Halloween "Wicked" Blog Hop

Welcome Wicked hoppers!

Like so many of you I love Halloween.  It is one of the few holidays that I love to use bright fabrics around the house.  Guess I like the dress up part of Halloween more than the spooky part!

This year I finished this arrowhead quilt using Halloween novelty fabrics.  My cat Goldie has claimed it but hopefully I can get it back so it can spend Halloween night by the front door. (It will be hanging so no little feet can trip on it!)

Novelty fabrics also are the focal point of this quick and easy (my favorite kind of project) table runner.

It is a disappearing 9-patch.  Goes together in an afternoon!  (in there is still time to make one for Halloween!)  The novelty fabrics just go on the four outside corners, black in the center block and brights on the others.  The toughest part is picking out the fabrics...if playing in fabric can ever be called tough!  A quick project..

That is if you don't have a cat helping to make it!

Brownie loves all quilting but Halloween is best!

And my final quilt-y Halloween decoration is my Witch's hat from Crabapple designs...they used it as a pillow but I really wanted it as a hat.  Gave me a chance to use lots of embroidery stitches that I hadn't tried since Girl Scouts plus use some of my bead stash...

  (And yes I wear it when I give out candy at Halloween!

And from me to you...my favorite Halloween Pumpkin recipe...

 Pumpkin Squares
crust:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup quick oats
1 cup flour

Grease a 9x13 pan.  Beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar together.  Stir together the oats and flour then add to the butter mixture and combine.  Press mixture into the pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Topping:
2 (8 ounce) bars cream cheese, softened
1 cup of sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup light Karo syrup
1/4 cup maple syrup (optional)
1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin
1  tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or add a second tsp of cinnamon)
1 Tablespoon of grated lemon peel

Beat cream cheese and sugar in a medium size bowl.  When well mixed, beat in eggs and remaining ingredients.  Pour mixture onto cools crust.  Bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes.  Serve at room temp or chilled.  Great when topped with spiced whipped cream...

Other blogs on today's hop...enjoy!

October 25^th

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

The Raspberry Rabbits

Freemotion by the River

Kwilty Pleasures

Feathered Nest Studio

Sew Peace to Peace

Marla's Crafts

Jane's Quilting

Quilt n Queen

Colorpoint Quilter

My quilts from the show

Thought I'd put photos of the quilts I entered in the show...

The show is really useful in giving me a deadline to finish quilts.

Pensieve string quilt....

 So far this year I have finished 11 quilts.  Realize for several of these that only required putting on a binding!

Obsession

Most of my quilts were bed size.  

Bermuda Seaglass - 106 inches by 106 inches

The largest was king size while the smallest was crib.

My Orca Bay (Bonnie Hunter Mystery)

Carnival Corn (Quilted by Joyce Greer)

Also some were wall-hanging/small quilts...a bit faster to finish!  Several quilters who had seen Carnival Corn on my blog were surprised to find out how small it was.  The blocks are 4-inches...or compare the size of the card to the block in Orca Bay to Carnival Corn.

Scrappy Trip Around the World....a Bonnie Pattern

"Shards of Glass" is the small blue one in the upper middle...

Can't find a photo of a couple quilts...like my Caffine Jitters.  Try and post later.  After hauling them all to the show and back again I think I should put fewer in next time!

Quilt Show Quiltville Inspired Display

Scrappy Trip around the World...Siobhan Furgurson

When Bonnie Hunter lived in South Carolina she was a member of my guild, Pieceful Hearts Quilt Guild.

Orca Bay with green strings...

Orca Bay with blue strings...

Since so many of us had made a quilt inspired by Bonnie's workshops, books, magazine articles, and or website we decided to encourage as many as possible to put them into the show.

Roll Roll Cotton Boll #1

Roll Roll Cotton Boll #2

Including the ones hanging in the show, on the upper railings and in the demonstration area display we had 25 quilts representing about 16 patterns.

Pineapple Blossom...won a special ribbon from the Arts Council

So festive!  Made by Barbara Breland

It was fun to see the different takes on the quilts.

