All Hallow's Eve!!

Frankie says-

"Scary, scary, screamie, screamie!

Happy, happy, Halloweenie!!"

Have a booooo-tiful Halloween!!

Mode for the Weekend!!

Boy, time flies, huh??

I have been quilting on a fall panel top I made at the last CQU retreat for the last two evenings after work... so that's why time has gotten away from me and I've not posted here! My bad!!



I've said this before, I do my piecing upstairs in my tiny sewing room on my Bernina. But I do my quilting downstairs on my dining room table with my Juki. In a previous post, I showed the quilting leaf I made for my dining room table to enable my Juki to sit down in a sunken box with the machine bed level with the table surface. Quilting is soooooooooo much easier this way!

Boy, you should see what a mess the black border is... covered with white lint from the edges of the exposed Warm & Natural batting. Of course, later, when it's done and being used in my family room during November, it will then be covered in white dog hair from my Westie, Yogi.

I'm using some pretty variegated thread in gold, green, orange and red. It really POPS on the black parts. I'm doing all different kinds of leaves...my favorite quilting motif!! I've got to get this quilt done, because I've got another fall panel quilt to finish, too. And I plan on putting them both out on Sunday when I put my Halloween stuff away and pull out my Thanksgiving stuff!

So, what are you working on these evenings????

P.S. GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!!

Three Quilts Completed!!

A box was sitting on my doorstep when I got home from work on Wednesday. My quilts!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS :-)
So I trimmed and squared up and sewed on the bindings at night after work. I had some serious house cleaning to do because bee was at my house on Saturday. We had an unusual bee as it was just Linda and I for most of the day. Suzanne is ill and Lorraine's mom was unexpectedly in the hospital. Although she and her daughter Erin did make it to bee by late lunch.
I made chili because the weather was predicted to be cold and rainy... well they got it half right. It was rainy....but too warm for anyone to appreciate the chili... sigh.
But Linda and I chatted the morning away as we both worked on finishing bindings on quilts. I finished all three by Saturday night! I still need to make the label and sew it on the Kaffe quilt.

This pattern is called "Bobby Dazzler" from the Sweet Treat company. I love the vintage looking fabrics. I fussy cut the centers of the stars. This quilt is made with 8 fat quarters then yardage for the borders.

I especially LOVVEEE the backing print!! I have enough leftover to make a Halloween vest!! I just love the polka dotted hats on the pumpkins!! So 50's looking to me!!

This quilt design I just made up! I used scraps and stash Halloween prints and fussy cut the block centers from a cute border print. The skeletons in the black print have cute tennis shoes on!!

I love using stripes for mini-borders and bindings, don't you??? This border is really cute with green monsters parading all around the edges!! I named it "Monster Parade".

This quilt made with vibrant Kaffe prints was super easy to put together. I made the top at our Spring retreat last April. I bought the quilt kit at the Hampton Road quilt show. I named this one "Bohemian Hot Flash".

It feels so GREAT to finish some quilts!! Don't you agree? I've gotta get upstairs and iron the backing and quilt top I want to pin together and get ready to quilt this week at night!!
So, did you all have a productive weekend??? What did you work on???

Cold Weather Garments

With fall really settling in and the weather turning colder, I found myself in need of some warmer tops for work. So, for the last 3 weeks, I've taken a little break from quilting by cutting out and sewing up new tops from corduroy, suede cloth and heavy decor weight fabrics... in all colors!!
This pattern although from 80's, I really love. Super easy to make with these raglan sleeves and shirt tail hem. Incredibly comfy, too. Can you believe I've made 15 different new tops already and still have 2 more cut out yet to be sewn up! Bring on the cold weather!! Now, I'm ready!

Oops, Forgot One!!

I totally forgot to show you another favorite Halloween quilt I made last year. I love shaggy quilts, but don't have very much flannel in my stash. So I made a Halloween Jack O' Lantern shaggy quilt with the front cut from regular cotton prints and the back from an orange flannel.

I used graph paper to design it. I used half square triangles to create the eyes, nose and curves on outline and mouth. It was all made from scraps from my stash. I used orange prints for the pumpkin, black ones for the eyes and purple prints for the background around the pumpkin and multicolored prints for the border.

It was really fun to make and the orange flannel on the back makes it really cozy and warm!!

Cindy's Givaway

I've followed Cindy's blog for a long time. She's having a neat givaway this weekend!

She's giving away this awesome quilt kit. A nice pattern and fabric to make the top!

