Paper Pieced Wall Hanging

Some friend and I took a class in paper piecing at My Lil' Quilt Shop in Millington. We each made one pumpkin. I made two more later and paper pieced a border to make a fall wall hanging.



I used purple, green and orange treads to quilt the wall hanging. For the green inner border, I used a decorative stitch on my sewing machine.



All three thread were metallic. The green and purple were easy to work with, but the orange was awful. All were Sulky threads but the orange was holoshimmer, very much like a foil. The orange thread kept breaking and getting caught in the bobbin. I had planned to do more quilting on the pumpkins but decided just outlining them would have to do.

Mouse in the Mailbox

There was a mouse in the mailbox today. I detest the real critters but love the cute Charming Tails. I have a number of them for each season. I didn't order this one but think he may be an early birthday present. Isn't he cute?



I already found the perfect spot for him in my sewing room.



Not only will he have a couple of friends on his shelf, there are a two more on the top of the bookcase. He's such a nice addition!

Fall Color in Michigan

Over the past few weeks, Mother Nature has painted the countryside in beautiful fall colors.



The above and below photo were taken outside of Millington. Some friends and I were on a Shop Hop of quilt shops in the Thumb.



Last Sunday, Tom and I did a local color tour. The photo below is Otter Lake. I think the picture could be made into a great art quilt.



Another picture of Otter Lake.



This was taken near the Caro Airport.



These beautiful wood are behind a harvested corn field near Millington.



On Tuesday, we took a bus trip to the Amish country around Clare. The colors were past their prime but the Amish scenery was neat to see. This is a photo of myself, Dena, Linda and Amy.
We were standing in an Amish farm yard. A couple of neat things in the picture are the numerous bird feeders and thehuge wood pile. If you look closely, you will notice a wheel on the house that operated the clothesline between the house and the top of the barn.

Blue Jays Love Peanuts

Last fall, Tom found some old peanuts that had been in the back of his snowmobile since the previous winter. He decided to feed them to the birds. We discovered that blue jays love peanuts.



Now, we occasionally buy peanuts for the blue jays. Within a half hour all the peanuts will disappear. It seems like the blue jays communicate with one another when they find we've put out peanuts. One after another, they swoop in and take off with a peanut.



Tom has even seen them pack in two peanuts before they leave. I wasn't able to catch a photo of that.

October Millington Quilt Club Meeting

At our meeting on Wednesday, Karen showed us quilt top she is working on using her embroidery machine.



Julie shared a project she made in a stained glass class.



Jeanann won this table runner. She had entered the contest while traveling in the U.P.



Viola completed this wolf quilt for her nephew's wedding present.



Violoa also shared a flowered quilt she made for her daughter.



Janell brought in a 75 to 100 year old quilt top. She was wondering if she should try to have it quilted or not.



This is Kay with a beautiful poppy wall hanging.



Jan made this snowman quilt top that Julie helped her design.



Darlene was vacationing so Vivian showed us Darlene's signature quilt.



These are three tops for lap quilts to be donated to the Veteran's Hospital.

Eileen embroidered this sweatshirt for her grandson who is a deer hunter.

Sydney shared a charity quilt she is working for the veterans.

Diane made this wall hanging.

She also shared a Christmas tree skirt she made. She practice her machine quilting on it.

Mary Lou is showing us a snap purse she made for her daughter's wedding this past weekend.

Cheryl made a pinafore tote.

Thanks to Linda for taking notes while I snapped pictures.

Pumpkin Trio

This is my latest project. I found the "Pumpkin Trio" pattern on a shop hop last spring.



The vines are bias tape covered with satin embroidery thread. Gold bead and metallic orange thread was used to embellish the large pumpkin.



Tiny buttons, giant rick rack and beads decorate the small pumpkin.



In the top corner I embroidered a spider web. The spider came from a toe ring I found on Ebay. I can't imagine wearing it on my toe, but thought it would look perfect on the web.

Dena's Birthday Present

Earlier this summer, I found a panel of friendship sayings in Shipshewana. I used some of them when I made Dena's birthday present. We got together the other day to celebrate her birthday, so now I can show what I made for her. These are a pair of hot pads.



I also made her a pair of place mats. This is the back of one of them.



This is the back of the second one.



The flower pot on the front of the place mat is a pocket.



I made two sided napkins with rick rack trim to put in the pocket.

Halloween Table Runner

Last spring when our quilt club visited quilt shops in the Detroit area, I found a Halloween panel. I used parts of the panel to make a table runner.


I found fabrics that coordinated with the panel in numerous places. The candy corn fabric came from JoAnn's. The stripes and marbled solids were found online at Fabricshack.com.



The backing fabric was found on Ebay.



Those are mice hiding behind the cute pumpkins.



I think the best part of the project was finding the coordinating fabrics and deciding how to put them together.