It's a Banner!

When I sat down to sew my leaf blocks into a table runner, I suddenly changed my mind! I blame it on those stark, white sheets of drywall that seemed to be screaming for something to decorate them. I decided to make two simple banners instead - one for my shed and one to give to a friend. The scan of a portion of one banner shows the fabrics I used. The other graphic shows a rendering of the banner made with Electric Quilt software. You can get the applique patterns and very basic instructions for making this banner on my website: http://www.sundropdesigns.com/specialdays.html

Kitty Block

My sister and nephew showed up without warning on Saturday to put the drywall up in my sewing shed. Needless to say, my sewing plans flew to the wayside. It took me the better part of 3 afternoons to get things back in enough order that I could sit down at my sewing machine today and finish the alternate blocks for my Halloween table runner. But the disruption was worth it as the drywall will make my shed a warmer place to work.

For my altternate block, I decided on a black kitten batting at a falling leaf. It's cute, but I've dicovered that I have a difficult time seeing what I'm stitching around when the applique is black.

More Fall Leaves

I collected fallen leaves from the silver maple tree today. This is my favorite tree on the property because there's such a variety of colors and sizes. Leaves on the other trees generally turn just one color or another, often a dull brown.

I chose 4 leaves of various sizes and traced them on brown freezer paper to make templates to keep on hand for future use. They look wrinkled because I salvaged this paper from a box of art supplies that I ordered years ago - the paper had been used as filler instead of styrofoam peanuts. Of course, I had to try a couple of the templates out now using some fabric scraps. Wow! I really like how this simple block turned out. I'm now inspired to make a few more to make a small table runner for the bowl of Halloween candy to sit on.

By the way, I noticed something odd about the silver maple tree: only the leaves on the east side of the tree are turning color. The leaves on the west, south and north sides are all green!

Leaf Quiz Answers

This is the answer sheet to the leaf quiz. How many did you get correct? It's not that easy to identify a tree by just the leaf or a leaf without its tree. After scanning the leaves, it took me 5 minutes to remember what tree or bush the grape leaf was from!

My Newest Pieced Quilt Pattern

My friend Dena, who sometimes tests pieced patterns for me (oh, how I wish she did applique, too!) came by last week to show me the second quilt she made from one of my new patterns she was testing. She strayed a bit from my instructions on this one, so I can't use the photos for the cover, but her quilt is absolutely gorgeous (and her little niece is adorable, too). Dena chose a striped fabric from her stash for the border, then used colors from it to pick out her other fabrics. A local long-arm quilter chose a loose meandering stitch that looks like a cross between waves and clouds - perfect for this quilt.

Here's a full shot of the quilt, along with some of Oregon's beautiful scenery. If you look closely, you can see the four white sails in the Mayflower block. Instructions for a crib size version of this quilt will be on my web site someday soon - before Halloween for sure.