Fall Quilt

Wa-hoo! I've been working and not working on this quilt since the end of summer. I came across the Martha Negley fabrics at Reprodepot and I loved them. They looked like the colors of the end of summer. They looked like fall, but not in the regular fall colors. I loved the oak leaves with the blue background. It reminded me so much of looking up through the scrub oaks in Cape Cod. Most of the fabric is Martha Negley, but there is also some Joel Dewberry fabric, a little Fresh Cut fabric from my last quilt, and maybe a few others. The solid color is a natural colored linen/cotton blend.

It's a wonky flying geese design. I was inspired by this quilt that I saw on Flickr from a quilt show in Japan I think. I mean that quilt is crazy beautiful. Way beyond. I've always liked flying geese and so I thought I'd give it a go in my own way. I drew the designs on foundation paper and pieced the quilt that way. I don't know if this is any faster or what, but it worked for me and it is what I'm comfortable with. I became very familiar with foundation paper when I did this quilt so I often come back to this technique when I want to try something new. I had made a pieced border to go all around it, but I didn't like the way it looked. I almost put it on because it was always in my plan, and I felt like I was wimping out by not using it. It really didn't work though. Made it look too hippy and that is not what I was going for. I still have the border and have a whole new quilt idea for it which I think is going to be cool.

Speaking of wimping out, the quilting. I really just wanted the quilt done. The weather is getting cold and I want a blanket to put over me at night on the couch. Simple machine outline inside the triangles and inside the long blank panels. I don't know if this minimal quilting will come back to haunt me later on down the road. I hope it all stays together. The way I figured was that if quilts can stay together with ties, then mine should be fine. I also thought I could finish it now and then add more quilting later if I wanted. Again, I don't know if this is a good idea or not.

I'm really tired right now. Tess is not sleeping too great at night and so I don't feel like proofreading this post at all.

Don't throw away the PB catalog that is coming in your mail today.

I saw this wonderful idea for a dollhouse here the other day, and I couldn't wait to try it with my girls. We do a lot of magazine cutting and glue sticking, so I knew this would be a fun and do-able project for us. I was so tempted to go way over the crafty top with this idea, but the beauty of the project is in it's ease. We made two small houses, one for each girl. We cut 4 strips of cardboard about 18"x 11". Then we cut a slit from the center of the long edge to the middle of each board and then slid them together like a cross. I gave each girl some catalogs and let them start cutting for about a half hour. We had the best luck with the Pottery Barn and PB Kids catalogs for images. Then we started gluing. If you have ever wanted to decorate a home like Pottery Barn, this is a strangely satisfying without the price tag. This was a "do together" activity with my four-year-old. It would have been a nice "do alone" for my five-year-old, if I weren't so over-bearing and wanting to "help". I should have just made one for myself. Very fun! Thank you Elsie Marley.

And now for some thoughts on the baby. She's rolling. She has been able to do it for awhile now, but it is much more frequent now. I pretty much find her on her belly every time I lay her on the floor. When I watch her do it, though, it is hard to tell if she wants to roll over. It kinda seems like her muscles start contracting and arms flailing and the next thing she knows, she's on her belly. And then she usually starts crying, but not always. See :)

Halloween is fun.

Here's my enthusiastic Halloween fans. What a fun holiday for the kids. It was just all fun, games, parades, candy, parties and more all day long. All four of the kids held up great and had a great time. Jim is the one in the big red "star trooper" outfit. We didn't really know what to call him, but it was a lot fun for the kids and adults alike. Yesterday Tess went with the flow for all the festivities, but she is not dealing well today. I need to go tend to her. The glass in the house might shatter if she cries any louder.

This is just a short cliip of the flower fairies in action. It was very hard to keep up with them.