Chistmas Already?

That is what my crazy Christmas Cacti think anyways. A couple weeks ago I brought them in the house from the porch because we had frost warnings, and someone told me..(I remember this now).. that when you do that it will spur them to bloom. They did.
I took them back outside on a sunny afternoon last week for a picture.. the white one opened up first.. and now today this red one.
Magnificent I think. The leaves on this plant are so pretty. The white plant not so much.. and I don't know why.. I treat them both the same. But it never looks as healthy as this red one does.

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A couple weeks ago I got a surprise package in the mail from my new friend Lily Xue. These little owls she makes are so adorable. He perches on my computer screen quite nicely. She is a crafty one, and we have had fun trading some things back and forth from Ohio to Tokyo. I had won a contest over at Terry's Treasures..oh it's been several months ago now I think.. and it included some magazines that I had duplicates of which I wanted to share with Lily-Xue. When I got the package from Terry.. which I just thought was going to be the magazines.. there was also this adorable fabric collection inside!..Isn't it pretty?.. and really perfect for my new project. Thank you so much Terry.. and I'm sorry I have been so lame in not mentioning it until now.

Anyway.. lots of folks adore these types of owls that Lily Xue sent to me.. and if you are just new here, I have posted a link to my own tutorial on the sidebar to make another version of them with yo-yo eyes and jingle bell feet. They make really cute ornaments for this time of year.

Still working on the Black and White quilt. I've decided it's going to be for one of my boys for Christmas. I hope they aren't reading this. But I guess if they are, they still won't know quite for sure which one it's for.
Here is the back. I am loving the way the thread is making designs.. kinda reminds me of snowflakes.
The backing is fleece like you would use to make hoodies, which I was hesitant to use at first because I didn't know how it would quilt up, but it's working just fine. I had a lot of odd sized pieces, so I just sewed them together any which way.. red, white and gray. I'll show the whole thing once I get it done.

And I'm starting a new project which I shall blog about tomorrow.. here is a sneak peek.. lots of pink..

A Little Bit of Red

Yes. I am finally working again on my Black & White quilt for Jackie's challenge. I got the flimsy finished last night.. Mr Attic helped by holding it high for a picture.
For as long as I can remember I have been wanting to make a tumbling block quilt with 3D optical illusion. And I have to say, even though I do love the outcome, I don't think I'll be making another one soon. Not because it made me cross-eyed looking at it.. but because there are really no straight rows to sew together. Unless you use a quick method and make half diamonds. But I never liked that seam showing.

So to do it without a seam, I sewed three diamonds together to make a hexagon. Then put the hexagons together the same as you would a Grandmother's Garden.. setting in all the seams. One by one.
I had to draw a diagram for myself and number each block so I could keep it all straight while piecing it together. Below is the same picture as above, but I used blogger's picasa to upload it so you can click it bigger if you want..

This morning I hurried to piece a backing together before 10am. We were having a ladies' get together today at the church where anyone could bring a craft or project to work on and eat snacks. So I took advantage of the big space to pin my quilt into a frame for basting.. since I really do not like to crawl around on the floor doing it. And I thought maybe if someone forgot to bring a craft of their own.. or didn't have something to work on.. I could give them a free lesson in quilt basting. No one wanted the free class.. oh well.. their loss.. but lots of people passed by and said.. "Oh how pretty!" I did get one girl to help me roll it under as I went. That was very helpful.. and nice.

So I got it all basted and in the hoop to do some big stitch hand quilting. I am so into this.. and can hardly think of putting a quilt in my big frame and using those tiny little stitches again.

For Jackie's challenge we are to use the basic black and white, and then add one other color. I debated about this for almost a year now. I put every color I could think of next to it, and for some reason I just kept coming back to red. Maybe because when Jackie first introduced the challenge at the beginning of the year, I had just seen a black and white quilt with a tiny bit of red, and that's what made me want to sign up. So red it is.

Back

It does feel good to be back to making things and blogging again. Still a little more that needs to be done on the house before the holidays, but nothing to fret about.
Last week was our annual church auction. I had made some quilt tops last spring to donate, but only ended up giving one. I thought for sure I had a picture of the finished comforter, but now I don't see it here in my files. I'll have to check with the gal that bought it and see if I can get a picture of the whole thing finished.. but it was this one that I was working on.. The other quilt top I decided to keep and do something special with.. I'll show you that later. But since I didn't put that one in, I needed to make something else instead. So here are three bags. I love the browns and paisley in this one.. They are made of wool and corduroy.. stuff that I have here in the stash. this one has my favorite button.. I'm really having fun making bags. ☺ But today I started on another thing.. something to do with the fall season.. ..using burlap, raffia, an old shirt and some old pant legs. I did get it finished and will take some pics and show you tomorrow.

The sun is shining so nice here today. We had frost last night, so all the leaves are falling, and it is very pretty.