Fall

It is almost fall, if you don't have a quilt done for fall you still have time if you do nothing else. My Mother had her fall quilts out when I visited 2 weeks ago. She loved one of my quilts...this one;

So she improved it and created this:

Appliqued pumpkins, brown instead of black and hand quilted. I love it. In person it kind of glows.
One year when she was visiting I taught her how to do half square triangles and we made leaf blocks.
Here are my maple leaf blocks, I was holding out for time to make more;

And here are hers;

a maple leaf table topper, hand quilted with squirrels and FINISHED! It looked so nice on her table that I want table toppers now.

Halloween book

As promised, the other 2 books are done and here they are;

The bottom one is my favorite.

Done a little differently. Here I modge-podged burlap down THEN put the letters on top. I was concerned that the sticky letters would come off so I hunted down the thinnest paper in my house, a napkin, and put it on top.. I like the way the letters are clearer. On the first 2 books the letters were put down and then the paper towel glued on top. That left the letters smooched...less distinctive. I also didn't add any...stuff to the top since you only see the spine. Here's book number 2;

The basic directions are found here.
I've lost my display area nearest the front door (the dog would chew it all up) so I have the top of our old entertainment center. It looked like this;

Now it is this;

But I think I'm going to have eliminate the bobble heads to a different surface.
What do you think?

Halloween book

First of all my computer has been on the blink and since it is now working I thought I'd make up for lost time. So I thought about what I've done in the last month....and could not think of a thing!
Good thing I take pictures occasionally or I wouldn't remember anything.
Last year I collected a couple of books at garage sales for future Halloween books. This year I got started on one. Looking at Pinterest I found this pinned. Kind of close to what I wanted to do. So here is my before;

A book from our shelves that was discarded at the end of Andrew's 7th grade. Flat toys purchased at the Dollar Tree.
My after:

I used black paint and then gold metallic paint...I think some brown would add some richness, but not enough to go to the store again.
I'll show you where I put it when I get the other 2 done.

Halloween yard!

Here is a picture, again, of my favorite Halloween decoration;

Each one made by one of my children, all different ages. My favorites are always the one's done when they were very young. When we started I was sad that I didn't have any orange paint and we had to mix our own. Because of that we have a variety of shades of orange, that I love. Here's another view:

This year I decided to spray a finish on them to protect them from the weather and we had to replace a lot of their sticks. Wouldn't it be lovely to have the grandkids over and add to this collection?

Halloween entry

I finally got my jars together....and put some Martha Stewart labels on them.

The plan was to do more jars...I had found some 'poison' labels here. But my boys did not like the idea of having poison sitting on the entry. So I looked for 'Magic Potion" labels but was not happy with the one's I found....so I was going to label my own. Ended up buying these at JoAnn's. Much easier.Got the lace there too.

Easy, now to fill the jars with candy.

Bottles

Since my hip was causing me a lot of pain the last several years I kind of eliminated shopping from my activities. Since I no longer have pain (hip replaced 11/11) I have been exercising and now I can shop!

I bought all these bottles yesterday in my quest for a Halloween project. I needed 3 bottles....but I might be able to use the rest....after I empty them. My favorite one, it has a cork, was filled with peppercorns and had a big label on it. It is label-less now and pepper-less now; ready for my project....We will be enjoying the jam but what will I do with the coriander seed?
Eventually I'll show my finish...please come back...I'll only promise that it will be before Halloween.

OPAM

I'm trying to tie up loose ends to finish my projects for the month. I quilted 3 scrap quilts that I've supervised and helped make during the year. There is a picture below of one of them. The others are blogged about here.I also quilted the border of this Halloween quilt that I did years ago. I made the pattern and sold it as a Christmas Quilt (see bottom of right side bar). The shop wanted it with their Halloween postcards so they gave me all the fabric to sew it up then it hung in their shop for a couple years but since they no longer carry the postcards they no longer need the quilt. I had sewn the binding on my machine and it looked bad, so I took it off and redid it. Using the same binding I ended up needing 2.25" less. So either the quilting pulled the quilt in a lot or I did a very poor job the first time round. Here it is before the quilting and binding repair.Here it is as it looks now. (If I can get my husband to take another, better picture I'll replace this one tomorrow.)

If you want to know what the OPAM is all about click on the button on my side bar.

halloween

I know I'm late posting about Halloween.... I was just reminded by my craving to go dig out a piece of their candy when I realized that there was none. We had a different Halloween this year, the boys are getting a little old but Jeffrey put his band uniform on and vampire teeth and Andrew put on his Link costume that we pulled together last year. The grabbed their bags and went; 15 minutes later they are back all excited about a neighbor. Roger went back with them to meet the neighbor and they were gone about an hour. Turns out our neighbor has a great hobby; he restores vintage pinball machines and for Halloween he opened his garage and let the kids play on them. Consequently they got about 1 cup of candy each and it was ALL gone by the next evening. ;(  I did not get a single piece.

