Happy Halloween

 It never fails that when it's the week of a holiday I get the urge to make something for that holiday. Maybe it has to do with the trying to make the place look more festive or just to get me in the mood or psyche for it. Anyways this past week was no different, so this is what I have been doing in between customers quilts.

This is a candy corn table runner I threw together in a day using 2 1/2" jelly strips and my accuquilt go 6 1/2" tumbler die.

Then a customer brought in a quilt that used a technique that starts out with a 4-patch block using 5" charm sqs. So of course I had to try it too, and since it being Halloween week I dug into my Halloween charm sq stash. 

Decided to do 5 color combos. and do 2 blocks of each. Sew your 4 patch blocks together. 

Then you will take your ruler and line up the 1 1/4" line along one of the center seams and cut.

 On both sides of the seam in both directions.

until you get this.

Repeat for all blocks and seperate the pieces like above.Makes it easier to work with later. 

Now piece the pieces back together, mixin up the different combos to get a scrappy look.  

Now you can add sashing, cornerstones, borders or whatever to make it into what you want. I am making mine into a table runner. I still have to piece the other 5 blocks together, sash those 5 then sew them together with the above row and add borders. 

Of course my 2 table runners won't actually be quilted or bound until next year, that's because I never get the urge to do a holiday theme project until last minute, lol! Oh well ya think I would learn to get started on them earlier...not! ;0) 

Ecconomy

The ecconomy, lets face it it stinks. It has affected everything in our lives as quilters, just when you think things might get better (the stock market not taking the deep plunge and staying there anymore...it has been bouncing back, like a bungie cord) think again. Bad cotton crops and corn crops this past year has increased not only the cost of all things cotton such as fabric, thread, batting, clothes but anything that uses corn in products such as feed for animals, products in the grocery stores and yes lets not forget the unstable gas prices, still. Health care is still not any better in fact the costs are also going through the roof more than before. With everything going up in costs what are we quilters to do? How are we suppose to keep our local quilt stores from closing (don't worry, I have no insight if any in our area are closing ;0)) just saying if quilters aren't able to afford to buy from the quilt shops do to less disposable income due to the bad ecconomy how are they to remain open?

If quilters are not able to afford to send their quilts out to us longarm quilters then how are we going to continue to keep our doors open as well? Yes business has slowed way down. Usually by now the snow birds are comming back to town and calling for appointments to drop off their quilt tops. The phone is not ringing, the quilt tops are not being dropped off, the snow birds are not returning as they did before in past years.

So what are quilters doing? Did they stop piecing their tops? Or are they creating tops from their fabric stash and either letting their tops go unfinished? Or are they doing smaller quilt tops and are attempting to quilt them, themselves on their sewing machines? Who knows what is happening in the average american/canadian quilter's home.

I have offered specials, yet obviously they aren't as enticing to get my loyal customers back to having their tops quilted proffesionaly. So don't think I haven't noticed or that I haven't been hearing your frustration over this horrible ecconomy, cause I have..I have heard it loud and clear! 

Starting in January I will be bringing back one of my most popular specials I have done since I opened my doors in 2005. So hang in there fellow quilters, I may not be able to fix the ecconomy, but at least I can try to ease some of it's burden for other quilter's the best way I know. Stay tuned for further info.