Quilt me in the Fall

Firstly, I just want to thank all of you for the lovely comments you've left about the pumpkins. I am thrilled with them too, and because the pattern is my own, and you all like them, I am just so happy! Sewing is my favorite thing to do, next to stitching. Mostly, I sew quilts and tabletoppers and runners and such, and make up new patterns (I'm developing my own line for next year when I launch it). The pumpkins are a bit of an expansion for me because they're sewn and not quilted. I'm trying to branch out with the patterns I write. I'm really glad to hear that it's working. Thank you all so much for the feedback.

The title of the post is because I don't quilt in the summer. Does anyone? It is just too darn hot, and personally, I can't get my brain to engage enough to figure out patterns and piecing. I just feel so lazy in the summer. So I guess it's like a two or three month vacation, depending on the weather. But I am a fall person. Totally and utterly. And when fall rolls around (and then winter and spring, for the most part), I can be found in my studio sewing away. For this reason, I guess, I have more quilts than I can store. I've not bothered to count them--I'm guessing that if I counted finished quilts, I'd have 30 or so, and if I counted finished quilts and also pieced but not quilted quilts, I'd have 40 or so. Storing them has gotten to be a bit of an issue. As of now, I have confiscated my son's trundle, which is a huge removable drawer, stored it under my bed, and rolled all my quilts and put them in it. Of course, he's going to need/want his trundle back eventually, and then I'm up a creek. :)

I do display the quilts, and I definitely use them, except for the ones I made as models for the pattern line. But the others are out and used and loved, especially in the fall and winter, when it's cold! What's the use of having a quilt if you can't use it, right?
This is a picture of the boys using one of the quilts. They look so nice on the quilt, which looks so nice with the pillows on the couch, which all looks so nice against the window with the pretty Maple tree mapling (new word--you like?)away outside. So I snapped a pic to capture it. It is just so peaceful, I think.

The quilt the kitties are laying on is called "Flea Market A Francais". This is what it looks like when there are no kitties on it:

This is a closeup of the patchwork.

This is a closeup of the quilting on the border.

This "pattern" is my own--it's nothing fancy--I made it because I loved the fabric line and wanted a quilt made out of it that I could use all the time. If you are a fabric fanatic like me, you might remember this fabric line. It is Moda's Chocolat that came out last year. It is so pretty! I bought a few of the charm square packets and a couple yards of the red for the border and brown for the binding, and just sewed the squares together, added the border, voila! It was easy--too easy. So I decided that heck--it needs something, so I bought a whole lot of nice brown thread (Mettler--nice stuff, by the by) and went to town with the different stitch features on my sewing machine. It was a lot of fun. Then I thought I'd really go crazy, and I quilted a very elaborate pattern into the border, just for kicks. I think it really works. And when it was done, it spoke to me and kind of said "flea market". And the fabric being Chocolat, well, is French, so "Flea Market A Francais". Ta da!! It is a great quilt to warm up under.

This is another quilt that we use in the fall:
This one is not my pattern. It is Thimbleberries' "Harvest Time". I almost never buy patterns, because I make my own. However, I really liked this one and was going to buy it, but my mother bought it instead. She was going to make the quilt, so I figured I would just wait until she was done and borrow it, but I got impatient. I photocopied the picture from the front and figured it out on my own. When she finally gave me the pattern my quilt was already done, and it turned out that I had made my version bigger than the pattern did. I also think I turned some of the leaves a different direction for symmetry. But otherwise, it's a good match. I love this quilt. I think it is just beautiful.

I can think of a whole bunch more quilts to fit fall, but I can't find the time to make them right now. I promised to make my daughter a costume, so if I'm quiet on this blog for a little while, that's why! But I did want to say thank you again for all your kind words. Thank you all for taking time to read my blog. I truly do appreciate it!