Happy Halloween!

Today is Trick-or-Treat day here, so I'm wishing everyone a Happy Halloween today!  Ours is always the Sunday before.  We haven't had many kids stop by, though, so I imagine a lot of this candy will go to work with us this week.  We've had a really nice day for trick-or-treat.  Some years the kids all have parkas over their costumes, but this year we could actually see the costumes.

Ta-Da!  Hocuspocusville is done, quilted and bound and ready to hang on the wall.  I free-motion quilted this on my sewing machine. 

I quilted around the outside of the embroidery in each block, and then around some of the items inside each block.  I don't like to quilt over embroidery - to me it looks better outlined.  Then I quilted cobblestone streets and "spooky" skies in each block.  After about the eighth block, I figured out an easier way to do the cobblestones.   After 12 blocks, I'm so over both cobblestone streets and spooky skies.  I'm glad I don't have another whole quilt to do this way, but I'm happy with the way this one turned out.

The pieced blocks got leaves in the tan areas and a pumpkin in the block.  There is giant rick-rack around the center pieced area, which gives it a nice touch.  This quilt was a pattern by Crabapple Hill Studios.

For Halloween, I also finished Hallow Wee House, a cross-stitch pattern by Chessie and Me.  This was a kit I bought on my trip to Country Sampler with Donna in August.  It was a lot of hours of cross-stitching, but it's really cute!  The kit had silk thread, which I hadn't used before.  This whole thing is only about 6" tall, so it's some really high-count fabric.  I have to use a magnifying glass these days for cross stitch.

October was a great finishing month - I also finished Sampler Stars from the retreat this summer.

So now all the projects from that retreat are finished, and I can go again next year (my self-imposed rule - all projects must be finished before I go again)!  This was one of the patterns from Paula Barnes of Red Crinoline Quilts.  It was a lot of fun to make, and is just meander-quilted with a matching thread.  Do you like my makeshift design wall?  I just hung this up in front of my fabric cabinet and set some stuff on top to hold it there.  Luckily, it didn't pull off those milk bottles filled with buttons - otherwise, I'd still be in there picking them up.

These weren't on my UFO list, but they got started and finished in October - 12 thread catchers for my guild retreat next May.  We each had to make 10, I think, but I had enough fabric for 12, so they're getting 12.  Our theme is "Strawberries and Cream," so we each had to use strawberry fabric and green lining.  The green matches better in real life than it does in this picture!  These will be the table favor for the guests. 

There was a fun surprise in yesterday's mail.  When Barb and I went on our epic trek across Iowa, hitting every quilt shop in sight, she was buying pieces of Minkee and chenille to make taggy blocks for babies.  So she sent me one!  It's really cute...so soft with the Minkee on some sides

and different textures of chenille on other sides, and the tags all feel very satiny.  I'd think a baby would love cuddling with this block.  She did a great job on this.  I'm going to put it away in the box of goodies for future grandchildren!

So it's time to make plans for November already.  My plans are to get the stitching done on the Primitive Gathering's Block of the Week Freebie:

The flowers and leaves are all fused on and ready to blanket stitch.  This isn't a huge quilt - I think it's 24" square.  The curved edge was much easier to do than I thought it might be.

Finish quilting this snowman table runner for a Christmas present.

And quilt the Bee in My Bonnet Row Quilt I made earlier this year.  If you missed this pattern when it was free, Lori Holt has published this in a book now, along with other projects made from these blocks.  Her instructions are great!  This is a pretty big quilt, so the quilting is going to take awhile.

So there are my plans - I'm off to link up with Carrie's blog!