Welcome to our Ghastlie Blog HOP

Ghastlie Blog Hop now going on!

Line up of Ghastlie Bloggers

ON Tuesday October 25th

Mrs. Annie Ghastlie

This would be me!  Hey, I'm also a guest blogger this same day over at  Sew We Quilt. 

Mrs Doris Ghastlie

Mrs Brandie Ghastlie

Ms. Alidiza Ghastlie

Mrs. JudyC Ghastlie

Each and every single day at the end of each day

there will be a grand prize winner at
Madame Samm's blog.  There will also be giveaway

winners on some of the individual blogs as well.

Fabric Postcard Swap - Sign Up Now!

Sign-ups are now open for

the Fabric Postcard Swap group on Flickr!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/fabricpostcard/

Two themes are available to choose from or you can create a card for both themes:

Winter

and/or

Sewing Room Road Sign...

...meaning a road sign that could be found in your sewing space, related to sewing, of course.

Get your creative minds working and come join in the fun!

There are a variety of tutorials on this world wide web to help you...even I have one you can check out here.

We're going back to the swap being secret partners so it's always fun watching sneak peeks and whole cards being posted and making comments and wondering if they are the one that will come in your mailbox.

Sign-ups are open through October 30th
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fabricpostcard/

Wishing everyone a fun mail day!
Annie

Get Ready!...

The Ghastlie Blog Hop is coming!

Starting Monday!

October 24th

So grab your favorite blog hopping beverage,

settle into your favorite blog hopping seat and click around to see what I and 50-some others have come up with to inspire you with this ghastlie gang.  Guaranteed fun!

Be there or be square!

 hahaha...I had to say it!

You Are My Inspiration!

You are SO much my inspiration, that I've moved you to the top of my blog.  Actually, I saw you all (and many, many more) on another blog and loved seeing you there.  So I rushed right over here to put you there on mine as well.  But now I can't remember where I saw this.  It's the first time I saw followers at the top and I just felt that's right where you should be because most of the time you are the ones who inspire me ... on your blogs and on flickr.

I gave you a title, "Let's follow each other and be Inspired" but that part hasn't shown up.  I wonder why.  Well, yet anyway.

Thank you all for inspiration and thanks for your visits!

Annie



A New Halloween Quilt

...someday!

I can't wait to make another Halloween quilt!  I really want to try one of those jelly roll quilts...or at least a variation of one.  Especially after seeing them in this blog post.

I haven't really seen a jelly roll of Halloween fabrics that catches my fancy, so I've decided to make one up for myself.  I have 12 fabrics strips ready to go.

And when I get back to my stash in Wisconsin, I'm sure I won't have any trouble coming up with the other 30 fabric strips needed to make the quilt.  The sad news?...that won't happen until next Spring/Summer!...at least I hope it happens by then...oh, woes me...!

Thanks for stopping by.  Any and all sympathy is appreciated!

Annie

A Little Weekend Jaunt

Along the Pacific Ocean coast.  It's so nice to know the ocean was right where we'd left it some 20 odd years ago.

And just as beautiful, too!

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful October day.

These photos are taken in Monterey, California.

Toto, I don't think we're in Wisconsin anymore... (although I've heard it's been pretty nice in Wisconsin for October!)

Throw Quilt #4

This is only my 4th "large" quilt.  45" X 76"  It's just a simple whole cloth that I added borders to.

It's Dad's Christmas present.  He always likes the whole cloth backs of my quilts better than the pieced fronts.  I'm not sure how to take that.  In any case, this old house is cold and he's elderly and he uses quilts a lot!  He's worn out the ones my mother has made for him.

A length of fabric isn't wide enough so I add borders on the front and back.  You know, those borders are NOT the easiest thing to line up when you sandwich the layers!...and they HAVE to be lined up.  I do my own quilting with my Bernina 1230...it only has a 7" throat...not the easiest thing to do, but the most affordable, so it's straight line quilted in one continuous line.  Meaning I didn't sew from edge to edge and cut threads.  I stitched a continuous line from side to side from one end to the other in only the quilt center section.  That meant that when I was close to either end the entire quilt had to be inside the machine throat...yep, I'll be trying to avoid that situation in the future!

do

I haven't decided whether I made the right choice for the binding or not.  A solid might have looked better.  I hardly ever think to consider solids...there are SO many prints and I love them all so!  Dad is going to say it has clown stuff all around it...I'll just betcha he does.

And then there's that perfectionist illness I am afflicted with.  I couldn't just piece my bindings end to end.....those stripes HAD to match!

When you line those up 6 or so times, it gets easier as you go along.  I think I done good...only ripped out one for a redo.

So, one name crossed off the Christmas list as done...YES!

The quilt top fabric is Williamsburg Fok Art Village by Windham Fabrics Pattern No.31910 (according to the selvage).

Thanks for stopping by,

Annie

 

Tutorial: Fun Stripe Border

I have been having the best fun with this stripe border.

