Spooky Trees and Culcita

Yesterday I finished the outline quilting in the Spooky Ride panel blocks and then spent some time on Pinterest looking at ideas for spooky trees. I want to stitch a big tree going up the right side of the quilt in heavy 28 weight thread. I've chosen an orange and a gold from the Mettler silk finish line for the tree.

Here are the trees I liked the best:

 

Think those give me a framework to start with.

Also got two packages in the mail this week:

One was the Culcita box with the beautiful Lagoon fabrics and a Quilt Theory pattern.

They don't really work together as the pattern calls for Layer Cakes and there isn't enough yardage in 12 fat quarters to match up, but I loved the fabrics and the pattern, so they will go their separate ways in my (such as it is) quilting supplies organizational system.

I don't subscribe to the monthly Culcita box, although that is a slightly less expensive way to go. I preordered three months starting with the Alison Glass shipment last month.

The other package was my Fat Quarter Shop order:

Mini dots!! I already had the two yardage cuts in the lower right hand corner. Dots are such great blenders that I took advantage of the bundle sale and added to the dot stash.

Today will be a lazy Saturday, running errands and probably going out to dinner tonight with my husband, who has been super helpful as I've recovered from the foot surgery. Still hobbling and I'll be in a surgical boot for another few weeks. Get to start working out with my trainer again on Sept. 5! That date will get special stickers in my planner!

Plan for today: Have a happy quilty Saturday!

One Down....

Posey Patch is in the washer to get all the marker lines out. I'm a big proponent of washing my quilts before I use them, show them in workshops or give them away. I got an email this week from my friend Paula Lidyoff about a nasty surprise she got when she washed a quilt. Her takeaway was: Always wash a quilt before you give it away so that any problems occur on YOUR watch! Bad situation, but good lesson. Sometimes we have to push through those teachable moments!

Next up: 

 

This must be Tiffany Hayes month! She did the applique on Posy Patch and designed Spooky Ride for Andover Fabrics using their Chillingsworth Spooky Ride fabrics. I bought the kit for this 70"x80" quilt at Bolts in the Bathtub (my local quilt store in Lancaster CA) and made it in a day or so at a retreat at Sierra Stars in Truckee CA.

Pinned it up with a scrappy pieced back and Winline wool batting.

Stitched in the ditch with Mettler's Transfil monofilament and now I'm ready to stitch around the characters, bats and other scary things in the panel squares. Here's my machine setup: Transfil as my top thread, Mettler 100% cotton, 50 wt silk finish thread in a yummy orange (#122) for the bobbin. Should get the outlining done today and then I can start on the spooky tree I want to stitch on the right hand side!

 

On the Mend

After foot surgery on August 1, I wasn't able to sew -- still technically cannot sew or drive because it was my right foot. However, I have played around in the sewing room and, while I can't piece worth a crap, I can quilt on the Q-20 with my left foot; the Q-20 couldn't care less which foot is on the pedal, pressure on the pedal is only telling the machine that you're sewing, not how fast you want to go. The two built in stitch regulators take care of that!

So I've spent portions of the last two days sewing in the background fills on one of my works in progress from a few years ago and should get it finished up tomorrow!

Hooray!

Are you pulling out any old projects to work on? It goes pretty fast because you already have so much done, right?