A Little Taste of Spring

January 28, 2016 by Candy Fullaway · Leave a Comment (Edit)

Here in the Northwest, we’re experiencing what I like to call the Spring Teaser.  It’s a mean little thing that  Mother Nature does to trick us into thinking that spring is almost here.  We have sunshine and balmy temperatures (like 62!).  Then we have a day that’s foggy and dreary, followed by a day of mostly sun.  I wouldn’t dream of complaining after seeing the big fun on the Eastern Seaboard.  That’s pretty brutal.  But I must admit I do feel a bit messed with.

 

After a cloudy day on Sunday, this sweet surprise on Monday morning was delightful.  There’s still a lot rain and chill to come but even a little sun is so energizing.  Today was kind of a mixed bag.

Every bit of blue sky helps and of course my tough little pansies are a real day brightener.

Today I finished this top called Cozy Throw.  It’s a kit from Craftsy by Amy Gibson.  There was plenty of fabric and good directions.  I like using the occasional kit to learn new things.  I haven’t done much with solids until the last few months and especially not white.  I’ve limited myself to tone-on-tone prints in place of solids in the past, but I like expanding the possibilities.  The plan is to use wool batting, which I haven’t done before.  I hear that you don’t grow old until you stop learning so I’ll just keep learning and hoping my brain stays young.

I love these cheery, bright colors.  They’re a perfect pick-me-up for January blues.

I have an idea for some new quilt designs that I’ll be testing out over the next few weeks.  In the meantime, please check out our two tulip-themed patterns, Singing Tulips and Tulip Field on the shopping page.  They’re both great reminders of the spring time ahead while there is still snow and bare trees outside our windows.

Quilt for fun!

Candy

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And We're Back!

Happy New Year to All!

After a busy holiday season, we're ready to start the year.  It's nice to get back to the sewing machine even if it's just to finish up leftovers from last year.  There are so many possibilities for the coming months that I hardly know where to start.  One challenge for the year is to work from my stash as much as possible.  I have given in to the siren's song of new fabric quite a lot lately and I think I have enough to keep me occupied for a while.  I have lots of fat quarters and other smallish pieces as opposed to big hunks and I cannot promise to deny myself all the time.  Still, there should be plenty of inspiration already in the studio.

Speaking of inspiration, I took a class from Coleen Barnhardt last weekend.  Coleen does longarm quilting and painting on fabric.  She's combined these to produce some really beautiful designs.  I'm just beginning to see the many ways this could be fun.  Coleen is teaching a class in the Portland area so if you're interested in having more information, let me know.

As you can see, I'm just getting started, but it's not hard to imagine how this technique could be very fun.  I'm looking forward to painting on unquilted fabric to create some one-of-a-kind pieces.  Look her up online at The Quilted Thistle.

Because the weather here (okay, everywhere) has been unusual this year, I have some confused tulips.

 I've never had them start to come up so early.  Sadly, so have the weeds so there's a bit of work out there waiting for me.  Even the pansies are anxious for spring to be here.  They look a bit weatherbeaten and continue to bloom anyway.

 

My small quilt group took December off and I'm really looking forward to our meeting tonight.  It's always fun to see what the girls have created and get some inspiration, but I have to admit that I love just coming together for a couple of hours to talk and laugh.  Having special friends who share you passion is just the best.

Finally, The Tea Party Runner (aka Santa Says Hi) is finished and on the kitchen table.  It's great to have a pop of color in the newly de-Christmased house.  The pattern is available on our shopping page.

Stay warm,

Candy

A Note From the Soggy Northwest

December 14, 2015 by Candy Fullaway · Leave a Comment (Edit)

Just so you know, it’s not currently raining here.  Also, the guy who hit the news floating atop his keg is not related to me.  I  consider it completely possible that my back yard could be declared a National Swampland.  If there were such a thing.  Which I’m pretty sure there’s not.  Basically the back yard is a soggy mess.  On the bright side, there is likely ski-able snow in the mountains.

Last Thursday I came home from a visit with my mom on this.

It was a bit like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.  Luckily, it was a pretty short flight.  Later, we had thunder hail.  There was a lightning strike a few blocks from here that blew out windows of the house next to the tree that was struck.  It shook our house like an earthquake.  Then it hailed and hailed.  Never a dull moment.

What kind of gift are you hoping for this season?  I have quite enough “stuff”  to last me.  What I would really treasure is extra time at the cutting table or sewing machine.  Like a really big hunk of time when I don’t have to go to the store, run a load of laundry, fix dinner or let the dogs in or out or in or out.  (Toby and Ella excel at wanting to be somewhere they’re not.)  But here’s the big question:  how well would I use it?  And secondarily, would I really want to find out?  Now that I think about it, maybe it’s better that I don’t know.  Still, a girl can dream.

“It doesn’t matter where I am.  I just want to be someplace else.”

