No Tricks, Just Treats

I had an unexpected opportunity to be out in the car this afternoon. It was so pretty I decided to go back out and get myself some eye candy. (I didn't think to take the camera with me the first time I went out.)

Isn't this charming?



Not far away I spotted this:


It's a utility pole... but look what's happened to it!

I'm not sure how the power company feels about it but I think it's pretty cool. :- )

Our City Hall has a planter box out front that is tended by a professional. Her work brings me joy every time I drop off our payment for services rendered.

I don't know what these flowers are called but I'd sure like to get some for my garden some day. They are just past their prime now.

Those are probably the best/most interesting of the photos I took today. I also have pictures that were taken last night when DD brought the grandbabies over. I haven't downloaded those yet but you can be sure that that was another treat.

Happy Halloween!

October Creativity Challenge - Mail Art

We're getting close to the end of the month so I figured I'd better show you some of what I've done in response to A Creative Dreamer's "Mail Art" challenge.

I've used stickers to embellish my letters and envelopes for years. Not a lot, mind you, but just enough to add interest. The concept of mail art goes way beyond that. Folks are not only making their own envelopes or other mailing containers, they're taking envelopes apart, painting and drawing and sticking things to them and then sewing them back together! In fact, you should go check out what June has done. :- )

My first attempt was to decorate this Priority Mail envelope that had already been stuffed with scraps for a swap and sealed shut. I knew it would be tricky to work on that soft, unstable surface. I'm not much for drawing either (as you probably know by now if you are a loyal reader).


Eventually I had a stroke of genius. I went down to our Visitor's Center and picked up a bunch of the color brochures that promote the various sights and events in our area. That provided me with lots of beautiful color pictures to use.

It turned out more like a photo album page than anything else but I thought the recipients might enjoy a glimpse of what's around here. If you look closely you may see that I used chalk pastels to add color around the photographs. I went over this whole side of the bag with clear packing tape to keep the pictures from ripping off and to keep the chalk in place (although it seemed to take to the surface of the envelope pretty well). I also used a few stickers - some fun Halloween stickers on the address side of the envelope.

I had another opportunity to dress up an envelope last week. This time I thought to do the decorating before I filled the envelope but I was kind of stuck as to what to do. This is what I came up with:

My hands weren't real steady that day. The 'stitching' is a little wonky and the pockets are obviously off kilter. Still, it was fun.

I had yet another envelope to send out this week. It was just a regular business envelope, plain white. It looked so stark and naked! I got out my colored pencils and just shaded around the delivery address, giving it some fall color. I put a seasonal sticker on the back and shaded around it too. No pictures to share with you, but I'll bet it's one of the prettier pieces in the system at the moment!

Time to Play

I dropped off the parts for the Harry Potter quilt this morning. It was hard to see all my old friends having fun together and not dare to step in. There were many new faces in the crowd too. In an attempt to cheer myself up I stopped at the thrift shop on the way home. I found some fun things (which I haven't pictures of - sorry) but I think going in there was a mistake today. Some days my body seems to be able to handle it better than others. Today was not one of those days. I now have a massive headache and chills. Oh well, this too shall pass.

On my design wall are a couple of blocks left over from the Harry Potter quilt. There were duplicates of some of the Windmill blocks. This one turned out small for some reason. I'll probably end up cutting it down at some point and then using it.


On the bottom in the photo above are just a couple of the scrappy blocks I have going.

Since I'm sort of between projects at the moment I thought I'd try to put together a Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I've had this set of four Sunbonnet Sue blocks for a few years now. They were made by an elderly member of my quilt guild who has since passed away. I've never felt good about putting them in a quilt that will get used and laundered. I'm afraid they'll come apart under hard use.

But singly, in wall quilts, they could be charming.

I picked one, trimmed it up a bit, and added some additional color.

