fruitcake revisited

i decided to listen to the advice of those of you who know FAR MORE about running fabric than i do ... three more times through the washer - with HOT water (switching the dial over to HOT was a lot more difficult than i thought it would be - my mother would have been appalled) and Synthrapol and a handful of two different brands of dye grabbers...

still pink - but not a pretty pink anymore ... sigh

live and learn, eh?

 my TALL quilt-holder-upper was no where to be found, so LuLu took over...

hey, Nona - i could use a little help here!!!

hmmmm ... try holding this one...

Twisted Fruitcake

what big brown eyes you have!!! 

here, give this one a go...

Re-Gifted Fruitcake

and her hair just kept getting messier and messier...

so Auntia took over the camera and i joined LuLu behind the scenes...

Fruitcake - the Gift That Keeps On Giving

the quilting is pretty doggone awesome ... Liz the Longarm Quilting Wizard quilted pine cones...

pretty cool, huh?!?

they are keeping us warm or covering table tops for now ... maybe i'll give them all a good soaking after christmas...

couldn't hurt, right?!?

pink snowmen

have you ever seen pink snow?

yep, there IS such a thing...

i HAVE seen pink snow - it was drifted across the front yard last year

it looked weird

and it didn't look tasty

even though some people say it tastes like watermelon

(here's a link to why you shouldn't eat it if you should ever stumble across any) 

there wasn't enough to make a snowman - not that i would have because snowmen shouldn't be pink

they should be white!!!

anywho ... i didn't think too much about it after it melted...

fast forward a year

i FINALLY finished the three Fruitcake by Basic Grey for Moda quilts that i started in 2010 ... i threw them all into the washing machine along with five dye grabbers, some laundry detergent, and the wash & rinse cycles on cold...

i am a prewasher ... i treat fabric like it's gonna be treated after it is made into whatever...
but all three of the Fruitcake quilts were made from precuts - a layer cake and two charm packs - and i didn't prewash the fabric for fear of them shredding into tiny unusable bits...

however...

if i had known that this...

 pink where it oughta be white ... sigh
was gonna happen, i would have taken my chances on tiny unusable bits

ALL of the white is now pink - and that is after washing and rewashing and rewashing and rewashing and rewashing and rewashing...

grrrrr!!!

we wants it ... we needs it....

must have the precious...

i have wanted this quilt for ... well ... for forever...

Autumn Eyes - NOT made by me

i bought the pattern when it first came out in ... er ... i dunno when ... but it's been a loooong time...

i read the instructions and started looking for the fabrics

and read the instructions again

and knew that i didn't really understand what the heck it was saying

and that i didn't have the Mad Machine Applique Skills that i would need to make it even if i DID understand

and tried to sign up for a *class at The Quilt Store

*that the owners had the good sense to cancel it before it even started

and i gave up on EVER finding all the fabric

or understanding the instructions

or gaining the Mad Machine Applique Skills

and resigned myself to another Unfulfilled Wish...

until i got up the nerve to ask if the shop sample was EVER gonna be for sale and was told

Why, yes, as a matter of fact it WILL be. Would you like me to put your name on it?

to which i replied

 YES, i would like you to put my name on it!!! How many pennies do i need to save to buy it?!?

Oh, well. I think that $85 is the lowest we can go.

i gasped ... and she said

Really. $85 is a fair price.

and i gasped some more ... i KNEW that the kit was more than $60 and the thread kit was another $20 ... i was about to hyperventilate at the thought of owning this awesome bear and not having to beat myself up over not having the skill to make it myself!!!

so i just nodded my head and squeaked out

When?!? When may i take him home?!?

and the poor woman climbed the shop's ladder, unpinned him from the wall, and stood back as i stood there clutching my treasure ... he's MINE!!!

It came to me, my own, my love ... my precioussssssss.