And I want to show you how I make it.

You guessed it...paper piecing!

I just cannot get anything like this straight or uniform in size by cutting the pieces and sewing them together.  Paper piecing comes to mind as a solution for the simple fact that paper will not stretch.

If you've had trouble with my ice cream cone tutorial, this one may just clear up some of your confusion, as this is the exact same technique and process but on a very basic level.

I know this is a lengthy tutorial, but I don't plan on any more paper piecing tuts. If you can't figure it out now, then you must pay my travel expenses to come to you for hands on personal training. LOL

These next photos just continue to walk with you through the continued process.  After the first block of white, I work with the entire fabric strip to cut waste and not worry about whether my fabric piece is long enough to work with.

When your strip is complete, you can trim the long edges to have a 1/4" seam allowance ready to sew to your project. 

Have fun and I want to see your borders,

Annie

Crème Glacée

The one and only, Madame Samm, designed this oh-so-me blog.  She designed it, she organized it and then she spent the time to teach me how to use it.  I just love what she came up with and I'm mystified that she saw me so clearly!

In return she asked for ice cream.

I don't blog so good yet, but I definitely can do ice cream!

Originally I designed this cone pattern for a table mat for my daughter for her birthday and it eventually evolved into this end result.

I don't really enjoy mass production or even duplication when a creation is intended for a specific reason.  So, I really needed Samm's ice cream to be different.  Immediately I was in a rough patch to come up with a different design.  It didn't really work, I still only liked the same color cones, hard as I tried to change them, and I still only liked the same center arrangement.

Then I got stuck again for a border.  This I had to muse on for a couple of weeks before I finally thought about my recent thin paper pieced stripe design.  I think it will work...

I moved on to the quilting letting the cones dictate where the quilting went.

I'm pretty pleased with this new Crème Glacée table mat.  French is Samm's first language so I thought a french title was fitting for her.  Not to mention that the words ice cream in french just look as delicious as the cones don't you agree?

When I added the little cone dot just inside the binding, I didn't cut the fabric thinking about where the dots would fall.  They show only in sections...I immediately thought I have to take those off and fussy cut the dotted strips...then I took another look...I think it adds visual interest the way it is.  so, it stays put.

Gosh darn it!  Another little quiltie that was so hard to let drop into that big blue postal box.  I hope you like it too Samm.

Enjoy a lovely end of summer ice cream social!

Annie

It's time to sew for Halloween!

How frightfully fun is that?!

It's the time of year where we can just let our imagination and creativity run wild with some fun creations.  Some come out seriously beautiful and others come out quirky and whimsical and sometimes just plain silly.

Back in the day...I didn't much use my imagination.  I looked for books and patterns to use.  And I pretty much had to like the whole thing at the prices of patterns and books.  Now I use at least some imagination...for instance, this spooky pumpkin patch comes from several sources.  The woven background is from a book, the pumpkin is from an applique pattern, the twisted pumpkin vine and quilt label came from my imagination, the crows came from a rubber stamp.

So I'm looking at books and patterns completely different now than I did "back in the day".  I see bits and pieces of ideas rather than the whole of what is presented.  And, as you can see, those bits and pieces come from everywhere!

It's Halloween Mug Rug Swap time on Flickr!

My favorite swap time.

We are assigned secret partners who give us an indication of what types of things they like and dislike and we then create from there.  I've been pretty lucky with partners for one of the rules is that the mug rug has to be fashioned to their likes.  This is the one rule that I don't get along very well with because if I want to receive in a swap something that I'd make for myself, well then, why don't I just make it myself?  In a swap I want to receive something that my partner wants to make and I want it to tell me something about that person and their creative soul.  (Well don't I just feel better about airing that in public)  In any case, we then get to post sneak peeks as we create...

Carol says "no sneak peeks!" that that's just for the doll quilt swap.  Ok, so maybe we could call them progress peeks.  Either way, if you go check out the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap you'll see that Carol has been out-voted in favor of sneak peeks.  Sorry Carol.  They're just too fun not to do them.  My partner's mug rug is finished now and waiting to be mailed.

We can include bits of goodies if we so desire...like candy, fabric pieces, stickers, whatever we find that we might like to send.  Only the mug rug is mandatory but extra little goodies are just fun to include.  It seems to have become my signature thing to include a fabric postcard.  And...

It's Halloween fabric postcard swap time on Flickr too!

Check out this Fabric Postcard Swap.  Although it's too late to join in for Halloween and Fall, you could be getting ready for Christmas...I would think there will be another round for the holidays.   

So I have two postcards ready to send.  I can't say who gets which yet.  And, I just might make one or two more before it's time to send them...just to keep my partner wondering what she'll get...since the postcard swap is not a secret partner swap at this point.

For myself, I'm enjoying my Halloween quilt that I made last year.

Those gorgeous pumpkins were made for me by a wonderful friend.

Have a frightfully good fun time preparing for the onslaught of ghouls that are sure to come soon!

Annie