A Year Of LePetite In Pictures With A Little Halloween Thrown In Too!

Le Petite has come to an end for the year!  Now it's time to look back at all of the projects in a year end review organized by parade date.  Paganini was my final project to get all twelve completed.  These were all so fun to make! Designers from Moda Bake Shop, along with Sherri Falls, and Carrie Nelson of Schnibbles fame, did an excellent job with lovely patterns and awesome prizes!  And of course Sherri and Sinta deserve so many thanks for doing a wonderful job organizing it all and putting everything together.  Be sure to visit their blogs soon to find links to the final parades of the year.  When this group starts again in January I'll be ready and I hope you'll join in too!   

November - Paganini made with Ruby
I just finished this one to catch up on all twelve quilts!

 December - Butter Churn made with Prayer Flag and Portugal

January - Prairie Point Christmas created with Remembrance

February - Mon Ami out of Central Park and Fandango

March - Sweet Spot with fabrics from Punctuation and Fresh Flowers

April - Endless Summer made with Sunkissed

May - Brocante made from Haunted Mansion and Halloween Nights

 June - Candy Bar created with scraps from my stash

July - Recess created with Origins

August - George out of Wee Woodlands and Lollipop fabrics

September - Honeycomb with Terrain 

  October - McGuffey made out of Hometown fabric

Since tonight is Halloween, I couldn't resist throwing in a few pictures of our spooky fun!  The boys carved their own pumpkins this year and the ghost made his own costume......we did decide to take out the staples and clear tape and do a little sewing on it instead.   

A Spooky ghost lives at my house!

Crazy Jack O'Lantern!

Inspired by a game that you may have heard of lately!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you had a Happy Halloween! 

Meet a New Blog Friend and Get A Discount!

Hello everyone!  I'd love to introduce you to my good sewing and crafting friend, Bridgette!  

We met when our kids went to elementary school together and became great friends, but then sadly Bridgette had to move away.  It's so difficult when a good friend has to move.  Especially a sewing friend!  

But I'm so happy to say that Bridgette has now started an amazing blog called Applique Time, all about her crafting and sewing adventures!  With three young daughters, there is always some sort of craft or sewing activity going on at Bridgette's house.  Homecoming projects and embellishing a cool denim jacket are her latest adventures.  

There is also a link to her awesome Applique Time Etsy shop where she sells her original machine applique designs and right now Bridgette is offering a discount for my all of my blog friends.  How nice is that??  Just use the coupon code Islandlife during checkout in her Etsy shop for 20% percent off!  

This seems like a great opportunity to get started on those machine applique and embroidery Christmas gifts you have been thinking about. Maybe tee shirts, quilts, or a dishtowel or two for a Thanksgiving hostess gift.  The possibilities are endless!  So run over and meet Bridgette and her family and give her a great new blogger welcome!

On another note, I wanted to let you know that I entered a Halloween quilt in the Quilting Gallery's weekly contest.  

Happy Jacks!  by Michele at IslandLife Quilts

Of course this weekend the theme is spooky quilts, and I'd appreciate it if you grabbed a handful of candy corn, went over here to take a look and voted for mine!  There are some really spooky quilts on display!  Enjoy the Halloween fun! 

Paganini Schnibble with Ruby fabric

After we spend some time at at our elementary school's Fall Festival and the soccer fields, this is one of the projects I'll be finishing up this weekend.  What are you working on?

A Scary FNSI

   The first part of Friday night I spent watching the movie Mars Needs Moms with my family and the other part I spent participating in the Friday Night Sew In. I didn't get tons of sewing done, but the family time was definitely worth it!  We've all been so busy lately with school, soccer games, golf matches, and all kinds of other activities that an evening movie at home was the perfect treat for all of us!   

A spider sat down beside her.......while she was sewing on Friday night!

As far as sewing results go, I was able to get the binding made for my Halloween Brocante Schnibble.  The fabric is black and grey, kind of linen- like......I'm making up my own words here......and it has a spooky look to it.  I'll show a closer picture when its actually on the quilt.  Thanks to my friend Spidey for being my binding holder!  Everyone else was busy! 

Prepping Ruby!

 I also got to work on my final LePetite project of the year.  It's a make up actually.  I missed the first LePetite project of this year because I was just starting my blog.  So before the final parade in November, I want to have all twelve tops completed.  Paganini is the one I need to finish to wrap it up for the year.  

I prepped the fabric last night by starching and ironing before I started cutting! Usually if I use starch, I spray as I go along, but Linda from the Quilted Pineapple shared this tip awhile back and it makes so much sense to starch first, so I'm giving it a try.  Thanks so much Linda!      

Irresistible Halloween fabric!

When I went to my LQS yesterday to pick out that binding fabric these fun Halloween prints just had to go home with me.  One will be the backing for a pumpkin project.....I'll just be early for next Halloween I'm thinking......and the other will be for who knows what.  Don't you just love those cute owls pumpkins and ghosts? Spooky!!  And who can resist candy corn?  Certainly not me!!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

The End Of A Good Week

 This is what I was working on yesterday, some Schnibbles quilting!  I'm trying to get it quilted and bound before Halloween. Now the quilting is done, and next on the list is the binding.  I went over to my LQS to pick it out this morning, after a not so quick trip to Target. I'm signed up for the Friday Night Sew In, which is tonight, so maybe I'll get the binding done.  I still have one LePetite project to finish....well start....to be caught up for the year and that's on my list too.  Go on over and sign up for the Sew In if you want to join us!! 

