Eerie Nights Blog Hop!

A big THANK YOU to Marian @ Seams to Be Sew and Amy @ Sew Incredibly Crazy for hosting this Blog Hop!  I've worked with them on a few hops in the past and it has been wonderful but I am SOOOOO excited to be participating in this hop because it's HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

With a business name like Batts in the Attic, people rarely figure out that I’m a quilting company.  They just think that I can’t spell very well and that I like Halloween!  Actually, I am a good speller, but haven’t studied up enough to win one of those cool spelling bees that kids do on TV while winning oodles of scholarship money.  But I do LOVE Halloween.

While attending the annual retreat in South Carolina of the Pieceful Hearts Quilters Guild, I met a lady named Linda Yehle who made the most adorable embellished mini quilts.  I asked her if she could make a Halloween, specifically batty, one for me and she said yes!  I was so excited when I got her email last month telling me that she had finished and I could hardly wait for the mail to bring it – well, it was definitely worth that jumping-up-and-down wait, don’t you think?  I just love my little “Batty Mini Sue” and she will be my most essential Halloween decoration EVER!

I also have been working on a Halloween quilt from a kit I bought a few years ago.  I started it at Quilt Market last October in Houston and started working on it again last month.  Got the top finished!  I’ll be traveling and teaching the whole month of October, so it won’t be quilted this month, but I was so happy to get the top done that it’s OK!  I get home from Quilt Market on Halloween, so I’ll be just in time to hand out candy and check out all the cool costumes!

What I loved about the kit, and why I had to buy it, was that it had a very high percentage of bats in the fabrics, including the border fabric.  Lots and lots and lots of bats!!

Dawna Harrison, owner of my local quilt store, Bolts in the Bathtub, is always keeping her eyes open for bat fabrics – she texted me a pic of this one last week…and told me she got me a little.  No idea what “little” means, but I’m excited just the same!

It seems like there are good bat years – where you can find batty socks, earrings, decorations, etc. – and bad bat years, where you can only find all those things in jack-o-lanterns or cats or spiders.  This has not been a great bat year so far; at least, I haven’t found many – have you?  Am I just not shopping at the right places?  Clue me in!!

And what's a Blog Hop without a great giveaway?!?!

Quilter's Dream is the prize...

And here's how you enter...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And here's the schedule for the hop!  I'm including past days so you can check out all of the fun Halloween projects!!!  

October 20

Seams To Be Sew
Cloth and Paper Studio
Thrift Shop Commando
Sew Many Yarns

October 21

Quilting Affection Blog
Life In the Scrapatch
Feather Your Nest

October 24

Words & Stitches
Just Because Quilts
Sally’s Quilts
MooseStash Quilting

October 25

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Jane’s Quilting
Just Let Me Quilt
Batts In The Attic

October 26

Inquiring Quilter
Living My Dream
123 Quilt
Craft Traditions

October 27

Bumbleberry Stitches
Tea Time Creations
Anypattern.com
In The Boon Docks
Seacoast Quilter

October 28

Pink Doxies
Quilted Delights
Stitches Quilting
MaryMack’s BlogSew Incredibly Crazy

Happy Halloween!!!

Organizational Tips -- Who? Me?

My awesome assistant Monica is one of the most organized people in the world!  She has to be – she works with me!  And keeping me organized (at least the printed and electronic “faces” of me that the public sees) is just one of her many jobs; she also does website, blog, and social media posting for other companies as well as mine and has a husband and two adorable littles, one just starting school and the other still at home.  And she does this all while keeping an active extended family life and a neat home – I’ll bet her car is even neat and clean, unlike mine which my husband calls a giant purse with wheels!

A few weeks ago, Ms. Organization and I were on the phone and she said that during falltime, people like to get/keep organized and that we should write some blog posts about it.  It took me several minutes to stop laughing at the idea that I could possibly write anything like that or that anybody would believe me if I did!  But when we were talking a bit later, the topic came up again and I told her that she should write organizational posts on my blog for the benefit of our readers.  You guys will love her – she’s knowledgeable, fun and snarky, in a good way – and I can certainly learn a bunch from anything she has to share. 

Obviously, I could benefit from her tips and tricks!

Soon Monica will introduce herself to you and tell you about how she keeps all the balls in the air as she juggles her life, work, and play!

Another Quilty Box GIVEAWAY!!!!