Now my dilemma is how to quilt it. I don't consider myself a hand quilter but I'm not sure machine quilting would be entirely appropriate. So it's sitting on my design wall until a good idea comes to me. In the meantime I think I'm going to either play in the scraps I received in a swap with V over at Bumble Beans or get out my stripes and dots and see what happens... Or I may end up just vegging out until tomorrow.

Leaving Hogwarts

I found the leftover scroll print from the back I put on my Flower Garden quilt and thought it would make perfect sashing for my Harry Potter blocks. I had enough to do the inner sashes...


But then I decided I really wanted the outer sashing or frame to be slightly wider. There wasn't quite enough of that lovely scroll to pull it off. Rats! I couldn't find anything in my stash that I felt would make an appropriate substitute either. After a fruitless trip to the store where I'd purchased the scroll print I remembered that I'd used a long strip of the backing to make a sleeve for the Flower Garden quilt when I was asked to exhibit it earlier this year.

There was just enough in that sleeve to allow me to make the wider frame around the blocks - woohoo! I wanted to put cornerstones in that frame and it's a good thing because otherwise I wouldn't have had enough of the scroll print. I wanted the cornerstones so I could include a couple more owls and two train patches for the Hogwarts Express. (I would have done more with the train if I'd had a more appropriate train print.)

I've known what I wanted to use for the final border almost since the beginning of this process. But before I put that on I felt it needed a transition fabric. This lovely red was ideal.

That inner frame (the scroll print) is 3" finished, and the red is 2" finished. I cut the outer border strips to finish at 4" but they looked too small. Fortunately I auditioned them before I actually sewed them on! And, fortunately, I had plenty of the border print. I cut the strips to finish at six inches and put them on. Ta daa:

I'm very happy with the way this turned out. In fact, I am so happy with it that I don't want to quilt it myself. First of all, I can't figure out how to do it in a way that would please my aesthetic sensibilities with the skills I currently possess. It could be tied but I don't want that for this quilt. My regular long-arm quilter is not in a position to help out this time around.

There's a sub-group in our local quilt guild that meets every other week to work on quilts for children in our Foster Care program. I called one of the members this morning to see about donating this top for them to quilt and then pass on to Foster Care. I haven't done one for them yet this year and it does seem kind of silly to always be donating out of state. So the top and a back and some binding will probably be delivered to them next Tuesday. The best part is that I found out that the donated quilts get hung in the Foster Care offices. When a child comes into the system they see the quilts and can pick one out for themselves. In my mind there's no better way to gift a quilt to a child than to let them pick the one they want on their own.

The Four Houses of Hogwarts

At the end of the last post you saw how I laid out the focal blocks for my Harry Potter quilt. There were gaps that needed to be filled however. Hmm... what would be appropriate? Something that would add to the story line of the quilt top but not take attention completely away from the focal blocks...

Eventually I thought of the banners representing the four Houses of Hogwarts flapping in the breeze around the Quidditch field. Then I had to look up the colors (and found a wonderful website in the process). Now, what block would be best to use?

My first thought was something on the order of a Rail Fence.

This struck me as a little heavy and clunky, especially for something that's supposed to be waving in the wind. It was also more labor intensive than I really wanted.

The next block I tried was Gwen Marston's Windmill.

Much quicker to make and I like the look better. These are Ravenclaw's colors by the way, blue and bronze. Bronze was hard to come up with in fabric!

To fill in all the holes I had to make two blocks for each House. The first set of red and gold that I made for Gryffendor turned out looking more like red and brown (or bronze, like Ravenclaw!). It was a simple matter to make two new blocks with a lighter "gold."

Originally my intention was to just mash the blocks up against each other in the interest of speed of construction. (These quilts have to be in Michigan by the first weekend of December.) Once I had all the Windmill blocks made and in place, however, I realized that they needed sashing to separate them visually. That's the next step.

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that I changed the fabric framing up the central Harry Potter block. Before the completion of the top it will undergo one more change. You'll see that in the next post. :- )

News flash: I just found out that there's an exhibit of sets and costumes and props from the actual Harry Potter movies that will be opening tomorrow at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. Wouldn't I love to see that!