Happy Halloween!

Well, here are the Halloween costumes.
This picture wasn't taken until after we had been sitting for a little while, so I'm a little wrinkled, but you get the idea. My dress really went together pretty easily after I got over the initial problems. I put a zipper in the side of the dress, but I failed to make it long enough. Luckily, I could just barely get the darn thing on and off. My husband's costume was pretty easy also. The cape just had to be hemmed at the bottom and pleated a little at the top. His "man skirt," as he calls it, was a wrap around. The only snafu we had there was that the sticky-backed, heavy duty velcro I used for a closure came unstuck towards the end of the night, leaving him standing there momentarily in his boxers. Lucky for him, we had an extra safety pin, and I don't think anyone saw except a few close friends (closer now, I guess) that we were sitting with.

My Saturday evening and Sunday were occupied by hand applique-ing sixteen circles. I used a CD as a template, which worked better than I thought it would. More to come on this project later. I'm also in the process of attaching a scrappy binding to my Afternoon Tea quilt made from Heather Bailey's Freshcut fabric. Lots of hand sewing to do...perfect for a chilly Halloween night!

"If I knew you were comin' I'd a baked a cake..."

Yep, I baked. Just a regular ol' cake mix - nothing fancy. The Halloween sprinkles and cupcake papers are to blame. Who can resist sprinkles?

After the sprinkles and cupcake papers made their way into my shopping cart, I got the bright idea to make orange frosting, so I picked up some food coloring. The back of the box said to make orange, use 6 drops of yellow and 2 drops of red. To make a long story short, I would say about 600 yellow drops, 200 red drops, and 30 minutes of stirring later, I finally had orange frosting. I had no idea it was going to be such an ordeal.

I also frosted half of the cupcakes with chocolate, but there was a bit of an incident on the way to the car this morning, and the chocolate-frosted cupcakes are in no shape to have their picture taken.

And because I have nothing better to do (ha!), I started another ripple crochet project. I was going to teach myself how to knit, but I wasn't in the mood on Saturday night to learn anything new. I was, however, in the mood to crochet something, so this is what I started. I had put in some rows in other colors, but after much discussion my husband I decided I should just stick with blue & brown.

I was very excited today when the UPS man brought me this:
It's the new Sew Girls line from Loralie. I can't wait to make a bag or sewing kit or something out of this stuff - I think it's just hilarious. My favorite are the tomato pin-cushion and button bras. They're available in the shop's website, along with the You Golf Girl! panel.

Last but not least, I finished sewing down the binding on a quilt last night during Monday night football! I'm pretty sure I've shown you this quilt before, but that's when it was just a quilt top. I'm usually not a very flowery person, but I love the borders on this one. And the gingham in the star points.

While I was baking up a storm and cursing at the frosting last night, my husband was busy making chicken & wild rice soup. I didn't get a picture because it disappeared so fast. We were hungry, and it was good. I got the recipe from a recipe notebook I got as a wedding gift. Knowing that I'm not much of a cook (although I'm trying), my friend's mom (she's an amazing cook) put together a 3-ring binder of quick & easy recipes for me - everything from appetizers to desserts. So without further ado, here's the soup!

Chicken & Wild Rice soup:
1/2 c. shredded carrots
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 c. half and half
1 c. water
1 10oz. can condensed chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice (I got the kind you just microwave in the bag...it took 90 seconds)
2 tbsp butter or margarine
2-3 cups diced cooked chicken (I'm guessing here... we added this to the recipe).

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, and saute the carrots, celery, green bell pepper, & onion for about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, salt, & pepper. Add the half & half, water, chicken broth, chicken, & rice. Bring to boil. Turn down the heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes. Delicioso!

This recipe says it makes 5 servings, but I would say it's more like 4. We're going to double the recipe next time, because we ended up using half an onion, half of the bell pepper, and (wait for it....) half of the half-and-half. Which felt like a waste. I always make extra anyway so we can have leftovers. I wouldn't want to have to cook two days in a row...

