Tuesday Tallies...better late than never!

I ended up having to miss last week's Tuesday Tallies and am late this week. With my Halloween party to prepare for and my elf work, I have not been able to keep up with myself. I am a perfectionist and worked many hours to make sure things were all just right. But now November is almost upon us and I am hoping for some time to work on a couple of big projects for our home.

In the meantime, I did keep making snowflakes. I guess you could say there were snow flurries whirling a little around our house. I have a stack of 9 snowflakes awaiting their red edging and 18 sewn together so far. I have started making one and sewing it on instead of allowing them to simply stack up. I am really loving this and have decided that I will make it as big as my yarn stash will allow. I bought 2 10-packs of each color at Aldi's when they were on sale so I should be able to make a nice big blanket with this. Wonder if it will be big enough for my bed???

I mentioned back in September when we were staying for a week up at Cranberry Cottage that I was making leaves out the leftover yarn from this throw. I made 15 of them but then I came home and they just sat. I finally made a chain for them to hang.

This is not a great place for the garland but I do not have a mantle. I want to hang them on little hooks by my entrance to the kitchen but have not yet begged Jos to put some hooks up for me. *grins*

For more inspiring projects, go to Carole's blog and see the One a Day Project links.

Heidi

It's a Quilted Halloween!

The early hours of Sunday morning were very noisy at our house. We heard a few loud bangs and thuds and went out the next morning to find this...

Witches flying around waiting to come to our Halloween high tea party. One missed and landed on the side on the house while another went head first into the flower pot.

But some did make it inside to hang their hats and party...

Like this one who looks remarkably like Saskia...

And she brought her witch sisters Mary and Nell along...

But oh my! What have they done to poor Mieke??? Must be that ornery Saskia! *grins*

Remember that project I was working on and could not yet share? Here is the treat I made for the ladies for Halloween. I made each a personalized quilted project bag...

Every bag is different and has their name on it...

And that tea dyed fabric is the lining making each one individual also as they all came out differently...

But the ladies came to celebrate Trick or Treat with treats of their own to share with each other...

But wait! It is the witching hour and we had some hungry little witches to feed or they might get up to some trouble...

The recipes of some of my party food will be posted on my food blog BookShelves and StoveTops tomorrow...

And they were entertained with a surprise little quilt show of their own work...

Still some ornery witches like to play tricks. Right Saskia? This spider was left on my bed pillow...

It was great fun to share my countries tradition of Halloween with my quilt group.

I will be late with my Tuesday tallies post this week but will be posting soon...

Heidi

Tuesday Tallies...It has started to snow...

Yes...it is snowing in my house. Lots of pretty snowflakes. I have 7 done completely and 4 more half done. I had a number of people ask about this pattern. I found it here. I love the way the red pulls it into a delicate snowflake.

I also have a few ta-dahs to share...

The man's scarf is done and ready to package up and send it on its way. I ended up making this 46-inches long at my mother's request. The person I made this for will not wrap or knot it she told me so not to make very long. I decided to sew a label on and still have to do the same with the two afghans.

Speaking of afghans, my little tester has been helping me out. He had to make sure this one was Dagi approved. *grins* Our little man is growing very old by the day and we are taking each day as it comes with him. He is really having a hard time but at the same time so happy for us to be together. He does not want us to leave him now. And we appreciating his cuddles each day!

I finished the second afghan. I only wish I had taken a photo sooner...like before taking back the left over yarn. I now wish I had added a few rows of the light grey and then a couple extra rows of dark grey to balance it out. *sigh* Still I am happy with this and think the person it is for will like the Indian blanket look.

So now I have almost finished my Elf work for the time being. Not quiet as I still have my workshop open but I am glad that I am well on time this year.

Check out Carole's blog for my One a Day projects.

Heidi

If I didn't have my sewing machine......

Excuse me a moment while I bob along with my sewing machine...

Yep...this is what I am looking like at the moment. *wink*  I am into full production right now and have finished the 8th surprise for my quilt group's high tea as of today. My machine is groaning under the pressure but so far, so good. 

In between the surprise, I had a quilt top that I wanted to machine quilt for practice. I love to hand quilt and will do so until I can't but want to try machine quilting once in a while. Meet Bobby Pumpkin-head!

