Halloween Stitching

Bunco will be at my house Friday night.   I've been cleaning my house this week instead of sewing, and I pulled out my Halloween stitching.  About 1/3 of these pieces were stitched for me by friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test Your Skills Sampler Variation

Last year I started working on a 'Test Your Skills Sampler'. I didn't keep up with it very well, and by the time I got back to it, the instructional posts had stopped.  I decided this fall to plow ahead with it anyway, doing the best I could to figure out the blocks.  This week I learned that the women who started the quilt, is going to post the rest of the instructions. 

http://piecemealquilts.wordpress.com/skill-builder-series/test-your-skills-sampler/

Last night I pulled out my completed blocks and put them on my 'design wall', which is actually a piece of batting I lay on my bed.  This is an awful picture since the lighting in my bedroom isn't great at night.

 

My quilt will not be exactly like the one she made because I have changed a block or two.  Also, all her blocks seem to float on the quilt because all the background is the same color.  I knew when I started this one that I was short  a couple of yards of backing, but I wanted to use stash only.  I really don't have a plan of how to continue, I'm just going to see what happens.

 

To see more design walls:

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/10/15/design-wall-october-15-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatchworkTimes+%28Patchwork+Times+by+Judy+Laquidara%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Pillowcases

I bought enough fabric to make 4 pillow cases and sewed them all this week.

 

 

 

The ones with the fall leaves are for 2 of my favorite college students.

 

 

The Halloween ones are for an uncle who is undergoing chemotherapy.  I know he liked them because he put one on his bed and one on the couch, so his visitors could see it.  Maybe I should make him a quilt too.

 

Used this week: 4.5  yards

Used Year to Date:  74.25 yards

Added this week: 4.5  yards

Added year to date: 38.75 yards

Net Used: 35.5 yards

Fourth Quarter FAL Goals

 

 

I'm going to recycle two of my third quarter goals and attempt them this quarter.

 

 

These are blocks from a QAL that got abandoned half way through the project.  I need to go back and see if our leader ever posted directions for the remaining blocks, if not, I'll just figure out something and finish the quilt.

 

Here's my selvage project.  I've sort of lost interest but hoping it grabs me this quarter.

 

 

 

I have several small cross stitch pieces that need to be finished before Halloween.  The first two need to be turned into ornaments.  The third into a cube. It is too expensive to frame my holiday cross stitching, so I try to finish them myself in other ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a Christmas ornament that just needs its beads:

 

 

 

 

And a hardanger emery that has been sitting around for a long time.  All the stitching is done on this one.

 

 

 

 

And finally, I have enough of these blocks to make 2 baby quilts.

 

 

 

 

 

I plan to drop all these projects if Bonnie Hunter starts another scrap mystery in November.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greatma's Cake

My son requested pound cake for his birthday.  Usually I just buy one at the grocery store, but today I decided to make my husband's grandma's cake.  Greatma was a great cook! Here's the recipe. ( If you are on a low cholesterol diet, you might want to skip this.)

Greatma's Cake

3 sticks butter, room temp
2 1/2 cups sugar
10-12 eggs, separated (yes, 10-12 eggs!)
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Beat egg whites together until stiff.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

 In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar.  Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing in each.  Mix in  the flour mixture alternately with the milk.  Add the vanilla and lemon extracts.

Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake in a well-greased and floured tube pan at 325 for about an hour and a half. ( Check cake after an hour and 15 minutes.)

End of Third Quarter Finish A Long

I had mixed results for my third quarter UFO finishing.  My pillows got done. They went from this:

 

To this:

 

 

 

I got my pincube done.  It took FOREVER to do the four sided stitching on every side of the cube.  Then I had to figure out how to stitch it together and what to use inside, so it would keep the square shape.  This really stretched my finishing skills.  It went from this:

 

 

To this:

 

 

 

I completed a friend's cross stitch UFO.  It went from this:

 

To this:

 

 

 

 

 

My spider web quilt went from this:

To this:

 

The top is complete, but it isn't quilted, so it doesn't 'count' as a finish.

 

My selvage quilt went from this:

 

To this:

But I lost my motivation didn't feel like string piecing any more.  This quilt doesn't count either.

I knew getting this next one done would be a stretch, and it was.  I didn't touch it at all.

 

To see more third quarter finishes: 

 

http://www.quilterinthegap.com/2012/09/709/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feedburner%2FLOhfT+%28Quilter+in+The+Gap%29&utm_content=Google+Reader 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Net Used Going Up!

 

After several weeks of adding fabric, I completed a top this week.  I'm glad to see my net used going up.  I am a little surprised, though, to see that I've added about as much fabric this year as I've used.  I'm glad I started keeping track of my fabric this way, or I'd never know why I haven't made a dent in my stash.  Here's  of my completed top in case anyone missed my last post.

 

 

 

Used this week: 5 yards

Used Year to Date: 69.75 yards

Added this week: 0  yards

Added year to date: 34.25 yards

Net Used: 35.5 yards

 

To see more stash reports:

 

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/09/30/stash-report-week-39-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatchworkTimes+%28Patchwork+Times+by+Judy+Laquidara%29&utm_content=Google+Reader