Back to the drawing board

Here is the halloween costume I made for myself. Sorry for the headless photo.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's HUGE. You're supposed to put elastic in the waist, which I haven't done, but it would still be really big. A better "belt" would help, but to me it looks more like a female Star Wars jedi than a Spartan lady. A Spartan lady wouldn't be wearing yellow-toed footie socks either, but I think the socks are the least of the problems with this. I'm very disappointed, because I don't feel like what I made looks anything like the picture on the pattern.

Maybe I'm just missing a cape and some hair extentions.

My husband suggested taking up the "sleeves" (it's supposed to be sleeveless). That helps, but then it gets all bunchy in the chest.

So I decided to just scrap the whole bodice and start over with something I'd done before that is more what I had in mind.

So this is the new bodice that I've made. Now I just have to figure out how to attach it to the back of the costume and take up the skirt about 4 inches. Oh, and put in a zipper or velcro or something because I won't be able to fit the costume over my head once I put this new, more fitted bodice on it.

On a happier, less frustrating note, I declared myself finished with my pink & white ripple afghan. Is it very big? No. It is square? Definitely not. (Although photoing it from the smaller end does make it look more square). Will it keep a baby warm? Certainly. I figure there's no sense it blocking it since it's just going to get washed so much. And I know my sister won't block it. That's just not something a mother of a toddler and a newborn has time for.

The ripple stitch pattern comes from this book. I can't remember exactly which stitch I used (and I don't have the book with me), but it was a crochet stitch shown in red, white, & green. I am definitely planning to make another project from this book sometime in the near future. This time, however, I might try knitting. I downloaded and printed this knitting tutorial the other day. Now all I need are knitting needles and time to practice (ha). There isn't a yarn shop anywhere near here, so I think I'll stop next time I go to visit my parents and get some good needles and yarn. I could order online, but I have no idea what to order. If there is one thing I've learned from crocheting, it's that yarn and fabric have something major in common...you get what you pay for. My Wal-mart yarn shopping is a thing of the past. Some bad habits are easier to break than others =)

Stay tuned...

I'm trying to post, and blogger won't let me upload pictures right now. So, I'll be posting as soon as I can. I promise!

More Halloween

Here is my pumpkin quilt with the borders added. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, but I had a revelation this morning. While I was at the computer eating my cereal and reading blogs, I saw Tonya's latest post and thought to myself, "I should have put letters in the borders." So I think that's what I'm going to do. Inspiration has yet to hit me over the head with an idea for a project in her class, so I'm just going to start making letters with this quilt in mind. I'm not going to take the current borders off, however, until I have new borders ready to put back on it.

We went grocery shopping last night, and I went to a local home dec store this morning to by my mother-in-law and my dad birthday gifts. So I've done quite a bit more shopping than usual in the last 24 hours. Naturally, I picked up some things for myself along the way (I'm really bad about that.)

Clockwise from the left are:

1. The lastest issue of American Patchwork & Quilting, full of fun Christmas quilts.


2. Thank you cards that I couldn't resist buying for myself this morning at the home dec store.


3. Sticky notes (also from the home dec store) that say, "When you're on your third margarita, stay away from the phone. Never mind how I know this." I've never had a bad phone experience after drinking margaritas, but they are my favorite drink, so I had to have this notepad.


4. Bias tape for my Halloween costume (see #5).


5. A pattern for my Halloween costume. We have a costume party to go to at the end of the month. I wanted to be Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, but my husband didn't like that idea. We recently saw the movie 300, so he wanted to be Spartans. I grudgingly agreed. So now I'm going to attempt, with my very limited sewing skills, to make myself a Spartan wife costume. I'm going to make the longer one, but without the wrap. I'm thinking I can use bleached muslin for this, but we'll see. If you've never seen the movie, here's a picture of the queen. This is sort of what I'm going for, minus the cleavage.