Named after a family member for his resemblance. Years ago my mother, her cousin, big brother Bill and I went to Amish country while I was home visiting. She called her brother Bobby Pumpkin-head (sorry Louise but you REALLY did say it) so here he is. *grins*

No fabric purchased for this quilt as it all came out of my stash cupboard. It is 24 inches square. Just the right size for my quilt wall.

I had fun making this label. I used a piece of muslin and stitched a piece of black scrap fabric down the side keeping the raw edges exposed. Then I wrote the text and stitched it on using higgelty-piggelty crosses.

Have a creative weekend!

Heidi

Tuesday Tallies...working away...

Tuesday seem to come around faster and faster each week. Guess that is what comes from being so busy with so many gifts at once. Again I have some gifts to share so no names or particular information just in case someone is looking. *grins* My One a Day projects are more like two a day since I am switching back and forth at the moment.

My Indian blanket, as I am calling it, is now up to row 57. Last week, I was on row 44 so that means 13 more rows added. I need to end this on the dark color so have to see how this will go yet as I am close to it being long enough for myself. I am not sure how it will go but will see when I get the read section done.

I also started this man's scarf as a gift this week. I am trying to do a couple of inches each day. I am up to 38 inches but feel it is not long enough. Anyone have a tip on how long to make a man's scarf? It will simply be crossed over and now tied or anything but I do want it to be long enough for good warmth. This is a really nice merino wool yarn that I bought at Aldi grocery store. I has a nice tweed look up close.

I also bought some red and white yarn at Aldi last week to make us a snowflake afghan for the upcoming Christmas holiday. I had to quickly test one hexagon and weigh it to be sure I had enough yarn. Jos thought I should go get another pack of the white just in case as it would be close as to whether it would be enough or not. I can always use it for something else if I have leftovers...right?

Go to Carole's blog for more links for her One a Day project.

Heidi

Welcome to The Black Cat Inn!

Welcome to The Black Cat Inn! The old proprietress is waiting to greet you. She has been here since the inn was established in 1848.....

Yes, two posts in two days. I had this finished done on Sunday and did not want to wait a moment longer to share it. I love Pamela at Our Pioneer Homestead's blog. She has a number of fun projects which I have had sitting waiting to do but when she started putting on some free stitching projects for autumn and I saw this...

I just HAD to stitch it right away. It was fun to take a break from my sewing machine and I worked on it while I talked to my mother on Skype each day. Well...it was done before I knew it. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make a door sign with it so I dove into my stash and found some 19-count (yes 19 which is huge for me and I even stitched it over 2 to make it bigger!) so this sweet little pillow design would be much bigger.

I hope you do not mind Pamela as I did make your edge zig-zag since this is a large area and also added an extra bat. Jos cut me a piece of wood and sprayed it mat black. I mounted it with upholstery tacks and hung it with a string of jute.

Thanks Pamela! I am now going to be starting on the next design you posted. Hopefully I will be able to do it this weekend...

Click on the photos to enlarge them. You can see the fun graphics that are now available for Halloween on PicMonkey.com. I had so much fun playing with them yesterday!

Heidi

TuesdayTallies...TaDah and a new start...

I disappeared for a while with my One a Day projects but have been working away on them. I am trying to get Christmas gifts made as well as making those now 11 surprises for my quilt group ladies who reserved a place at my Halloween high tea party. It has ended up all coming at once and being more work than I anticipated. BUT...that being said...I am having fun working madly on everything so I do not mind but do hope I will achieve my goal of being back to doing other things by the end of October.

First the TaDah...

Since this is for a man, I did not want it to have a feminine edge and had to search online for an idea to finish this granny ripple blanket. Then I found this edge which not only was simple but also very masculine looking. Perfect!

This blanket has been officially tested and approved by Dagi. He is having a hard time of it right now. He is getting so old so fast and we are just taking things a day at a time with him.

My new start is a second Christmas gift. This one is very different colors than I would normally use so I wanted to play with them to incorporate the red to work well with the two shades of grey. I am really pleased with it and it almost has an Indian blanket look to it. I am on row 44 so far and it is going well. I hope to get it finished in the next two weeks.

Pop over to Carole's blog to visit more blogs participating in the One a Day project.

Heidi