Finished by Friday & Fall Decorations

After reading multiple blogs of clever people shopping yard sales and Goodwill and being completely jealous of their treasures I finally stopped in this week at Goodwill in my home town. And there I found this wood candle holder for 75¢! I brought it home, sprayed it with black paint and put in a candle I found hiding in my pajama drawer. Yes, my pajama drawer. Sometimes if I have a candle that smells really good, but that I'm not using right now, I put it in my pajama drawer, or my tee shirt drawer. The aroma when I open the drawer is delicious!


See this beautiful quilt hiding below the mess on top of it? This is called Forever Spring, because that's the way it looks to me. I made it in April, got it back from the longarm quilter last month, and put the binding on it this week. It is huge - king sized even though my bed is queen sized - and it is doubled there where you see it. We had a couple of cool nights this week, and I've been sleeping with the windows open, so it felt wonderful. The mess you see on the bed is a huge stack of photos I decided to go through today. I'm not sure why today. It shouldn't have been today. I had other things to do but I've been stuck in the middle of this for several hours and I'm ready to stack it all in the corner and ignore it for a while!


Remember the Jacks O Lantern from last week? The back is on, the tongues are on, the final embroidery is done and it's on the hanger on the door post that separates my living room from my sun room. You can see it immediately when you enter from the kitchen into that room and it just lights up the room. I do love it!






I decided this week to make some placemats and napkins. I found the dark green placemats at WalMart and bought the fabric to match. The leaf is appliqued on and the tab on the left is big enough to put the napkin and the silverware. A fun thing to do and pretty fast - I used Steam A Seam II on the back of the leaf and then did a blanket (machine applique some call it) stitch around the outside.




I couldn't find the rick rack I wanted and even though I got a great tip on how to dye rick rack (who knew you could do that?) after I posted last week, I had already found this ribbon which exactly matched the thread in the embroidery. It looks right at home in that chair don't you think? That's all the sewing/crafty things I got done, though I am working on a couple of other things. I spent the rest of my time putting up some fall decorations.




I put some fall leaves, some bittersweet and a small fall stitchery on the television cabinet.



These pumpkins and orange candles brighten up the mantel in the sun room. I'll have to take those off the fireplace insert if we get cold enough to light a fire but for right now they'll be fine.
A few fall leaves for my angel to enjoy.

My grandmother's treadle sewing machine is in the living room. The cornucopia and fall vegetables work well there I think.
I took off the blue and white wedding ring quilt and replaced it with this brown and cream snail's trail.
The living room mantel got some candles and leaves and bittersweet and pumpkins.

This little corner is one of my favorite places in my house. The embroidered verse was made for my husband when he was born nearly 64 years ago. I collect crosses so they're all over my house. And the little basket quilt done in fall colors I made a few months ago. That "antique" clock by the way is about 4 feet tall and everyone who comes in thinks it's very old and worth lots of money but I found it at Fred's Dollar Store!
I made this pumpkin quilt two years ago. It's very large and it's hard to find a place to really display it. Even on this wall I had to pin up the bottom row because that's where my return air vent is. The applique I did completely by hand but I had it machine quilted.
I made these placemats and napkins last year with some cute scarecrow fabric I found at a nearby quilt shop.
This buffet and hutch belonged to my husband's grandmother so I treasure it because of her.

I have a couple of Pilgrim couples that were my mother's and they go on these shelves. The ghost is an applique on a tea towel I did last year.

