HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR SCISSORS!

My HALLOWEEN quilts.

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My HALLOWEEN Quilts!

This is "Happy Halloween" of course and I made the blocks at a Quilt Retreat at Lake Tahoe.  It was fun making the blocks with "advice" from my girlfriends.  If you can enlarge the picture you will see the backgrounds for all the blocks are different purple polka dots.  It was fun looking for 12 different purple polka dot fabrics!  My Friend Paula quilted it for me.  It is full bed size but I like to put it up on the wall for October.

This "Joined at the Hips - The Witch is in" fits perfectly on the upper half of the door to my quilting room.  My husband thinks its pretty funny, hmmm, I wonder why?

This is a Nancy Halvorsen pattern, "Come Sit for a Spell".  I put it on a little Ackfeld wire hanger and sit it on the dining room table.

I love my little "Any Witch Way" pattern I found in a magazine.  I made this one at a Quilt Retreat at Soda Springs, California.  I gave this one to my Daughter, Cathy.  She hangs it up at her work during this season.  Every time I see it or see this photo I think about making one for me too. 

Someday, Someday.

By now you must be thinking I love Halloween and Quilt Retreats and you would be right!  This is one of my very favorite Holidays, and I go to Quilt Retreats whenever I can do it.

Halloween involves dressing up in a costume and being whomever you want to be and Quilt Retreats involve dressing down, wearing pajamas all day if you want to, and being yourself - your REAL self around your best friends.  No similarities, quite the opposites, but I LOVE them both anyway!

 I almost forgot, they both involve CHOCOLATE!!

How'd you like to quilt with one of these?

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These are antique sewing machines they had set up at the Cabin Fever Quilt Show.

There were some hand crank styles, for children hopefully!

Then there were the more traditional featherweights.  

This must have been a specialty machine - looks like a cobra in India dancing to the tune of the flute player.

More Mystery Quilts

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Continuing on with the "No two quilts or quilters are alike" theme, let's look at three quilt blocks from the Cabin Fever Guild's MYSTERY 2 quilt challenge.

The First block made by Lori Goddard is VERY clearly defined with a dark center square surrounded with quarter square semi-solid colored pieces and more semi-solid colored squares and background.  Very distinct and bold looking.  No guessing what the block looks like here.

The scattered one reddish quarter square triangle adds a great "POP" to the quilt. Sophisticated yet fun.


The Second block made by Doris Murphy is made with softer colors and prints that are very coordinated so the block blends in more with the adjacent blocks and the overall quilt pattern.  It is still easy to see the block design but just doesn't stand out as much.  It is very easy on the eye and gives a great overall look

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The Third block made by Charlie Petersen is made with a wide variety of colors and prints.  The block pattern becomes harder to pick out of the overall look of the quilt.  The quilt looks scrappier without any hard edges.  It has a pretty and colorful overall look to it.  Even the background has a happy abundance of color.

Which one do you like best?  It just depends on your style, your favorite colors, what room it goes in or who is going to receive the quilt? 

Sometimes it just depends on your mood on a particular day.  AND very importantly, this is a MYSTERY quilt so what it is going to look like is a mystery until the quilt is finished.  It's meant to be a surprise.  

I just find it Sooooo very interesting that the pattern was the same for all three yet we have three distinctive different looks.  This is the "SPICE" of our quilting life.

Just think of how boring it would be if all quilts came out the same!

No two quilts and no two quilters are the same!

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I really like the way the Cabin Fever Guild showed off their mystery quilts at the Quilt Show.  Guild members accepted one of two mystery quilt challenges.  The resulting quilts clearly demonstrated that no two quilts and no two quilters are the same!  The quilts were all grouped together on the stage so we could compare.

 Look closely at three blocks from MYSTERY 1 quilts.

The first block by Mary Ann Turko clearly shows the design of the red nine patch in the center of the block and the white half square triangles against the black.  A bold design.

The second block by Megan Bergstein has a clearly defined nine patch in purple and orange but the green half square triangles are less defined against the blue print.  A softer look.

The third block by Ellen Sells has a lesser defined nine patch in blues but a clearly defined half square triangles with the dark blue/purple against a solid white.  The half squares make more of a statement. It has a bold edge and is soft in the center, just like a good chocolate caramel chewy piece of See's Candy.  Hmmm.... I think I could use some chocolate!

3 more quilts to look at

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Still more photos of the quilts at the Cabin Fever quilt Show 2014.

This quilt is named "Where's Waldo"? Created and Quilted by Dory Miller of  Crazy Horse Quilting.

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Dory explains in the "About the quilt" on the label. This was a mystery quilting project.  There are a couple of blocks that the feathers are upside down - that's where the "Where's Waldo" came from.  Well, I can't find them.

Isn't this a cute Christmas quilt made by Ginny Moynihan from a pattern at the Stitching Post in Sister's OR.  It was quilted by Linda Dornan - Needle Arts Studio.  This quilt made me start thinking I'd better get busy on my Christmas Quilting!

This quilt made and quilted by Ruth Beers makes me think of cuddling with a cup of hot chocolate by the fireplace on a cold night.  With maybe a little bit of something extra in the hot chocolate?

This is named "Isaac's Quilt" and in her remarks on the label she says "Yet another Grandson's Quilt"

Lucky Boy!

More quilts from the Cabin Fever quilt show

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As promised I have a few more pictures of quilts from the Cabin Fever Quilt Show.

First a real showstopper named "Festia de Talvera", made by Megan Berstein and quilted by Marybeth O'Hallern. 

I love the colors and I appreciate the skill and time it takes to make a beautiful hand appliqued quilt.  

The quilting is wonderful, it has beautiful feathers.    

The next quilt named "Out of  Africa" was made by Fabienne Farley and quilted by Marcia Aurdal.  I love that it was an original design.  From the colors in the background to the movement in the African animals this is a striking quilt.  

More photos to come on another day.

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE...

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I went to the Cabin Fever Quilt Show in Pt. Townsend a few weeks ago.  It was small as quilt shows go - but it was GOOD!  

I was particularly impressed with the "Viewer's Choice" quilt!

If you can't read the label to the left it says the quilt was made by Megan Bergstein (I don't know her) for her Son Luke (Lucky Luke! I don't know him either) who is a great gardener.  The pattern is from Crabapple Hill (I LOVE their patterns) and is called  "Gardener's Alphabet".

The quilt itself is gorgeous! Tinted, hand embroidered, and embellished with tiny, tiny beads.  Simply GORGEOUS!

Just look at the details, that is a lot of work my friends.

 

 BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE...

Please take a look at the quilting.  Dory Miller of Crazy Horse Quilting  quilted it.  It is FABULOUS!  Quilting like this is found at International quilt shows.


OK, there is still more...  Guess what?  (don't get lost in the story, it takes many twists and turns)  Dory Miller the quilter, is the Sister of one of my quilting friends from Nevada.  Yep, that's right, my new acquaintance (and I hope new friend) from the new quilt club I joined in Washington, Dory Miller, is the Sister of Barbara Cavanaugh my friend from my old quilt club in Nevada.

It is a very small world out there guys, very small.

We are all connected at some level.  Quilters have many friends all over the world. Isn't it wonderful.

I'm going to show you more pictures tomorrow.  Like I said a small quilt show but a GOOD quilt show.  Lots to see!

Unexpected guests...

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We always fed the birds when we lived in Nevada so when we moved to the Olympic Peninsula we brought along our bird feeders.  We fed sparrows, finches, grosbeaks and even cedar waxwings.  We had no idea of what we would see at our feeders in Washington.  What we saw was totally unexpected.

Four black tailed deer at the bird feeder.