Guest Post: Heidi's Halloween Tree

Happy Halloween!  I am doing a "guest post" on my Mom's blog.  I have a Christmas tree decorating business and this year I decided to make a "Halloween Witch Tree" complete with a witch hat on top!  Hope you enjoy.............Heidi

Be-Witching Quilt Group

It is our tradition to meet at Jayna's house for our October meeting because she is the Halloween Queen and her house is a Holloween wonderland! We had a great time and a great "Show and Tell" which I will share with you. This fun quilt was done by our hostess, Jayna. Love the great Halloween colors!

This cute "picnic quilt" is also Jayna's, fresh back from the quilter.

Candy showed us one of the three panels she had made of this pattern. She said  they were so quick and fun to make, she couldn't stop!

Check out the darling pillow that Candy made. We all LOVED the lamb with the pumpkin behind it.. SO CUTE!

Barb machine embroidered this darling baby announcement and had it framed for a family member.

Clever Margy bought this bag and then embellished it with this machine ebroidered scene in brown. Very cool!

Margy had made a hat for a friend going through Cemo, and decided  to make one for herself as well. It had a cute co-ordinating lining.

Anita shared this super cute table runner. The pattern and fabrics are so happy!

Anita also made this sweet flannel baby blanket.

Jayna's cats kept us well entertained all night! I hope your Autumn is going well. We are finally getting Fall appropriate weather and I love being able to stay in my Hoodie all day. I hope you will stop by again soon.  Love, Derrith

Pumpkin Hill Completed!

"Pumpkin Hill" is finally back from the quilter (who did a fantastic job) and up on the wall to celebrate Autumn.

It's my first fall themed quilt that I've done for my living room because I thought fall colors wouldn't go with my blue, red and yellow color scheme. Silly Me. It looks just fine.

Of course, if you have been following my blog, you know that I have sold my house and I really don't know what the color scheme will be in my new house, but it will all work out. I am at my daughter's house and her house is SO decorated for Halloween, it is inspiring. I have been a bit distracted lately, to say the least, and decorating has not been a priority. Thank you for visiting...I know I haven't had much to show lately. See you again soon. -Derrith

Pumpkin Pillow

I just finished this pillow for a friend. She visited this summer and found the 12 X 12 center of the pillow that was left over from a challenge my quilting group had. She loved it and ask that I make it into a pillow so I used orange wool for the borders and a striped flannel on the back. I'm so glad she wanted it or it would have sat in my sewing room forever!  Well, we accepted the offer on our house, so now we are looking for a new home. The saga continues.....

New Bathroom and ...

We put our house on the market a week ago, and I wanted to show you our newly remodeled bathroom. It was one of the many repairs/improvements we needed to make to our 40 year old home. I know it would be more effective to have a "before" picture, but you will have to trust me that it was uglier than you can imagine.

It had an old vinyl floor, a blue cast iron bathtub and an old beat up brown cabinet. We removed the old tub and tiles and a replaced it with a very nice 3 piece unit. I decided to go with classic black and white and I love the results. I painted the old vanity and replaced all the hardware to save money and recovered the old counter top with a formica that resembles granite.

We added the under-stated tile back splash. The picture on the wall (see 1st pic) was an $8.00 find at a thrift shop. I love how crisp and clean it looks. Too bad someone else will be using it!

Sooooo, since we are showing our home, I wanted to have fresh flowers everywhere. I have never learned how to properly arrange flowers, but I did the best I could. I love living with them in most of the rooms in the house.

I wish I could be surrounded by fresh flowers everyday!

The problem is...they only last a week or less and replacing them gets quite expensive.

So, it is fortunate that the first people to look at the house have made an offer.

We will find out soon if negotiations will be successful.

We have such mixed feelings. We know that the objective of putting a house on the market is to sell it...

