Welcome Fall!

Happy Halloween!
OK, I spent the day yesterday cleaning out my old Halloween decorations! I had a great time going through of a lot of stuff and getting it ready to donate it to the Thrift Shop! I  My goal was to get rid of at least two of the 5 containers I have full of stuff. I accomplished that goal and more! I did put up some older and dearer Halloween decorations around the house. Some of them haven't seen the light of day in at least 10 years!  I know it's only September 9 but I feel like it's Fall! Of course, I haven't put out any of my candy corn decorations yet!

I found these old pins in my decorations. They have to be at least 15 years old! I have to figure out some way of displaying these pins. Maybe on a piece of black ribbon or black fabric? Updates to follow!

Can't remember why I bought them all except for my usual; why buy one when 6 will do! : ) I honestly think they are from several years ago or I bought them for the kids. I used to buy these types of pins when I worked at Woolworth 35 years ago! I had one for every season, holiday, etc. Not sure what happened to them all!


I also found several little figurines that my dear Mother made for me. I'm sure all my sisters received these sets too. She took ceramics for several years and loved making things for us. I also have a lighted ghost she made! This is the little vignette I put together with them all.

Now I know you are all waiting for the Floral Arrangement of the week at the Firm. Here it is! As you can tell, this arrangement also has put me in the Fall spirit. Very much a Fall floral arrangement!

This has been a fun project for me - I've really enjoyed posting these pictures. It's fun to share these beautiful arrangements with my blog friends.











I also did some crafting yesterday. After trying to figure out how to do paper piecing without getting frustrated, I finally found a great method. I watched a YouTube post on how to do it and really thought it was a great method for basting the fabric onto the paper. After cutting several 1 1/4 octagons using a quilting die on my handy dandy Sizzix cutter (from my scrapbooking equipment!) I was ready. I did the basting as shown and it really worked. As you can see, I have one flower made already! I also have several basted and are ready to make another flower. Not sure what I'll do with these flowers but I'm sure I'll figure out something! The bag is full of the papers I use in the center of each petal.








This is one finished flower. Each petal is on a one inch paper. It sort of curves upwards because I still have the papers in each octagon. You need to keep the papers in until you sew each side to another. I could take the center paper out because all sides are sewn but I haven't done that yet. You can't tell but the outside fabric is a beautiful color with gold thread through it. My camera doesn't take great pictures as you can tell and the lighting doesn't help either. I bought these two fat quarters at the new Quilter's Heaven location. I may try to applique the flower onto fabric for a pillow? The possibilities are limitless! Unfortunately my time isn't! DARN!!! 

I am really enjoying this craft now since I figured out how to baste the fabric onto the papers!







You may remember a couple months ago I told you about a block of the month my knitting friends and I were going to begin. We got together several times recently and finished our square for October! How convenient for me? DO you think that had anything to do with my desire to put up Halloween? This is the finished project. We all bought stands for ourselves so we can display each one each month!

We are so crazy about these squares. The next time we get together, we'll finish our November square and begin cutting fabric to do the December one! Once we figured out how to do them, we're going like gangbusters! The one thing we want to do at some point is free form quilting on each one. That's a bit scary to me but maybe I'll check out YouTube!

Of course, I've been knitting my spa washcloths. I don't want to bore you with more pictures. Suffice it to say I have many and am enjoying knitting them. I'm also knitting lots of stuff but will update you on my next blog.

Until then, enjoy this heat we're experiencing because before you know it, we'll be complaining that it's too cold and snowy!

 

Welcome Autumn!

Hi all,
The floral arrangement of the week is very pretty. It's a bit shorter than the past arrangements but pretty nonetheless. I would love to be able to do arrangements like this. Wait, I don't think I have enough TIME to have another hobby! 

Well, I had a wonderful mini vacation. I took Thursday and Friday off last week to extend my weekend. I can't tell you how much fun I had! Thursday afternoon we went to Liz's house for an early dinner and then made our way to Woolly Lamb for a night of knitting, chatting, buying, and laughing! It was a great time. Then on Friday, we again went to Liz's house to begin working on our monthly blocks. I'll have a pic of the one we completed for October next week. Just need to tweak a few things and then it's done! We did make a small thread holder on the spur of the moment. Gladys saw it somewhere and we each made one. The picture doesn't do it justice! We worked on the October block for two days and I came home and showed Tom the thread holder. I told him we finished what we were working on and he said all that time and just that? I told him of course, this wasn't what we were working on, it was just a little thing we made.

While we were sewing away on Friday, a terrible storm was brewing outside. Liz's husband came in and asked us about our cars because a tree fell down! We all raced outside and luckily, none of our cars were damaged. However, someone's Jaguar was! Liz took this picture of the tree that fell down all the way across the street!

The storm was terrible and so many tree branches were down as well as lights out. We couldn't believe we were just sewing away and all this was happening!

Oh well, we decided to go to dinner once the storm was over! We went to a new Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood. The food was great and the ambiance was beautiful. One of my fellow Weight Watchers recommended it to me.

Some people near us was taking pictures of their group. I came into work on Tuesday and one of the managers showed me a picture of the group and who was in the background? Me!! They were cousins of hers and texted her the picture. Good thing I wasn't our with another man! Small world! I sitting in the red shirt looking very tired. It was loud in the place and I had to lean over to hear what my friends were saying! Too funny!






Well, I was a very prolific crafter this weekend! I cut out 9 table runners on Friday and then sewed them all on Monday. I will bore you with the pictures! : )


 I had so much fun making these 10 minute table runners! They are so easy to make and turn out so nice. I used up so much of my fabric stash and made three of one pattern. Of course, why would I just make one? (Don't worry, I have lots more stash! I am making quilts too you know!)

Now for my last project(s), I have several Yo Yo projects that I completed. If you remember, my dear Mother hand made about 1,000 yo yo's (they are NOT toys, they are little fabric circles.) She didn't use a template, she just made them herself! These are going to my sisters, Joanne, nieces, great nieces, etc. I think Mom will be happy that everyone will be getting something to remember her by. I'm having so much fun with these! There are so many!

Not to worry, I'm still knitting but have too many pictures to show on my sewing! Next week.

I finished the book I was reading, The English Girl by Daniel Silva. Another great book! I really enjoyed it and hated when it ended. That's the sign of a good book to me. I'm currently reading a book that I seem to be just skipping through; The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven. This is a true story and a very sad one. It's about a 6 year old boy who was in a car accident and died. He came back after being in a coma but is a quadriplegic now. Just at the halfway point but am skipping through it. It is pretty emotional and I found myself crying on the L this morning! Not good!

Oh well, I hope you've enjoyed this post. I must not wait two weeks between my posting! This is a long one!