Halloween is coming, time to decorate the bathroom!

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Our hands will be the first at our house to celebrate Halloween this year.

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I happened upon some orange hand towels in a store last week.  They had black also, so you know they called out to me.  “Come,” they said, “embroider us!”  So I did.  I embroidered them good.

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I think they got ahold of our little fatty precious kitty as a model for this one.  Love me some black kitties.

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Frankenstein and his lovely Bride got the orange makeover.  I think it suits them.

I have so many projects that I am working on, I can’t quite explain how I got sidetracked by Halloween hand towels.  Maybe it’s because one of the projects is locating a gift that I made and then lost in my sewing room. Or more likely, because I need to clean up my sewing room.

Nah, I just needed Halloween hand towels.  That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

A weekend cornucopia: little boy gifts, a quilt top finish, and we’re off to the races on the Farmer’s Wife quilt!

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I got a birth announcement this week.  I love it, because it gives me a good excuse to hit up my sewing room and come up with something new and different.  It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve embroidered…

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These adorable trucks are in a set by Anita Goodesign, Baby Construction.  Along with cute applique designs, they have these made-in-the-hoop softies.  Ooohhh, I can give the baby his first trucks!

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I took some photos in my sewing room.  Not good enough.  I knew they needed to be photographed at a work site.  Now that’s more like it.

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The new little tot has two older brothers, so I put his name on his toys.  These were fun to make and turned out so cute.  Anita Goodesign does a great job on these in-the-hoop projects.

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Big brothers like to get gifts, too.  I decided to stick with the construction theme and make pillow cases for the two older boys.  I was at my local shop on Friday woking on the Million Pillowcase Challenge, so pillow cases were on my mind.  And I figured that everybody like to have their name on things.  Especially with a house full of brothers.

If you are hearing a grinding noise now, not to worry.  It’s just the sound of me switching gears.

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I have finished my Downton Abbey Christmas quilt top!  It looks very elegant, if I do say so myself.  I’ll figure out the backing, then off to the quilter.  And anytime I mention Downton Abbey, I have to include a picture of me at Downton.

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More grinding of gears here.

The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt sew-along has begun!  We got a preview of the first block, and here’s mine.

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Loving the brights.  Mine will have quite the variety of colors.  Is anyone else riding along for this adventure?

25 Hawaiian quilt blocks = a quilt top!

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Do you think I’m just a little bit excited today?  I have the top of my Hawaiian quilt stitched together!

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There were many Kodak moments while I wrestled this through the sewing machine.  I stitched the blocks for each row together, then stitched the rows together.

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I laid it out on the lawn so I could get a nice pic.  The sunlight washes out the color a little, but this thing is VIBRANT!

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Next I have to figure out what I want to do for the drop, the hangy-downy part.  And I have to decide if I want to put some kind of border around it.

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I’ll think about that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, keeping with the multicolor theme, enjoy this rainbow in my backyard.

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Bonus photo, my puppy Dorito trying to learn how to go down stairs.

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I made her a half step out of important books.  Doesn’t the cat look skeptical?

Tiny little dresses: a quilt for a new baby girl

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Somebody I know is having a baby.  A little girl-flavored baby.  How excited do you think I was when I found out I could make a girly quilt?

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I went straight to my Anita Goodesign collection of embroidery designs.  I bought the Memory Quilt collection in anticipation of somebody I know expecting a girl.  Thrilled that the opportunity came so soon.  This sweet little orange number was my first block.

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I just happened to have a fat quarter bundle of Scrumptious by Moda.  What great colors, girlish and yet unexptected.  Not all parents are into the soft pastels, so I wanted something colorful and different.

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The daddy-to-be is the son of my bff.  I just can’t see that formerly rough and tumble boy carrying around a pastel clad little princess.  I’m sure it will happen, but I think he will fight it.

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Red shoes?  Yes, please.

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I sure remember why I love fat quarter bundles (and jelly rolls, and layer cakes…)  What fun to mix up the colors and prints.  Even if you have a moment where your creativity abandons you, the fabric just leaps right in and makes it all perfect!

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I love the variety of dresses in the Anita set.  The cute little dresses are all so unique.

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It’s a tiny little nightgown!  So practical for tiny babies, right?  But perfect on a quilt.

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And that sweet little bonnet?  Screaming out for some chubby little cheeks.

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This maybe my favorite of the little dresses.  Then again, I change my mind every time I look at the pictures.

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I decided to do a scrappy look for sashing around each of the blocks.  It just makes me smile to look at it – the fabrics are all so cute I didn’t want to favor any one.

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Does that binding look a little familiar?  That is one of the bias tapes I brought back from Dublin, Ireland.  I was so tickled with how sweet it looks with the quilt.

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Another nod to the brilliance of collecting fabric, the aqua with yellow bows is a Cynthia Rowley fabric from my collection.

I knew the quilt needed a special tag, so with a lot of pondering, a cup of coffee, and a little romp with Dorito later, I came up with this.

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I figured I should change the names to protect the innocent.  I sent this off to the parents-to-be, and by the time I publish this post it will be in their hands.

Just in case you were wondering about that awkward “cow cookie” phrase…  When almost-daddy was a baby, I worked in a bakery.  We gave cookies to all the children that came into the store.  He couldn’t say Carole, so when he would come into the store and see me at the end of the isle, he would yell “Cow cookie!”

I can’t wait to hear what they think of their new quilt!