Sunday, October 30, 2011

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

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I quilted a *Witchy* Tablerunner
to get you in the mood!
I made one of these last year,
for my daughter’s home that you can see HERE.
This one is my smocking friend’s,
who took the class with me,
but didn’t have time to finish hers
so I completed it for her.
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I left the sewing of the button eyes to her two girls,
so that they could feel like they had a hand in finishing it.
It is wonderful to see how interested they are in
learning how to sew.
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This photo, taken on my front porch bench,
in the sun, really shows off the quilting.

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We got to see Ms. C’s school parade outside on Friday.
It was 38º & VERY foggy!
They marched along quickly, believe me!
I captured some of the great costumes that the teachers wore.
I think they were having as much
fun as the kids.

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I didn't make her costume this year,
but I made her a Halloween tutu for dance lessons.

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I wish you could have seen her,
twirling around in this one!

I'm joining The Tablescaper for her
Follow me over to her house to see more scary stuff!
Have a safe &
HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEN!


Sunday, October 23, 2011

Venice BOM Quilt

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This my Block of the Month quilt project from

the Venice Area Quilters Guild that

I belonged to when we lived in FL.


I started in it 2004 when I was first learning to quilt.

Each block represents something special about life there in Venice, FL.


Every block was an entirely new learning process for me,

from general piecing, applique, paper piecing, fusibles etc.







Starting at the top row, left hand corner:



1. Sailboat at Sunset:


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The background is a hand-dyed fabric by Mickie Lawler,

the Queen of hand dyed fabric.

I bought that swatch at my first Houston Quilt show.


The sun is fused in place & then satin stitched

around with gold metallic thread.


The bottom row of blue & white is made

up of the pattern called "Ocean Waves".



2. Crab Claws:


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The middle block in the top row is called "Crab Claws",

to represent the abundant seafood in the area.




3. Heron at Sunset:

Blue Heron block


The other half of my precious (read "expensive")

hand dyed fabric was used for this background.

The heron is fused & stitched & has fluffy yarns

hand sewn into place for its feathers.

It also has a sequin for its eye.

Since this photo was taken,

I have fixed his missing leg that

got lost in transit.



Center Row:




4. Flip Flops in the Sand:

flip flop block

You can see the *trapunto*...Italian for stuffed effect better in the photo below:

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This block was done as raw-edge, fused appliqué

with machine blanket stitch.

The background fabric actually looks

just like sand with footprints in it.



5. Quilt Basket:

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The little town of Venice, FL has one quilt shop,

called "The Quilt Basket".

This block pattern is painted on her front window.

Debbie, the owner, was very involved & supportive of the quilt guild &

allowed us to hold our board meetings in her classroom.

Of course, we always bought something that day, too!




6. City Block:

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This block, representing all the little shops in downtown Venice,

is entirely paper pieced!

It has a million little quarter inch seams all over the back.

There are little machine embroidered flowers along the front

that don't show up very well.

There is also a free standing, thread painted pot of blue flowers

that I did on netting, in a round hand embroidery hoop,

beneath the quilting foot, with the feed dogs dropped.

You move the hoop with your hands to draw the picture!

It was from a class with Nancy Prince, who does spectacular work!


http://www.nancyprince.com/

Be sure to look through her quilt gallery....AWESOME!




Bottom Row:



7. Ocean Waves:

Ocean Waves block


This was a difficult block to do & I,

sadly, had to cut off some of my points

in squaring it off to fit the rest of the line.

I love the blue batik fabric that I used for this &

continued it through out the rest of the quilt.



8. Thread Spools:

spools block



I thought I was being sooo creative to use a narrow striped fabric

to depict the threads on these spools.

When I got to the quilt guild meeting

to turn my block in,

I learned that almost everyone else

had done the same thing!

We always made 2 blocks,

one to keep & one to donate to the raffle.

You handed in your block as you arrived

for the quilt guild meeting &

several gals would pair them up into batches

enough to make another quilt or two &

then names were drawn that night.

Whoever won, got all the blocks to make herself a quilt from them!



9. Turtle Block:

Turtle block


This is my favorite block in the whole quilt.

The head & tail are 3-dimensional & lift up from the surface.

I had to make sure his head was pointing downwards,

otherwise it flopped forward!

