Snap

We had some cooler than usual temps this past week, which was kind of a reality check for me.  Fall is here.

Oh, I like fall well enough.  Beautiful changing leaves.  Apples and pumpkins and mums (oh my).  The late afternoon sunlight that seems to imbue everything with a golden aura.

It's just that stuff that comes after.  Winter here kinda blows.

~Dad's zinnias a week ago when it was warm~

So when it's been in the upper 70s and sunny and then all of a sudden overnight it's 38 degrees and overcast and drizzling, it's a buzz kill.  Fall is like the cops knocking on the door when the party is in full swing.

"The neighbors have complained.  You need to turn it down."

So you do.  You acquiesce.  But probably not without making a face.

I was sitting in my office chair today, gazing out the west window, when I noticed it.

I had not even thought to change my snowflake Pyrex display all spring and summer long.  (It was also apparent I hadn't thought to dust much during the past X months, but that's another story.)

Well, I could just leave it, I mused.  After all, it's not unusual to see snowflakes in October around here, and that's just a few...

*Record scratching noise*

Wait, what?  NO!  If it's going to be fall already, then fine.  I'm going to decorate for fall—not winter (and forget spring and summer, water under the bridge and all)—and for as long as I can, dagnabbit!  

I don't say "dagnabbit" in real life, but that's the G-rated version.  You get the idea.

So I padded over to the (equally dusty) shelves next to the fireplace, where the rest of the Pyrex collection lives, and started hunting for fall-looking Py.  Basically, everything orange, brown, or gold was fair game.  

But before that, I cleared the snowflake Pyrex out of the other unit.  Dusted too.

This pretty mid-century oak piece was marked six bucks at Goodwill when we bought it a few years ago.  I still can't believe they let us steal have it for that.

And here is the result.  I may tweak a thing or two yet, but I think it'll do.  

The room feels a little warmer already.  Or maybe that's just me.  Dusting and futzing with Pyrex is hard work, yo.

Think I can get away with it until December 21?

Little Bitty Batty

This week's time in the sewing room started with a few hours of fabric pressing and folding.  A growing pile of prewashed stuff had teetered on the back of an office chair for a couple months, threatening to tumble onto the floor.  It was time to deal with it.

One good thing about the job was getting reacquainted with the stash.  I definitely have some whatever am I going to do with that? pieces.  I'm okay with it; in fact, I find it a fun challenge.  One item was a sort of creepy purple-gray, black, and white print I'd bought on vacation in July (found in the clearance bin, no big surprise).  Then there were the mottled burnt orange and poison green pieces.  Ah, yes, this could be the makings of something spooky and seasonal.

As it happened, I'd found a wicked cute bat applique PDF a few days ago (here).  Instead of putting it on a single fabric background, though, I thought I'd try a string or strip-pieced one.

So I made a strata of strips.  Then I cut four squares by turning my 6.5-inch square ruler so the middle strip would be along the diagonal, like so.

Here they are laid out on the cutting table prior to sewing.  I traced the bat onto freezer paper.

Then I layered four pieces of black print fabric, pressed the freezer paper bat onto the top layer, and carefully cut all four bats out at once, following the pattern.

In hindsight, since the bats were going to be fused onto the background, I should have ironed the fusible web onto the black fabric first.  But I didn't, so there was some more fussy cutting of bat shapes from fusible.

The bitty bats were then fused and machine appliqued around the edges.  Then it was sandwiched and quilted.  It's about 12 inches square, table mat size. 

I have, in the past, had a problem quilting through fusible (and I haven't tried another brand yet, which I intend to).  So the best course was to avoid quilting the bats and just concentrate on the center and outer portions of the mini.

I winged it on the center quilting, just following the lines where the four pieces joined and waving back and forth over the line, east to west, then in reverse to make oval shapes.  Then the same thing, north to south.  That didn't seem like enough quilting, so I did double-size waves east to west and north to south and back again, making double-size ovals.

I did concentric circles in the outside with a walking foot, since the bat wings created such a cool circular shape, and I was thinking of bat sonar too.

Isn't it interesting that the bats are sort of an illusion that you don't necessarily see immediately.  You might notice the center first, and then those curious things that look like green fangs around the outside.  And then...bats!

So that's my creepy-cool little bitty batty mini quilt!

Happy Halloween

Trick or treat!

Twenty years ago, I made my daughter this costume for Halloween:

Daughter M (right) with her cousin Cody.