 Some fun mail arrived on my doorstep yesterday afternoon!  Last week I won a giveaway on Pat's Blog. She had accidentally ordered two copies of the newly released book Jelly Roll Quilt Magic by Kimberly Einmo, and she was giving one copy away with the companion rulers too.  I was fortunate enough to be picked by Junior as the winner!  Be sure to run over to Pat's blog, All Decked Out, to see who Junior is and how he so carefully selected my winning comment!  This has to be the most fun way to choose a giveaway winner that I've ever seen!

I've been looking through Jelly Roll Magic, and there are lots of wonderful quilts to make!  There's one called Starry Pines that has caught my eye.  It's a beautiful Christmas quilt and I have the perfect jelly roll for it.  But do I have the time?  That's always the question.  We'll see! Thanks so much Pat!!  

Isn't this a beautiful, well loved quilt?  It's one of my great-grandmother's quilts that my parents brought to me last weekend.  In my last post I mentioned that I was soaking one in Vintage Textile Soak.  Well it really went well, so I'm going to try it on a few more.  I'll share some other pictures soon. Thanks so much for your helpful comments about my great-grandmother's sewing machine on my last post.  I really appreciate all of my blog friends.  Right now I'm off to eat dinner and work on some projects!  Join me if you can! 

A Quilting Tradition....My Great-Grandmother's Sewing Machine

My parents came to visit last weekend and look what they brought with them!  It's my great-grandmother's White Rotary sewing machine! She was a prolific quilter and I'm honored to have her machine.  

It is certainly well traveled, coming from Pennsylvania, with a stop in New Jersey, then a rest in North Carolina, and finally on to Florida.  Thanks so much to my sister and her husband, to my parents, and to my grandmother and aunts and uncles for taking care of it, and for working hard to get it to me here in Florida. 

 We gave it a gentle surface cleaning to get some of the grime off over the weekend, since its been stored in various garages and extra rooms over the years. Once I do some more research, I plan to get it cleaned up some more, or maybe even working at some point, with some help form my DH and the boys.  Anything with moving parts is right up their alley!

   

 I know the machine was made in 1923 in Cleveland Ohio, but I need to learn much more about how it works and where to find parts, if they are available.  Does anyone know where I can find some good sources of information or replacement pieces?  I'd appreciate any help or tips you could give me!

The drawers were filled with old spools of thread other interesting finds.  A sewing time capsule!

Here it is after my dad, my DH, and the boys put it together.  It had to be taken apart to fit in the car to make the trip to Florida.  

Along with the sewing machine, my family sent down some old quilts too.  Once they are cleaned up a bit I'll share some pictures.  Right now I'm soaking one in Vintage Textile Soak to see if I can remove a few stains.  I've used this soak on some older linens before, but never a quilt.  Has anyone had any luck with it?   I think I'll go check on that quilt right now!  Thanks for letting me share my 'new' sewing machine with you! 

My Quilt Is On Kate Spain's blog!! Wow!

I almost fell off my chair when I saw my Honeycomb Schnibble Quilt on Kate Spain's blog!!  How cool is that?? She is showing quilts made with Terrain fabric on her Wowie Wednesday post..... fun name for a post!  That fun, bright, Terrain fabric is one of my favorites, and to see my quilt on her blog is just a 'pinch myself' moment! Certainly a bright spot in my week.  

My Terrain Honeycomb Schnibble with a 'redo' row and added borders.

This is where I get to mention that I have been blogging for almost a year now. When I started, I would have never expected a quilt that I made to be pictured on a fabric designer's blog.  To take a look at some quilts using Terrain, including mine, go on over to visit Kate.      

Plenty of little white triangles!!

Coincidentally, yesterday I took apart the first row of that Honeycomb that I made, but never put on the quilt, because it just didn't go together well.  That's an understatement!  That row was pretty wonky looking actually. You really don't want to see pictures of that!

Now if I only had some more Fandango to mix with these charm packs!

I learned from my mistakes and the second row was much, much better, but I just couldn't face taking that first row apart and redoing it until yesterday.  Read about my solutions here.  I decided to add the white borders to the top too. Now it can put it in the 'to be quilted pile', which continues to grow!  My machine is back from its checkup at my LQS and hopefully I can start working on getting that pile quilted.  Wish me luck!

Pumpkins Anyone?

Friday we took a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Well okay its not exactly a real pumpkin patch, but it's as close to a pumpkin patch as we get here in Florida.  There are no hayrides, cider or apples at this patch, just lots of pumpkins and some gourds that have made the trip on a truck from some cooler part of the country for us to enjoy. The boys still get their pictures taken while looking for pumpkins, and we enjoy it despite the heat!  

These gourds and small pumpkins look like a quilt!

"Can I put a fog machine in this one?"  Really, that's what he wants to do with the pumpkin.

I love the shape of the stems.

Pondering what he would make with the pumpkin that's been shaped differently by a vine.

Different shades of orange.

Lots of colors and textures.

Enjoy your Fall or whatever season you may be celebrating where you live.