black and white and ...

I don't remember the old joke that ended with "black & white & red/read all over" -- but here's my newest top with that name. The inside blocks were from a swap with Julie H, and then I tilted them and put them together. It's probably brighter than it looks in the photo. I seem to be doing a lot of black & white with something lately... what's that all about?

And now a sneak peek at my Halloween costume...
too bad you can't see through these things!

who's quilting?

Lots of quilty content tonight -- for a change! Up above is my ALQS quilt, which will go off in the mail shortly. I can't tell you the name of it, 'cause that might give too much away... I just love these cats!

Next up, can someone tell me why I bought this fabric? **
I've finished quilting and binding the two little quilts for my fall-into-fall giveaway, and they will also go out in the mail as soon as I put some kind of labels on them. Here is Purple Truck
and A Cup of Tea With Mom
PIQF was a blast last weekend. There are a ton of photos in two "PIQF 2008" folders on my flickr site. I had the excellent good fortune to meet up with Tami from Lemon Tree Tales, and Cheri from Jovaliquilts, as well as two non-bloggers -- Gayle and Charlotte from New Zealand (whom I hope to see next month at the show in Auckland!)

At the end of the show on Sunday, I wandered by a booth of African fabric and baskets run by a woman from Seattle, who really didn't want to have to pack all that bulky stuff up to take home -- so I bought a few FQs and this lovely big Ghanaian basket for my farmers' market trips. It's living in the trunk of my car so that I don't have to remember to take it with me (I also threw a bunch of tote bags in the trunk -- finally -- for the grocery store!)
Last but not least, I've gotten some birthday blocks done for a swap on the about.com forum -- photos are in flickr. I'm trying to get a little bit ahead before going on vacation in (less than) 3 weeks.

** almost forgot this part -- there is an online store called Colorful Cottons that has been trying to go out of business for years, and I think she's finally going to do it. Everything is on sale for ridiculous prices. A couple of caveats: 1) she is very slow to ship 2) the fabric is almost always brighter than her pictures show. Having said that, if you want some good quality, colorful fabric, and you're flexible about timing and things selling out -- check it out!

Don't forget to vote! And vote early, if you can...

interesting politics

my sister sent me this interesting set of questions in a recent email:

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin:

What if the presidential candidates exchanged race?

Think about it.
Would the country's collective point of view be different?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage,
including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage
daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating
class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was divorced?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after she was
severely disfigured in a car accident?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had had a long
affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to
pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable
organization?

What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of
corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the
larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included
discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many
occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer
distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected
reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close
as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes
positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities
in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Backgrounds

Barack Obama:
- Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in
International Relations.
-Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
- University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political
Science.
- Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
-United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899.

Sarah Palin:
-Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
-North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
- University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism Matanuska
- Susitna College - 1 semester
- University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism.

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices
in the land as well as our standing in the world.

You make the call.

fall and family

My youngest brother has four children, and I've made a quilt for the birth of each one. They've taken my instructions to "use them" to heart... they have been dragged around and loved and washed so many times that they're all limp. Of course, when I made the first one almost 10 years ago, I didn't know that you had to actually quilt them with lines closer than 12 inches apart! I took the photo above when I was visiting in Seattle last weekend. It's definitely time to make them some replacements.
This was the first time I had met my youngest nephew -- he's 14 months old now, and a real little devil. Takes after my brother, for sure.
We visited the Ballard Locks, which I'd been hearing about for some time now. This was an interesting wave-crest installation near the entrance to the fish ladder. I loved the shadows these things created.
And here's DH Al with the next older niece and nephew, watching the operation of the locks. The kids have grown up so much since I last saw them and they're a lot of fun to be with, despite their mischievousness!

I managed to visit four quilt shops in my short trip. First was Carriage Country Quilts, just south of the airport. Most of their stock was way too country for me, but I did buy this pattern because I'm a sucker for black and brights, and they had a stunning sample made up.
I wish I'd taken a look at the instructions before I bought it, though, because it looks like you need a degree in mechanical engineering to figure out the bits and pieces... definitely one to work on when there are no distractions!