...but we love our home and it will be hard to leave it. I will let you know how things work out. It has been a busy 3 months, getting everything ready inside and outside our house. We can finally breath, while trying to live in our house and keep it looking like no one lives here.:-)  Thank you for you patience with me and my spotty posts. They will probably continue as we pack up and move. Where to? We don't know yet. To be continued...

 

Quilty Friends Reunited

My quilting group, the "Sisters'n'Stitches" were reunited this week following our summer hiatus.  It was obvious that several of our members had been busy bees over the summer. Barb showed her masterpiece appliqued quilt that had just won "Best machine quilted" at our Clark County Fair.

Here is another blue ribbon winner from Barb. This quilt had civil war motif fabric as well as civil war reproduction fabric and is even more beautiful in person.

Barb has also been busy with her fancy machine embroidery machine. This pic and the following two show pages she created for "quiet books" for her grand-babies. SOOOO Cute!

Margie finished her Family Tree wall hanging. You can't see, but the family names are embroidered on the leaves. It is really fantastic.

Margy also showed us this beautiful crocheted blanket. I'm pretty sure it was crocheted, but if it was knitted, please forgive me Margy. Its lovely either way!

Anita did this fun Christmas table runner that we all loved.

Our newest member, Jo Ann, showed this pretty table piece. The little floral motifs in every other petal were machine embroidered and so sweet.

Candy is holding a bag with machine appliqued flowers made by Darlene. It's really cute.

This accompanied the bag...open it up and unfold it and you have a lightweight shopping bad!

This picture and the next two represent more of Darlene's expert handiwork.

It was great to get back together and enjoy each others company and laugh and laugh as we always do. Unfortunately, I am still a slave to my house projects, but it goes on the market this week, so MAYBE I can sneak in some sewing after that. I'm so glad you stopped by and hope to see you again soon.  Love, Derrith

A Small Dose of Happiness

I had to take a break from all the projects my husband and I have been working on to get our house ready to go on the market. After all, a girl can't go forever without creative therapy. Soooo, I started my happy rose quilt. The fabrics and colors make me happy and take my mind off the thought of packing up all the belongings we have accumulated over 25 years in this house. My posts will continue to be spotty while I get through this transition, but I still steal a few minutes to visit my favorite blogs. Thank you for sneaking a peek today. Love, Derrith

Summer Luncheon Quilts

Our quilt group usually takes the summer off, but last week, those who were available met for a delicious pot luck luncheon at Pat K's home. Darlene has had a particularly prolific summer, quilt-wise and showed us some of her beautiful work. This was wool applique and the detail work is fantastic.

She also made this stunning quilt with machine embroidered stars for a patriotic/summer look. Darlene machine quilts her own quilts too. There really isn't anything she can't do.

One more of Darlene's projects: A fantastic machine embroidered apron for her husband who had complained that she never made anything for HIM!

Our hostess Pat K. had finished this darling wool applique wall hanging which she finished off with an old handle from a kettle. Pat H. was working on the same design. The rest of us were doing handwork or just eating and chatting (me). We will all reunite in September to see what everyone has been up to.  I have had a rather non productive week. I had a rather large disappointment to deal with and have been drowning my sorrow in corn chowder. Time to move on, though, so I am trying to begin this new week with a smile and a better attitude. Thanks for dropping by, friends!  Love, Derrith

The Anchors Are UP!

As a birthday present to myself today, I finished the binding on my Anchor Quilt, sewed a sleeve on it and got it hung up. The quilter did a great job and I am very happy with it. My walls aren't really that yellow...I just get carried away with my photo editing software sometimes.

I you are fond of anchors and nautical style, check out "Coastal Style" on my side panel. I love her posts.

I momentarily considered quilting this myself on my sewing machine. I am SOOOO glad I decided against that. I had hoped to get it up before summer was over and it was time for a fall quilt, so I am pleased to have accomplished that. See you again soon, hopefully. Love,  Derrith   

                                      Hi  Lorali