Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Jack and I were noticing the other day that there are more and more people decorating for Halloween lately, and I don't mean just a few pumpkins and flags. No, there are not only intricately carved pumpkins, but lots of inflatable spiders, ghosts and haunted houses, but also lots of outdoor light decorations. WOW! It's almost like Christmas, just in black and orange.

Now, I like to see the decorations, but I really dislike putting them up and worse - taking them down!

It is kind of a running joke here at our house about the fact that I really procrastinate when it comes to holiday decorating. Even at Christmas I am content to let someone else get the job done. Now that the girls are both gone, I pretty much have to force myself to decorate. When they were here, it was easy. I would get the items from the basement and set them out in the back room. And viola!, in a couple of days everything was done.

Now I guess in retrospect my lack of desire to decorate isn't entirely true. I have no problem changing out my quilts! A few of my favorite quilts are wall hangings that I display each year for the various holidays. Do you have favorite "quilty" decorations you like to use?

Even though this is one of my earliest projects and there are lots of problem areas (Can you say wavy borders?), this continues to be one of my all-time favorite quilts. I love the colors and the scrappy pieced binding!

 

It's funny that I still like this quilt so much. I used to always work in what Jack called "safe" colors and fabrics. Everything matched and I often used a specific fabric line so I would be sure that it all "went together." I've made a lot of projects using the color scheme from this wall hanging or something very similar, but I'm happy to say that I've developed a greater sense of adventure lately.

 

I really like scrappy quilting and I try to have a much broader range of fabric choices. Sometimes I think I am working outside of my comfort zone, but quite honestly I'm feeling a lot like just working with fabric is my comfort zone - no matter what the design or color is. I think my discomfort comes from not being happy with the fabric choices available in my stash and my conflict on whether or not I should buy more fabric.

 

I am seriously trying to use up stash and I've done a pretty darn good job the last couple of years, but sometimes I just can't find a fabric that works for me. I audition lots of fabrics and I may even sew a block or two before I decide that I just don't like it and decide that I have to buy something.

 

Now don't get me wrong. I do continue to buy fabric. I often/usually buy fabric for a project that I'll be teaching because someone always asks if the fabric in the sample is available for kits. Besides, it helps the shops sell fabric when customers see the sample, and if I help them sell fabric they'll keep having me back to teach. (That's a real win-win situation!) As a matter of fact, I often make a large quilt out of fabric that I really like and then make a small version using a completely different type, style or color of fabric. I often change the borders up a bit, or embellish it too. Here's an example. The original pattern is Voila! from Swirly Girls Design.

 

 

Here are my versions!

 

I love the more traditional look of the black, white and red. But my favorite thing about this quilt is the striped border.

 

 

I love the pink, orange and yellow together! I would never have done that a few years ago. I used a striped border fabric again just because I could.  :-)

 

 

Here's a small version made from my stash. I love the border fabric and added cornerstones because I didn't have enough of it.

 

 

Now here's a small sample made out of some more traditional fabrics. If I'm not mistaken, most of these fabrics are from Thimbleberries so you know they'll all "work" together.

 

 

It still amazes me how different all of these look!

 

I guess I just love fabric and color. Life sure is good!