Wednesday, October 23, 2013

More Pouches

I LOVE making these Triple Zip Pouches. I don't really know why I like to make them. I am counting 68 made as of today.

Top 10 Reasons I like making Pouches.

1. They use fabric from my VERY large stash of fabric.  It has allowed me to cut into fabric I have been saving for special projects.  But I still keep buying more fabric. :o(  I have collected so much fabric.






And that is bad.  But that is also good. :o)  Nothing is more fun than buying a 1/2 yard cut of a fun fabric.








2.  It's like painting with fabric.  I choose many colors, textures, and creative design themes.  I am a textile artist!  A quilter is a textile artist.  The floral fabric was purchased on a trip I made to Lancaster, England.


3.  I like the bright, cheery fabric colors.


4.  They make people smile.  Like these Yoga frogs.


5.  They are useful.  (Makeup bag, IPod bag, credit card storage, electronic chargers, etc. )



I usually have several to choose from in my basket and it is fun to see which bag is selected by different people.

6.  I like to make something unique and specific for each person geared to their personality.  Pets, makeup, type of flower, citrus, beach theme.   I always ask what type of hobby or interest one has and try to match the pouch to their interest.





7.  I like matching the fun zippers and colors.  But I also like to stir things up a bit and put in a zipper color that changes the whole color scheme in a completely different direction.  







8.  I can spend hours, happily stitching pouches and listening to a good recorded book.






9.  No matter how many I make, people always want more.  Can you make one bigger for my IPad.  Can you make one for my Kindle.  My grandson, "Can you make me one with tractors on it?  And can you make it today?"    





10.  And I get to spend the day with my faithful buddies who seem to like fabric as much as I do!
Sandy and Little Brown Bear!







Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Friday, October 18, 2013

My Favorite Fall Quilts

Happy Fall Everyone!

Today is cloudy with a chance of rain and a slight nip in the air.  I love these Texas fall days.  I am always late to jump on the seasonal decorating bandwagon but I decided to bring out some of my favorite fall quilts I have stitched up over the years to share with you.





This year I crocheted the little pumpkins that were featured on Fiddlesticks.  They are just so cute!  I love pumpkins in the fall.

This is probably my most favorite fall decorative quilt.  It has all of the fall elements that I enjoy.  Pumpkins, scarecrows, and black animated crows.  The rich colors of warm orange, muted olive, and soft browns.  I like the pieced background with machine applique stitched on top.  The machine quilting had to be done before the applique was added so you had a lot preparation planning in advance.  It was featured in one of the quilting magazines years ago.   I love bringing it out to enjoy every year.







This is another favorite.  It was a fun patchwork wall hanging to stitch up and my first one to machine quilt using gold metallic thread.  It has a really nice hint of sparkle in the background.   Again from one of the quilt magazines ages ago.



I made this quilted wall hanging Halloween 2012.  I purchased a 5 inch Charm Pack collection of retro Halloween style fabrics at the Houston Quilt Festival several years back.  (Don't know the fabric line.)  I had been saving them for some special project and I finally decided the Snowball pattern would feature them nicely.  I machine quilted a spider web in black thread and there is a leggy spider in the web.  

This quilt is unfinished.  I started it last year too.  I was trying to use some of my scrap stash of dark fabrics and decided to add pumpkins and black cat silhouettes.  It is growing on me and I like it even though it is a bit dark.  Not bad work for striking out on a whim one quilty afternoon!




This wall hanging was also created from Charm Packs.  I bought them because of the cream and tan color palette but after making the hour glass blocks I knew immediately more color and texture was needed.  I added some primitive style florals and vines and the brick border.  I really like how it turned out.  I love the olive green which ties all the colors together.


This is a picture of some of our pumpkins that grew in our spring garden and were ready in June.  At the same time the eggplants were ready.  They were big and beautiful but the summer heat and fall moisture have required me to move them to the compost pile. They were pretty while they lasted.   



I hope you all are enjoying the season.  Thanks for stopping by!


P.S.   Disclaimer:  I mentioned that a few of my quilts were made from quilt magazines.  I did not keep a record of the magazine nor the article nor the designer.  I do want to thank all of these fine folks whose designs have inspired me.   I made all of them myself and for my own enjoyment.  Thank you.