Halloween Countdown mini quilt

I love counting down holidays with the kids! It's really fun to get them as excited as possible and watch them squirm with anticipation as the last days get closer and closer. Paper chains, advent calendars, and now this cute little wall quilt will help us count down the 31 days of October. We love Halloween at our house. It all started with the boy being born in October. It's his favorite holiday and his favorite time of year, and a child's enthusiasm is very contagious.

When I first saw the fabric line called Boo! To You! by Riley Blake Fabrics (fast becoming my favorite fabric producer) I instantly thought countdown calendar. The middle black and gray dot is just a fat quarter, I printed off "Halloween Countdown" from a font on my computer and stitched it with a back stitch and DMC floss, then added a border and Velcro to hold the little spooks on the quilt. I ironed Pellon fusible fleece on the back of the fabric with the little spooks and then cut around each one.

My daughter helped me out a lot too by cutting out the little spooks. She's at school right now and I can't wait for her to come home so I can show her our little quilt all finished waiting for the first day in October.

P.S. I just found THIS other incredibly cute Halloween Countdown quilt using the SAME fabric on the Riley Blake Blog! Kind of wish I would have found this before I began mine, but it's nice to have something straight from my own head finished. I'm thinking now of making the same quilt only using the Colorful Christmas line!

New Strawberry Fields Quilt for sale on etsy...

I just listed this little quilt for sale on my etsy site. It measures 46" X 46" and is a steal at just $43! I can charge so little for it because it didn't cost me anything to make it, I made it for Pine Needles and it was on display there for a few weeks during their shop hop. The kits sold for almost 40$ themselves and didn't include the backing! I quickly sold out of kits and got to take it home. Though I love the quilt and think it is adorable, I don't have a little baby anymore and my girls have more quilts than I care to count. If your interested click on the etsy link to the right and it will take you to my site where you can read more about it.

I love the back almost as the front! Such a fun fabric!

I'm working on a couple of great quilts right now. One I am trying to finish up for my sons birthday coming up soon and another really cute quilt that will also hang on display at Pine Needles.

Fabric flower links

I've decided to teach some classes at my work. I am so nervous! Ultimately I think it will be a lot of fun, but I've never taught a class before (except for in Relief Society, but that doesn't count, everybody has to love you there). I am going to be teaching a fabric flower class as well as a cute little frog pattern by Melly and Me (picture of that to come later) Anyway, I am linking to a bunch of tutorials for your benefit and mine. This way I will always know where to find them, and in case my students want more information I can send them this way for a one stop shop of fabric flower tutorials.

Here is the tutorial I used to create the felt flower...

http://miamoodesigns.blogspot.com/2010/08/miamoo-designs-felt-flower-tutorial.html

I used this tutorial for the idea of the baby blessing headband...

http://www.simplymodernmom.com/2010/07/tutorial-rosetta-fabric-flower-headband/

This site has some great tattered flowers...

http://sew4home.com/projects/fabric-art-a-accents/568-tattered-flowers-for-embellishment

Zipper flower (that just happened to turn out like a heart and I kept it that way)...

http://diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com/2010/01/zipper-flower-tutorial.html

I originally learned how to make these great flowers at Pine Needles, but here is another site that has a great tutorial...

http://houseof3designdistrict.blogspot.com/2010/02/rolled-fabric-flower-tutorial-using.html

LOVE Heather Bailey's tutorial on fabric flowers....

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/2009/09/pa.html

Video for another zipper flower...

http://studio5.ksl.com/index.php?nid=61&sid=9665241

I'm not completely sure what days I am teaching. Sometime in the end of September and one in the beginning of October. Truthfully when I get nervous about something I tend to ignore it, and I "forgot" to write down the dates I picked to teach the classes. I guess I better find out eventually. If anyone is interested in taking my class, let me know and I'll send you a link to the class list.

One very proud parent

For those of you who are unaware, "the boy" in the family has ADHD. He was diagnosed last year in 2nd grade. It was not a big surprise, we have been watching the systems get worse for awhile. He inherited it from his daddy so we knew what to watch for. I am actually glad that my husband has it as well. I am glad that they can relate to each other. When "the boy" lays awake at night till 2am and can't seem to turn his mind off, I am glad that Bruce is able to say to him "I know how you feel" (while I am sleeping soundly in the next room).

It was very frightening to watch "the boys" grades at school get worse and worse. And to watch him start to lose friendships because it seemed like all the other little boys just couldn't keep up with him. He would get angry when they didn't understand the convoluted games he made up or the fact that he wanted to ride his bike off the side of a enormous hill. I was scared that the doctor wouldn't think it was ADHD, and what did that leave us with? I knew he was smart and very creative. I wanted everyone else to see it too.

We started him off on a low dose of medicine and changed some habits at home, making things more scheduled for him. It has help enormously! His grades has come way up, his teachers have told us "whatever you are doing, keep it up!" and he gets along better with his friends and family. I am so grateful that I didn't ignore the problem or ride him off as just a bad student. I am totally impressed with his love of reading. When he finished his Fablehaven book I told him we would go to the book store and pick out any book he wanted. He picked Diary of a Wimpy Kid and finished it in one day, then asked to go back to the bookstore. I told him we would get him a library card instead :)


"The boy" received his bobcat the other day at scouts. Not too hard to accomplish, but there was some memorizing that I don't think he could have done before we got him help. We painted his face to celebrate the event.

Me and my boy holding his bobcat award at pack meeting.

I'm so proud of him. It is not just the medicine. He knows he has this little problem and has worked hard to over come it. He is doing a great job!

Old MacDonald's Farm

I just finished this project for display at Pine Needles. It was a real beast to sew (the patterns contains a bunch more animals but I didn't think my nerves could handle turning out any more tiny little pieces), but I think it was worth it after all, it turned out pretty cute. My poor kids are dying to play with it, but they'll just have to wait.

My favorites are the horse and the cow. My daughter was sad I didn't make the goat, which was very cute. Maybe I'll have to work on that after I take a break and sew something else for awhile.

The pattern is called Old MacDonald's Farm by Under The Garden Moon. I was going to try and link to it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. You can buy the pattern, and see my sample :) at Pine Needles in West Jordan, Utah.

Oh by the way, the little animals go in the bag, I just safty pinned them on the outside so you could see them.