Truly Frightful...

mess, that is! So here it is, folks, baring my soul globally!! LOL I do have a couple more pigeon holes, but this is the main fabric closet. I thought revealing it on Halloween would be most appropriate as it is truly a frightening experience in there!! LOL I have been working on my Jan Patek pillow/wallhanging (don't know which yet) and also started piecing a little Christmas thingy that I may make several of and give as Christmas gifts, so I'm holding back on posting a picture of it right now. (Of course, I may be holding back on posting ANY picture as it seems blogger is definitely not playing fair today!) So, that soul-baring stuff will have to wait for another day as I guess blogger is only allowing those with the best candy to post pics today. I have tried a dozen times and it just won't let me sooo... Have a safe and Happy Halloween! :D

Time Change, Quilty Projects, and Rambling

Marcie over at Patchalot asked if I had found an applique pattern to work on. Well, the first picture is a Jan Patek wallhanging or pillow that I started playing with last night. Just needed something quick to satisfy that urge for needleturn applique. ;) The other is a quilt by Thimbleberries that I started Lord knows how long ago. I've machine-quilted, hand-quilted, machine-quilted some more LOL, and I'm back to hand-quilting now. Am almost finished quilting the blocks, will probably machine-quilt the wide outer border, and bind this puppy. :D One thing about starting this blog, and reading everyone else's, is that it has me digging through those UFOs and pulling things out to try to finish. All of these quilty blogs are a great source of motivation for me. :) Glorie, my niece/quilt buddy, is headed to Houston Quilt Market!!!! Yea!!!! She and her husband are setting out and heading in that direction anyway. So if you actually go all the way, Glorie, LOL be sure and remember to BUY TWO OF EVERYTHING!!!! ROFL And hope you have a blast, girl!! :D It is an absolutely glorious morning here in northeast TN! Hope everyone remembered to set their clocks back. :-) I love it getting light earlier in the morning, and actually, I love the shorter days that we have now. I always feel like I should be outside when the days are longer. Now I don't have to feel guilty for settling in and reading or quilting earlier in the evenings. I also love to hear the wind whistling around the windows, raking and walking in the crunchy leaves, fires in the stove, soups and stews simmering, watching the snow fall. My nesting instinct will kick in big time now that the days are shorter. :D

Windy Day

This is where I end up doing handwork and watching TV. And yes, I always have a couple of wienie dogs piled up around me. :D And my new rug that I laid around on all afternoon yesterday, looking thru quilt books in front of the fire. :D It was really a wonderful, rainy, chilly day to stay by the fire and play! These are a few more books that I got this past week. I have tons of marigolds that I want to pick and try dyeing some wool with. I'm really excited about the books on "natural" dyes. Can't wait to give it a try. One of my sisters asked if I couldn't just buy dyes to use. Well, YES, but have I ever done anything the easy way??? ROFL And it appeals to the primitive, country girl in me to try my hand at using what nature has put in front of me. I think lots of us are having a windy day. This kind of day reminds me of Halloweens when I was growing up. Blustery, chilly, cloudy. In my memory bank, it seems that most of my Halloweens were like this and I always hated having to wear a coat and cover up my costume. :D Of course, I think it's supposed to be around 70 here on Tuesday. So maybe the little goblins won't have to cover up those cute costumes this year. :) Hope everyone is having a fun Saturday.

Where Did October Go??

Wow, I can't believe that Halloween is on Tuesday, and October is on it's way out the door! Where did the month go? What do I have to show for those 31 days? Not much, I can tell you that. :D It was a beautiful month, and I find that the older I get, the faster they go, but oh they seem so much more beautiful to me too. We got enough rains that the leaves turned just beautiful shades. I kept running for the camera trying to capture them in just the right light. I'm trying to post a picture now of my view from my kitchen window. If I manage to get it loaded, you will see what I mean! :) Unfortunately, it's been raining hard ALL day, and neither sattelite nor blogger photo upload want to let me play with this today. :( I bought a couple of cheapie rugs for my "big" room, and I love the large one I got for in front of the sofa. I'm an "in the floor" kind of person, and hardwood is no fun to sit on and play. So, since I can't get blogger to let me upload pictures to go with my post today, I just dragged a bunch of quilt books in on the rug by the fire, and I'm picking out a couple of Jan Patek small wallhangings to needleturn appliqe. I'm in the mood for applique, and one of my UFOs has really gone AWOL. ROFL Sooooo, I'll just be forced to start another one!! :D Well, what do you know!!!! I finally got a photo up!! Now if I can get the couple that relate to quilting I'll be in high cotton!! :D Here are the flannel half yards, a couple of homespun pieces, and the books that I bought on Monday at The Cherry Pit. Love them! I think Blogger has decided I've posted enough pictures for today. :) So I'm off to shop the stash for applique. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

No Time for Blogging

I've been running literally all week. What little time I've had at home I've not had the energy to post anything. I have to think about what I want to say, and I just haven't been able to pull it together. Just wanted to let you know I'm still around. I hope to do a decent quilty post tomorrow, complete with pictures of my goodies that I purchased on Monday.

Shhh, Could It Be???

