Kimberbell November Table Topper

 I love decorating for the seasons!  

One of my favorite home made items is the Kimberbell November Table Topper or as I named it my “Witches Hat Halloween” table topper.

I free motion quilted a spider web in the center square and added an appliqués spider.

These table toppers are so fun and easy to sew up.  Plus you can add your own embellishments.

And, of course, I crocheted several coasters in Halloween colors!

It’s so fun decorating for Halloween in my Hearth Room.

Happy Halloween Panel

 While going through my fabric closet I found this Happy Halloween fabric panel I purchased while on my Caribbean Patrick Lose quilting cruise a couple of years ago.

I forgot I had it.

I added two Halloween theme borders and a lovely striped binding.

I free motion quilted all over the panel.

I’m sew pleased with how it turned out.

It’s hanging in my downstairs media room now.

Now to continue decorating for Halloween.

Mr Spider

Back in 2016 my neighbor and good friend, Deb, asked if I could sew a new yard spider for her.

She gave me the old spider to use as a pattern and I proceeded to order black nylon fabric.

The project sat until my college room mate came to visit and made the mistake of asking what project we would be working on.

I said “a spider”!

My friend, Karen, taught me to sew all those years ago in college.  She made the pattern pieces from the old spider and I sewed it all together.  We had fun putting it together.  It took us three days to finish.

Deb and her hubby were thrilled with it.  But I did tell her no more spiders.

Every Halloween Deb and her hubby put huge yard spiders out.

Mr. Spider is just one of many.  And he isn’t the largest one either!

Mr. Spider gets moved all around the neighborhood.  

You never know whose yard he will end up in.

I just saw this morning that my town is having Trick n’ Treat this year.

Guess I better buy some candy.  

Happy Halloween !

Are you ready for Trick or Treat?

We are here at Teacup Lane.

Candy is ready and Halloween decorations are up.

We put two strings of orange lights on shrubs in front flanking the door along with Mr. Pumpkin Head and Ms. Skeleton. 

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Hello Fall and More

I love my little chalkboard sign!  

Today I updated it for Autumn.  

Lately, rather than using the chalkboard ink pencils, I've been using regular chalk. 

Click (here) to read about making my cheap and easy chalkboard sign. 

After we move to our new home in Ohio I'm going to make some more of them.  

I just read someone's blog where they said chalkboards are "out" now.  

Although the blogger didn't agree (and I don't agree either) because she (and I) loved her (my) chalkboards too.

I'm not able to post as much lately because I've been so busy de-cluttering, cleaning, organizing and packing for our move (still several months away).  

We have rented two storage units... one in PA and another in OH.

And they are filling up.

  

I'm packing my collections and knickknacks for our next trip to our OH storage.

Yesterday I tackled our bathrooms.  

My goodness I couldn't believe all the stuff I had "stuffed" into those rooms.  

I was going to take some before photos of all of it laid out on my beds to sort through but I was too embrassed.  

Today I'm going to go through all my jewelry.  

That is…I'm going to start to sort through it all.

I got as far as gathering it all together and laying it out on our guest bed. 

Not that I wear a lot of jewelry but I have inherited my Mom's and some of my Mother-in-law's jewelry.  

Last week I embroidered the cutest Santa Claus postcard at our monthly Embroidery Club.  

It's embroidered/appliqued out of fabric and felt.  

I purchased this design as part of a set, In-The-Hoop Christmas Postcards (here), on-line at Embroidery Library.

 I'm definitely going to make some more. 

I finished crocheting my Christmas Star Coasters.

 (click for link to Sara's free pattern at her My Merry Messy Life blog) 

 I made enough for our neighborhood Bunco Christmas Party in December.

Next I have to block and starch all of them. 

While packing I found these cute Halloween mugs to set out on our fireplace mantel. 

And last week I bought some Halloween/Fall fat quarters in the neatest fabrics.  

My brother's Maple Tree changing colors in Ohio.

October is such a beautiful month! 

Thanks for visiting. 

Happy Halloween!

We're all ready for the Trick 'r Treaters here at Teacup Lane!

The other day I was visiting a blog where the blogger mentioned finding a vintage pumpkin candle just like the one I have above. 

I never thought about this one being vintage.

I've had it a long time but can't remember when or where I bought it. 

Probably back in the 70s or 80s.  

I baked about five dozen chocolate chip cookies yesterday and popped them into the freezer for Christmas.  

Of course, we HAD to treat ourselves to a warm cookie and a cold glass of milk!

My Christmas cookie baking is finished! 

 It's so nice to have that project behind me.  

While making the sugar cookies last weekend I put on a Christmas playlist on my iPhone!  

I love listening to Christmas music.

  

Today I'm sewing on my Pumpkin Patch table topper mat.  

I hope to get all of the appliqués cut out and glued down.  

Maybe even start the satin stitching.

It's another dark day here so my photos are a little fuzzy.  

