HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Have fun with Halloween today!  This is my 'Every Witch Way' quilt, that I made a couple years ago.  The pattern was in Quiltmaker, Sept./Oct. 09.  I love the 'real' eye lashes.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

I've been busy selecting and executing a setting for six-inch basket swap blocks that arrived on Monday.  I received 6 straight baskets and 11 on point, so the first challenge was to find a setting to use them together and have everything facing the correct way.

First I put the straight-ons into the center of square-in-a-square blocks.  Then to bring the on-points up to size, I bordered them.  I also made an extra basket to fill in the setting.  I now have 9" finished size blocks.

The setting triangles include the inner border.  Here's a close up.

The blocks are laid out on a twin sized bed in these pics.  Hopefully they will be assembled into a flimsy by the end of the day.  Then to select an outer border, from stash if possible.

You can find out what gals around the world are WOW by hopping over to Esther's blog, here.

BLOOMS FOR DD

This week I finished the machine buttonhole stitch applique on this quilt for my daughter, as well as getting it all pieced.  I think due to the primitive look, I'll try my hand at big stitch quilting with pearle cotton.  I've used that once before on a smaller project and really liked it.  Watch for progress, as the goal is to have this quilt ready to hang when we leave for FL next month.

She has the perfect sized quilt hanger (made by her brother) waiting for it.

IT' SNOWING!

Well not literally, although it is cold and rainy today.  These are the first 5 snowpeople out of 12 total, for a Snowperson swap on DJ Alternate.  First I thought maybe I should enlarge their noses, but decided no, they are little pug noses, made from those baby carrots.  I think it adds to their personality and uniqueness.

AUTHOR'S ALBUM SWAP

Blocks have arrived from the Author's Album Swap.  These signed blocks will make a pretty quilt, but I don't think I'll get to them until next spring.

MILL GIRLS QUILT ALONG

The Mill Girls Quilt-along starts this week.  Our first assignment is to select fabrics.  Here they are. 

Next, we are to do all the cutting.  My table is cleared of other projects, and I'm ready to roll (roller cutter, that is).

Here's a link to this project.  Click on the button below (it's also on my left sidebar) to join the SBS And Other Elm Creek Quilts group, and quilt along with us.  The button is one Mill Girls block.

Do you love the Fat Quarter Shop?  I do!  They have the absolute best service on the web.  Melissa, of the Happy quilting blog, is having  a Fat Quarter Shop sponsored give-away.  Hop on over to her blog to see how you can win.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

What am I doing this week?

 Enjoying the unusually warm temperatures and the spectacular autumn color.  Here's the view down the road from our driveway.

 Up the road from our driveway.....................

 Along our wire line...............

 And pulling into our driveway.

Nature at its most awesome!  It's my favorite season for sure!

And to make this quilt related, I'm using autumn fabrics in my Mill Girls Quilt.  That Quilt Along (scroll down on the left sidebar for link) starts Friday.

FLIMSY COMPLETE!

 Yeah!  My quilt top is complete!  I've been working steadily on this quilt for several weeks now, as you know if you've been following along on my blog.  Now to get it quilted soon, "Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise."

The pattern was in McCall's Quilting, Jan/Feb 2011 issue.  It was all set up for a swap among seven.

We each gathered 46 unique Civil War fat quarters. 23 were cut into seven five-inch squares, one for each of us.  23 others were made into seven criss-cross blocks, one for each of us.

 There were very few duplicates. As far as I know, there are only two repeated fabrics in this entire quilt.

MAGIC FOR MOANA

As you know, I do not have a monetized blog.  I want my blog to be about sharing quilting, not advertising.  But I am sharing this one fundraising effort with you.

This is a blurred photo of Moana (whose name means 'ocean' in Hawaiian).  She went to school with my son, Eric, both in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and at boarding school in 10th grade at Berkshire.  Eric went on to become an attorney, get married, have two little boys.  Moana's life took a different turn.  As she was riding her bicycle to work, she was hit from behind by a speeding driver, and her life was forever changed.  Her family is struggling to provide her with the best care, and to keep her at home with them.