Psst, I think there may be MORE wool....I just got home from my "trouble" trip about an hour or so ago. We had a blast! Went to The Cherry Pit quilt shop in Sevierville, TN, and oh my, I want one of all of it!!! It's a wonderful shop, and the ladies who work there are so friendly and full of personality and life. Just a really fun place to go if you're ever in that neck of the woods. You'll have to wait til tomorrow to see what goodies I got. :D And yes, I spent more than I should have.....and only got 2 little bitty bags!!! But oh I do love it! :D Had dinner at a Cracker Barrel which was excellent, then headed on home. A fun, fun day! And it's ending perfectly....Randy had a fire going for me in the woodburner when I got in. Oh so snuggly....so I'm off to do some paperwork for tomorrow, and then I'm getting on the sofa in front of the fire with my new books for a few minutes before I crawl off to bed. LOL

Getting Into Trouble

I'm going to Knoxville with my friend, Evonne, again today....which will probably spell trouble for me as we are going to some quilt shops. :D I will be gone most of the day. Tomorrow I have an early a.m. doctor's appt. an hour away. So for the beginning of this week, I won't be on here much. I've added a couple more leaf blocks to the wall. I'm out of room there! Need to expand my viewing wall, don't I? :) And what is that BELOW the leaves? Oh my, could it be a bit of ...whisper...wool? Well, you have to understand that I have stash of one sort or another in several different places. LOL The tablerunner is one that I started several years ago (when DID we start these, Glorie?), and I've pulled it back out to finish up. Need some applique in those borders, and then I could use it during the Holidays. :D Hope everyone has a good week.

Cutting Wood

We worked all afternoon cutting a pickup load of wood and ricking it for the coming cold weather. :) Oh, I do love being outside doing stuff like that. And it gives me such a warm, cozy feeling to see our stacks of wood growing higher. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it for posterity's sake. :D I love the physical aspect of it too....makes me feel like I'm reacquainting my muscles with what they were originally intended to do. LOL I'm hoping that you can click on the scanned bread recipe and make it large enough for those of you who wanted it to print. It's from the book "New Complete Book of Breads" by Bernard Clayton. I found the baking time to be way too long for my oven, so I'm going to try it at 350 deg. for 35-40 min. the next time I make it. Send me an email if you can't get it to pull up large enough for you to print it off. The bread was absolutely wonderful....one loaf is all gone....but I have one left!! :D I appliqued a bit on table runner that I started waaayy back when that I'll post of picture of soon. Also cut a few more leaves out for piecing. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to rummage in the stash for more fabrics for it or just make as many leaves from the fat quarters that I've already used. And I'm still being "urged" by a few of you to show my wool stash. LOL I'm considering posting an "I Spy" picture of my sewing "stewdio" and let you pick out which pile is wool. ROFL You have no idea what a "mess" can be!!!! ROFL

Scrumptious

I tried a new sourdough oatmeal bread recipe today. Yum, I could eat a whole loaf slathered with butter all by myself!! :D Linda J has stew cooking today....I think she and I should work out a share plan...Hey Linda, I'll give you bread if you share your stew! :D Worked on my hooked pumpkin rug today. Finished up a bunch of paperwork that has to go in the mail. That's about it for today.

Double-Dipping Today

Gorgeous sunset last night. Punkins ready for quilting Piecing a leaf block Just had to post again today just to let all of you know that I felt soooo much better today!!! I actually got laundry done, spent some time picking up/straightening up my sewing room (no, I didn't say the room next to the sewing room which is actually an extension of my sewing room LOL have to tackle that another day!!), found my cutting table and actually cut out 6 leaf blocks, and got my Punkins 4 Sale spray-basted and ready for machine quilting. Yeee Haaaa I have photos that I'm hoping blogger will let me put up just to prove I actually was in the sewing room!! LOL Phooooey, I just checked and the pictures AREN'T loading.....so we're trying that again. :) Marcie, over at Patchalot (I think LOL), just posted about working with wool. I love wool. I'm trying to decide if I dare "expose" myself to the world by posting pictures of my fabric closet and wool stash. Hmmmm, will have to give that one some thought......such a mess!!! ROFL

Another Foggy/Rainy Day

Fog advisory again this morning. And more rain on the way. Neither of which bother me one bit. I love rainy days. I do hate that Randy has to be driving an hour each way to work on days like this tho. It's one of those days that I would love to just curl up with a good book and read all day. :D I'm reading Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank right now, and I LOVE her low country books. Too bad there are so many things demanding my attention....I'll have to save it until I can crawl into my bed tonight. :) Here's one of those pesky dish clothes that I keep mentioning. I keep "practicing" on these things trying to get them square. LOL If I were to give them as gifts, I would want them to be square, right? Wonky's good for me but......So if any of you crocheters out there have any tips, just simple DC, I would really appreciate them. :) And Nita and Sug, here's a picture of that hummingbird that laid claim to this particular feeder. Every day he would just sit there and dare any others to try to feed from his feeder. It was so cute...I really miss them now that they have left for warmer climes. I'll be waiting and watching for their return next March. :D On a quilty note, I'm trying to figure out how to use Bloglines so that I can be notified when a blogger has a new post up. I'm spending HOURS prowling through that list of quilt bloggers on NancyQuilts! LOL I've registered but I can't figure out how to add or subscribe to the feeds that I want. So again, all help will be appreciated!! LOL And with that, I'm going to get my "required" back and leg exercises done for the day, and then maybe I'll pull out an applique UFO (Lord knows I have a few of those lurking around LOL) and play with that a while. I have not made any more progress on my H-A-D leaf quilt. It's just hanging out in the sewing room waiting for me to rediscover it. :D I can hear it calling to me but there's so much clutter back there right now, I just can't work on it. Someone posted a comment on yesterday's post that maybe I could set a timer for 15 minutes and work for just that amount of time on straightening up in there. Excellent idea....maybe I'll do that and THEN pull out that applique UFO. :) I can't wait to see what Tattered Rabbit is up to for her Fall quilt. She's over-dying fabrics with tan dye and she's not telling what that project will be, hint, hint ROFL.

I decided to repost the picture of my little quilt....the first one was so VERY BAD!!! LOL This one looks much more like the actual quilt.