I’m making a new “Santa Says Hi” runner for after the holidays.  January here is pretty bleak and some bright colors and hot tea are just what a person needs.  It’ll be perfect for when the holiday decorations come down and the house looks kind of dull.

 Since there’s not really a hard deadline on this, I can do it in spurts when I need some quiet time.  It’s actually a sanity maintenance kind of project.  I can only make so many cookies, clean up so many spaces for guests and organize so many presents before my brain needs a break.  It’s easy to get to the point where you never take a deep breath and relax throughout the whole month of December.  I have to put those time-out moments on the schedule and stick to it and I heartily recommend doing it.  Just like quilting, the holidays are supposed to be fun.

So enjoy this holiday season and get a little extra sleep.

Quilt for Fun!

Candy

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Perfectly Fall

November 6, 2015 by Candy Fullaway · Leave a Comment (Edit)

We’re having a beautiful fall day.  I’m surprised there are any leaves left on the trees after the storm we had last weekend.  It was a bummer for the trick or treaters as it was rainy and windy.  We had the fewest kids ever and now there is candy in my freezer.  I’ve eaten my favorites out so it doesn’t call to me.

It smells like fall outside this afternoon.  The damp and leaves and just a hint of smoke which surprises me as it’s been illegal to burn leaves for years.  Someone must have a fireplace going.

These mums and some volunteer lobelia are all the non-green colors in the vegetable garden.  Most of the greenery is California Poppies.  It’ll probably be too cold for this bunch to bloom, but I like the fluffy leaves.

I love these leaves even though they only have color on one side.  I suspect we’ll have some clogged storm sewers in our future.

Some cool light and shadow stuff going on here.  This is what fall looks like in many parts of the west.

I started my “Finished List” the same day I blogged about it and I’m really getting into this idea.  It’s perfect for me as I’m a great starter and an intermittent finisher.  As in , “I started Christmas shopping,” because I ordered one thing.  Sweet Husband’s goal is to be finished by Thanksgiving.  My goal is to not buy anyone anything stupid.  The list sort of goads me into finishing something, no matter how small and that feels so good.

A week ago Wednesday I took a class from Pat Pauly.  She spoke at our guild Tuesday night, which was very entertaining.  The class was on her New Leaf pattern. I like the idea of this more than I like what I did.  I have never brought all the right fabrics to a class.   I finished the top by the weekend and while I’m not crazy about some of my fabric choices, I will quilt and bind it before starting a leaf of my very own.

         

But first, I will quilt this Christmasy runner and get the pattern up on the Shopping Page.

 This is the perfect time to finish last year’s projects that didn’t quite make it.  And yes, the runner was pieced last year.  A couple of weeks ago I took it out and found a mistake, fixed it and now I’m ready to quilt it.  Thankfully, I had the foresight to cut the binding and pin it to the top.  I have many regrets about not thinking to do that in the past.

If you finished last year’s projects (and I would be very impressed by that) and you haven’t gotten fabric for a new project, you’d better get on it sooner than later.  It’s such a downer to find the perfect fabric but there’s not enough on the bolt and the shop isn’t getting any more.  I really hate that.

Quilt for fun, because it would be silly not to.

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Fall Days

October 22, 2015 by Candy Fullaway · Leave a Comment (Edit)

There are too many fun things to do and not enough minutes to go around.  Just needed to get that out there.  Thank you for your patience.

For many years I’ve made lists.  Shopping lists, to-do lists, a packing list, Christmas list,  a list of the stuff that I forgot to write on another list.  Even my lists have lists.  Sometimes I mark stuff off and sometimes I just throw an old list away.  Usually they help me and other times they are a testament to what didn’t get done.  What I have not done is made a list of all the things I get finished.  Even if things get marked off, I can usually think of two things to replace it.  As we come up to the time of year when the lists get even longer, I’ve decided that I need a list of what I finished.  Just a date and what it was, like a quilt block, a blog, a book, a chore.  I think it might be uplifting to see a list of what I did in addition to the list of what is still undone.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

It’s the time of fall when the mornings are foggy and the afternoons warmish and sunny.

While I’m not a big fan of dark and dreary days, there’s something quiet and mysterious about fog.

I have two “volunteer” tomato plants that are just now making tomatoes.  I’m not sure how great the ripe tomato will be but the green ones will be fabulous fried.  It certainly adds some color to a faded garden.

Because I went to the International Quilt Show in Houston last year, I didn’t go crazy for Halloween.  This year I’m attempting to make up for it.

This tree is about finished for the year, but the leaves that are left are the most beautiful colors.

And here are a couple of our quilted Halloween favorites:

The quilt above is called Fall into Halloween.  It goes together pretty quickly and is big and snuggly.    The two dark stripes are pieced but two pieces of cool dark fabric would make very fast and easy.

Harry’s Halloween was a fun way to whittle down my Halloween scraps.   Okay, it hardly made a dent.  I have enough Halloween fabric to wrap up the whole state.