High Road vs. Low Road

I've been reading blogs a lot the last couple of days since I returned from Mexico. Since Montezuma declared war on my body I've been pretty much confined to my bedroom and bathroom so I've spent (wasted really) a lot of time on the computer. I've discovered several things:



1. The Old Red Barn Company is having a giveaway. That's not so unusual, lots of bloggers do that. Some do it I think because they are just generous people and love to make others smile. Those are the high roaders. Mostly people do it to drum up business on their blog. They take the low road. Or a combination of the two. I think I'll do it, too, one day soon. In my case I'll be taking the low road - drumming up business. Just to see if I can. And to see if it works. But The Old Red Barn Company seems to me to be one of the high roaders. She's giving away a quilt. Now take it from a quilter, giving away a quilt is a big deal. Really big deal. Like a million dollar prize deal. When you make a quilt it kind of becomes like your baby. Oh, I know she's got a business she's promoting, too. But go back and read some of her posts. Read about the turtles she fed, and about falling in love with her new camera (and she's got some really cute kid pictures there, too), and the one called "What Now" about beeswax...fascinating. Anyway, she seems like the kind of person you'd love to live next door to. And no, I've never met her and I don't get extra points for this post, but I like her heart. I like that she is giving away a quilt even though the quilt is one she'd love to keep. Now don't anybody get mad at me about the high road/low road thing....I know you're all high roaders or I wouldn't be reading your blogs!



2. I learned that there are a lot of people out there blogging and a lot of people commenting on blogs. Some blogs are more popular than others but not necessarily better than others. Some commenters, and some bloggers too, have a rather limited vocabulary based on how many times they use four letter words in casual conversation. I don't think I'm a prude, and I'm not objecting to what they say - I'm a firm advocate of freedom of speech - I just don't see the point. Is that because I'm older than many of them?



3. I've learned that no matter what your interest is you can find someone blogging about it. Interested in trout fishing - try http://www.troutunderground.com/ . How about flowers? http://www.pressed-flowers.blogspot.com/. Maybe you'd like to see what it's like in prison...try http://www.prisonpete.blogspot.com/. I AM NOT KIDDING! Now I can't be sure he's really in prison, but he's got a good gig going (good grief that's a lot of g's) if he isn't cause he's had over 15,000 hits on his profile. If you have a computer there's no reason to be bored.



4. I've learned that there are some of the nicest, funniest, wittiest, most sincere and down-to-earth people writing blogs. And if you comment they comment back and sometimes they e-mail and they will pray with and for you if you ask or they will offer you a book they have that they think you might like or tell you that you have the cutest grandchildren ever. And they are real. I know they are real because of the grandkid thing. There are so many that I love that I just want to share a few with you. From time to time I'm going to share others, and I've already told you about some (if I repeat myself here it's because I'm getting to that age where I do that sometimes so you just smile and say oh, she's just at that age, bless her heart). And if that bless her heart thing doesn't ring any bells you should go back and read a previous post, and no I don't remember when I wrote it but you can look in my archives, don't be lazy.



Suzanne of At Home With The Farmer's Wife is one of my favorite reads. Recently she had a tutorial on how to make an apron from a man's shirt. Pretty resourceful I say and a lot of fun to make I'm sure. No, I haven't made one yet since the wedding and Montezuma got in the way but I plan to. I'll have to go out to the garage and dig through a buch of winter boxes but I'm sure my husband has a shirt he doesn't need, even if he doesn't know it now.



Christine at Front Porch Indiana has some funny stories about her chickens, yes I said chickens, and she takes great pictures to illustrate. Today she bought a pig, but not one she plans to get acquainted with. This one she plans to eat, if she doesn't meet him first.



Another blog I read every day is Tipper at Blind Pig And The Acorn. She always has great stuff but the Appalachian Quilts post today has some pictures you quilt lovers really should see. She has great music, not the kind you hear every day, and a column of grannyisms that I loved leaving a comment on because she's trying to preserve some of the old things our grannys used to say.

And I defy you to read Melissa at Stretch Marks and not fall totally madly in love with her. She has a heart as big as all outdoors and cuts open her chest and shows it to us all. She makes me laugh till I'm sick and cry real big crocodile tears. She's pregnant and you can bet that I'm praying for her and for this baby.

Ok that's enough. I'm just whetting your appetite. There are more, many more that deserve a mention and over time I'll get to them. I'll be your personal screener, you know like the king used to have a food taster? I'll do the tasting and then make my recommendations. Because I'm nice like that. I'm really a high roader in disguise.