My crafting life has been consumed with my latest quilt for the past few weeks. It took a day or two for me to adjust to the fact that it was completed and in its new home.  The quilt turned out 96×96, and I free motioned it on my Bernina. He performed like a champ and the bsr made quilting this a pleasure. It only took a few days to quilt it. I’ve taken longer on much smaller quilts because the machine I was using didn’t exactly make it easy.  I basted this quilt on my bed. It was a lot easier than crawling around on the floor. I had a few puckers but a lot less than when I floor baste. All in all this went well and my mother liked it a lot. Now I find myself thinking what next?

When I would wake up from my quilting haze a few things were completed around the house. The hubs and the kids carved some pumpkins. My son is three so my husband did his but my daughter did hers by herself.

I also tried a new recipe.

Apple Cider Donut Muffins. The glaze was good. I’m not impressed with the muffins. I felt they should have been sweeter.  Tonight I’m going to be trying out Mushroom Asiago Chicken. I have high hopes for this recipe.

I hate Halloween. Im the Halloween Grinch, but I won’t begrudge everyone else their Halloween. So have a good one.

I started a replacement quilt for my mom after I abandoned the last one. The piecing on this one went really quickly as well, but this time I’m happy with the results. The pattern is called Big City Quilt. The pattern says its great when you want a large quilt with little fuss. That’s a pretty accurate description. I did the king/queen size and I did not feel overwhelmed by the process. Check back with me after i start quilting it. I’m sure I will feel overwhelmed then.  The pattern is great. Its a small tiny little booklet, but it gives you all the information you need to make the process fun and simple. I would make this again in a second.

The size makes it hard to photograph. Not enough space on the ground. (I wonder if I will ever miss the days of toys being in the background of my pictures.) I bought some quilting stencils to see if that will help with my free motion quilting. With the stencils and the bernina bsr unit I’m excited to get started.

I’ve been eyeing dress forms and mannequins for about a year now. Rather than paying the high price tag for one I would rather put that money into fabric or yarn, therefore I’ve held off on buying one. I found one on amazon that was on sale. It was normally 85 and I got it for 65. I also had 27 dollars in citi card points so I had to buy it.

It’s a size 12-14. I wish I was that small, but the sizing difference won’t really matter. I plan to use it for photographing knits and bags I sew.

On to the very little knitting news I have….

I finally have all the stitches picked up for the neckband of my Blue Sand Cardigan. Next is tons of stitches in ribbing, and more short row shaping *sigh*.

There was a lot of pressing going on around here this weekend. I didn’t think I would ever finish. The downside of sewing is definitely all the time at the ironing board. I had 100 squares to press and trim. I really had to “press” on to get this done. I even tried to talk my husband into pressing blocks. That did not work.

It doesn’t look like it but that is the pile of 100. Not to mention the other components of the quilt that went through the pressing process as well.

After all my suffering I’m finally able to get to the fun part. Aseembling the final blocks. No curved seams in this quilt!

My jamberry nails this weekend were definitely appropriate. This nail wrap is called Quilted.  (Don’t focus to much on my ravaged cuticle/hands.

I have been knitting a lot more this week. I finally decided to be a mature adult and go back to my BlueSand Cardigan. I think knitting with dk makes my hands hurt, but I will finish that sweater!

I thought making a quilted pillow cover would be a quick project. It took several weekends. It was a fun project that I was drawn to work on so the time it took didn’t bother me. The pattern is Confetti Party Pillow from Quilty Magazine. Here it is after quilting.

I like the way it looks flat. As a pillow some of the stars can’t be seen. The baby stars are the ones that were paper pieced.

I used my blind hem foot to do the binding totally by machine. It didn’t go as bad as it usually does. I was grateful for that. I need more practice machine sewing the binding. The Red Pepper Quilts blog has a very good tutorial on it, but there seems to be a learning curve. Simple envelope back in yellow. My mom is a lucky lady today. She is getting a knit hat and a pillow.

After I finished this project I pulled everything off of the sewing table and there was so much paper, lint, and scraps everywhere. I cleaned everything off in anticipation of my next sewing project. A clean start for fall feels good.