My Black Cat's Crossing Today

Spooktacular Madame Samm is frighteningly good at coming up with amazing blog hops

and Wicked Wendy is swooping around on her broom to cheer us on for this one.

Thank you!

Maywood Studio is sponsoring this hop with their gorgeous Black Cat Crossing fabrics.

A huge THANKS to Maywood Studio for creating and sharing this beautiful line of fabrics!

I have three sisters and when the four of us girls were all together under one roof

we could get a little..uh...witchy at times. Of course, I was the least witchiest of 

all the sisters and usually ended up being a victim of one of their spells. 

The Witchiest Witches

Denise, Linda, Susan, and that's poor little ole' me as a cat under one of their nasty spells!

This wall hanging (33" x 40 1/2 ") was created using Maywood Studios Black Cat Crossing fabric.
The top stitching thread around those wicked witches was King Tut thread by Superior Threads.

The Bonnet Girls Apple Butter design was the inspiration for my witches. I love the Bonnet Girls!

With several triangles leftover after getting a little over zealous with my AccuQuilt Cutter,

I put them to use with this table runner. Adding a ruffle just seemed like the right thing to do!

Whooooo loves a purple ruffle? Me!

Years ago I started gathering together the Garden Patch Cats patterns by Helene Knott and decided

they'd make a fun quilt if I dressed them all up in costumes. I had fun creating costumes by adding a

mask or two, drippy purple heart-shaped blood, and Glitter threads from Superior Threads,

but then I had an "uh-oh" moment when I realized...

Oh, my gosh! I have to sew around ALL those applique pieces!

The "uh-oh" moments didn't end there...

I got even more wickedly caught up in the fun when I decided to hand quilt around all those freshly

sewn applique pieces using crochet thread and big stitches. Yikes...I don't know what came over me! 

I hadn't hand quilted anything in over 20 years so don't look close!

It was probably my sister's casting a spell on me to make me temporarily crazy...

I hope it isn't permanent, but then how will I know! I'm always a little crazy!

Creepy Cats

The blocks were 15" x 15" and I made use of that amazing Maywood fabric.
It's got a lot of sparkly Glitter thread, but it's tough to catch it in a photo.

Then there was the Ghastlie fabric sitting there in the corner waiting for me to use it.

What's Halloween without a Ghastlie!

It's Just A Ghastlie Snap Bag

Since you made it this far in a photo heavy blog post, I think I'll have

A Trick-or-Treat Giveaway!

You never know what you'll get when you knock on my blog on Halloween.

If your name is picked, I'll send you the Ghastlie Snap Bag with a trick or treat inside 

(don't worry, the lizard is not included.)

I've had the same ringtone on my phone for over 10 years...can you guess what it is?

(Hint: It's a little creepy, of course!)

1. Guess the name of my ringtone and/or just leave a short, but creepy/sweet comment (you don't have to guess the ringtone to win.)
2. One comment per person.
3. The giveaway can be mailed anywhere...yes, even to the other side of the world.
4. You don't have to be a follower to play along, but of course that makes me smile if you do.
5. Giveaway ends at 5 p.m. PST on October 31st. Entries after 5 p.m. PST on October 31st will not be included in the giveaway.
6. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: If you aren't sure whether or not you are a no reply blogger, LEAVE ME AN EMAIL ADDRESS...pretty please! You can't win if I can't contact you! If you don't get a reply from me to your comment, you are a no reply blogger.

Here's who's flying hopping today:

Friday, October 24

Just Let Me Quilt

Buzzing and Bumbling

Thimblemouse & Spouse

krislovesfabric

Quilt Doodle Doodles

You can find the whole schedule HERE.

It's Me Seeing You In September

After a long, long, long break from blog hopping, it's time for my day of

SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER!

Project #1

With the big scare of losing some of our favorite gingham, we had to include gingham in one 

of our projects just to show Riley Blake that we LOVE their gingham!  

