Falling Leaves

Finished my leaf quilt top the other day!



The pattern is called Prismatic Plants and it's a free download from DoYouEQ.com. You can use the project file in Quilt Design Wizard, EQ6, or EQ7. If you have one of these softwares and aren't taking advantage of the free monthly projects, you're really missing out! Heidi designs the cutest stuff!



I opened the project file in EQ7 and made a couple of quick changes. I deleted some seam lines in the leaves because I planned to make each half of the leaf all the same fabric, and there was no reason to have that extra seam in the "body" of the leaf. Plus, I was foundation-piecing the leaves, so who cares about funky-shaped triangles!



And I choose to print the patterns at 7", rather than the original 8", because I wanted the quilt to fit in the wall space above our fireplace. I want to get some use out of this quilt before it's time for Christmas decorations, so the quilting will have to wait because it's going up on the wall today!



Choosing all the fabrics for these scrappy leaves was a fun challenge! Although I make such a mess when I'm working on a scrappy project like this (and I don't have the luxury of a dedicated sewing room anymore where I can just shut the door and walk away!). I liked using the fabric swatches on the download page as my guide--



Being a photographer's assistant can be a tough job!

Halloween 2014

This year's Halloween costumes were light on sewing and heavy on the glue gun and felt. But I got two happy kids and that's all that matters. I give you Batgirl and Ash.



When we first started costume discussion K. wanted to be Queen Elsa (like 99% of the other little girls out there). The problem with that was that I had already made her an Elsa costume back in March for her birthday. And that costume was getting a little snug. It wasn't going to allow for the layers that are usually necessary for an Ohio Halloween (and they were definitely necessary this year!). As much as I liked how her original Elsa costume turned out, I really didn't want to make it again.

So we perused Pinterest for some other costume ideas and she saw a Batgirl costume she loved. So I made a black tutu, slapped a Batman logo on a store-bought black t-shirt, and added a few other accessories. Easy-peasy!



A.'s costume turned out to be pretty easy too.... once we settled on what exactly he was going to be. He wanted a Pokemon costume, and kept choosing obscure characters you can't buy costumes for in the store (like Oshawott). I just didn't want to put all the time and effort into creating an Oshawott costume from scratch, just so it could be worn one night. Eventually he agreed to be the human from Pokemon- Ash Ketchum. Now there's something I can pull together in a reasonable amount of time!



There was a bit of sewing involved with this one. I franken-shirted the "jacket" together from two shirts and added some details with felt. I think it turned out pretty cute! And he got recognized much more this time around than he did last year when he was The Turtleman (from the show "Call of the Wildman").



Halloween night was cold and rainy here. K. only made it to a few houses before she was ready to head back and hand out candy from the warmth of Grandma and Grandpa's house. A. stuck it for quite a while and was well-rewarded for his effort. People were feeling quite generous since there weren't many trick-or-treaters making the rounds!