Seasonal Quilting

The sun is out and it is 85.  After today it is supposedly dropping to 65--presto fall?  I sure hope so.  My favorite season of all.  I am looking forward to wearing pants instead of shorts and tank tops.  I think I get bored with the same old attire and want something new to look at-lol!  The trees are turning colors. Makes my heart warm.  Trick or treating is around the corner and pumpkin carving,caramel apples~does the body and soul good.  School  is gliding along smoothly for both, Ayden and I.  The hubby is enjoying lots of golf on his off days which makes me happy as well;)  He is a deserving man!! 

The umbrella quilt has been finalized and the camera was ready to be turned on for some live action!  sounded exciting to me! 

the BIZ:

33x39 1/4 ~~~~Kona turquoise,orange and Bahama blue in the binding~~~~scraps galore~~~~cone flower print on the back 

FMQ throughout with lightning bolts for the turquoise squares, umbrella for each umbrella triangle and swirly lines for the orange side borders

This was a wonderful opportunity to practice some filler quilt patterns out so I jumped at it.  So happy that I did because it taught me to slow down some and take more pride in my work.  I did a little each day.  Mind you this was a smaller quilt and I tend to do better at taking it slow on the smaller scale ones,but gotta start somewhere!  {Originally I was pondering using straight lines for the umbrella triangle areas,but then I would have to stitch a line, stop, back stitch, and then get my needle all set up again to do the next line,so on and so forth.  OR am I missing something??!  The umbrellas turned out sweet so I am glad I went in that direction instead!}

Raindrops will be in my shop quickly so take a looksie.

Christmas fabric landed gently on my cutting table last week and a few short days ago I dove into my sewing room to cut into them.   I had a tutorial from Jennifer burning urgently in my brain after  I scoured Flickr for some inspiration blocks.  Narrowed it down to a few,but those trees got me again.  Last year, Carol's trees in her Christmas tree skirt pattern begged to be made for my home and I made it AND it is dang cute!  

I got to cutting out some 3" strips and cut them on an angle into three different sizes for each area of the trees.  I did all that in one day and then started sewing them together into tree shapes.  Next day I went back to work, cutting out the tree trunks and their coordinating parts to be sewn on.  Also two triangles for each tree.

I swear it is as much fun as opening Christmas presents!!!  No joke there!  As you can see from the pic here, I have pressed the tree and cut them into their tree shape with the template and then sewed on the triangle to the left side.  

one completed fancy tree:):):):) 

After they all look like the above pic, I will be adding two more borders to the outside as in Jennifer's tutorial.

This is all donated fabric from the ladies/moms at MOPS.  Once it is complete, it will be raffled off to someone for their home at Christmas time:)  {A friend of mine that is also part of MOPS will be working on a regular quilt for the same raffle.}  Tremendously excited for this!!!!!!!!!  The raffle ticket sales will bring in money for our group which is greatly needed:)

Take care,

Sara