Next up was Undercover Quilts at Pike Place Market. Wow! There was a lot of very lovely fabric stuffed into a little tiny space. They had a nice section of sale fabrics that included a bunch of batiks at 30% off, and I did succumb to a few of those along with one from the "regular" section. Yum!

Nancy's is a more general fabric store rather than a quilt shop, in the Queen Anne neighborhood. I did a quick tour, but wasn't really inspired by anything I saw.

Finally, I stopped in The Quilt Loft in Ballard, quite close to the locks and near a nice little lunch spot called Kiss Cafe. The shop was very cheerful and friendly, with a good selection of fabric and great samples. Al was with me for this one, and he was intrigued with a bargello quilt on the wall. If I'd had a little extra time I could have done some damage in this shop...

Don't forget the Fall Into Fall swap -- I'll be doing my drawing when I get up tomorrow morning -- that Paciufic Daylight Time -- so you have just a few more hours to leave me a comment here.

checking in, leaving town...

No pictures tonight, because I haven't done anything to show off... I've been watching junk tv (maybe I won't include the debate in that category!) and working on a sweater that I started about a year and a half ago. The body and sleeves are knitted in wool, and then those parts are sewn onto a patchwork yoke and collar. I'm finally working on the second sleeve -- the other parts are done -- and then I need to rummage around and pull fabrics! I'll take a picture when the knitting is all done.

I'm off early tomorrow to spend the weekend in Seattle with my youngest brother and SIL and their brood of 4 kids under the age of 10. My hubby is meeting me there from the east coast, but he won't get in until tomorrow night, so I'm taking the opportunity to do a little shop-hopping. I figure I can hit at least 4 quilt shops between the airport and Ballard... although one is just a few miles in the wrong direction.

Any Seattle afficionados out there with comments on the quilt / yarn scene or great places to eat?

Don't forget to go back a post or two and leave a comment for the "fall into fall" giveaway, if you haven't already done so!

it's a kitty thing

But before we get to the kitties, here's another giveaway, for a big pail of chocolate halloweeen candy - yum! Just what we all need!

Long-ish time readers may remember that a couple of years ago I made a quilt for the local Humane Society's first annual "Purr-casso" art sale. I meant to do one last year but never got up the steam, but I'm ready this year -- here are the blocks for this year's piece. It needs a narrow plain border and then some scrappy piano keys, and I need to get it finished pretty soon! This was a pattern I found online years ago on the McCall's quilting site -- it's called "Kitty Cat Corner"
The piece I made for the first sale was a Buggy Barn "Crazy Cats" quilt. I've wanted one for myself ever since... and I also knew that I wanted to do a cat of some sort for my ALQS partner. Since you pretty much need to do these in sets of three, I'll have two left over to make a project for myself! Do you recognize Bucky here?
Don't forget to leave a comment on my last post in order to enter the Fall Into Fall giveaway. I'm having fun reading comments from new-to-me bloggers, so keep it coming!

Fall into Fall

And the winners are... Terri in first place and Pat (hyacinth) in second! I'll send emails, too. Thanks to everyone who came by and commented -- it was a lot of fun to discover new blogs.


Everybody's talking about the "Fall Into Fall" giveaways, and since I'm definitely going to win at least three prizes (what confidence!) I figured I'd better offer a giveaway of my own. The deal is that you need to leave me a comment on this post before October 15 and tell me what your favorite fall food is. On the 15th, I'll pull two names out of my hat -- for these items:
The first name will win her (or his) choice of these two little paper-pieced goodies, which I will finish into a little quilt, along with a few sheets of handmade paper suitable for card-making or other crafty stuff (pictured above). The second name will win the "other" paper-pieced goody, also finished into a little quilt. Both of these are from Paper Panache mysteries from months past.You can read about the rest of the giveaways here on Debi's blog. There are at least 40 bloggers participating and some terrific prizes being given away-- Happy Autumn!


p.s. my favorite fall food is Pears -- baked into almost anything, with a little bit of fresh ginger.