I am asking family members who normally give me a Christmas present to please donate to this cause instead.

I can vouch that this is a good family and an upstanding cause.  I've placed a link on my side-bar if you would care to read about Moana.  If you are generous you may want to contribute.  I know even the smallest donations are appreciated.  This is in no way a scam.  Those of you who know me know that.  Thanks.

WE CAN DO IT!

This week we made foundation pieced string blocks for the Skill Builder Sampler.  I used my black/red/white selvages for my block.  You will find button with a link to this project on my left sidebar.

GIVE-AWAY

Look at the wonderful stuff Hilachas Blog is giving away for her blogiversary!  Hop on over for a chance to win.

PROGRESS

My Across the Spectrum Quilt is progressing nicely.  All the rows are together.  Borders are cut, and hopefully will go on later today.  It is spread out on my queen-sized guest bed in the photo.  I really prefer the scrappy/random placement of the blocks over the rainbow layout shown in the pattern for this quilt.

ON THE MOVE

 I've moved my sewing downstairs to our dining table for the duration of this project.  It gives me a much larger work space, plus the guest bed with rows all spread out in order is closer too.

I miss my loft, but I still have a great view with windows surrounding three sides of this area.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

It's another Wednesday and I'm working on my Across the Spectrum quilt.  This is the third Wed. in a row that I've posted about this quilt.  Amazing focus for me!  All the blocks are here now and I have all the rows sewn and am working on sewing them together.  Here are all the rows.  The ones in the background are stacked a bit so I could fit this on my queen-sized guest bed.  It's the largest design surface I have, other than the floor, and with two dogs there's not chance of it staying the way I have it laid out on the floor.

Today I'm washing my backing and border fabrics.  The goal is to stick with this one quilt, start to finish.  I don't think I have ever done that.  Focus, focus.  I'm hoping I can get the quilt rolled tight enough to machine stitch it on my DSM with my walking foot.

If not I'll either big stitch hand quilt it with perle cotton or tie it.  Be still purists!  I love tied quilts.  They have such a primitive look.  And I don't send my quilts out to a longarmer.  Their work is lovely, but I want the quilts I make to be completely made by me.  And my friends. Now if I owned a longarm, I'd use it for sure.  I just don't want someone else to do it.  Just my little quirk.

If you'd like to visit lots of WOW posts pop on over to Esther's blog where she hostesses this weekly event.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

As Sweet as Cinnamon has been wondering about how our blogs got their names.

Mine is pretty simple.  I like alliteration, where successive words start with the same letter (like Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers).  My name is Pat, so Pat's what?  Patter means chatter.  My blog is where I chatter about my quilting and occasionally other things pop in too.  So the name of my blog is Pat's Patter.

But the link is PatsPattering.blogspot.  Why?  PatsPatter was already taken and pattering is just another form of the same word.

If you'd like to join in this fun, post about your blog's name, and link it with Dawn at As Sweet as Cinnamon for a chance to win a drawing.

I DID IT! UPDATE!

I do think it's working now.  I hope so.  Please let me know again if you are able to copy my link for my blog button, paste it in as a gadget on your blog as a gadget HTML/Java Script, and have it work.  It should show as my button and when you or any of your guests click on it, it should take them to my blog.  Fingers crossed!

Again, many thanks to Blogging With Amy for her precise directions, and to Photo Bucket for free hosting my blog button picture.  Whew!  What a long day!  I did get three rows of my Across the Spectrum quilt sewn together today also.

PS:  Don't ask me how to add a blog button.  Go to the link to Amy!  I can't help you! 

Must be wine time!

BLOCK LOTTO BLOCKS

For Block Lotto this month you can make any 8" fs blocks in blue/cream/tan.  I love this color combination, so I'm entering the maximum this month.  There's a link to Block Lotto on my left side bar.