I used Riley Blake's aqua color gingham and dots to make this ruffled chevron quilt.

While I was looking for a good spot at the park to take a picture, a mom and her two kids

volunteered to help hold up the quilt. They didn't even know me, but they were so nice!

I love how willing this boy was to help...his little sister was adorable, too!

I added a little ric rac above the ruffle and straight stitched a gazillion rows to quilt it.

Project #2

While going through all my stash I found a huge section of Moda Turnovers that I'd sewn

together long, long ago. I added a couple borders, straight stitch quilted it, and got the binding on.

It's a perfect size to hide under while watching my favorite TV series "The Walking Dead."

Bella thinks I made it for her.

Project #3

I saw a quilt on the wall at Quilted Works and just knew I HAD to make it. 

It is called Front Porch by Jan Patek, but mine does not look exactly like hers.

(I have a problem following directions, so mine is just a tad different.)

The Other Front Porch Quilt

Here's my hubby braving a 12-foot drop to CONCRETE just to hang my quilt for a photo.

He was wearing flip flops while crawling across boulders to secure the quilt, so I might have

gasped a few times when he almost slipped. I envisioned a trip to the emergency room or worse!

With his work done, he waited patiently for me to take the photos. What a guy!

I've never made a quilt with this many applique pieces...there were 1000's of pieces I'm sure!

The size is about 74" x 98" and almost all the fabrics were from my stash.

Quilted Works did their usual amazing job of quilting it with stars and swirls. Love it!

Just A Little Late With The Valentine Quilt

Okay, so I'm A LOT late for Valentine's Day...like over two years late!

I started this ruffly Valentine's quilt in 2012.

A friend quilted it with lovely hearts. I loved it!

All it needed was binding, but for unknown reasons it disappeared into a box for over two years.

(There's several more in that box that ONLY need binding...I'm slowly making my way through them.)

The problem with waiting that long is that the matching fabric to make the binding had disappeared.

Luckily, I was able to use some Riley Blake black polka dot for the binding. Whew!

Let the binding begin...OR NOT.

I had to stop in the middle of sewing the binding on because we got hit with a huge thunderstorm.

It just poured buckets of rain and the thunder went on forever!

A little flash flooding went on, too, thanks to almost an inch of rain in a really short time.

A couple hours later the binding was on and I was off to take pics with the hubby.

Luckily, there was very little rain and the lightening was off in the distance.

The back was fun to make, too.

 

I love this fabric!

 I'm all done with my See You In September projects (my day is September 9th)

and I can't wait to see what everyone else has been busy creating all summer.

Then there's the Rush Hour Blog Hop...I'm so excited to host this one!

Then...oh boy...Black Cat Crossing!

Ruffled Binding...So Easy!

I love ruffles so I went looking for EASY and different ways to add them to a quilt.
I found this method and really liked it.

Start by making yourself a nice pile of ruffles, enough to go around your quilt.

 I cut strips 3 1/2" wide and folded them over to make the ruffles.

Sew the ruffle to the back side of the quilt.

You'll need enough strips for binding to go around your quilt.

I cut strips that were 1 1/2" and 1 3/4"--it's better if you cut them 1 3/4" and 1".
Sew them together like this:

Match the long edges and iron flat to create the piping. Mine ended up
looking like this...I'd rather have wider piping and narrower flange.

Sew the binding strips with the piping side down.

Rounding the corners makes it look a little prettier.

Fold the binding/ruffle over the front edges of your quilt.

Top stitch between the piping and the flange in a

thread color that matches the back of your quilt.

Mine ended up looking like this because I cut my flange

strip too wide. It's okay, but a narrower flange would be better.

Here's my finished quilt. Nothing fancy. Not-so perfect. Not too big.

Just right for covering my lap and snuggling with my

puppies or Monkey Boys.

PLUS...

Our neighbor had a nest with two baby hummingbirds in it.

They are so tiny! That nest is kind of gross, though...ewwww!