Ramblings of a Quilter: Blog Hop Day

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

The Textures of a Fall Sky

Oh the visual textures of Fall is an interesting blend as this picture above shows. I love to take pictures that show several types of texture as a way to experiment on how I look at things and right now trees are my favorite palette to work with. The availability of colors is breath taking that the trees offer up with their bark, twigs and fall leaves.

October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter. ~Nova Bair

White Birch

Which is a great way to lead into my day here on "Leaf's Me Happy" Blog hop and I'm so glad that you could join me. Today I have a WIP's, a Finished and a Give-away Project to share with ya.

A WIP, A Finish & A Give-away

There might be an extra surprise or two to look forward to also. So join me as I enjoy a cup of Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino and Peanut Butter Butterscotch cookie or two.

Pumpkin Spice & Butterscotch ~~ Yummmm!

So having saved my pennies for a while, I was lucky enough to purchase a current magazine @ JoAnn's with a 40% coupon ...YEAH!!!! After much flipping & pondering, I choose to get the BH&G "Quilts and More" Fall 2012 issue. I find that I LOVE the combination of hand stitching and pieces. I hit the jackpot when I found this neat little hexagon table mat pattern to try my hand at. I call it "Well ... Leaf My Hexies!!!!" and is a current WIP, but it can be found on pg 54 in the above mentioned magazine.

Well ... Leaf My Hexies!!!

This was quite the experience let me tell you. For this newbie, this was my 1st attempt at doing Hexagons. I must admit ... this one left me a bit puzzled up to the point I a tossed the directions far away from me. LOL .... hey a girl got to know when to toss them aside .... and WINGED IT!!! So I did and this is how this top ended up. Sheesh!!! I used a bit of Tea-dyed muslin that I made for another project to do the embroidery on. I used this as a chance to do a little stash busting for the hexies. I found this little turkey and thought he would be prefect as the center block. What you think? Prefect ... Right?

I used the widest & longest zig-zag that my machine could do using a variegated thread from cream to chocolate brown. Now I have to bat, back & quilt this 18 3/4" Table mat before it becomes a gift for a special friend. I'm thinking a little machine meandering stitching for the quilting and a marble type dark green fq for the back. Once I get it done, I'll be sure to share more pictures.

Do You like to color with crayons? Always looking a coloring books for inspiration? Looking for yet another technique or element to bring to your quilts? If you are like me - you do!! Then let me let you in on a little secret -- free Internet coloring pages!!! Yuppers you sure heard me right. Coloring is not just for kids anymore. I have found that I can find at least a few dozen coloring pages on for almost any subject. They are great to use for all kinds of needle crafts like Redwork, embroidery and quilting. This time I went looking for a pumpkin patch and found this one here: http://twistynoodle.com/pumpkins-2-coloring-page/ and then using my laptop as a light box, traced the pattern to muslin. From there I selected my DMC flosses and went to work. I used two threads and at time combined two different colors to achieve the desired effect. You might remember from my Aug. 18th posting when I previewed some fabrics and asked "What's in the Hoop?".

What's in the Hoop?

Here's What's in the Hoop

The End Results

From there we moved to the piecing process using some re-figured Friendship Stars from Kathy Tracy's book "Prairie Children and Their Quilts" (pg. 13). I placed them at the top and bottom of the embroidered center with a little extra filler as needed to get this. When I put the little blocks together, I noticed that it sort of look like the top of a pumpkin including the leaves. Can you see them?

Can You See the Pumpkin Leaf's?

Even the back is ready for Autumn

So after that, I went on to use the perfect homespun fabric that I found to finish of this little trip to the "Pumpkin Patch". So where in this adventure do you get to play with your crayon box you ask? Weeellllll .... how 'bout now. Go grab those plain yellow orange & green box of your favorite crayons! Yuppers just exactly like the kiddos use in the coloring books. I did a simple coloring inside most of the shapes, sometimes combining layers of colors to get the desired effect. You should note that you maybe have to repeat this a couple times to get the look of "doneness" that you want; for the iron will lighten up the colors as you heat them. As I did the ironing of my seams, I placed a piece of plain old white sheet 8.5" X 11" copy paper long ways to cover the whole center and went to town. The heat sets the crayon and removes the excessive wax, all the while the paper protects your iron. The end results is this 11 1/4" X 20" will having have you "leaf"ing" for the pumpkin patch to get your own pumpkin. Hehehe .... yeah .... I know .... that was bad.