Smeagol

autumn lights

in october of 2011

 Auntia and i started working on a BOM that was sponsored by The Quilter's Studio of Northern Lights by Marti Michell using autumn batiks ... Auntia was a LOT more excited about the whole idea than i was - she finished her setting blocks before the second meeting... 

and then her interest wavered, too... 

both of us kept up with the blocks each month and went to the meetings, but neither one of us was really in love with the fabrics OR the pattern after the first three or four months... 

that's what happens when Reality sets in, huh?!?

anywho, we finished up the blocks and put them together into rows...

and the rows into flimsies... 

and then i added the borders to mine and started to look for enough flannel backing in the stash ... i didn't much care for the front, so i picked up the first large piece of yardage that was beigeish shudder that i found in the flannel pile ... and after piecing it together into one big piece of backing, i sent it off to Liz the Longarm Quilting Wizard so she could work her magic... 

and now...

 Autumn Lights

i LURVE it!!! 

it is BIG - so big that i had to stand on a step stool to get most of it off the floor for picture-taking (my quilt-holder-upper wasn't here to help me) and my arms were aching before the camera had time to focus, lemmetellya...

dinosaurs?!? seriously?!? maybe i should have been a bit more particular about the backing

it has now taken up residence on the OldManLeatherChair and is doing a great job of keeping my backside warm, whilst Auntia uses Samhein for her red leather chair...

Auntia's Northern Lights in autumn batiks is ready for the outer borders ... i hope she finishes hers before next autumn cuz i am gonna be wanting Samhein back...

makin' bacon

i make lists ... lots of lists

lists of things to do

 and lists of things to buy 

and lists of things to sigh about

or cry about

or worry about... 

a few weeks ago i made a NEW list for the things that absolutely HAD to be done before tomorrow...

it was a long, loooooong list...

have the furnace serviced

and the swamp cooler serviced

and the dryer vent cleaned
and renew my passport (no, i'm not going anywhere ... sigh)

and the garage door repaired

and the gardens bedded down for the winter

and winterize the outside faucets

and take flowers to the cemetery for my mom's birthday

and hang the shade in my bedroom (the one that has been waiting for me to get to it for at LEAST eight years)

and get the wreaths ready for the cemetery

and have the leaky toilet fixed

and the broken bathroom fan replaced

and the back porch light, too

and bring in the patio furniture

and paint the front door
and renew my driver's license

and have the house power-washed (this isn't gonna get done till next year)

and paint the garage door (this isn't gonna get done till next year, either)

and rake leaves

and rake leaves again

and again
and again

and remember to be GRATEFUL for those leaves

and have the lawn aerated

and fertilize it

and over-seed it

and mow it

and mow it a few more times

and put away the lawn mower

well ... you get the idea

the list was getting shorter and shorter 

and i was almost at the end...

so what do you think i did?!?

i ADDED things to it...

things like this...

a crocheted bacon scarf .. i kid you not

which is for Michael Myson

because he LOVES bacon
 and because he ASKED for one
 and because i love him enough to work with gawdawful chunky yarn that looks like bacon fat...

samhain

this year i actually finished a halloween quilt in time to USE it ... his name is Samhain and he has lived on the OldManLeatherChair all month...

Samhain

fabric is the original Hallowgraphix by Jason Yenter for In the Beginning

pattern is Fireworks! by Kim of Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

quilting by Liz Bowman of Milan, Michigan

pieced and bound by me, myself and i

batouttahell

my dad didn't get to cuss much around my mom, but she did cut him some slack every once in a while ... when another driver would whiz past us and he said 

like a bat out of hell!!! 

she didn't raise her eyebrows very high or admonish him with Guido!!!

so that's what i came up with when i was trying to think of a name for this wreath...

Bat out of Hell

it has been living on the back of Auntia's red leather chair... 

she says it doesn't keep her very warm... 

maybe that bat isn't outta Hell after all...

pattern and fabric by Jason Yenter of In The Beginning

quilted with BATS!!! by Liz Bowman of Milan, Michigan

pieced and bound by me, myself and i