Quilty Box doesn't number their shipments, so I'm not sure how many I have received. One thing that is interesting to me is that some of the shipments really have nothing to do with quilting, like this one.

It has all the materials to make a fabric and mesh bag, including the batting (so I guess you must quilt the fabric before you assemble the bag?) and a bright apple green zipper.

Here's the card explaining the contents; the collection was curated by Annie Unrein.

There were half yard cuts of fabric that I liked -- keeping that!

Here's the project -- a fold-over organizer!

Everything is included to make it...

And an inspirational card that I think is worth framing in any sewing room.

So, would you like to win this? Everything except the fabrics is up for grabs -- I am somewhat of a fabric hoarder!

Like us on Facebook, join our email list, and comment on this post... one entry for each!!

We'll draw a winner next week!


Good luck!

The Last Projects from the Cindy Needham Retreat

Even though I haven’t taken in new customer work for quite a while, I still had a couple of things hanging around.  The first night of the retreat I did some minor quilting in a border of a pictorial quilt and the second day I did some pretty intricate feather work on another quilt.   After that, I got to play with some piecing.

The first one I grabbed was this fun Halloween quilt that I had purchased as a kit at a quilt show a few years ago:

I had done all of the snowball blocks and quite a bit of the piecing for the other blocks, so I got that all finished up.  Here it is on my bedroom floor ready to have the blocks put together.  Unfortunately, my bedroom floor is my biggest open space, so things tend to get laid out there.  It does give me incentive to get it done, though, as I watch Dan skirt around the quilt pieces so he won’t mess them up!

  
LOVE these fabrics!!!!

 

Once I got those blocks done, I started on the last project I had brought.  It was featured in the summer issue of BLOCK Magazine:

It’s a real easy layer cake quilt with sashing that makes friendship stars in each corner.  They did it in patriotic fabrics; I had a jelly roll that was 20 black strips and 20 white ones and a layer cake with a lot of black and white in it, so mine will be different, but still fun and easy.  I’ll have to get that one done fairly soon while I can still buy fabric for the border in one of the prints in the layer cake.  So it’s next up for the bedroom floor space!

More Cindy Needham Retreat Pics!

Here are some of the quilts that people were working on at Cindy’s Auburn retreat a couple of weeks ago:

The retreats are held at the Mercy Retreat Center where we have our own cozy rooms and good home cooking, plenty of space to spread out and sew, and the time to do it!  Cindy brings lights, irons, cutting mats and some rulers, although if you are using specialty type rulers, you should always bring your own.  Everything is set up to have a good time and get a lot done.

Oh – and Cindy’s favorite youngest daughter is a professional baker!

Different dessert every night!  This was the chocolate cake (I’m sure it has a much fancier name because it’s the best I’ve ever had) and her cheesecake would put everybody else out of business if she franchised, for sure!

My friend Linda met me up there this time – we actually tried to caravan, but just couldn’t seem to make our meeting up places work, so we went separately together!  She was getting ideas from Cindy on how to quilt this one:

She also spent quite a lot of time binding a quilt she had made for her son Nick who just graduated from college this year and is moving to Austin for a new job.  Here are two pics of that quilt:

I don’t think Linda and I signed up for the same retreat sessions next year, but we’ll both be back, definitely!

Meeting Kim at Cindy Needham’s Retreat!

Getting to go to Cindy’s retreats are a balm to my soul; a time to get together with other like minded sewing maniacs with Cindy’s advice along the way, seeing what other people are working on and getting some progress made on my own quilts.  This time I brought somebody else’s to work on, but more on that later.  I think the recipient may be on Facebook now and then and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.  I brought one quilting project and two piecing projects.  I got to a stopping point on everything and left a little earlier than planned – I broke my own retreat rule, which is ALWAYS BRING ONE MORE PROJECT THAN YOU THINK YOU WILL HAVE TIME FOR! 

For piecing projects, I’ll bring cutting to be done and sewing up to block placement.  I can never make up my mind fast enough to be able to put things up on a design wall and get them all sewn together by the end of the retreat, so spend my piecing time making what I call components.  Then when I get home I can lay them out, mess around with them until I get them where I want them (black and white filter on my phone camera is priceless for this step!) and then sew it together.

The retreats generally have a mix of people that I’ve met before and new ones, most of them intermediate or advanced level quilters, but this time I was charmed by Kim Cameron-Smith.  Kim is a first time quilter who purchased a Start Quilting book by Alex Anderson, talked to her quilter mom about going to the retreat and jumped in head first! 

