a costume and a winner

Happy Halloween!  So this year, I did something I swore I would never do.  I sewed a Halloween costume.   I always thought that the time and effort to make a costume for one day of the year was not worth it, and would send my kids to the dress up box on Halloween to find something that fit over their snowsuits and call it a day.  And they never seemed to mind.   But this year, my 8 year old son had it in his head that he wanted to be a puffle, and only a puffle would do.

A what?!?!?  For those of you unfamiliar with puffles, they are the wee colorful and fuzzy pets in the Disney online game Club Penguin, and look something like this:

Big G wanted to be a red puffle, so I got some fun fur and some red hairspray and we have this:

Mission accomplished!  Happy kid, happy mom.  The Middle Child chose her Minnie Mouse cosutme from her last dance recital, and Last But Not Least....a princess.  Again.

Now, onto the winner for the Ghastiles fabric bundle from Alice at alidiza.  I took out a couple entries that were duplicated to bring the total to 46 the winner is:

And that is Tawny! Tawny happens to be a fellow Winnipegger (who I have yet to meet in person!) and has a great blog here.

I will get your mailing info and pass it on to Alice.

Have a great Halloween!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Welcome, Festival Goers!

This time around, I have decided to share my favorite quilt-du-jour and most recent finish, my Ghastlies quilt.   I found the perfect "haunted house" at which to photograph my quilt...very spooky!

 

I made this one with no pattern or plan in mind, just started with a few wonky blocks around fussy cuts from Alexander Henry's The Ghastlies line, and the project grew.  I added oranges, purples and pinks from my stash to compliment the greys and blacks, and had a blast bringing it all together.  One of my favorite parts is the wonky border, and the huge spiderweb quilting.  I did a tutorial for the quilting here (and there is also a Ghastly giveaway that you can enter if you'd like!).

The back is a simple spiderweb print from the local Fabricland, which, we discovered by fluke recently, glows in the dark!  My kids were VERY excited by this, really ramped up the "cool" factor for them (is "cool" the word to use these days??).

Wishing you all a spooktacular Halloween, and thanks for stopping by!  You can peek at some of my other finished quilts here if you'd like.  Enjoy the Festival!

Update:  It is nomination time, so if you are kind enough to nominate my quilt, I am #352!  Best categories would be:
- quilt photography
- home machine quilted (spiderweb!)
- throw quilt

Thank you!

Ghastlies quilt is finished!

It's done!  Muahahahahaaaaaa!  (Did that sound evil?)

This quilt has to be the most "unnecessary" quilt I have ever made.  And the most fun!  It all just fell into place so instinctively, and I enjoyed every minute of the process.  Let's face it, normally I utter more than a few curse words in the quilt-making process,  but this one was smooth sailing!

Truth be told, I don't even really like Halloween.  But when I was introduced to Alexander Henry's The Ghastlies while at Sewing Summit last fall, I loved it, and bought a half hard with no particular plans.  I started making some wonky blocks with it last fall, inspired by Thumbelina's quilt.  I thought I would just make a wall hanging, but as the blocks accumulated, I ended up with more than enough for a quilt, especially once adding the wonky border- this thing finished at 65 by 75 inches!

Once the top was made, I instantly had visions of quilting it with a large, sprawling spiderweb. The epicentre is to the top left of the quilt (you can click on the photo to enlarge and see the quilting better).  I used a thick Aurafil thread in a yellow-orange shade so that the quilting is quite pronounced.

 I used the same thread to topstitch the binding for continuity.

I even love the back- found this perfect spiderweb fabric at Fabricland on clearance for $3.50/meter.  Score!

It was Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday, and we headed out to rural Manitoba to have dinner with The Hubs' family.  This "Haunted House" is just down the road from their farm....all perfectly rusted and falling down!  Even the day was grey and rainy and desolate...perfect for photographing a Ghastly quilt.  I have to give a shout-out to The Hubs for climbing over barbed-wire fences, avoiding the multiple cow patties, and patiently holding this up in the rain while I gleefully took photos!

Wishing you a SPOOKTACULAR day!

Shared at Quilt Story and linked up to A Ghastly Gathering at alidiza, which runs until October 28!

Ghastlies quilt top

I had never even heard of The Ghastlies until I was let loose on a bunch of genuine quilt shops in Salt Lake City during Sewing Summit last year.  I am not much of a Halloween person, but when I saw this fabric I couldn't resist picking up a bit, just in case.  I managed to put together a couple blocks last fall and decided to pull it out again to see if I could make some progress this year before Halloween came and went again.  My intention was to make a wall hanging for our front door, but I was having too much fun and soon amassed more than enough blocks for a full quit!

 

I did the individual blocks with no rules or measurements in mind, just added fabric until I felt they were fun.  I added some purples, pinks and marigold oranges from my stash for pops of color along with the greys and blacks, and I love the combination.  I spliced the blocks all together very free form with some Alexander Henry Heath (I am sure there is an easier way to do this than what I did) and then decided to frame the collection with a wonky border in the coordinating fabrics.

Some of my favorite characters! Of course the knitting sisters are featured in there :)

Even spliced a few extra ghastly folks in along the borders.

I had fun every minute making this quilt top.  Now to decide on some fun quilting...I am thinking spider webs??

It's beginning to look a lot like....Halloween?!?

True story. Woke up to this on Saturday:
Yikes. Though, the kids were excited as can be....
Had a quick snowball fight and some hot chocolate, and it was melted by afternoon. But our breath makes tiny ghosts in the air.....winter is coming.

Halloween falling on a weekend means 3 full days of fun! Class parties and parades, costumes worn to piano and dance classes, trick or treating....life is good!

Last But Not Least has been talking about being Princess Belle for-EV-er! Then, Friday morning for her preschool party, she announced, "Actually, Mom, I think I will be a bumble bee." So, out came the bee costume from the dress up box. As we were loading into the van for school, she says, "I have changed my mind again, I want to be Belle." Was not too happy when I said N-O to that....but, judging by the big smile and chocolate all over her face when I picked her up, she got over it! The Middle Child was similarly fickle. Her costume of choice was "fairy princess," and she insisted I do her hair and makeup, which took a good half hour (precious time on a school morning with 3 kids!). Then, 5 minutes later...she pulled it all out. At least I got this picture first!
Speaking of fairies, the Tooth Fairy made a visit to our house this weekend. The Middle Child actually lost her second tooth eating candy. "Mom, it MAY have a bit of orange chips on it...do you think the Tooth Fairy will mind?" Check out the orange little fingers in this photo!
Also a picture with her pink sparkly spider- isn't it fun ?
Big G is into Star Wars at the moment (though he has never actually seen the movies), so he went as Darth Vader. No Light Saber, as I am wise to the fact that he would only use it to pummel his sisters...

We had fun doing the typical things like decorating the house, picking pumpkins to carve, and roasting pumpkin seeds. Halloween night was cool and clear. You can see how us Canadian Moms have to ensure we can fit a full snowsuit under our kids' costumes! Don't worry, they are hearty, and will be out for hours until those bags are full to the brim!
Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!