Notice what the guy in the background is wearing? Yeah, well, we haven't really decided what my husband's costume is going to look like exactly. He doesn't have any leather underwear, and he wouldn't look that that guy in them even if he did, so we're going to improvise a bit. Don't worry, I'll definitely post pictures of us in costume on the big night.

Creative pumpkin juices

Nothing like 15 hours of sleep to help you get over a cold. Overdosing on cold medicine didn't hurt either. (I was taking 2 pills every 4 hours, instead of the recommended dosage of 1 pill, not to exceed 4 pills in a 24 hour period. Oops.) So that's pretty much all I did on Sunday. I also crocheted a little bit, beginning with the pink & white ripple afghan for my yet-to-be-born niece until I ran out of pink yarn, then on a multi-colored afghan I started for myself a loooong time ago. I'll try to remember to take some pics to show you.

Monday was spent catching up. The Kansas Quilters Organization (KQO) had its fall meeting in my town this weekend. Ami Simms was the featured speaker. I really wanted to go to her lectures, but I couldn't leave the shop (ah, the joys of being a shop owner =). I did a trunk show for them on Friday night, and they were a lot of fun. The spring meeting is in McPherson, so I'm hoping to be able to go.

I have so many projects I want to do. So many that I was feeling sort of bogged down and uninspired yesterday. So I just jumped in with something easy to try and get my creative juices flowing. This would be a great project for kids. I felt like I was doing a 1st grade art project. I traced the jack-o-lantern face shapes onto interfacing, roughly cut the shapes, and ironed them onto scraps of black. Then I played with the shapes until I had pumpkin faces I was happy with. I cut the shapes out a little more precisely, ironed them on, and top-stitched around them. The blocks are 10", so even with borders this will just be a wall-hanging. Which I'm okay with. Now I'm debating with myself on what to do for borders (but what else is new?). I do have patterns and fat quarter bundles for this project in the shop. Also, if you receive my newsletter by e-mail, this is the free pattern that came with October's newsletter.

Borders, quilting, and binding are on my agenda for the next couple of days. Not the sexiest part of quilting, but stuff that must be done. I'll keep you posted.

I found this link via Ami's website. Hilarious.

"I would walk 500 miles..."

Since my parents moved to the great state of TN, that song rings true to me. It's over 450 miles to my folks' new place. With a side trip to Memphis to go shopping, we logged over 1,000 miles on my car this past weekend. But it was a good trip...well worth the gas money (ouch!). And luckily, as we drive through southern Missouri on Hwy 60, we pass through the Ozark mountains, so the views are lovely no matter what time of year it is.

Other then driving, all I've really been able to accomplish that is blog-worthy is longarm quilting. I've been doing lots of paperwork and kit-cutting for the shop, so that's not much fun to tell you about. I did finally get October's newsletter sent out, so you should be receiving it in the next few days (or already if you're signed up by e-mail).

Anyway, on to quilting. This is my local quilt guild's opportunity quilt. It's made from the Quest for a Cure fabric from several years ago called "Say It With Roses." It's a very flowery and feminine quilt. The guild is getting pink t-shirts this year to kind of go along with the whole "Think Pink" theme.


Here's the whole quilt. It's very hard to get a good picture because it's SO big.
And a close up of the quilting on the back...
...and the front.
I really like this quilting pattern. It's a continuous feather pantograph (stencil). So I can longarm quilt feathers without having to learn & practice them first. Someday, I fully intend to explore free-hand longarm quilting a bit more, but for now the pantographs work.

I've managed to catch a bit of a cold, and I'm in that weird phase where I feel hot, but I've got goosebumps on my arms. My hubbie is coming to the rescue with cold medicine on his lunch hour, and I've got enough kleenex to last the rest of the afternoon, so I'll be fine. This weekend I am going to try to catch up in the class I'm taking from Tonya. I'm waaaaay behind, and it's really starting to bother me. Plus, I'm a little jealous of what all of the other students are accomplishing. Nothing like being out-done to light a fire under you, right?