ENCOURAGEMENT QUILT

A member of one of my on-line quilt groups, recently had the opportunity to go on a 4-week life-changing adventure.  We wanted her to know how proud of her we all are.  Carol, coordinated this 'under the radar' project where we sent her blocks which she then made into a quilt for Cindy.

Here's a close up of the block I sent.  The pattern was from Block Lotto a couple months ago.  The words say "Here's to the new Cindy blooming".

And here's the entire quilt.

I think we managed to really surprise her!  Our generally chatty Cindy, said she was just speechless!

Skill Builder Sampler

I was expecting one more quarter square triangle block this week.  But no, Sewn challenged us with this improv house and tree block.  Well, if it's improv, it might as well be on a hill.  And for the tree?  Why not a Sponge Bob Square Pants tree?  DH and I often walk EPCOT in the winter.  They have trees trimmed square in the entryway.  I often hear kids yell to their parents, "Look!  Sponge Bob trees!:"  Hey, whose house and neighborhood are red/white/black anyway?

WOW = Working On Wednesday

I should have said assembling packages yesterday.  I gave a few gals a start! Today I'm assembling rows, 8 of 19 so far.  I don't have all my blocks yet, as 2/7 of this quilt is in the mail on the way to me.  I won't attach the rows to each other until I have them all made, in case I want to switch things up.

I love, love, love this quilt!  Can't wait to get it all together.  By the way, the pattern is called Across the Spectrum, and the original in McCall's Quilting, Jan/Feb 2011, was put together in rainbow or color spectrum style.  I love it scrappy.  To ensure it is really random, the only thing I'm doing is making sure no two blocks identical are next to each other.  There are very few identical fabrics in this quilt so far.  I'm just taking a solid and a criss-cross and sewing them together, however they come.  What fun!

ACROSS THE SPECTRUM BLOCKS ASSEMBLED

Here we are.  Everything has been put into seven stacks, one for each of us.

Oops! I almost forgot to make 7 signature squares.  We could do them with ink, embroidery, stamps, etc. so I chose to use my stamp.

Six packages, ready to stuff into their mailing envelopes.

These blocks were so fun, but I feel like "check" "done" too!

ACROSS THE SPECTRUM BLOCKS FINISHED!

Yippie!  I finished on time.  These are all my Spectrum blocks.  For each of seven in the swap we cut one FQ into seven 5" squares, x 23 FQs, and likewise, with each of 23 FQs we made seven criss-cross blocks.  All 46 fabrics had to be unique.  This shows all my piles of seven, spread out on my cutting table.  More on this swap soon.

WE CAN DO IT!

This week's Skill Builder Sampler block is Beacon Light, made from 'made' fabric.  I always save even the smallest of scraps, sometimes to make 'crumb' blocks, sometimes for applique.  I think the made fabric was perfect for this block, as it looks like the facets on a beacon light.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

Esther Aliu. one of my favorite designers, posts a WOW every Wednesday.  Gals link to it with their WIP (Work in progress) On Wednesday.  So, here I go.

This week I'm working on criss-cross blocks for a swap (yes, another one!).  This is a rather labor-intensive swap, involving 40 some FQs.  Half are cut into 5" squares to swap, and half are made into these 4.5" finished size Criss-Cross blocks (those little squares are .75").  It's great fun, and we will have all the squares necessary to make the quilt top when finished.  Seven of us are making 7 blocks from each FQ.  Hopefully there will be very few, if any, duplicates.  We are using CW fabrics and Kona Cream.  Love it!  Seven of us will end up with awesome quilts.  This idea was in the Jan./Feb. 2011 issue of McCall's Quilting.  It was all set up for 7 quilters to do the swap.  Who could resist?

My June Taylor shape cuts are really getting a work out this week with these blocks! Notice, I've marked where I need to cut with tape, so I don't have to keep adding by 1.25"!

We gave it 9 months considering you have to come up with the 40 something FQs and then make the tons of blocks.  Due to my machine being in the shop most of the spring, and my eye having issues ever since, I'm running close to the deadline, but I'll make it!