October # 9 Challenge Applique & Orange

Mini Mania strikes again!  

Leslie got us to put our thinking caps on....all applique and a shot of orange.  

Well, I love orange so there was no problem for me!:)

Looks kinda lumpy on the sides but you know there is a reason.

Had this top leftover from the seven samples made for the Angled Frames tutorial. 

Perfect for a background so cutting a piece from the upper right corner another....

....pillow was created!

A few buttons, some embroidery and a bit of quilting was all it took.

A couple more sections cut out for the envelope back.

Our shower curtain was my inspiration!:)

The pillow insert is one from our couch and a bit too snug but it worked for picture taking.  Now it is packed away with the others until the house is finished.

Happy Ghosty Day to you from me, Mr. Pumpkin-head and the Bride of Frankenstein.

I'm Ghouling away at Houston International Quilt Festival!

btw...new phone...new app...I'm on Instagram!!

https://instagram.com/deeroodesigns/

~d

1st finish of 4th quarter.

Fourth Quarter 2015....Really need to get dones!

Yes...I said "dones" as in lots of WIPs or UFOs...the unfinished!

First...third quarter finish round up.

 

The only finish that remains at home is the Ferris Wheel mini in the upper left!  So freeing!

Above is the only carry over from last quarter.  This one is a priority!

Leftover HSTs from the flying geese runner.

 A Challenge!

 Another challenge using zippers and text fabrics.

 A top....for no reason at all.

 Last leftover top from Angled Frames tutorial....finally!

 Salesman sample batiks...had an idea...need to get to it!

Of all...I think what is below is the most challenging project I hope to finish....

...still trying to teach myself how to knit.  See all the yarn rewound? 

Multiple starts and restarts!

(Bunting flag swap....thanks to all my fellow swappers...she loved it!:)

Here's hoping for a productive quarter both crafting and winter gardening!

Happy Boo Month!

~d

August #7 Mini Mania Challenge

Ah Leslie....you about did me in with this challenge!

Of course I had to do something different. After the frustration paper piecing the sewing machine I didn't have the heart to piece the draping fabric....

....so I used some draping fabric!;)

 Used some clear vinyl to make the jar with off centered lid and stuffed it with tiny buttons.  There is yarn on the wonky spool and for some reason a huge indentation on the sewing machine body...I must have had some of Lynda's wine!:)

There was all this empty space under the fabric so.....

 ...I appliqued a little surprise!

Still trying to perfect my needle turned skills....don't know if the kitty has a funny tooth or he is licking his chops in anticipation!;) Thank you Charise for letting us use your design!

This was a fun challenge true to the word.  Next month it's my turn....watch out gang!;)

Participated in this month's Mini QT Swap....Circles and Curves.

Used the tracing wheel...this is the Dritz product we can get in the US. 

I do like the wooden handled one better.  

The photo was my inspiration.

 The mini on the right went to Nan, my swap partner.  The mini on the left is hanging in the shop.  I used Nan's product Chenille-It for the grass. That stuff is so much fun!

Lastly Halloween bunting flags for a side swap at Mini QT.   Little sparkling net pockets.  

Serious skulls on one side....

....a little wacky on the other side!

One stayed home and the others are on their way around the world.

Fly little skull flags....fly!

~d

Pumpkins, Paper Piecing and Pirates....Arrrgghhh!

 Last week we finally got around to buying our Fall pumpkins....never been this late in October!  The one on the left is called a Cinderella Pumpkin.  It's supposed to be the best eating....but that had to wait...while we ate our Route 11 Sweet Potato Chips and Stewart's sodas!!

 Dana at Old Red Barn Co. had a quilt challenge for us. Find a color palette and interpret it any way you want....I found one called "Alone @ the Airport" and I knew that was the one...since that's been our girl....alone at many, many airports!

 Still having fun with English paper piecing....and buttons! 

 This month's theme at the Bitty Block Bee is Sewing.  I was a little stumped because I kept thinking of past sewing theme bitties.....then I looked at my jar of buttons...and made a jar of buttons!  The wee quilt was supposed to be on a clothesline...but it was too short so I made it a hitching post.

(Polly the Patchwork Pirate....arrgh matey!)

At work we have been busy cleaning the shop while Carly is at Quilt Festival in Houston....but we are still having fun!;)

~d

She wants to be Coraline for Halloween....

....she has a blue wig...

...will this work?:)
And how about this for her hair?:)

~d

Witches and Wonderland

Happy Halloween Haunting 3.5"s from that awesome Bitty Block Committee Swap...

...aren't they amazing...there is even a casket with a lid, a bat with beady eyes and Ol' Frankie boy with bolts in his neck!! You all ROCK!!!

But what's most awesome is that Maria is really living in Wonderland...please, please go read her blog post about it...you should follow her blog....it's great, even if I am her mom!!

~d

Tale of THE Dress

There once was a girl who gave her mom two pictures, one of a black dress and one of a white dress.
The girl asked her mom, “Mom, can you make me a dress that looks like these?”
The Mom said, “Uh, both of them?”
The girl said, “I’d like it to be black….but have red on it.”
So the mom looked in her stash of fabric and lo and behold there was some black fabric (leftover from making flags for when the girl was in Color Guard) and some red fabric (leftover from the girl’s Can-Can outfit four Halloweens ago) and some satin black paisley fabric (leftover from the girl’s pirate outfit from six Halloweens ago) and a few odds and ends of lace and trimmings. All the mom had to buy were the buttons; heart shaped buttons, for the back because the mom refused to do zippers if she could get away with it.
Soon the mom got all her stuff together and then proceeded to set it aside for a week, then another week and another and then she made a quilt, then another quilt and…well….you get the picture, she procrastinated and the next thing she knew it was five days before Halloween.
So the Monday before, she fixed herself…..a hot cocoa (bet you thought I was going to say a drink!)….looked at her piles of fabric and started cutting out the dress. The problem was she didn’t have a pattern, just the pictures. So the mom took a pattern that sort of looked like the dress (from her stash of many, many costume and dress patterns) and went to work.
She lowered the back and the front and added ten inches to the sides of the front and the back of the skirt to make it fuller. The mom made some templates out of cardstock for the card suites and cut them out, ironed on double-sided fusible webbing, then ironed them on to the skirt and did some machine appliquéing for the first time ever! (Getting ready for Round 4 Circle quilts for the ORBC Quilt-Along) She made some double fold bias tape out of the satiny paisley fabric (which is a bear to iron) for the trim and bows out of the paisley and red satin and next thing she knew the Deck of Cards Lolita Dress was born!
All this sewing didn’t take place in one day, no, the mom made the whole top one day and the whole bottom the next and on the third day (after multiple cups of tea and cocoa) the girl was able to try it on and never was there a happier young lady!

So with a little extra red fabric and trim the mom made an underskirt and the girl found her top hat, black netting stockings, black shoes and necklace and she was ready for the ball…um…Halloween! And the mom….she put something stiffer in her tea, put her feet up and tried not to think about what the girl was going to ask her to make next Halloween!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and are enjoying the change of the seasons be it Spring or Fall!:)

~d

PS. If you want to see some of the other things the mom has sewn for the girl see her Flickr page...

http//www.flickr.com/photos/29893965@N08/sets/72157622613879034/