One finish, one start

It has been a busy week, the end of the 9 weeks and lots of wool dyeing.   (plus a nasty stomach bug that was no fun).  I finally finished the pillow that I was working on with the pumpkins.  I thought I had a photo of the finished pillow but couldn't find in on my computer and currently am too lazy to get up to take another one.  I really like the way it turned out.  I am definitely getting into this wool thing.

 While at Tiny Stitches on Saturday delivering some wool, I picked up the new book Bewitched Threads.  It has  several different projects in it that I would love to make. The first one that I decided to do was this crow Halloween pillow.  The background is a silk noil, which I just happened to have some left over from a garment that I made a few years ago.  It is quilted in a simple cross hatch then the wool is appliqued over it.

So far I have the background, the crow, his purple hat, and the pumpkin read to go.  Maybe I can get it finished before Halloween.  Wish me luck.

You know it is fall

 You know it is fall when you start seeing all different kinds of spiders around your house.  This little black and yellow one has been around our house for the last couple of weeks. I don't like spiders but I don't have the heart to tear down his web.  I guess it is a he, don't know for sure.  Fall is  my favorite time of year, wish this is when we had time off from school!

Love my sunflowers in the garden.

I am always amazed at the different shades of leaves that you can find in the woods.

Getting back in the groove

 

 A couple of weeks ago, when I made a wool delivery to Tiny Stitches I found a book by Lisa Bongean  that I didn't  have, Autumn Gatherings.  There are lots of great patterns in this book, for both quilts and wool applique.  I found a couple of quilts that I have put on my to do list, don't know when I will get around to them, hopefully sometime soon.  I also found a couple of wool applique patterns that I wanted to do.   Since it is easier for me to do hand work I have actually started on one of them.









This is the pattern that I decided to start on, it is a full body pillow pattern for a bed.  I love the dark brown flannel that I found for the background, for the pumpkins, the vines, leaves and the stems I am using my own hand dyed wools.  Here are the pumpkins and stems.

 

 

Finally started adding the vines and the leaves.  Can't wait to finish.

Not much going on

After my last post a couple of weeks ago I told myself that I was going to be much better about blogging, both posting and reading.  As you can tell at least the posting part hasn't happened, I have managed to do some reading each night.  My job is just wearing me out this year.  I don't even have time to sew.  I have been doing some reading.  I just finished the latest installment of the Someday Quilts Mystery series.  I really enjoy this series.  It is light, entertaining reading.  In this one, Nell is busy preparing for her grandmother's wedding, when Jesse's (Nell's boyfriend)

former partner is found murdered outside of his house.  If that wasn't enough, Nell's parents decide to come to the wedding. You will have to read it to find out if the wedding takes place and if by chance it is a double wedding!!

 

A different path

Finally, I am doing some sewing, it  has taken a while. DH is recovering from his back surgery, and my mom is finally starting to recover from her back surgery.  My foot is also starting to feel better.  Who knew that a broken toe could hurt so much!!!I definitely don't need to start new projects but  a  few weeks ago when I got the new American Patchwork and Quilting  magazine, I fell in love with one of the quilts in it, A Different Path.  I knew that I had more than enough  scraps to make this.  The one thing I really liked about this quilt is there is no curved seam it is applique.  Since I have been sitting and watching TV with DH I wanted a new hand sewing project and this seemed like the perfect one.

I went through  my scraps and cut light and dark squares. 

 I started appliqueing the dark quarter circles onto the light squares.  I am amazed at how quickly these blocks make up.  After just a couple of nights of working on this project I already have almost 50 blocks finished.   The down side is that you have to  have 256 of these squares.  That  will definitely take a while, but I can't wait to see how this finished quilt will look.

Halloween is coming!!

I can't believe that it is already the middle of September (almost).  That means that the holiday season will soon be upon us.  Once Halloween arrives it isn't long until Thanksgiving, then Christmas.  Check out the great give away over at 44th Street Fabric for some great Halloween fabrics.

"I have never seen this before"

Forgive me, but I just have to vent today. Do you ever have those days, weeks or months, when  nothing is going right?   That is where I am now.  A month ago I had to go back to school, not what I really wanted to do, plus the fact that I am teaching four specials.  The reason I became a media specialist is so that I wouldn't have to teach the same classes everyday.  Oh well!  Then my DH had back surgery, thankfully he is doing ok.  He ended up not having to have a spinal fusion, only a diskectomy.  Then my mom had to have back surgery.  She didn't like her first doctor so she found another one, this meant that it was longer time before she could have her surgery.  Thankfully she had surgery this week and came through it ok.  She is with my niece now,  and I will pick her up in a couple of weeks and take her home.  On top of this, I had foot surgery this summer and last week a second grade student at my school was having a temper tantrum and stepped on my foot.  I dealt with it for a week, and finally went back to the When I was at the doctor's office he kept looking at me and my xray saying he had never seen this  before, " a student stepped on your foot and broke your toe"  yep that is what is happened.   That is what my last few weeks have been like, hope yours has been better.