"Leaf"ing for the Pumpkin Patch

Do you remember the cookie I was having with my coffee earlier? Want to everyone raving what a great baker you are? Here's a neat little trick for "homemade" cookies in a hurry. Get two packages of Betty Crocker's Peanut Butter Cookie Mix and one package of Butterscotch chips. Mix & bake according to directions, then wait to hear the praises as they come in. Those package cookie mixes are great to add all kinds of different "extras" to. So have fun and experiment a bit. Remember the Holidays are coming and cookies make for a great gift to everyone from family members, co-workers and for the hostess for those holiday parties that you'll be attending. But I do have a recipe that I can share from OceanSpray. I love making these all year long and even my kids like them. Shhhh ...but don't tell them that it's a great way to sneak some extra fruit into them. LOL

Peanut Butter & Butterscotch Cookies

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Close Up of Cookie

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 5-ounce package Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter or margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.
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Visiting the Apple Orchard

Soooooo are we ready to learn more about the last item in the group picture? This is my tribute to the fall harvest. In my SQT yahoo group, Sept. monthly mini quilt was Dove in the Window. I wanted a smaller block than the original pattern was for, so I went Internet hunting and came across this set of directions for a 12" finished block here: http://www.mccallsquilting.com/qb/pattern_407/index.html .

Now keeping in mind what the theme was for this blog hop. I thought of Apples, but just a hint of apple. I love to work with scraps that I have on hand, so I can't really tell ya what the fabrics are but I think I found the right combination in this one. Here's what I came up with. This has a little added frame of 1 1/2" and the color kind of reminds me of caramel.

Now doesn't just remind you of going to an Apple Orchard to go pick you own apples, be part of a horse drawn hayride, hearing laughter, smelling the fresh pressed apple cider and taste the hot cinnamon doughnut? Be sure to grab some of those pretty little caramel apples, a dozen doughnuts and a gallon of cider to help draw out the experence just an extra day or two. YUMMMMMMMMMMM.
Okay back from memeory lane .... lol. I finished making this little top with a green back and decided to do a simple handquilting with just a little extra something something to remind ya of that Apple Orchard.

Tada!!!! "A Hint of Apple"

So this lovely little wonder is 13.5" X 13.5" and is my very 1st Give-Away!!!

Now to take part in this drawing:

1.) Please leave me a comment about anything from my blog here on this page. It can be from this page or any other. If from another day, which day was it?

2.) Let me know if you would like to have this little gem as a wallhanging or something that can lay flat like a candle mat. In the same comment from #1 is fine. No need to make a seperate comment.

3.) Please be sure I can reach you either by your blog tag or by adding your email address at the end of your comment.

I will use a random number generator to pull the number on Friday, Oct. 12th and announce the winner during my blog posting sometime that weekend. I will reach out to the winner letting them know that they did win. As the winner, You will have until Wednesday, Oct. 17th to send me back a reply to include your snail mail addy. Failure to do so will result in a forfeit and a new drawing will be had.

You don't have to be a regular follower, although I'm hoping that you might like to my little blog to become one. I do have a button for "follow by e-mail" so that you can use that as an option too. As always, I try to reply to all the comments that are left for me though it might take me a day or two.

I want to thank Cherry and Madame Samm for allowing me to be a first time participate in the this Blog Hop. I had lots of fun and can't wait for the next one!! I lift my coffee cup to you both!!!

Thank You for stoppping by and hanging out with me today. Please be sure to check out the rest of the blogs schedule today. If this is your first day visiting this Blog Hop, you can find the Master Schedule here: leafs-me-happy-schedule

Thursday the 4th

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Patchouli Moon Studio

Freemotion by the River

Ramblings of a Quilter You are here!

Deborah

A Passion For Appliqué

Gracie Oliver Arts