I took a picture of Kim, Cindy and that very first quilt which, you’ll notice, she even got bound during the retreat!  I sent that picture to Alex who commented back, “This makes my heart super happy!”  I forwarded Alex’s response to Kim and she emailed back to me:

Hello Paula,

Thank you so much for lovely email! Attached is a photo of my 6 year old daughter Lydia with the quilt. She has been carrying it around ever since I gave it to her.

Thank you for forwarding me Alex's reply. I'm still loving her book! I've cut my fabric for my second quilt already. That book and the accompanying DVD are so clear and easy to understand. Definitely got me off to a good start.

I'm planning on another retreat and I've joined my local quilter's guild. I'm officially obsessed. Hope to see you at another of Cindy's retreats!

Kim

And here’s a picture of Lydia with the quilt!

I think another quilter is on board – don’t you?  And it’s so cool that she has something new to do with her Mom!

The Road Home Row Along

Thanks so much to Marian @ Seams to be Sew and Amy @ Sew Incredibly Crazy for organizing this hop and for the many many hours spent making it so fabulous!!  Over 40 designers from all over the world really make this a special hop and I'm so happy to be a part of it!

I joined this Blog Hop earlier this year but due to a crazy summer, I was unable to complete the pattern.  At the last minute, I teamed up with Marian @ Seams to be Sew and she was absolutely amazing at coming up with the pattern... I provided the design and she rocked the rest of it!  

I live in Palmdale and get the opportunity to drive past the LA Skyline and the Hollywood sign quite often.  They both hold a special place in my heart.

Another (less popular but equally beautiful) view from my home (literally my home... this pic was taken in my back yard)...

 It's so beautiful here and I'm so thankful that I get to call LA home.



And now for the Row!!!  Isn't it amazing!!!  Marian did an incredible job!!

There are wonderful giveaways (including one from me!!) each and every day of this hop so check the schedule below and be sure to visit each blog each day of the hop!


For today's giveaway, and the row, click HERE to pop over to Marian's blog. 

Thanks for stopping by!!

The Road Home Designers:

September 6

Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life 
Harrisville, MI Sunrise Coast
Cynthia’s Creating Ark
Adelaide South Australia
Kissed Quilts
Grand Coulee, Washington
Renee's Quilting Addiction
Alberta, Canada

September 8

Sew Incredibly Crazy
Colorado
3 Patch Crafts
Bulgaria

Just Let Me Quilt
Las Vegas, Nevada
Quilt in Piece
Amanzimtoti, South Africa

September 13

Tweety Loves Quilting
Edinburgh, UK
Quiltscapes
Heber City/ SLC
Seams To Be Sew
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Pine Valley
New Zealand

September 15

bdieges designs
Road to Tehachapi (CA)
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Worcester County in Central Massachusetts
Patti’s Patchwork
Toronto, Ontario Canada
Seacoast Quilter
New Milford, Connecticut

September 20

Beaquilter
Denmark
Heleen Pinkster
Netherlands
Rebecca Mae Designs
Northern Maine
MooseStash Quilting
Alaska

September 22

Words & Stitches
Beaches of California
Quilt Art
Africa
Any Pattern
Port Angeles, Washington
Patchwork Breeze
West Michigan Shoreline

September 27

Creatin’ in the Sticks
Dodge City, Kansas
Sue Griffiths Featured At Just Let Me Quilt
Northern Rivers Region, NSW, Australia
Seams To Be Sew &  Batts In The Attic
Hollywood/LA
I Can Quilt 2
Baltimore, MD

September 29

Quilted Fabric Art
Burlington Vermont
Westend Quilter
Manitoulin Island, Canada
Pamela Quilts
Oregon
Quilt Fabrication
Silicon Valley, CA

October 04

Linda Robertus
Netherlands
Elm Street Quilts
North Carolina
Sarah Quinn Featured At Seams To Be Sew 
Outer Space
Patchouli Moon Studio
Central New Mexico

October 06

Cheryl LaPlant Featured At Quilt In Piece
York, Maine
Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse
New Hampshire
Bumbleberry Stitches
Oklahoma
Needle in a Hayes Stack
Mojave Desert
Cloth and Paper Studio
North Georgia Mountains

October 11
Show & Tell Day!!!!!!!!