I like this new tradition.

p.s. Jeffrey did not go trick or treating barefoot; this picture was taken Sunday when I bribed got them to put their costumes back on for a picture.

halloween entry

Before my surgery I pulled a couple of Halloween items out cause I didn't think I'd feel up to it later. I thought my first display looked a little lame so today I tweaked it a little.
aaah I think this is a little better. (Frankie is a doll I made for Reed when he was little ...for some reason I thought he'd think a Halloween decoration would be cool to have. I have one cut out for Brian; never have sewn it. The ceramic pumpkin I bought as greenware then cleaned and glazed it in 1981; after Halloween I turn it around so the face is unseen and display it until after Thanksgiving. The bat fabric I found this morning at WalMart; the orange was in the fabric my friend gave me this month.)
Ive caught a cold and have been miserable for 2 days now. Every time I have a coughing fit I pray; 'Thank-you for keeping me well until my stomach healed 'cause I would be in tears if I'd coughed like this right after the surgery.'

halloween costumes

I am posting this picture for my grandson (owner of the cape I made last week) of the cape I made his Dad for Halloween; modeled by his little brother (his dad's little brother). (It has some real issues; the lining peeks out longer than the back; the collar stays up due to layers of heavy duty wonder under and pipe cleaners added after construction. The ribbon hurt his throat so I rigged it to tie behind his back-I should have used white ribbon.) Regardless of it's issues it has been worn approximately 8 Halloweens! 

Check out Andrew in his banana spider costume; designed by Andrew at 5; worn until the pants became shorts...

the 'legs' are pipe insulation covered with painted cotton knit fabric and attached with clear fish line so they would move with his arms.) shsh I know it's ugly but it was LOVED by Andrew and EVERYONE made comments about how cool it was.

gray cookies

About 2 years ago Jeffrey asked me to make some cookies. He was very specific; he wanted 'those gray cookies I used to make.' I was sure he was wrong. 'I have never made gray cookies; who has ever heard of such a thing?' We kept talking about it and every time I made cookies he'd ask me why I didn't make the 'gray cookies?'

Last July while, visiting in Idaho, my son made homemade pasta. Homemade pasta uses egg yolks and leaves the whites to be made into a nasty cholesterol free omelet or these yummy cocoa kisses. So I did a recipe search and came up with something close to our Joy of Cooking recipe. Bingo! Jeffrey identified them as the 'gray cookies' he'd been asking for. (Our daughter, still at home then, did not like cocoa kisses so I had not made them for a loooong time.) an interesting side note is that I made the cookies to take to my niece's house for dinner. I showed them to her and they disappeared. Her kids never saw them. My kids came to me privately and asked me what happened to the cookies (they had had some before going to the dinner). I was very happy that they didn't show on the buffet since my niece has few foods she can eat due to Crones disease and evidently I found her a cookie she could handle!

This is a song my Mother sings for Halloween. I didn't teach my kids Halloween songs but here is hers;

I'm a mean old witch with a hat

and I ride on my broom with my cat

my nose is pointed and my chin is too

and if you don't watch out, I will get you! (hug) boo!

halloween pajamas

In my previous life (as a young mother instead of an old mother) I LOVED making costumes for my 4 young children. But because money was tight I justified spending money on














those costumes by making them do double duty as pajamas all winter. Some of those pajamas got a real work out. The first time I made 2 little clown costumes out of red and white striped and polka dotted flannel. Those pajamas are practically worn out. The cutest was the white quilted fabric I made an astronaut's overalls out of. Brian wore them until his torso got too long, then his younger sister wore them, then a young cousin wore them... (the pumpkin was never pajamas-the fabric was a gift, and not all costumes ended up being p.j.'s).
Now as an old mother my last 2 have the advantage of a couple boxes of costumes but have the disadvantage of having a mother who really doesn't want to make any more costumes. Occasionally I break down; this year I made some brown 'boots' for Andrew so he could be Link with the green sweats he purchased. A couple years age he wanted to be a spider and I made that costume (as a costume, not pajamas-I DID NOT want to kiss a spider good-night every night for months!) This year Jeffrey (12) will be the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera wearing his band uniform tuxedo pants, shirt, cummerbund, and the cape I made in 1989 for his brother to be a magician.

halloween

I've planned on posting a picture of my Halloween quilt and it's getting close to the end of the time when posting Halloween pictures is appropriate. I actually would not have normally made a 'Halloween' quilt. I love my pumpkin quilt but we could call that a fall quilt. I think we have to be careful and not make Halloween an important holiday, it isn't, it is just fun. The quilt was actually a store sample to sell my Christmas pattern for other holidays. I didn't buy any fabric for the quilt top. The post cards were being sold at our quilt shop and they wanted a sample of them made into a quilt. I no longer sell that pattern there since they can no longer get the postcards. So I get to hang the quilt in my home, even though I'd like to do some more quilting on it. I don't put it up until about 1 week before Oct. 31. (Because I LOVE seeing my pumpkin quilt more too). I've just looked around and took photos of my other Halloweeny spots.