Here are two Smith Mountain Quilts...one in 4 colorway brights and the other in two colorways batiks.

We had four Easy Streets!  This one by Judy Lockhart took second in large quilts pieced - single.

  There were over 20 quilts in that category!  (this is a tough group!)

A Cheddar Bowtie by Pat Hinkle!

This quilt was started on one of Bonnie's Cruises....Paula R.

Tomorrow I'll post some of my quilts...

Quilt Show - ribbon winners

So I finally have a few minutes and enough energy to sit down and post some photos from my guild's show this past Friday and Saturday.

I'll start with some of the quilts that were awarded ribbons.

Best of show is a king size plus red and white quilt.  It also won in the large bed - duo category.

Best hand quilting and best single medium quilt was won by Rachel Thomas.

This quilt has great movement.

"Going Dotty" won for Best Use of Color and medium bed - mixed techinique duo

Barbara Beland's blue and yellow log cabin with flowers won for best medium bed mixed tech single and for best machine quilting.

I know there are a lot of you who really like Primitive Gatherings ...and obliviously Lisa Bongean is popular in my guild as well....Judy Lockhart won first in Medium Applique - single.

and Angie Faircloth won for Applique Wallhanging with her Angie's Garden.

Well, now I really need to go get more coffee...will post more later!

Show...less then 24 hours

My guild's show opens in less than 24 hours...which is good since we have to be finished setting up by then and then I can sort of rest!

The show looks great!  We just had some challenges with new racks, new curtains, and modified old racks.

Also the profile of what we hung this year is very different.  Lots of large quilts...really large.  I thin it is due to all of the "quilt by check" and with quilters who have bough home long arms.  They are sure using them!

Other years we have had a lot of wearable and "others" but his year no jackets or wearables (only one bag!) but several table-runners, a pillow, and many dolls and foot-stools.  You just never know!

The Bonnie Hunter inspired quilt section looks great.  There is a "central mass" of them then some others are sprinkled thru-out the show and hanging from the railings.

I'll post lots of photos tomorrow.  I'm going in early so I can get photos before the doors open but after the last of ribbons are hung!

Quilt show turn-in tonight....

I spent a good part of this past weekend prepping quilts for my guild show this week.

                                                          Ribbon Candy (aka Bonnie Hunter Smith Mountain)
This involved taken each one out and hanging it on the quilt rack to check for any threads or cat hairs.

Sewing on the quilt show label/card.

And sewing a card on the pillowcase and making sure I put the right quilt into the right case.  (Best done one at a time....)  Now repeat 12 times...

I only have a couple quilts being judged but I have several in the "Bonnie Hunter Inspired Quilts" Display....we will have over 25 BH quilts! (Over 200 quilts in the show) It will be fun to see them all on display.  Bonnie was a member of our guild when she lived in South Carolina and it is interesting to see all the quilts and quilters she inspired.  We have everything from quilts based on her website patterns, quilts based on her book patterns, a quilt started during a Bonnie cruise, several Bonnie mystery quilts, and one from her magazine column (if the binding is finished on time..no, I'm not the only one scrambling!)

Less than two weeks until "showtime!"

Yikes...it just hit me that our guild show is next week!   I still have one quilt to bind, label and sleeve and another to label and sleeve.  How did this slip in on me?  Seems like once I went to Charleston I sort of checked out on all modern quilting!

So last night I shook myself and first made a couple of sleeves...one is for the guild 2014 Donation Quilt, proceeds go to a camp for children with cancer.  The second sleeve is for my Ribbon Candy...that one still needs to have the binding sewn down.  Looks like I'll be putting movie on the TV tonight....

Last weekend we went to an estate sale nearby.  The woman was an artist and I had a small watercolor she painted.  She had spent a summer in Taos, NM so I picked up a couple of her paintings done there.  It is so sad to see these sales...but I love my painting so I think she would be happy!

I spent a good part of today sending out email reminders to local media about our show....now I need to spend some time actually sewing to have something in the show!