Halloween Treasures

It's the first of September! How did the summer go so fast? I love fall, but I really, really hate that it leads to winter so I am always reluctant to be too excited to pull out the boots and sweaters. Maybe that's part of what I love about Halloween. Something to focus on looking forward rather than dwelling on summer ending. Apparently everyone else is ready for autumn and thinking about Halloween too because I'm in FIVE Halloween themed Etsy treasuries already. My favorite is Spooktacular. It's a great selection of haunting and beautiful items.

See the treasury on Etsy

My wine bottle labels are also featured it these:
Halloween is Coming!
It's Almost Halloween!
Season of the Witch
Countdown to Halloween

I really enjoy seeing what other items people pair up with my products. I'm pleased and happy to be in the company of such talented artists and interesting items!

Witchy Wine

I love wine. I love Halloween. And I am newly in love and completely addicted to anything with chevron stripes. (Many more chevron projects to come soon! One HUGE one!) Anyway, I decided it was time for new Halloween wine bottle labels since I have sold so many of the old versions. Where to start? With chevron stripes of course!

So cute! It took some work to get a skull and crossbones drawn that worked with the tiny chevron pattern, but I LOVE how it turned out. 

But you can't have just one design, so here are the rest of the new ones:

These are lot cuter and less glampire than my usual Halloween style, but I am really loving them. What else is different about these? I didn't go with specific wines in the names. This way I think they are also appropriate for a kids party for sodas or juice.

These are, of course, available on my Etsy site.

So cheesy

I'm fairly lactose intolerant but thankfully cheese seems to upset my stomach the least of all my favorite dairy products. (Sadly, ice cream tries to shank me from the inside out like a prisoner showing his bitch who's boss.) Anyway, I love cheese and we've had some pretty amazing ones lately.

Fromager D'Affinois with Black Peppercorn

This on was like a super creamy brie with black pepper throughout and concentrated in the rind. I usually like and eat a cheese's rind, but the rind on this one was actually the best part! Since this cheese, my new obsession is herbed or seasoned brie. I cannot get enough. Eat it with pretzel crackers or anything really. Costco actually sells a 1/4 wheel of herbed brie that is quite good. 

Boschetto Truffle Cheese

Truffles, right in the cheese. Need I say more? The truffle pieces were divine and had imparted their flavor on the entire block so every single bite was truffle-rific. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth every cent. 

Ossau-Irati (Claverolle de Pyronees)

This is a firm sheep's milk cheese. This one is from the French side of the Basque region. I've had similar cheeses and they all seem to say Basque or have basque somehow in the name. I love to travel and want to go everywhere but France has never been at the top of my list. If I can eat cheese like this every day, I'll move there today. It's super creamy tasting and my dad, who swore he wouldn't sheep cheese, LOVED it. Seriously, don't be scared. Try it. You won't regret it. 

Tome Verte

Fresh goat cheese crusted with tarragon, thyme and pink peppercorns. I've never met a goat cheese I didn't love, but fresh chevre with either herbs mixed right in or used as a crust it's just about as perfect as cheese gets. 

I hope this post has encouraged you to go try a cheese you've never had or step outside of your comfort zone next time you're at the grocery store. I highly recommend getting to know your cheese counter person at a smaller local grocery store. They will usually let you try anything before you buy! These four cheese were all from Surdyk's in Minneapolis, but most local markets will have a pretty good selection to explore.

Ring around the rosies

I recently lost my favorite hair accessory and have been missing it dearly. I searched a few tutorials online and found two I wanted to try. The boutique flower tutorial at Diamonds, Fur and Laundry creates petals by burning the edge of fabric circles. I used this technique to make the biggest dark gray pinstriped flower.

I used the DIY fabric rosette tutorial from Write it in Lipstick to make the smallest gray satin rose. Tying a knot in one end and wrapping from there. This worked well too.

For the yellow rosette, I made up my own technique by starting at the outer edge and sewing and twisting my way to the center. When I got done with all three techniques, I decided they looked good together. I sewed them to a singe felt backing piece and the added a second piece of felt to create a sleeve of sorts. The end result slides on and off a headband, works with invisible barrettes, and can clip to a shirt, purse or necklace. It was fun and really quick. I think I need to make more. Lots and lots more.

Since I started this post, I made another one. It's so pretty.

Hang your hat on that

I've been looking for some unique vintage hooks to put in our kitchen to hang purses, keys, etc. on so that our kitchen table can stop being a catchall. I was just going hang them right on the wall until I found Kate's pretty paper coat rack via Pinterest.

Photo from Design Sponge

Oooo. Pretty! I use fabric instead of paper. The board is a piece of a drawer that never made it into our entertainment center. Under $10 and this is what I ended up with:

And now the table is clear and purses and keys are easily found!

Wave Goodbye!

Let's skip the part where we talk about how lazy and/or crazy busy I've been so I haven't posted in a very long time - and jump right to the part where I show you pretty pictures of the latest quilt! Remember the purple batik ombre quilt? I made a similar one in aqua and I LOVE IT.

Once I got the top done, it felt very fluid, like waves or the sky at dusk. But the straight edges of the rectangle blocks seemed a bit harsh and broke up the flow. So I decided to try and balance that with the quilting pattern. Not being one who follows directions or does what's she's told very well, I just made it up as I went.

Swirls, circles, waves. I'm not sure what I'd call this pattern, but it did exactly what I wanted it to do and softened the angular edges.

I used another vintage sheet for the back. (Thanks again, Alisa!)

I started this quilt intending it to be a gift. When I finished it, I fell in love and wanted to keep it. But, in a rare stroke of self-discipline, I wrapped it up and gave it to two of my best friends for their birthdays. I hope they will love it and cover it in pet hair just as much as I would have!

Berry cute quilt

On April 15th, we got a new addition to our group of friends. Kenley Katherine was born! She is beautiful and has a full head of auburn hair! Her parents decided to go the surprise route, so we didn't know if she was a boy or a girl until she was born. The result was me cranking out this quilt, start to finish in under 3 weeks!

I decided to go more "little girl" rather than baby, because I figured she'll be a little girl much longer than a baby, so hopefully she'll like this quilt for years to come.

The quilt features strawberry, cherry and polka dot fabrics from Robert Kaufman. I very loosely followed the free Foliage Paisley pattern from Andover Fabrics. This is the first quilt I have sewn where the block corners needed to match perfectly. I was very nervous, but it turned out great! I feel a lot more confident making more complicated blocks now.

I forgot to take a close up of this, so this picture isn't great, but I wrote her name on the border while quilting. It's not super noticeable, but a cute little surprise!

The backing and binding is made from a vintage sheet, which worked great. However, I cut it on the bias to make the stripes diagonal, which made quilting and binding a challenge. I won't be doing that again!