Happy Halloween!

Yeah! It's Halloween time! I love Halloween. The photos above and left are of the wreath I made with black leaves and tinsel garland for my door last year. I love the bow. Isn't it cool? It's a black flocked scene of a witch and bats flying over an old fashioned looking town.

I know many quilters that can't resist Christmas fabrics, and while I'm especially tempted by a toile Christmas print, I just can't deny the tractor beam that pulls me into buying Halloween fabrics! And every year they get better and better. And if they have bats on them, look out!

I found my love of bats during the family vacation to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico that we took when I was around 8 years old. Every evening at dusk, the visitors gather on the ledge outside of the visitor center that overlooks the cavern opening and watch thousands of bats swarm out from the cave to hunt for their dinner. My parents bought me the best t-shirt there, it said "Bats need friends too!" and had the cutest cartoony bat on it. If I had known about t-shirt quilts back then, I would have kept it when it got too small! Sadly, I believe most of the bats have left the caverns due to pesticides killing them and their food supply in the area.

Back to the fabric. I made really simple trick or treat bags for Anna, Ryan, Carolina and Santiago this year. I was going to drop off Carolina and Santiago's today but was saved the trip when I ran into DiscoJen and Carolina at the early voting polling place in our town! DiscoJen was about 15 minutes behind me in line, so when I was done voting, I took Carolina upstairs to the library and we read a couple of books while we waited.

When we left the library, I remembered that I had the bags in the car. I showed Carolina the 4 bags and asked her which one she would like to have for her trick or treat bag. She said "I don't know, they are all super cute!" We totally cracked up! She just comes up with the best lines!

The fabric is from the Chic and Treat line by Arrin Turnmire for Moda fabrics. This is my absolute favorite line of Halloween fabrics this year. I made the bags reversible, so the children can pick which they prefer. The handles were made from left overs of the main fabrics. I used batting in the handles so that they would be cushy when they become heavy with candy.

Here are a couple more of my favorite new Halloween lines:

Trick or Treat Too by Marcus Brothers

Batty Halloween by Kylie Kreations for South Seas

Check out these darling little trick or treaters that Kimberly of the Fat Quarter Shop posted a photo of from Quilt Market, which is in progress this week. I hope Northcott manufactures Sheri Berry's designs. I think they are all fabulous, but I especially like the deer in the Christmas and woodsey lines and the fabulous Halloween line.

Don't the bats remind you of the dearly departed Mr. Toad's Wild Ride that used to be at Disney World. I loved that ride. I still can't believe they took it down. If you click on the link I provided, you can take a virtual tour of the ride! And this one provides a wonderful synopsis of all things removed or changed at WWD. I love the internet.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone!

Abbie-kins and Coco-nuts

Amy has pointed out that she would like to see a picture of the new dog. There is one little catch to this, as there are two new dogs! Yes, that's right, two. We are fostering them for the moment, but they are settling in quite nicely. We decided to foster because then we don't break any rules on how many dogs you can have and also because there are so many dogs and animals in shelters and rescue organizations due to the economy, the summer flooding in the Midwest, the various hurricanes and because some people are just plain stupid.
This is Coco:

It was rather difficult to get a photo of her because she rarely stops moving, and when she does, she gets up to satisfy her Husky curiosity every time I pick up the camera. She's 5 1/2 years old, so I can only imagine what she was like when she was younger! She actually listens fairly well, at least to me, but needs some formal training. She can be quite vocal as well. When you aren't paying attention to her, she woofs at you. She also tries to sleep on the bed every night, but every night gets kicked off! When she wants you to rub her belly, she lays down by putting her head down first, butt in the air, then kind of flips over. She wants to play constantly with the other dogs, especially Daisy, but Daisy is only just now starting to warm up to her (that's Daisy eyeing Coco suspiciously in the photo).

She was named Josie at the rescue, but answered to Coco, so we went with that. She's also referred to as "Cocobean, Coco-nuts (for obvious reasons), and Beanie Wienie." The poor thing has been in rescue twice now, so she's had 2 homes and in rescue twice. She really is sweet and just wants love. She's gentle with taking things from your hand and is totally not into food, which is good because Daisy and Bug are total chow hounds.

This is Abbie:

We know a little about Abbie, and she's obviously had a hard life, but despite that, she remains the most gentle and sweet little girl. We know that in 2004 she had to have her collar surgically removed from her neck. We know that she was adopted out of rescue in Missouri, but those people moved to Texas and brought their other dogs with but left Abbie in Missouri, supposedly with some other people. She was picked up by animal control completely flea bitten, with giant bald patches on her body from the flea infestation and scheduled to be put down.

The authorities scanned her, found her chip was registered to the rescue organization and contacted them. The rescue tracked down the original adopting family, and told them that they were legally obligated to get her out of the pound and fly her to the rescue organization here. I wanted to wait to show her to you until she had been groomed. Isn't she pretty! You should see the pictures of her when the rescue first got her back. I just don't know what's wrong with people. If you get a dog, or any animal, it's a life long commitment, not one that's just for when it's convenient for you. You wouldn't just give your child away when they weren't cooperating, as much as you might like to, and it's the same concept.

She has really taken to me in particular. She gets all bouncy and happy when I come home, but just calmly greets everyone else. She is about 8 years old and had a botched leg surgery, so she walks slowly and kind of drags her one back leg a bit. She doesn't like to sit, and I think it's because of the leg. She'd rather lay down. Of course, but would rather lay down too, but that's because she's the laziest Husky ever created. Abbie just kind of wanders around the house and yard, keeping to herself. If I'm around and it's not one of her daily dozen nap times, she'll find me and gently poke me a couple of times with her nose to let me know she's there and needs a pat.

My first original applique!

Now this is exciting! I developed more of my really old film and found photos of my first applique and originally designed quilt! I made this before I really had any clue what I was doing. It's pretty cute for having no clue, don't you think?
I made this for Anna's first birthday. She turns 7 this coming January. Time sure does fly. Her room was painted in an under the ocean theme with these darling sea critters all around. I had found them for Donna on of all things, wrapping paper from Target.

To make the appliques, I enlarged the critters on the copier, then traced them onto the paperbacked fusible web, cut them out and ironed them down to the quilt top. I used a large zig zag to secure them to the quilt, but after I made my quilt sandwich. In the empty bolcks, I quilted a coral pattern that I found on a set of Martha Stewart's sheets on her old Martha-by-mail website. I really miss her store. I also enlarged the coral, traced it onto cardboard and used that as a template. I don't recall what I type of quilt marking tool used to transfer the pattern to the quilt top.

I distinctly remember being up really late the night before her party working on it, as well as getting up early to finish it! I don't think I finished it entirely though, because these photos are at my house, not Donna's.

Some lessons learned:
aFusible web is your friend. And the answer to almost every problem that plagues you.
aIt always takes you longer then you think it will.
aIt's easier to sew down your appliques on individual blocks as opposed to the whole quilt when it's already put together.
aAngled tweezers are your friend for holding down unruly pieces while you iron.
aMartha comes through for me everytime.
aInspiration is every where, you just have to keep your mind and eyes open.
aYou really shouldn't wait 6-7 years to develop your photos, but if you do, Photoshop is your friend.