Back side of the turtle block quilting below:

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It was my first time doing curved piecing!

Thankfully, I watched Ruth McDowell on TV

right before I started it & she has lots of great tips.

The blocks handed in of this turtle were hilarious!

Someone put a pearl necklace on hers,

another was done in hippy/psychedelic color prints,

another in pink!

What a hoot!!

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This is my set up for sewing on binding

as well as all those ruffled tulle layers

when I do pettiskirts.

Wait till you see the Halloween tutu I just made!




The quilt was laying over my sofa &

the morning light really showed up the beautiful job

of custom quilting that the long arm quilter did on each block.


I grabbed my camera & while I know

these are not the best shots,

it really helps you to see all the different

patterns that she used to quilt this with.



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Thanks for sharing this walk down memory lane for me.

The 10 yrs. we spent in FL were wonderful &

I'm glad I now have this finished quilt to remember them.


I'm joining Susan at

Between Naps on the Porch

for her

144th Metamorphosis Monday!


Saturday, October 22, 2011

Pepe Le Pew & other *Stinky* happenings







We've had a very *interesting* month at The Gazebo House!

My husband, aka The
Great White Haired Hunter,

accidentally captured a
SKUNK in a Have-A-Heart trap.
(he was going after chipmunks that were eating his tomatoes)

We called everyone we could think of to come help us...
our city's Animal Control, Fish & Wildlife, Game Control, etc.
but all the government agencies were useless.
We got a lot of sympathetic laughter but no help.

We ended up paying
Critter Control $133.13 to come & take it away.
I'm guessing they came up with that price
with all the "unlucky" 13's in it, just to rub salt into the wound.



Then my computer also got hit with a second "redirect virus" &
needed to have the hard drive completely wiped clean...$$$.
Thankfully, I had most of my important stuff backed up
onto my external hard drive & also onto USB flash drives.

We think it was infected by one of the gaming sites
my grandson goes to when he visits. They have MACs at their house,
so they don't seem to get hit with them, like my PC.

I had Microsoft Security Essentials running & updated at the time,
but it still got through, both times.
No more games for him!


Any suggestions on better virus protection????

I have learned, however, not to keep important info in my Outlook Express email folders! Those don't get backed up.

There is an Outlook Express back up program
that saved me from losing all that information, though.


It is taking me DAYS to get all my programs reloaded into the computer.
I have lost all my bookmarks & the
wonderful fonts that I use in my embroidery machine.
It will be months before I'm back to normal.



On top of all that, my 6 year old Whirlpool oven went on the fritz!
It's touch pad was not allowing me to turn it off
after having it set to 400º!!
Yikes!
The warranty was for 5 years, of course.

~~insert rolled eyes~~


Since I wasn't cooking
OR computing,

I've had time to finish some sewing projects.

I made this little skort from the Children's Corner pattern "Sara's Skort".

It matches the lined, zip-up vest

I made last month, for my sweet granddaughter, Ms. C.


It is fully lined & has attached shorts
to provide modesty while doing
cartwheels & round offs & flips.

That girl never sits still!!


I have a beautifully finished quilt & a Halloween
table runner and tutu
to share with you,
but the photos are still on my camera &
I can't find the CD to reload the software for it,

so it will have to wait for another time.

What a pain in the butt this has been!

I'd like to get my hands on the people who
create these viruses!!!!!!!


I promise to get back to visiting & commenting on all the wonderful bloggers who have left messages. It may take me awhile though.

fondly,
♥♥ Rett ♥♥

I'm joining The Tablescaper for her

Seasonal Sundays meme

just to let people know I'm still alive.

Oh & did I forget to mention DH's kidney stone &
my root canal, all recent happenings, too?

Its been a real *interesting* month around here!

Monday, October 03, 2011

God's paintbrush at work!

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Sunrise at The Gazebo House.

Straight out of the camera, at the crack of dawn!!


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These photos were taken just outside of the gazebo,

before breakfast...before a cup of tea, even!


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Glorious shades of gold & purple, orange & pink.

What a Beautiful way to start the day!



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God's paintbrush at work!

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I just HAD to share...Thanks for stopping by.

fondly,

♥♥ Rett ♥♥

I'll be linking this to The Tablescaper's

Seasonal Sundays.