3's a Charm with these Halloween Finds

Of course I couldn't stay off the internet .. was looking into spider webs and other Halloweenish / Fall notions... let me share some of my wanderings of the past hour and save you some time...

Crazy Patch Pumpkin Pattern - Fraser Valley Quilters Guild - Lots of renditions for this, too cute

Creepy Buttons - The Button Drawer - baubles
Halloween Banners - Sparkle Jars - Do look around Gayles posts for other Halloween eye candy

Looking for vintage Hallowed Fabric? - Warm Biscuit - very stashable

Wool Felted Pumpkin - CJ Stitching and Blooms - Judys great tutorial
Beaded Spider Tutorial - Jewelry Making About - more possibilities

Embroidered Beetles Anyone ? - Stumpwork, Goldwork, Surface Embroidery - Jane Nicholas

Quikie Visual Ideas to Run With - Love to Sew - "chach"

Another Patchwork Pumpkin - The Calico Cat - Is this not adorable ? (scroll down some in link)

I think I have my fix for the week and I hope I've left enough of me to not feel bad for my absence... heres to the other side of a better week than last..

PS Just Checked into Judes What If blog... looks like "Crazy Left Overs" is feeling autumn too. I could just wrap myself up in Judes cloths and hibernate.

Airing Dirty laundry...

and unfurling all my UFB's (un-finished blocks)

3 deep in spots
cotton scraps thumbing their noses at me ( just tips of the iceberg idea)
and my batiks scaring the crap out of me while waiting and begging to be cut up in this lifetime and take..
on the look of a long lost cousin before it

Now we're all caught up with what I've been (or not been) doin'. Scary 'aint it ???
BOOOOOOOO!!!!

Its All a Part of the Picture to Come

There's no point in trying to decide if I can wear white after Labor Day...

not when there's wood smoke in the sky..
when the fawns have lost their spots...

and tinges of color have crept in over night...
to places untouched yesterday...

But theres still places where color hasn't been thought out yet...

where the forest meets the still warm waters...
and the sky resides clearer there in its autumn reflections...
the fruits of fall are upon us... time for flannels and camo indeed as the changes settle in
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The day is young and chronic chores eminent but the next 24 are unscheduled freedom as D has gone to the Soo to visit a friend. The morn was lazy awesomeness for me as you can see from photos above and after my meeting with the vac and the never ending spewing sink... I'll be in the thralls of solitary bliss until tomorrow afternoon!!!! ( I have not been alone in this house for a day since July 2007)

My bookish, questioning self has been the busy one this past week, art, craft, thought and life clammoring to find their cohesiveness together... has led me to reading some things that pertain to my selfs truthfullness and place in the big picture of it all .....

"A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature." Seneca

"Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us yet know what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought; proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thought, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us - houses built without hands for souls to live in." John Ruskin

"Whatever you are by nature, keep to it: never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed." Sydney Smith

"No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself." James Russell Lowell

"You owe no one as much as you owe yourself. You owe yourself the action that opens for you the doors of goodness, the variety, and the excitement of effort and sucess, of battle and victory. Making payments on this debt to yourself is the exact opposite of selfishness. You can best pay your debt to society, that has made you what you are, by just yourself with all your might and as a matter of course... You fullfill the promise that lies latent within you by keeping your promises to yourself" David Harold Fink

"To thine own self be true" William Shakespeare Hamlet portioned

and the best... a work of great perponderousity.... Self Reliance written by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Its a 2 post day, I can feel it...

Change of Air...

change of color...

change of heart...

We love and miss you Amy!

Moving into Fall - Guild Meets Again

Superior Stitchers is back from summer hiatus. Projects were planned for the coming year along with retreat info and class suggestions and lots of quilts to see too....

Along with the blotto pattern for next month... everyone received the first 2 patterns of the block of the month by Nancy Halverson called Be Attitudes. Be Smart and Be Grateful were chosen for Sept. The same quilt seen in different fabrics is always fun. Christmas Projects are pillowcases for soldiers (instead of stockings) and teddy bears with small quilts to go with them for kids within the community. The photos below are not near everything shown last night but ones that especially appealed to me.

Scrappy Bear Paw.
The colors in this one were pretty.
This quilt was purple (not blue as showing) and stunning
This was made for a raffle being held next week for the sprtsmans club. I love how all the different patterns pop out

This was last years block of the month which was a mystery quilt.
The back of the mystery quilt from scraps

Over the summer, some of the gals made a raffle quilt to raise money for a new athletic complex going up. The pattern shown just happens to be very close to what the blotto block is for next month too.

Awful Day as Lions Lose...

Photo taken from Oakland Press

This is what it looks like to be a professional football player for the Detroit Lions.

48 Green Bay - 25 Detroit

Gratefully my week ahead doesn't look as bad as Jon Kitnas.

(but if I was making $1.5 million ?)

Check List... September TIF

I got the brainy idea of running with this block and getting the September Take It Further out of it. I used the colors Sharon chose by way of the floss. A check mark is what I like to see most on any list and with luck, by months end I'll have been able to mark off several things that I've been planning to do.
Back tracking to August today and working on the Balance block along with a few other things

Taken from Yahoo Image files
one of course being football... Lions against the Packers at Ford Field Detroit.

July TIF is done ... finally

Keeping with the color and the theme is tricky with these challenges... and the subject of a half way mark with this one totally eluded me. That was until Roxannes summer kitchen got to the half way finished mark and she chose yellow as her paint color. Ta-dah.... it's always easier to finish something with a goal and purpose in mind, isn't it?
Anyway there's a gas station in town called "Dicks Pump and Munch" and I thought I'd add a few words to comically play off the Pump and Munch by writing Roxys Pub, Scrub and Grub. It was fun to be able to christen her new kitchen with a little wallhanging and at the same time get the month done.