So, go to her blog here

http://sewcindy.blogspot.com/

and leave her a comment and become a follower for chances to win this prize!! But, don't get too excited... I wanna win it, too!!

Halloween Quilts

When I put out all my Halloween decorations, you did see bits and pieces of my Halloween quilts that were hanging on the back of the couch and draped over chairs. I thought you might like to see them opened up!
This first one is a Turning Twenty with some of my favorite Halloween fabrics. I especially love the green Charlie Brown fabric with Linus in the patch waiting for The Great Pumpkin. A definite childhood memory for us baby boomers... waiting to watch those favorite seasonal shows that we only saw once a year!

This is another jelly roll quilt from the field of Flowers pattern. The border looks pieced but it was simple a patchwork printed fabric! There is a pumpkin quilted on each green setting triangle!

This little quilt was made from the Quick Crazy quilt pattern where you stack up the fat quarters and lay a cutting paper on top and cut through all the FQ at once on the printed cutting lines then move the pieces around in the order and come out with squares with all different pieces. Then I put the blocks together "shaggy-quilt" style so the edges are ruffled after washing. I made this years ago one fall when my sisters Cyndy and Patty came to visit from Florida and we sewed this project together! I do so wish we lived closer so we could do that allot more often!!

In the background of this photo, on the antique ladder you can see the Spinning Windows Halloween quilt.... too lazy to take it down to photograph it flat! But Boney Bob is sitting on the chair where my most favorite Halloween quilt is draped.

This Jack O' Lantern quilt was a pattern I made from a Fons and Porter magazine when I first started quilting. I love the pieced faces!! I fussy cut the green corner stones and added yellow and black buttons in the eye triangles. The backing is a super soft black and orange flannel print! The kids used to fight over who got to use it while watching TV...





So, do you have several Halloween quilts? I have so many already and yet there are 2 due back from the longarmer any day now to add to my collection. One can never have too many Halloween quilts or Halloween fabrics for that matter!! My bee friends all love Halloween, too, so we are always on the lookout for new Halloween fabrics at show and shops!!

Friendship Bag Swap

I received my Friendship Bag Swap package a few days ago. I came home from work and it was in my mailbox! What a great ending to a tiresome day at work!!
My secret swap partner was Dorothy (aka Dot) from Illinois.
Check out her blog - http://pawsforstitching.blogspot.com/




The envelope was bursting at the seams with fun cool stuff! The bag, of course is totally awesome. I love the great Halloween fabrics Dot chose. I have some of them in my own stash!



There is an adorable pair of Halloween socks and a packet of Orange flavored hot chocolate mix... sounds yummy, huh?? Wish it was calorie free! :-(



Also in the package was a cute notepad with a little pencil, just perfect for my purse!!



But my favorite thing in the package was this cute little sand -filled pin cushion! So great! It does make me smile...no GRIN, every time I see it, Dot!! Thank you so much, Dot, for being my swap partner!

And The Winner Is...

Thank you to all who entered my first givaway celebrating over 100 posts! It is so fun to share my love of all things "quilty" with others who also share the same passion. I have learned so much from visiting other quilting blogs and feel like I have made some good friends! I hope you feel that way about visiting my blog, too. And even more than this, I get sooooooo inspired when I see all the beautiful quilts displayed on the blogs I follow. They make me want to get off the computer and SEW! So, thank you so much for supporting and following my blog!
I went through the comments you all left, went out and saw those bloggers who announced my givaway on their blogs and went through my now 37 followers (smiling) and wrote all the names on slips of paper and put them in a big jar I have in my kitchen. Shook them up for 30 seconds and drew one out!

AND THE WINNER OF MY 100th POST GIVAWAY IS.............

Vail (aka "Grams")

CONGRATULATIONS!

Please email me at pollyporch@aol.com your full name and mailing address so I can send you your prize!! Make sure you show us on your blog "Musings" what you make from those fun fat quarters!

Thank you to all who entered the givaway and those who chose to follow my blog!! You all ROCK!!

100th Post Givaway!!

I was doing some routine maintenance on my blog- deleting some old stuff and changing positions of others when I realized I had just posted my 100th post! I couldn't believe I've really been blogging long enough to have posted over 100 times!

So, I decided to do something fun to celebrate! I'm having a givaway! I've never done this before, so I went to other blogs I read that have held their own givaways and got ideas of how to do it!

So, here's what I'm giving away!!