I've been crocheting mostly in the evenings on my hexagon lap throw in red, white and turquoise yarn.  

I'm not happy with attaching these hexagons together.  

The "look,"I mean.  

But I've tried sewing them together in the back loops (not!) and finally settled on single crocheting each round.   

Oh, well...hopefully once it's all together with a nice edging maybe I will be more pleased. 

Happy Halloween!

Orange and More Orange Decor

Let's bring out more ORANGE...

Real orangey Fall leaves....

Or not so real orangey leaves in my Thanksgiving Turkey fabric border...

Ty mini Beanie Babies with touches of orange...

Halloween plates with lots of orange...

I was tickled when I found these cute mugs at our grocery store this morning.  

Both mugs match the black cat and pumpkin wall plate above!

A Happy Halloween felt letter sign in orange, green and purple...

Our ghost use to hang on our front door with magnets but we don't have a steel front door anymore!

And I updated my home-made chalk board sign in orange and green!

It's looking more like Halloween at Teacup Lane!

My funny for the day:

And lastly I can't forget...the greatest pumpkin of all...

and the brightest ORANGE...

Mickey Mouse Pumpkin!!!

Framed & Up

I finished it!

And to help me out Hubby  trimmed a large piece of board for me to place on my old Singer sewing cabinet.  

It's my new ironing station in my sewing room.  So much bigger and better for pressing than the teeny, tiny ironing board I was using here.  

 I love it!   

Right now I have towels down on it's surface but I intend to wrap it with batting and fabric.  

To fill in around the embroidered Halloween Skeleton design, I  used three different fabrics sewing them down as flanges and thus making a colorful border.  

Squaring it up as best as I can....

First flange is a green fabric, followed by the dark orange one and then I couldn't resist throwing in the purple and light orangy flowered fabric on the outer edge.  

It's hanging in the foyer now.

   

I just realized the embroidered Halloween Skeleton looks a lot like Ms. Skeleton out in our front yard!

Sad but true laugh of the day:

Holiday Embroidery Designs & Halloween Decor

I found the cutest holiday machine embroidery design package by Anita Goodesign entitled "Holiday Tea Towels".

The first one I embroidered was the Halloween Skeleton design above.  

My plan is to frame the design and switch out a new design for each holiday.  

This isn't the greatest photo showing the 12 designs but almost every holiday is presented including Mother's and Father's Day.

I stitched up the Thanksgiving Turkey design and the other evening I finished The Christmas Tree design.  

The picture frame I'm using isn't quite the correct size and shape - but it will have to do.

I'm going to add a fabric-pieced border around each design to add interest and balance the design better in the frame.  

We've been busy here the last couple days.  

Hubby has built some shelving and a loft area over a work table (he built the work table years ago) in our shed.   

This is the perfect time of the year to be out there working in these cooler temperatures.   

We were so pleased because we used materials we had on hand so it didn't cost a thing for this project.

I'll include some photos later after we have a chance to clean and re-organize the shelves.  

We put two strands of orange Halloween lights outside along with Mr.  Pumpkin Head and Ms. Skeleton.   

I looped a crocheted headband around our girlie skeleton's skull.  

Now I have to find the scarf I croched last year for her.  

It looks pretty spooky at night!

We attached the skeleton to a iron flower hanger.

How about you?  

Do you decorate for Halloween?

Halloween Quilted Candle Mat

I attended another monthly Embroidery Club on Saturday.  

We were instructed to download a free "in the hoop" design from the Jamone Canada website before coming to class.  

Letting the machine do "its thing".

Unfortunately it was a disappointing session for me.  

There were four of us who downloaded the design onto our flash drives but were unable to stitch the design on our machines during class.  

So Hubby and I dragged my machine and stuff home again (I didn't even stay for the full session).  

Look closely in the middle you can see the quilt lines stitched in a square.

Once home we tried downloading the design again and after two tries we were finally successful.  

So I stitched up the design at home yesterday.

I was running out of Halloween fabric and pieced together these patterns and colors from my stash.

The outline satin stitch is a burnt orange color.  

All finished.

I hope to get better at cutting it out so the batting doesn't show.

Just in case you can't tell what this thing is....it's a little quilted and embroidered Halloween Candle Mat.  

Everything was done "in the hoop".  

This was my first "in the hoop" project.  

It's nice because the embroidery "in the hoop" design includes all the steps - basting stitches, appliqués and embroidery.

  

All the embroidery classes are good exercise for me. 

Just like crocheting...it takes practice and more practice.

  

I'm slowly putting out my Halloween decorations.

  I'm not going to show the back of the candle mat.  

It's an even more Halloween themed fabric with printed orange pumpkins but the satin stitching would have looked better if I had matched the bobbin thread instead of using white thread. 

Duh... 

Have you played Candy Crush?  

It's very addictive!

I'm stuck on Level 37 and Hubby is on Level 79 or 80!

Bet you can't guess who is better at the game!