Thread Playing

It was a good day to play around with thread cut offs, frazzled threads and frazzled me, couldn't have been a better mix. I've been wanting to try the fusing technique I've been seeing on so many mixed media blogs. What If I found out that I really did save all this for a reason?

I fused the thread scraps between tulle with fusible web

Cut that into strips as a takeoff from the last CQR block I did .... (sorry about the clarity above)

and came up with the greatest pieces of color and texture to use. I loove it!! This batch will go on a whole cloth block but I did ask myself... What If I pieced a block as normal, cut these strips into shapes ie. scallops, flowers or ric rac shapes and embellish the seams that way?

The hoop worked well holding the strips firm (something I knew I had to improve upon from the last one I made)

The 101 Crazy Quilt Blocks book by Linda Causee is offering up some ideas for the strip layout and we'll see how it goes considering the lengths I have to work with. This is a fun one...

Hummingbird Rescue

A hummingbird found it's way into the garage today because of this, the emergency pull cord for the garage door... who would think it ? I brought both the hummingbird feeders and 2 hanging plants in to coax him down from the rafters. No luck. I got up on a ladder with a feeder again no luck. I pulled this article up on the internet Theres a Hummingbird Trapped in My Garage . I didn't realize that in the dimness of the rafters, he couldn't see well so I got a flashlight and reclimbed the ladder with a feeder. I held the light on the feeder and voila, the tired tiny guy came right to it and took a good drink... but back up he went. But he knew where the feeder was and came back... I backed off the ladder with him still on the feeder and got him close enough to the door where I could shoo him out... success!!!
I wrapped a paper towel around the handle with a plastic baggie and twist tie to hold it on. That should keep that from happening again. They'll be heading south anyday now, him included thank goodness.

Cooking Up Crazy

What If the the CQ block strips weren't constructed to the best advantage for cording purposes because the foundation fabric kept wanting to peak out?

What IF I took bias binding and edged them that way?

What if I borrowed Judes idea for the floral motifs at the strip intersection?

What If I take today, work on the "black" block and simmer some more CQR thoughts?

And What If fall has arrived as if someone had flipped a switch and put autumn in the air?

Where Are You Block Swap

This block arrived via mail today from the Where Are You Swap at CQ4N. The creative Lori K from Love2Quilt stitched this block representing the area in which she lives on the East Coast, depicting the Mohawk Trail. I love this block and how fitting that I had just posted about indigenous work? The Native American Symbols, dream catcher, trees, sun, water scene and of course bears. Thank you Lori, this was a great surprise!

And another big thank you to Carole (Wippy) for hostessing this one. Nothing's better than looking at blocks close up, seeing how stitches are done that may be new to me and just appreciating anothers hand work.

Tiptoeing Around

In the Woods 2008

I came across this clipping I'd saved, "Autobiography in Five Short Chapters" written by Portia Nelson, 1921-2001. It's also known by the title "Holes in my Sidewalk.

I

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in.

I am lost... I am helpless... It isn't my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

II

I walk down the same street.

There is a hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don't see it.

I fall in again.

I can't believe I'm in the same place again, but it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

III

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in... it's a habit.

My eyes are open... I know where I am... It is my fault.

I get out immediately.

IV

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

V

I walk down another street.

Although theres no city sidewalks here, theres plenty of "holes" to fall in as I tiptoe my way around lately. I think I'm somewhere between number II and III.

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Wednesday afternoon the county truck pulled in to ask if we still wanted the dirt that we'd asked for last year. Ya Hoo!! For now, we took 1 load for the garden area and 2 more got dumped in a low spot off the driveway. Now it's gettin' out there to spread it around. There's a house with horses close by so manure won't be hard to come by. There'll be something grown there next year, hook or crook.

More What If from a Special Scrap Block

What If I take the leftovers from the block I made from Allies class packs she was offering on her site, see this post from way back when and cut it into strips to make the crazy block outline? Couch it down with some saved up shoe laces and cording. (I knew I was saving that funny little sawed off block for something.)

The CQR collaborators are growing over at Judes What If blog and I'm learning lots from reading all the imaginative thought and what's fueling these concepts. Do see Judes side bar for links. Some great ideas to expound upon in future projects.

Never Iron Velvet ??

Alittle more of the what if.... take a seam, crazy applique over it with ironed circles ?

Let a little straddling sun shine down on it ?

Lay a cut out motif over a seam ?

This What Iffing is not for the faint of heart.. First, not to let what others are doing influence the sense of your own process. Everyone is coming up with some great concepts of CQR and it's hard to not let it influence me. Second, I'm really stymied and its taking some deep thought to break the norm embedded in me. Theres still plenty of seams left for craziness though. This next "think phase" and the ideas evolving have lead to thoughts of another type of construction. What If I take some of that birch bark from the last post and put an if to that ????

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This would be Julys TIF that languished in my hand this weekend... shameful really, the progression of this one... the half way mark may well be July of '09. There really is no 1/2 way ideal to this one, not even from the beginning. Just the color palette. The half way may just have to come about from where the block will ultimately end up ???

This would be another pile to be dealt with today... and oh how it multiplies .The Sue Henry book, Murder at Five Finger Light is pretty good.The new Keepsake Quilting catalogue holds a great idea for a pattern that grabbed me and the never ending notes, drawings and magazine ripouts overfloweth. I'm also involved in reading the chapters of Deuteronomy and getting my head full of the fact that "Theres no new thing under the sun". A balm or a bane at this point in my life, Im not really sure.