This is a bag I made out of my 6 year old's drawing (that was 23 years ago!). These are just some fun bobble-head papermache things I found after Halloween a couple of years ago. FUN.

cupcakes

I made my first sale! Thank-you Cindy. I do wonder why someone in Washington state wants a Texas flag. I'm sure she has a good reason.
A friend was trying to come up with 'spooky treats' for Halloween; my suggestion was to serve 'Devil's Food Cake Cupcakes' isn't that spooky enough? So she asked me to make a couple dozen. These are so good we're always happy to have an excuse to make them. Maybe I can say that the blob of white is a spider egg sack and stick a plastic spider ring in them.

BLACK-BOTTOM CUPCAKES
(or spider sack cupcakes)
Cook’s Country April/May 2007 pg. 27
MAKES 24
Do not substitute regular chocolate chips for the miniature chips. Regular chips are much heavier and will sink to the bottom of the cupcakes.
16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ¾ cups sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tablespoons plus ¾ cup sour cream, at room temperature
1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 1/3 cups water
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. With electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, ½ cup sugar, and ¼ teaspoon salt in medium bowl until smooth, about 30 seconds. Beat in egg whites and 2 tablespoons sour cream until combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.
3. Whisk remaining sugar, remaining salt, flour, cocoa. and baking soda in large bowl. Make well in center, add remaining sour cream, water, butter, and vanilla and whisk until just combined. Divide batter evenly among 24 cupcake liners and top each batter with 1 rounded tablespoon cream cheese mixture. Bake until tops of cupcakes just begin to crack, 23 to 25 minutes. Cool cupcakes in tins for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. (Cupcakes can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 2 days)

jack-o-lantern

This is the coolest site. You get to carve a pumpkin and then it lights up and makes scary sounds! Notice that it was put together by a cub scout pack.

halloween

My girls and I were talking on the phone and browsing the web and saw a cool Halloween garland after we hung up I found this, a downloadable file with the Halloween alphabet. way cool.

halloween/fall pillow

Yep, another pillow. This one did not take 30 years of thinking to make. Only about 3 weeks. One night a week ago I couldn't sleep (awake until 4 a.m.) so got up and sewed the black pillow. I had bought the fabric and pillow form earlier for just this project. Then it took awhile because I thought I might have a scrap of Halloween fabric to use for the pillow's mini-skirt. (I never wore one in high school and didn't even realize there was a deep down desire for one; now I have one.) When I finally found my stash of Halloween fabric it was all in a small zip lock bag with nothing large enough to use. I did not want to piece or applique anything, I wanted something fast and easy. So when I delivered my 4 dozen patterns the quilt shop ordered I bought 1/4 yard of this happy pumpkin fabric (the pumpkins will work or Halloween AND Thanksgiving!). I had planned on the 'skirt' being more like a sleeve but due to the directionality of the print and my pocketbook (I would have needed to buy another 4 inches of fabric!) I came up with this (I wanted 4 ties instead of 2 but this is all the fabric I had.) How do you take a bright orange rickrack and change it to go with the muted orange of the fabric? Take a dollop of brown paint, dilute it with water, drop in the rickrack, squeeze it several times, rinse it a bit since it is too dark, dry it, iron it and apply. It almost took longer to write about it than it did to make it.

tux

J. came home from school excited about his new uniform for band and put it all on(he even combed his hair).Then A. took this picture so his sisters could see him all dressed up. (He has tux pants and cummerbund also). You also see his new trumpet! Last year he actually played a cornet which is smaller than a trumpet.

Here is 'Frankie' a pattern I got at Quilt Festival 15? years ago. I cut out 2 and got 1 made. I like him although you can hardly call him handsome. The paper cutting is also not original and it was a pain to make. The original had more of the house showing. This sits with a jack-o-lantern on Grandma's sewing machine in the fron entry. (A. got to use the tri-pod to take this shot)

halloween

Here is a small bag i made a few years ago. It is basically worthless but cute. It isn't big enough to work as a trick or treat bag...maybe it could be used on a pillow. Now it hangs from the newel post by the front door.
A. wrote down his interests on a 'resume' (he's 10) for school. His interests are: 'reading, watching other people play video games.' How sad is that? So, I have made him my photographer. He took this shot and the one of the bats from yesterday (and a bunch of others that need to be redone) but we'll see if he continues to enjoy taking pictures.
i bought the stuff to try my version of this recipe:http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/chile-con-queso-revved-up.pdf I have not made this before, but my version uses no J.peppers, regular sausage, and MILD rotell tomatoes. Everything I have ever tasted using regular rotell tomatoes has been tooooo spicy for me. Roger is going to a rock-climbing boy scout training meeting this week end so we are splurging and eating something with 4 legs! Pork.

halloween is coming

These 2 mummies look out the kitchen window at all the trick-or-treaters! They have gotten pretty stiff waiting there for weeks. Something to do with those long thin scraps of fabric. These were made from a Woman's Day? article of years ago I made most of them as a craft project on a road trip with our kids. Uses tongue depressor, popsicle sticks, google eyes, glue, and a bit of paint. One nice thing about them; they don't make constant noise! One year I made 25 of them for a class party.