Check out our shopping page at www.mobquilts.com for more Fall and Halloween ideas.

Quilt for fun.

Candy

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Try, Try Again

October 13, 2015 by Candy Fullaway · Leave a Comment (Edit)

It’s a beautiful, cloudless fall day, the kind that makes me think, “We don’t need any cold, wet winter.  Let’s just do this until spring.”  Okay, yes, we need winter.  But I’m going to enjoy the heck out of this while I can.  Also, sunny days make me more energetic so I need to take advantage of that.

On that note, I remade the very marginal winter cabin I put up last week to some thing I like much better.  It involved buying fabric because even though I have a big stash, it doesn’t always have what I need.

So far it’s only been fused and I’m looking forward to adding some detail and quilting it.  The ultimate plan is to put a house block on each end of a runner and have the center be the fabric on the border of this block.  This way I won’t hide a block under the candles or flowers or whatever the centerpiece of the table might be.  It’ll probably be a week or so before this is finished as I have a couple of Halloween projects to finish.  I’ll show the block as I go along.

For those who are spider phobic, stop reading now and go to our Shopping Page at www.mobquilts.com.  We’d love for you to make one of our patterns and show us your work so we can show it on the Gallery Page.

So here’s the deal:  it’s fall and we have spiders.  They use my garden decor to anchor their webs and catch lots of bugs that I don’t really want in my house.  (It’s still warm enough to leave doors open for the dogs.)  The spiders are industrious little guys and there’s always the possibility of getting a neat picture of a web on a damp morning.

This one has caught some dinner and seems to be doing a little repair work on the web.

This big boy’s (or girl’s) web shows up a little better against the bricks.  Nothing currently caught in the web, but he doesn’t look like he waits to eat.  This concludes the bug portion of the blog.

Thank you for indulging my “Nature Moment.”

There’s still time for an Autumn themed quilt and we have some ideas for that on the Shopping Page.

If you have an idea for a quilt pattern you’d like us to create, let us know at www.mobquilts.com or motheronabroomstick@gmail.com

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Filed Under: Christmas, Fall, Halloween, Quilt blog, Quilt for fun, Quilting Blog, Quilting patterns

Sew Fall

October 6, 2015 by Candy Fullaway · Leave a Comment (Edit)

Monday, October 5

As I write this, it’s sunny and about 80 degrees.  A bit later I will go out and water the flower pots mostly just to be out in the sun.  Oregonians don’t like to waste sun.  The veggie plants are all out (except for the lettuce, which is doing wonderfully well) and some mums will go in that space later this week.  I didn’t have the heart to tear out some California poppies and a few tough lobelias and the volunteer tomato.

 

I also have some dahlias that don’t give up until it turns cold.  I like these guys.

 Last week I went to Southern Oregon to visit my mom (The Matriarch).  On Tuesday it was 88 which is pretty warm even for there this late in the year.  It’s also been very dry.  That part of the state usually has cool nights by now, but 79 degrees at 8:30 pm is pretty balmy.

Flower pot watering here usually lasts from sometime in June to about the middle of September.  This year we started in May and we’re still at it.  There comes a point when I don’t care as much as I did in the spring.  Then I turn on the TV and poor South Carolina is floating away!  Prayers for them that they dry out quickly.

Most of my Halloween decorations are out.

 

I’ve had this lantern a long time and it always reminds me of a few episodes of having a bat in the house.  FYI:  An open door to a dark room in September is an open invitation to a juvenile bat.

Sweet husband cut out the witch several years ago from plywood.  Her cauldron will be out there soon.

And the new quilts are up.

Sew Scary, above, is a panel with some cool borders.  I like it because it’s a bit steampunk and also because there are those who think I am sew scary.

The quilt below is an older one made of fun panels set into twist and turn blocks.  Just right for snuggling up to Halloween.

The weather says,”no, no, no,” but the calendar says “get with it” so my goal for the week is a Christmas/Winter block.  It took me a while to figure out how I wanted it.  I was looking for the fine line between same old Christmas red/green with a Santa and a winter scene that could be anytime of winter.  It’s not that I don’t love Santa and traditional colors.  It’s more that I have a ton of Santas and Christmas colors.  Maybe something a bit more subtle.

Which reminds me that the Starshine Runner is great with Halloween prints.  One of its earliest incarnations was this small Halloween runner.  It would also be great with some general fall prints.  Please don’t ask why one thing reminds me of something completely different.

And finally, if anyone knows what the behavior below is about, please pass it on.  Ella goes out the open half of the French door and then stares in through the closed one.  It must be interesting inside her head.

My name is Ella Bella Poodlehound and I like to stare at you through the glass.

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Filed Under: Fall, Halloween, Quilt blog, Quilt for fun, Quilt patterns, Quilting Blog, Quilting patterns, quilts