Happy Fall Y'all...

 

I noticed the blessed relief in temperatures here in Florida lately where it actually began to feel like fall. That prompted an urge to decorate for it. But when I looked for my selection of autumn decorations, they were nowhere to be found. I couldn't believe they weren't here. Finally, I concluded that I must have donated them somewhere in a fit of "downsizing" last year. So when I saw the cute Halloween tea towel on our sewing group's "free table", it came home with me. It wasn't long before I was auditioning it for a wall quilt project. I had lots of those wonky circle blocks already sewn, and when I started playing with them and the towel, this "make-it-work" quilt top happened. I still need to quilt it, and I better get at it soon if it's going to hang up this year.

On that same "free table" I found this lovely bouquet of fall silk flowers and it came home, too. Voila! Instant fall decorating.

What happened next was a nice surprise. While hunting for our bike helmets (it's cool enough to do that now, too), we found a tote labeled "Fall Decor." Lo and behold... inside I found the pumpkins, light swag, and other fall items to add to my display. Neither my husband or I remembered storing them away so efficiently. But I'm glad we did! Several of the pumpkins are ones that I painted and I really enjoy looking at them. Lessons learned: keep looking for lost items and make sure to label things in totes!

Almost a Quilt Trail...

 

I chose the simple and traditional Ohio Star for the pattern on a barn quilt made in a recent class at quilt guild. And am I ever glad I did because the more complex the pattern, the more taping and the more time it took to complete the project. You'll see why that's so in the process photos that follow. You've likely heard of Quilt Trails- the driving tours of various rural and picturesque areas of the country that feature painted quilt patterns on barns and home. It's quite a tourist draw in many states. The members of Country Road Quilters got a start on our own Quilt Trail in this fun class. Mine will be going up on our horse barn soon.

Our instructor was just the best because she brought most of the materials for us to use in class and we had to pay only a kit fee. The fee included primed boards, foam brushes, X-acto craft knives, house paint, and even Kilz corrective paint for any of our mistakes. Not that we needed it, of course! We brought painter's tape, plastic to cover our work surfaces, rulers, and a hair dryer. Our first step was to follow the selected pattern to lightly mark the design on the board. We then taped outside the first color sections, using a craft knife to trim tape away and achieve sharp angles. Next we painted just inside the taped lines to establish the outline, and then followed that with paint inside all of the sections of that color. A hair dryer (set to air, not heat) helped to speed up the drying time.

In this photo, you can see that the first color is painted and I've taped off and painted the blue sections. It was very satisfying to pull up that tape and see the crisp lines of the design. I had better luck pulling tape in this painting project than I sometimes do when painting a room at home. Somehow, I often manage to pull up paint with the tape. But not this time, thankfully.

And finally, the project is taped and ready to paint the cream color sections and edges to finish the piece. I was surprised at the time it took to complete our barn quilts, but with a couple of coats of paint, drying time, and the need to make corrections with Kilz (yes, I actually did need it- twice!), I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. And the taping... that really was the most time consuming part. I did not envy the classmate who chose the Carpenter Star for her pattern as she was bent over the board most of the day. But her results were looking quite spectacular.

The Cardinal was a popular pattern, as was one titled Folded Glory done in the colors of the US flag. I like how the cardinal is looking in this one. And our instructor had enough paints and small cups to customize colors. Whatever we needed, she whipped up for us. Setting our sewing machines, thread and fabrics aside for a day, turned out to be just the most fun!