It's not a mystery to me

A new season of mystery club begins at Kindred Spirit Quilt Co. This is the fourth year I'm teaching this monthly quilt club. It's a mystery quilt offered by Border Creek Station and the quilt is called Quilter's Journey. Students have a choice of "travel by day" or travel by night"color option. I chose the travel by night version. Students do not know what the quilt will look like and they come each month to get their clue sheet instructing them what to cut and sew. Each month the mystery unfolds and they get closer to the reveal. I decided to make mine as a Christmas quilt this year as I don't have one for my bed and I thought it would be rather nice to indulge myself for a change. The fabric line is Makin' new Friends by Deb Strain for Moda. It's gonna be a beauty and of course because I'm teaching it, it's not a mystery to me!

Paper, scissors, glue...oh my!

These are the latest cards I made at my monthly Stampin Up Club class. I have so much fun at this class. I love the techniques we learn and the choices Cindy makes for the paper and co-ordinates. It's a great way to have a social night out with the girls, be creative and accumulate a good selection of cards for giving.

How sweet it is!

I just love this little cupcake tape-measure! The pattern for it is from Betz White and you can order on the Internet and have instant download which is fabulous if you want to get going on these right away. I made mine out of recycled wool sweaters which I felted. They are so cute and the perfect touch are the little sprinkles on the top stitched from beads. They were simple easy to make and a great gift for your quilting friends.

Hey guys...Christmas is coming!

Holly the Quilter's Angel

This is the latest doll in a series designed for Kindred Spirits Quilt Co. for classes at their shop. The first was Garden Annie, then Stitch the Witch and now Holly the Quilter's Angel. Each doll has been designed with quilters in mind. Holly has patchwork wings and 3 inch blocks bordering her skirt. Her face is lightly sculpted and painted with fine tip permanent markers.
She doesn't necessarily need to be made in Christmas fabric, she could be done in sewing themed fabric and given to a quilting friend to watch over her while she quilts, making sure 1/4 inch seams are perfect and all points match. Patterns are available for purchase. If you're interested, just drop me a quick e-mail and I'll provide you with details.

They sure don't quilt like beginners!

This is Bernadette, Jane, Liz and Kathie....they are in my beginner class at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co.....but they don't quilt like a beginner. I am so impressed with them and they are all doing wonderfully. It's a great size class, just the four, which gives lots of time for individual attention. They are making a table top or wall hanging from Eleanor Burns' book, It's Elementary. Their blocks are turning out wonderful, all measuring 12.5 inch square which is phenomenal for a beginner. I'll share their finished projects as soon as they are done.

Pretty in Pink

This is a customer quilt that I completed using the panto Camellias. It turned out quite nice as the quilting of the flowers really showed up great in the plain pink blocks. This was a monthly BOM that she had put together after the year was finished. It looks lovely with the pink and green fabrics together.

Pretty Homespun

I had a customer bring me this pretty little homespun quilt to longarm. I love the pastels and it was so soft and cuddly, it almost felt like flannel. It turned out gorgeous quilted in the Angel Wings panto as you could really see the quilting and the little wings seem to pop. She made it for her grand daughter who I know is going to just love it.

Measure twice...cut once

I've been playing around with those retractable tape measures that you can throw in your purse and take with you. I can't tell you how handy they are and how often I've had the opportunity to use them. I've been playing with my embroidery machine to create little circles which I then sew around the tape measure case. I always like to have a few little giveaway things that are unique for my quilting friends. These are a few that I've been trying out to see how they look. Lot's of work so not sure if I'll continue. I'm the kind of crafter that likes to get r' done.

Two cream, one sugar please

My daughter was married 3 years ago and the theme of the wedding was "Love is Brewing" . We had teapot centerpieces filled with flowers and the gifts for the women were these lovely little teacup and saucers that held a tealight candle. Needless to say, I have about a dozen of them left so I was thinking what could I do with them. Bingo...pincushions. This is just the first prototype, but I think they will turn out nice and be great little giveaways for some quilting friends.

Witches...not them...the dolls

These are the ladies from the Stitch the Witch doll class I taught showing off their finished creations...how cute and each one was a little different. I designed the doll as a fun project at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co. and geared the pattern to include some quilting features. "Stitch" had prairie points around her skirt and a little pocket that reads " I love quilting" as well as a little strip vest. The ladies did an amazing job and they were finished just in time for Halloween. Here they are stuffing body parts and sculpting hands and faces.

What came first?...the chicken or the egg

Who cares....as long as I get something to make another pincushion out of...This was a metal candle holder that I picked up at Homesense quite a while back and I thought I might be able to utilize it as a pincushion...and I was right. It's really heavy because it solid metal so you can put it right at the edge of your machine with your pins in it and it's not going anywhere...love the little red felted cushion and the red leaf pins...she's a keeper.