Five Christmas fat quarters from Loralie and a new book I just bought at retreat this past weekend- "Six Halves Make a Whole Christmas". It's got some really beautiful and easy to make quilts in it!! So, here are the givaway requirements-

1. For five chances to win, you must become a follower of my blog.

2. For an additional chance to win, leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite season of the year and why.

3. For another additional chance to win, tell about my givaway on your blog or Facebook page with a link back to my blog!

The winner's name will be randomly drawn and posted on my blog on Monday, October 12th.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and allowing me to share my love of all things "quilty" and more!! Good luck to all who enter! Maybe you will be the winner!!

Fall CQU Retreat

This past weekend was our annual fall quilt retreat for Centreville Quilters Unlimited guild. There were 20 of us there for the weekend. We go to a rustic Baptist retreat center in Winchester, VA. We arrive after lunch on Friday and stay through lunch on Sunday. We sleep in bunk beds in cabins and the rest of the time we are sewing away in the main hall. Here are a few of the quilts and projects made or at least completed at the retreat.

This little Christmas wall hanging was made by my dear friend, Susan. I just love the lime green and teal blue in this Christmas fabric collection.

This was the first project I made at retreat. I bought the Autumn Bounty fabric panel online and used the pattern in the latest Fons and Porter magazine to make this top. Except for the panel, it was a stash quilt.

This was the first UFO project I completed at retreat. I'd made the blocks for this "Field of Flowers" quilt made with a Roman Holiday jelly roll at the spring retreat but never finished it until now. I just love this fabric collection and how very quickly this quilt top goes together!

Here is the very same Field of Flowers quilt pattern made up in a Halloween jelly roll by my friend Marianne! She chose not to put a border on it. Isn't it awesome in these fun fabrics?

Here's just one of many baby quilts made at retreat by Jean and her daughter Mandy. Mandy's baby is due in December and she's gonna have a whole bunch of bright pretty new quilts to be wrapped in!! Hope she likes bright colors!!

Terry took some time off from being an air traffic controller and de-stressed by making this cute little wall hanging. Very woodsy and full of nature! Love those flying geese!

Another Terri showed us 2 quilts she just picked up from the longarmer. This one was a mystery quilt! Gorgeous, isn't it?

This maple leaf quilt is so stunning. Her whole bee made them after seeing one I had made a few years ago! I just love the fall leaf colors against the blue sky!!

And last but not least, Cecile completed the "wall hanging from h _ _ _!! It took her all of Friday afternoon and half of Saturday to get this project sewn together....lots and lots of little pieces. Then, Saturday night, she told us a story of Mr. Moon, a patient of hers back when she was in nursing school. We all laughed the rest of the night just thinking about poor Mr. Moon. :-)

Well, now that retreat is over, it's back to reality and the work week. UGH! I started a cute rooster purse at retreat and will finish it this week at night. I also took some photos of my Halloween quilts you saw draped over furniture in my Halloween decorating post. I'll show you my fav in the next post... along with a fun surprise! Stay tuned!! Happy fall, y'all!

Summertime Swap Quilt

Guess what was waiting for me today in my mailbox when I got home from work? That's right! A package from my Good Ole Summertime Mini-Quilt Swap secret partner! And the return address and cool stamps and labels and patches tell me it originated in Croatia!

The quilt inside is beautiful. Done in American patriotic colors of red, white and blue. The three flowers are hand appliqued with exquisite hand-stitched blanket stitching around them.

The grass and stems are also hand stitched , as well. The quilting is done by machine. Love that awesome red and white binding!

Don't you just love the cross-hatching quilting? I do! And the 2 borders, too. :-)

My new friend, Simona from Croatia also sent me some beautiful doilies and fat quarters, as well as some neat sewing themed stickers and a postcard of her home town.

I now cant wait for next summer when I can put my new patriotic quilt up on my wall! Thanks so much, Simona! I love your work!!

Tomorrow I leave for our fall CQU retreat. So, I've gotta get upstairs and finish packing up my stuff to take. I've been cutting 6" squares as well as bricks from my autumn fabric scraps. I've pulled out some old fall panels from my stash and am making some lap quilts by putting blocks around the panels. I've got three of them to take. Plus a Field of Flowers quilt I'm ready to sew the rows together (UFO) and want to make a new fall purse, so will take stuff to do that, too. So many things to sew... and a weekend away to do it in!! YESSSSSS! I'll post next when I get back and will have photos of projects friends created at retreat to share, too! Ciao for now!