October Finishes

 I finished my Little Ghosties this week! This was definitely my DrEAMi! (Drop Everything and Make It) for the month of October. I cut, pieced, quilted, and bound it all within the month. Check out what projects tempted everyone this month here:

https://www.mmmquilts.com/2018/10/dreami-21.html

This was so much fun to make and even better because most of it was from my stash. I washed it this morning and it now measures 57 x 58 inches. I put a hanger on the back and I am not sure if it will be hung up or used for a couch quilt...

I made an extra ghost block and used it on the back for the label.

 This is my Sugar Stars Quilt that I struggled with quilting a couple of weeks ago. It looks better after washing it to hide my awful machine quilting. It measures 59 x 78 inches after washing.

I think all the prints are from a Bonnie & Camille Marmalade layer cake, but I could have added some additional prints in.

The backing is this pink with red geometric design. I added in a strip of Bonnie & Camille to make it long enough.

Well, I was totally disappointed this week when the Fat Quarter Shop's Fat Eighth Fruitcake reveal was postponed! I had made my deadline and absolutely love the quilt I made, but the fabric the pattern is promoting was delayed. I have no idea when I will get to share it, but it was an October finish for sure!

 I traveled for work last weekend and the beginning of this week, so the only quilting that I got to work on was hand binding, but I did hit Trader Joes, Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret, and Old Navy--love to shop when I get to the big city! My friend Rachel has started experimenting with her long arm. We are trading my hand binding skills for her long arm quilting.

She made this small baby quilt, so I attached the binding this morning and will bind it this evening for some Slow Sunday Stitching:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/10/slow-sunday-stitching_28.html

I think these cheerful flowers are precious!

My daughter has been in London for most of the month of October--as part of their London studies, they were required to complete an internship. It gave her several weekends to spend exploring London.

Isn't her vintage Burberry trench coat fabulous? She found it in one of our local antique stores when she was home for her short summer vacation--it was a great buy for $150 (new ones are $2000)! They left London today for a few days in Belgium and then they will move onto Berlin--these two cities are part of her study group. Then, she organized for a bunch of them to go to Barcelona for next weekend. #semesterofalifetime

Project Progress

 Look what is on my pinning tables this morning--the cute little ghosties. I am going to quilt it vertically with my wavy stitch about an inch apart. 

 I picked up the gray background bats fabric at Joann's, but there was not quite enough of it--so I put a strip of black solid to make it work and put the label over the off center strip. I think it will look cute and I hope to get some Slow Sunday Stitching in by binding it.

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/10/slow-sunday-stitching_14.html

My mom and I wanted to test out her Handiquilter since she had it rebuilt. The stitch length is better, but still not consistent. I do not enjoy long arming to start with and then having technical difficulties makes it worse than having dental work.  I think I will do my machine quilting either on my Pfaff or by check from now on. This is my Sugar Stars Quilt--the pattern in a Lori Holt and the fabrics are Bonnie and Camille Marmalade--my two favorites combined.

I pieced this one back in 2015, so I am pleased to have this UFO approaching the finished category even if the quilting is not perfect. I already attached the binding and will work on that this week after my ghosts.

My Fat Quarter Fat Eighth Quilt is all done and will be revealed on here and Instagram on Tuesday, 10/23. Stay tuned, it is a gorgeous quilt and quick, simple pattern!

Ghost Top

 It's fall y'all! It is like a switch flipped here in Western Colorado we went from mid 80's to the mid 50's and rainy, gloomy weather in a few days which means my hubby and I have shifted to sweats, slippers, and comfort food. We also put flannel sheets on our bed and had to turn on the heater. It also means I don't feel guilty about spending the days in my sewing room. I have been eyeing so many fun Ghost Quilts on Instagram--I considered doing the quilt along back in August, but with back to school there was no way. Yesterday morning, I looked up the pattern and determined that I had enough Kona gray, Kona white, and blacks in my stash to make the top without having to buy anything, but the pattern. I clicked away and bought the pattern, here is the link:

https://thencamejune.com/collections/quilt-patterns/products/ghost-quilt-pattern-pdf-1

I cut all the fabric and started sewing.

 All 26 of my little ghosts came together this morning, I made an extra ghost to turn into my label. I am so tickled with this top!

 The pattern recommended Kona Silver, but I just used whatever Kona gray that was in my stash--it is darker. I think a Moda Marble in gray or black would be an excellent background too, or even a deep purple.

My ghosts were altogether by about 5pm today, but the rainy weather thwarted any chance of getting a good picture outside--maybe tomorrow. Also maybe tomorrow, I will go get a backing after work...

Glen, my amazing quilter, squeezed in my Fat Eighth Fruitcake Quilt yesterday. I have to have my pictures submitted to the Fat Quarter Shop on October 18th, so I was anxious to get it quilted, so I can make my deadline. It will be on my blog on October 23rd.  I asked Glen to use something with flowers and he loves this magnolia design--it looks perfect with my gingham backing. Glen does not have a traditional longarm machine, they have a Quilting Master Full Frame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU7ceMQpu6w&t=170s

This quilt is about 64 x 75 inches and he set the speed to about 1000 stitches per minutes. It took only about an hour and 15 minutes of actual quilting and about 30 minutes to load it on the frame. 

I used some of the leftover trimmings from the backing to make the binding. I will spend the rest of this evening and several more this week hand binding it. 

 https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/10/slow-sunday-stitching.html

One of my daughter's friends popped over to London this weekend to hang out with her. They also saw each other at Okoberfest last weekend. Her friend is studying this semester in Copenhagen, so my daughter will visit her there next month. They enjoyed high tea at one of the many museums!

Simple Zipper Bag Blog Remix

I signed up to help out the Fat Quarter Shop with the Simple Zipper Bag Blog Remix. I used some leftover 2.5 inch squares from another FQS project that will be revealed later this month. Most of the fabrics are from the Bonnie and Camille Smitten line, but the are a few other B & C pieces in it too. I made the larger version of the bag.

I used this cute little Vespa charm as a zipper pull.

I quilted my zipper bag using a cross hatch design and used some Good Life scraps for the backing and the binding. You can find the FQS tutorial for this project here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH_BRLsV_4o