Happy Hallow'een

Its a foggy rainy day here in the NW. Perfect for trick or treating, right? Well, not so much. But I'm sure the kidlets will persevere and go home with a pillow case full of loot. I like the "trunk or treats" that go on now, but as for us, we won't see one ghost or goblin tonight. The house is too far off the road, and being a gated community, they have a big event at the community hall for the kids.
Here are a few pieces I have enjoyed looking at this month.

I love these blown glass pumpkins.  I pull them out every year and leave them out through Thanksgiving.

My favorite hallow'een piece.  This has a flannel back and was perfect to take to the local Friday night high school football game.  School colors here are orange and black. 

some spiral quilting.......

bias strip borders............

and a happy black cat who LOVES to sleep on this quilt.

A beautiful sunset over Birch Bay this month, but I'm now looking forward to sunrises here.  November and December are the best time for sunrises.

Hoping you all get lots of treats this weekend!
Sharon

TAS Applique Blocks

Here are 8 of the 9 blocks going into the 2015 give away quilt for The Appliqued Society. I somehow missed one of the blocks, but there are a couple of close-up shots. The workmanship is amazing in these and whoever wins this quilt will be able to display it with pride.
Pictures are from my phone, so not the best, but it's what I got!

I'll post more details about the patterns, size, etc. once the top is assembled. I have the honor of quilting this piece, and I'm already running ideas through my head. This was a great project for me, I've never been part of a group quilt like this. I admit, I was intimidated going into this and now I would love to do more projects of this nature.

Hoping you find time for a few stitches today,
Sharon

Milestone Monday

Yes, it has happened. I have got all the appliqued blocks in the center of this 25 block quilt outlined in the cream thread.  You also might know, I've also done some of the grid work in the background as I've gotten bored with the seemingly endless outlining sessions on this piece.

Wow, 25 blocks, that has been a journey. Now I'm on to outlining  the border applique and will continue the cross hatching throughout the body of this piece. I make sure I do some outlining every time I pick up this quilt.  I use it as a warm before I get to the cross hatch stitching.

As I spread this out to snap a few photos, I took a closer look at my progress.  I realized I'm almost finished all the background grid in the center 9 blocks.  Just a bit left on these two blocks.

Once all the cream hand quilting is done, I will bind the quilt. At that time, I will go back and finish the individual block quilting. Many flowers, vases, and leaves need more quilting, but I want to do this in matching threads.

An outside block that is almost finished. 

This just goes to show that you hand quilt a large quilt just like they say, "one stitch at a time"

And I would be remiss if I didn't share a photo of the back.  I love running my hand over the back, the tactile feel of this is amazing.  It's like running a hand over the past, I see my grand parents, their home, my childhood, and yet, we did not have quilts.  It's just the "feel good" feeling I get. 
 

Just like the feeling I got the other day when I walked down the driveway at my guys place, opened up the mailbox, inserted an envelope with a stamp on it and put the flag up. Yes, they still pick up the mail from your private mailbox in his neighborhood.

My BTCT goal has been bumped by a year, the new goal is June of 2015. I took the first stitches on the quilting Jan. 1, 2013 but took a good 6 month hiatus from this last fall/winter. It's amazing how a guy can take up quilting time. *vbg*  Now I'm trying to stitch on it every day, for a minimum of 30 minutes. That usually extends to 45 - 60 and it's a matter of giving this some priority in my day.

Are you doing any hand work this winter? If so, please share

Sharon