This year, she made her own:

She made that!  No pattern, just some duct tape modeling, fake fur, upholstery foam, an electric bread knife, Sculpey clay, and who knows what else.  Oh, hot glue.  I'm sure there was a glue gun involved.  Amazing!

She also made this German Shepherd for her boyfriend.  They (as well as Norm) went to Freakfest in Madison last Saturday.

The police dog posing with a real cop.  Cute.

I found some other old photos in my trip down memory lane.  It's spooky how time flies.

Our fall traditions always included a trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch/petting zoo.

The goats and kitties loved her way back then.  Now she takes care of all sorts of animals at the vet clinic.

Happy Halloween!

Favorite Things Friday ~ My Office View

My Favourite Things Friday idea came about at random as the late afternoon sun peeked through the window of my office as I was working today.  

My camera was sitting on the desk and I picked it up to shoot some quick photos of things nearby.  The desk sits in what is normally a darkish corner of the room except at a particular time of day when the natural light is just right.  It does make my monitor a little hard to read (and the layer of dust on it all the more visible), but I love that fleeting slant of light and don't bother to get up and adjust the blinds.

This pottery cup is from my sister, who was going to donate it to Goodwill when she moved a couple years ago.  I gave it a good home instead.  It's the perfect size to hold the phone.

And a stray guitar pick.

It sits on a sweet, heart-shaped crocheted coaster from Mary.

Straight ahead, above the monitor, is a spiderweb quilted wall hanging I made last October, and a vintage Beistle skeleton.

On the wall to the right, one of my favorite photos of my daughter.  Hard to believe it's been six years since this was taken.  She's got a birthday next week!

To the left above my desk are some favorite vacation photos from a family trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan some years ago.  Lighthouses, waterfalls, and beaches were some of the sights we saw.  My daughter was picking out her favorite smooth rocks along the Lake Superior shoreline, many of which came home with us.

And finally, propped in the the corner on top of my scanner is this little softie.  Too cute to scare anyone properly, but he makes me smile.

So there you have a mini tour of my immediate vicinity as I sit here at my desk.  It's only a glimpse of what's in front of me in this corner.  I'll save the view of rest of the room for another time.  Hint:  It includes Pyrex.  :) 

Thanks for visiting!  Now I'm off to peer into your world for a bit...

Sunday Sundry - Vol. 12

Skelly the Skeleton (original, eh?) has a pop quiz for you.  Please complete the following:

Q.  Ding-Dong!

A.  a)  Trick or Treat!
     b)  The witch is dead!
     c)  ...Ditch!

The correct answer is—well, Skelly says anything goes today.  Happy Halloween!

Spellbinding
I found these at a thrift store a few months ago.  Aren't the graphics fabulous?

I love vintage sewing notions, and I couldn't resist these at 79 cents.  What a "steel"!

Bound and Determined
I did get the quilt finished that I mentioned last week, but I'll do a separate post on that in a day or so.  

What I was really excited about working on this week was this scrappy spider web table topper (or wall hanging).  I've been wanting to try a spider web block, and having come across some old Halloween novelty prints in my stash recently gave me a good reason to go for it.

As a reference, I used this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew, but changed the size and used a paper foundation instead.  I cut a piece of lightweight paper into an 8.5-inch square, then cut it once on the diagonal.  I pieced four such triangular units to make one block.  Four complete blocks is all you need for this wall hanging.  It measures 22 inches square.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a glitch in cutting the backing—I accidentally sliced into the backing fabric!

After the small cloud of blue language cleared, I did what any quilter would do and regarded the situation as a "design opportunity."  I patched it to kind of look like a doorway, and then free motion quilted a little surprise visitor dropping by.

Where was once a boo-boo, there's now just a "boo."

R.I.P.
Last Sunday afternoon, my good friend Kathy and I attended a play starring our other good friend Marie.  She had the part of Doris in The Cemetery Club, a tale of three friends whose husbands have all passed away.  It was funny, heartwarming, and very well done.

But I was kind of miffed that she didn't warn us about the sad ending.  Marie did such a wonderful job and we were so into it, loving her performance, her character Doris, and just plain her.  Then do you know what that Doris did?  She went and died in the next-to-last scene!  The nerve!  Had I known that, I'd have brought way more Kleenex (and a bouquet of flowers, which I should have done anyway, for our actress friend).  Bravo!

Thanks for visiting!  Here is my treat for you today. I was going to post ELO's "Evil Woman," but I changed my mind in favor of one I like better. Jeff Lynne still looks and sounds as great today as he did in the 1970s, doesn't he? 

Have a fun and safe Halloween!