hmmm. Guess that's the point, now isn't it?

I warned you about the brights. Gotta love the wonky star. I have made only one quilt with wonky stars and I thought it was really hard to do. It usually is that way. Controlled chaos is always harder than regimented and orderly. Interesting, too, with the white background. I notice on lots of contemporary quilting blogs that solids are very popular, especially white. I do like it but am really a cream/ecru kind of person. Besides if I ever wear white I seem to become a dirt magnet. I would think a quilt would get dirty easily, too.

Here is a close up of a pretty cool basket quilt. I like the way the baskets are made of strips. I also love the sashing that is squares set on point. Looks like lots of work but it is really effective.

You can't tell from the picture but those this one was beaded beautifully. It really did glisten and shine in the sun.

I love this one, too. More bright colours. I love, love, love the big dots. And the little dots. You will see some close ups of this one below. Out of order, of course.

Here is a full view of the basket quilt. Interesting how the square on point sashing is mixed in with a big print sashing. I am not sure I had noticed that until I was looking at the pictures tonight.

Here is a nice way to use special squares. I like the hearts, too. And the turquoise sashing.

We were walking around Sisters as they were hanging them up and it was interesting to see that the clotheslines stay up permanently. As they hang the quilts they wipe the dust and grime off them (good thing) and add new clothespins. That's a good idea. Otherwise it could take a long time to get everything hung. It is absolutely amazing how quickly they get everything hung!

Here are a few closeups of the quilt with the dots. Okay, one here and more later. I told you I was having trouble with the order of the pics. Lately I have been totally loving lime green and this quilt has plenty of that in it.

A bullseye quilt. Always a favourite of mine. I have made several. This one has nice colours and I like the pieced borders. Cream and ecru! What do you think of that?

See, the reason there are so many shots of the border of this quilt is that the quilter used all her fancy rarely used zig zag stitches in lots of colours. I think this is probably the best view of it. Isn't that a clever idea? I need to remember to try it.

Close up of the bullseye quilt. You can just see here that there are buttons in the centers. Since I saw this one I have also seen them with yoyos in the centers. I like the buttons better. Because I am a poor yoyo maker. I mean I make yoyos poorly, even with the yoyo maker thingies.

I love log cabins. When I first started quilting I didn't like them at all. Isn't that funny? I like how dramatic the light/dark stripes are and think it looks great setting off the center.

Here is a sort of sampler. I really like all the different elements. I don't think I would ever have put all these things together but it looks great. Lots of work on that center panel. Phew.

More bright colours. This looks like a totally scrappy endeavor. I wish all my scraps looked this good.

There were lots of house quilts at the show and I am a sucker for them. This one is a little different. Hmm, more bright colours, huh? I like it with the black. And I like the little checked sashing. Little checks to rectangles, etc. Nice.

Close up.

Extreme close up.

Here is another house quilt. This one is like log cabins and houses all put together. And I like the border on this one, too. I hope I remember some of these border treatments.

Here is the whole thing. Kind of an Amish sense to it, too, don't you think?

More wonky stars. This time with plaids. Good combo. These are normally my kind of colours. Wow, it looks nice on that blue building, doesn't it?

Well, I've come to the end of today's pictures. This was outside a shop selling lots of quilts. It looked like a temporary shop that was in business just to catch all us quilt lovers. Probably a good business plan! I like the hanging stand. You know I am always looking for ways to hang quilts. And since Mr THQ was with me now he knows how to build one just like it.

Hope you enjoyed the show. There will be more to come. It was a fun day and we took lots of pictures. And I promise not to let a month go by before my next post. It's hard to believe that much time went by. Sure goes fast!

When the little voice in your head tells you

that something is just not right you have to listen to it. You just do. I wonder why it doesn't speak up sooner though. I finally have my own work to show you and, well, I do NOT like it. I bought the little chickadee fabric so tried to match everything else up with it. The brown fabric has little lime birds in it so I thought it would be perfect. And go with the little brown sqiggles in the chickadee fabric. But, it is just so BROWN! So out it had to come. Like the quilt now? I have new blocks made but first I had to rip. You know, as ye sew so shall ye rip.

See that blue in the second block from the left on the bottom row? That's what will replace the brown. More in the blue and green family. Of course now I am second guessing the yellow but since there are definitely yellow flowers it will stay. So this top was finished and now not so much.

That's probably because I am just working outside my colour comfort zone. Now this basket quilt is more in my zone. And it has fall colours. This was a $30 stack of fat quarters put together by one of the local shops at the Kuna show. The pattern was free. One of those stack and rotate ones. The samples had appliqued flowers decorating the baskets but I am not going to add those. I like it like this and since it is fall now, I want to get this finished and hung. This fall.

I also finished this. It is from the book "Lots of Dots" by Cotton Way. I wanted to use up my '30's-ish fabrics. I think I pretty much did, but again I am out of my colour comfort zone. This just came out so PINK! Didn't it?

And remember the commission quilt? Here it is. I love the colours. Don't you? Happily the commisioner was happy with it. And it is finished. I am glad.

I didn't forget that I still have some Kuna show pics to share. Here is the last of them. This is one of those times when I can't remember at all why I took the picture.

I like this one. I really like the on point baskets. And the non symmetry of it. Pastels, though.

Remember the theme was flower baskets. Here are a couple little theme quilts. Cute I think.

This one is not my favourite by any means but it was such a cute idea that I had to have a pic. I wonder if the idea was inspired by the fabric or if the quilter had the idea and had to hunt everywhere for the fabric. I would think it is the former but you just never know.

I guess I am in an on point mood. Nice treatment for a sampler quilt. I keep picking out quilts with applique on them, too. But whenever I try to do something like this I think the vines and leaves look silly. But they look fine when other people do it.

And this is hard to explain. Actually it was hard to understand when I saw it but I think the idea is that there is a different little towel like quilt for every month that goes in the holder. I tried to get them all. See the holder?

I have never seen anything like this before.

Here is another sweet one. Kind of pastelly again. But bright pastels. I like that the backgrounds are different colours. And the kind of horizontal flowers.

Here is another version of that market basket quilt that was at the Boise show, too. You know, the one that I thought I had the pattern for but only had a similar pattern. I do like it.

This one is kind of cool. Makes me think of a backgammon board.

This sampler is not quite on point, but kind of wonky set. A little too much blue for me but I like the wonky setting.

And I just love this one. Love the colours. And the kind of squared off flowers. And the chekerboard. Yeah, I do like it, alot.

How about this one? This one was in the youth category so it was made by a youth. WOW!

And isn't this one cute? Baa baa not black sheep. The background is really interesting, too. I like the little orange head peering out from behind.

So that is now the end of Kuna. Took us awhile to get here, didn't it? I still have the pics from Sisters so there are lots more quilt show pics left to see. And since I think I am finished with stashlets and the commission now, I can get going on what I want to do. And maybe it will come out better than two of the tops I am showing you today.

Time to decorate for fall, too. The weather is definitely cooler which is both great and inspiring. Have to get the fall/Halloween box down. Woo hoo!