Pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving

Happy Halloween!

I made these for Thanksgiving and Halloween.  They were so easy to sew up.  They are stuffed with 90 percent scraps and 10 percent stuffing from the store.  They have some nice weight to them but they are also cushy. They are a great way to use up scraps- one because they are made out of them but also because they are stuffed with them.

Have fun tonight and be safe.

Mason Jar Drinking Cups

Isn't this the best?  Glass jars for a quick drink, can be carried in the car and out and about.  I found the idea here.  A really nice blog, go check it out.

For the outside decorations, I used sheets of duct tape and punched designs from my paper punches.  Worked pretty well, some stubborn parts but overall everything came out all right. And the letters are just vinyl letters already precut. 

I always rather drink out of glass than plastic or even metal. 

A Stash Sale

A funny thing happened in the homeschool.  I decided not to do it.  Completely overwhelmed and utterly cranky, I felt it best not to continue.  I just looked at my daughter who was spinning circles in her seat while I was trying to talk about summarizing a book.  I looked at her and said, You know what?  I cant do this.   It was an epiphany.  She said is it me and I told her well, not really.  I said you are the little tiny straw that broke the camels back.  I said, me as the camel was weighted down by huge crates of stuff and you twirling in the seat was just the littlest thing.  I assured her it was really all my doing. 

And off she went to school.  Last week.  Or was it two weeks.  It was heart wrenching really because I was so torn over the whole matter.  So completely self punitive, seond guessing everything I was doing.

Then it happened.  She started to excitedly talk about school.  New friends, new projects, new teacher.  All that chat with a big old smile on her face.  Then I realized she is fine.  Happy in fact, to be back at school.  All is well.

Now that I have had a bit of time.  I tackled the mounds, MOUNDS and mounds of laundry that had been piling up.  Started dusting, mopping, cleaning because I just couldn't seem to get it all done before. 

To all the families out there that homeschool.  I salute you!

With a little more time on my hands I was able to go to a Stash Sale.  The woman's Mom had been placed in an assisted living facility.  Her daughter is selling her stash.  I cam home with 5 grocery bags full.  Knits in one bag for pajamas for me and the girls.  One bag of upholstery type material for projects around the house.  And a 1/2 bag of buttons.  yes, a half bag of just buttons.  All still on the cards - hand painted, cutie patootie type buttons.  The rest of the bags had quilting material.  Yeah.  Here is a few pics of the loot.

Cant wait to dig in and have piles of quilts rather than piles of fabric.

Little Stuffed Pumpkin

Take a 12 x 6 inch piece of fabric.  Do a basting stich along top and bottom.  Pull to gather and sew one end to secure it.  Stuff with stuffing.  Pull top and then rn ribbon or yarn in and through pumpkin, up and over to top again and secure.

I did not stuff with stuffing but put my scraps into a muslin ball and placed it in the pumpkin.  So I could not exactly do that up and over, through, etc.  So my ribbon doesn't give the pumpkin enough definition.  But that's okay, I like it nonetheless.

For the stem, I cut a piece of felt, in a sloped fashion, then rolled it, ending with the littler end.  I like the affect. 

I had a few scraps so I made a little mat out of a log cabin blocks.  Lots of fun.  I am sewing the binding on it now.

Wind

If you have a windy day, you might go sailing.  You might piece together a little sailboat to take you on an imaginative journey.  Maybe to an island, where you can sip some juice and hear the seagulls.  Dip your toes in the water and make a sand castle.  Just a little getaway on your little sailboat.

I did a few sailboats.  This one was sort of patterned after a block by Sandy Gervais.  I found it when I was researching quilting and sailboats.  I thought it was a pieced sailboat so I started piecing it together myself.  Then when I was almost finished I realized it was a panel. Ha ha ha. 

Don't you love the painterly water here?  I do.  I had to make some sail boats to go with it.  Found it at a stash sale, more on that later.

Maybe with some wind you could fly a kite.  My daughter did and I remembered how much fun flying a kite is!  Thanks chicky.  It was a lot of fun watching you enjoy your little adventure.  Ms. Penguin seemed to be enjoying it too!

Wonky Quilted Pillows

I use to have this word that I kind of made up for huge- wonga.  That would be a great name for these Wonga Wonky Pillows. Wouldn't that be fun to say! You said just then, didn't you? I know I did.

This started off as a doll blanket.  But I just had to have it.  I remembered I had two pillows that needed to be recovered.  The covers that were on them were pretty out of date. Besides these were just too fun.  So I added a little bit of a border just to size them up and a zipper so I could wash them and voila.  Fun exciting pillows for the play room!  (Notice they do not go in the room they are pictured in.)

If you want to recreate something like this.  Just cut 8 - nine inch squares.  If you want the center square to be the same as the outside, then do 9. Then just cut 9 inch squares of the other colors you want and then cut them into triangles and sew them onto the blue (or whatever color you are using) 9 inch squares wonky style.  (I really have to get used to taking pictures of my creative process so that you can see what I am talking about).