Another mystery solved

This is Carol from my Mystery class with her finished quilt...and then some. This was the Border Creek Mystery class that I taught at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co. over the last year. We have so much fun at this class that is held once a month. We have giveaways and the ladies always get a special food treat with recipes included. So far we've done cakes, tarts and loafs...this year they want cupcakes! Carol did a wonderful job on her quilt, even though she had never done applique before. She just about freaked when she saw how much applique was required and I was concerned that she was a little intimidated by it....LOL...look what she ended up doing!....two matching pillowcases. Good for you Carol, you did a fabulous job and everything looks beautiful.

Bite me...Halloween's over

It's sad that Halloween is over with today and Dracula here has to be put away for another year. He's so much fun sitting on the front porch and the kids get a kick out of him when they come to Trick or Treat. He was super easy to make. I think the pattern was from a craft magazine a few years ago. He's made out of clay pots in various sizes that are painted with acrylic paint. His cape is made out of sparkle felt and I always manage to get a cool grass plant for his hair. Thats an owl roosting in his top pot. I hate to put him away again, but we need to get on with our Christmas stuff now....only 54 days and counting.

Three Ghostly Musketeers

These 3 musketeers graced the garden on Halloween night and they looked amazing from the road as you drove by. They are made from white felt and the mouth and eyes are from black felt. I'm pretty sure that it was a McCall's pattern from a few years back. I made them when my kids were small, but even now that they are grown and out on their own, they still enjoy them when they come to visit. The felt ghosts are placed on metal tomato plant cages that are wrapped in white mini lights...So easy, but so effective.

BOO-hoo, they're all gone

Yep, it's so sad...all these ghosts are gone....all 80 of them. I make these with a great Land O' Lakes sugar cookie recipe and they turn out fabulous. They are my son in law's favorite and he is always asking for them. My mom and daughter came over and helped me ice them, cause that's what takes the time, but we have it down to a science because we thin the royal icing and then pour it into a plastic tipped bottle and the royal icing just flows onto the cookie perfectly. Before you flow the icing you have to pipe a firmer royal icing rope around the whole cookie and let that dry completely. All that is left to do is dot the eyes and mouth on with black icing gel. I barely get them onto a plate before they disappear.

Never met a cupcake I didn't like

These are some of the cupcakes I made for my grandson Ayden's 1st birthday party. Rather than have a cake, my daughter asked if I could make cupcakes. They were easy and simple and looked great at the party. The kids thought they were wonderful and everyone had a few laughs as well. The mummy ones are quite simple, just frost your cupcakes with chocolate icing then using a flat edge piping tip, pipe white icing over the chocolate using long strokes. Leave holes for the eyes and mouth. The eyes are piped with blue icing dotted with black. So simple but such a great hit. The spider webs are just orange frosted cupcakes. You make four circles of black icing starting at the center and working out to your largest one. Take a toothpick and pull through the icing eight times, evenly around the cupcake. Top with a spider made out of a sugared jube candy, legs are made from licorice strings cut up. The eyes are of royal icing. Skeletons are fairly simple, but take some prep before hand. Use 3 yogurt covered pretzels for each and with a sucker stick placed through the back of each pretzel, royal ice the stick in place . Lay them out on a parchment sheets til they dry completely. With an edible icing pen, draw your faces on a large marshmallow and stick onto the end of the sucker stick. Holding upright poke your sticker stick into your iced cupcake and voila....

Haunted House for Sale...inquire within

This is the centerpiece cake I made for my grandson Ayden's first birthday. It was a Halloween themed party so a haunted house cake was the perfect choice. I had such fun making it and it looked adorable. You make the spooky trees by melting chocolate in a zip lock bag and then squeeze out your tree pattern onto parchment paper. The cupcakes are trimmed in chocolate sprinkles, the windows are made from rolled out tootsie rolls and the windows shutters, door and gravestone are from Oreo cookies cut in half. The turrets are chocolate wafer ice cream cones with malt chocolate balls stuck on top and I was able to pick up candy bone sprinkles at Michael's. The creature eyes are made from royal icing.

This spider tastes yummy!

My grandson Ayden turned 1 on Friday and on Saturday the family celebrated with a Halloween Birthday bash. It was great fun, everyone dressed up in costumes and Ayden was a skunk. My daughter wanted him to have his own cake to celebrate with so keeping with the Halloween theme I made him this spider web cake, complete with spider. The first thing he went for was the spider of course. Once he figured out the icing was sweet, that was pretty much the end of the cake. You can see what ensued once he got a taste of that sweetness.

If I only had a brain...

This is the scarecrow that graces our front yard during the fall season. I just love the way he looks with his cowboy hat and his denim shirt. His head is an upside down painted maple sap bucket and it works well. I have little corn husks tied around his neck and a great big orange plaid scraf draped over his shoulders. I'm gonna hate when the snow flies and I have to put him in storage for another year.

Ghoulish quilt

A few posts back I showed the runner I made from the leftover panel pieces from this quilt. I made this quilt for my grandson so he could enjoy it at Nana's house when he comes to visit. There are all this lovely little ghoulish creatures doing spooky, scary things all over the quilt. I thought that he would have fun looking at all the little bugs and creepy monsters on it. It was set in a wonky block pattern and has a boo print for the outside border. He's only turning 1 this year so it might be a while before he really enjoys the Halloween ghoulish guys on it.