Scary Enough ???

I guess, I could say that where I am come from, we don't have Halloween and so we don't celebrated it at our house here in U.S.. It doesn't help that we are living in the middle of nowhere and no trick or treaters show up by our door. I know that we probably will once we have kids. My fun would be creating new costumes every year and theirs , well I guess candy.

I came home today and felt bad about undecorated house, Friday night like any other, but I was welcomed by these.
Here are few views you would find here if you would come by trick or treating tonight.

Very scary looking giant sunflowers...



The only pumpkin around, with various bugs crawling out of it....



Open pass in th middle of the field that old grumpy farmer cut, to lead you who knows where....hmmm



Walking among all sorts of stuff...



I think I would scare you even without any decoration. Craft Farm became Haunted Farm tonight...

Oh, and here is old Jasper allias "Jasperado". He wanted to tell you all Happy Haloween, but I think I scared him off.

Black Bean Soup to warm up ....

Now that I am in the crunch to get everything done (handmade gifts, school projects, wrap up the season at work,...) I am digging in for my super easy fast recipes for meals at home. They need to be super easy and super fast and even better if I can use what I still have left from the garden.
This was the case with our dinner the other night. I had bunch of small peppers from the garden that I frantically picked all up the day before the first frost. They weren't the most beautiful little fellows, but hey, they taste great.
The Black Bean Soup is one of ours favorite anyway and perfect choice for cooler evenings.
This recipe was my starter and I've been using it for a while now, but I seem to change it every time I make the soup. My variations depend on what I have available at home. If I don't have carrots, I add corn or little bit of salsa. If I don't have cooked ham, I cut up what ever I have (sausage, hot dog, you name it...).
But the one main change to this recipe that I made is to use 2 cans of Organic Black beans as for the whole beans in the soup (We like it thick) and I add 1 can of refried black beans instead of messing with the blender.
Give me a handful of corn tortilla chips, spoon of sour cream and shredded cheese on the top and I am all set.
I forgot to take a picture of our fabulous , super easy and fast dinner. This were the left overs next day - we ran out of sour cream.

Giveaway....

Jennifer at JC handmade has this great giveaway going on right now.
She made beautiful baby quilt and is offering another custom one for the winner.

Please, please, please be it me.



It would go to this very special baby girl that is expected to arrive before Christmas. She is going to be welcomed by four brothers and the happiest mom and dad.



Any color combo would work, but if I have to choose I would love to see red and white, maybe even some flowers.

Go on enter as well, Jennifer creates beautiful work. It would be an honor to own one of her pieces.

Sneak Peak...

It's killing me that I can't show you all my latest projects in their full beauty, but I can't since they are ungiven (is this a word?) gifts still. So mainly for my sanity and impatience I have for you a very little sneak peak.
This quilt is for one of the special baby girl on its way. Yes, there is more than one.


Vintage sheet quilt top is almost finished!! Yay! I working through last border pieces and I am really liking it.
I didn't take pictures yet. Its too big to take pictures inside and outside was quite windy today.
Now just be over with that exam...(subject is Soils)

Gone Quilting....

Finally,
after two unsuccessful trials to quilt all weekend long (or at least one day), I finally got my day of quilting in. Since it is going to be a Christmas gift, I can only show you so much.

I decided to use disappearing ninepatch pattern because I wanted to create that mix and match look. However, I ended up with creating somewhat pattern anyway. Which is OK, since I still like it.

I have all my blocks sewn, not together yet because I had to stop and rethink my whole quilt.
Problem - not enough fabric (blue and green ones). I really don't want to go buy more.
Solution - I will need to add borders. I have enough left over to make stripy border and add some white solid for inner border.



(Sorry, for the light on photos, it was late when I remembered to take pictures or at least the type of pictures I can post without revealing too much of the quilt.)



This was my view most of the day. We put the ottoman on our sofa to prevent him to get on it, but as you can see he'll do anything - push all the pillows down to gain more space, knock down any other kind of barrier we come up with or tries to squeeze in the space he has available like he did yesterday.



Wish me luck to possibly finish this quilt tonight.Well, I kind of have to since I have an exam on Thursday. That will give me two other evenings to study with no distraction of unfinished quilt top.

I got a phone call from my quilter lady that my two other quilts are done. Soon to come... show and tell.

I am branching out...

"Are you branching out?" That is what my friend said after I metioned I bought a book to remind me how to knit. I learned how to knit as a little girl, but never had enough patience to finish anything. I remember kniting vest back home. By the time I was almost done it was too small for me. Luckily, there was enough kniters in the family (gramma, mom, sister) who supplied everybody with warm, wooly sweaters, hats, etc.. I rather kept myself busy with sewing.
Few weeks ago I was inspired by this new kniter to maybe give it a try once more.



As soon as I read her post, I found the book and bought it. I love it. I hope that all those cute ideas and SMALL projects would inspire me to knit something actually from start to finish in timely manner.







And as you can see, I already gave in. Let's hope I can keep it going. It might need to be a little slower because of all christmas sewing I need to do, but I love that I can take it with anywhere I go (...long flight back home in December....). Do they alow knitting needles on planes?

In the process....

There is not much to show on the crafting side. For the past two weekends, my plans were changed due to either cold or stomach bug. I want my weekends back!! I have a lot and very creative plans for this upcoming one, so wish me luck.
I feel that I am running out of time since I am leaving for Europe mid December and two weeks prior to that I will be busy with finals at school. Do you see where I am coming from?
However, time spent in bed was well spent reading others blogs and collecting ideas for my list. My long Christmas list.



One of the items on my list is "quilt to take with me to Europe".
I am going to use my collection of vintage sheets and combine it with more blue and green to match recipient's home. I can't make up my mind about the pattern.




It will be either large hour glass blocks or more larger disappearing ninepatch. Larger mainly because the quilt needs to be about queen size hen finished and as I said earlier I don't have much time left, but also because I think that print on the various vintage sheets would show better if the blocks would be bigger.
Any suggestions?



I need to pick something soon in fact maybe even start on it tonight.