So the "frost is on the pumpkin", as they say, and quite literally here in upstate, NY. Last night it got down to the 30's, I understand. It's about time, we've had the oddest summerlike weather lately. I'm thrilled that when I now go outside it smells like Fall instead of Spring. Again, it's about time. Of course, it means that turning on the heat isn't too far behind, a fact I don't relish because of the ridiculous oil prices, but it is going to happen anyway. Time to bundle up and hunker down. I love this time of year.
I was so busy this weekend! My cold seems to have gone away (mostly), so I was feeling so much better yesterday. I still have a bit of a cough, but the other unpleasantries of being sick seem to have subsided for now. Saturday I camped out in my studio and did not come out until dinner. It is so nice to have a day like that now and again. I worked on my son's costume and finished it. He wants to be a telephone (I may have mentioned that before). So I made one up for him. He will be a purple (his choice) cell phone, made of felt, fleece, and puff paint. No pattern, no complicated instructions, just me and a sewing machine and my imagination. Exactly my speed. I'm very happy with how it came out and he LOVES the costume. So it's win-win. I will take a picture soon. My camera seems to have run out of batteries, and I don't know how to charge it, but when I do, I'll post one for you.
As for my daughter's infamous fairy costume, I did pass it along to my mother, who determined that the reason I couldn't figure out how the sleeves go onto the bodice was because I had sewn them upside down. No surprise there. She "un"stitched them for me, joined them correctly, and finished the costume likety-split (I did say she could sew circles around me in the clothing area, right??). It came out very cute. My daughter looks like a little flower. She is very excited about wearing it, and of course the irony of all of this is that now that the costume is done (and correctly), it's too cold to wear it, so she'll be wearing that turtleneck after all. Ah, the best laid plans.....
Sunday I spent the day cleaning the house. I do like cleaning the house, as strange as that may seem, because I like to take care of it. However, with me, my husband, and two kids, it gets cluttered up fast, and I don't get much chance to declutter. So Sunday I decluttered. Massively. The first floor of the house is now nice and tidy and dusted and whatnot. It is good. Right now we are clutter free and I am happy. I give it until Thursday until it's cluttered again.
I did manage to get a 
bunch of stitching done as well.
The little Christmas trees are from the 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament mag. I made it twice because it was so quick and cute and why not? I'm going to finish them this week. They still need a couple of beads, and then I need to mount them onto their forms. No big deal. Little things like that are fun.
The little fairy on the right is a freebie from CyberStitchers. I made it for my daughter for her upcoming birthday. I'm going to finish it into an ornament type-thing, for her to hang in her room. It's really cute, and since she's learning to read, it's perfect for her. I hope she will like it.
I also got the winter edition of the Hancock's of Paducah catalog. I like that shop, it's not my favorite, but the catalog is so big, it's equivalent to getting the Big Toy Book from Toy's R'U
s. For me, the catalog is really hit or miss. Either I don't like ANYTHING in it, or I like TOO MUCH in it. This time I liked quite a lot. Just a few examples of things I saw that I said "hmmmm" about (and can't line up nicely on this post). Could I be MORE random? Probably. 
Thank you all again for your comments! I appreciate your taking the time to stop by!!
So, I am having the most frustrating day. I woke up and I STILL have this damn cold thing, and I have 0 energy, and I am going slowly and it is so annoying doing so. GRRRR!!!! I am not a person who likes to be slowed down. And now my kids both seem to have the cold, so they coughing and rubbing their snotty noses on everything (including me-mom, the walking tissue), and they are cranky and stir-crazy, and fighting, and it's raining out, and ugh!!
Wowee, huh?? I had placed a order 2 weeks ago with Needle in a Haystack, my new favorite online needlework store. I seem to live in a place with no local needlework store (very unlike the last place I lived that also had no local needlework store), so I have to shop online. I don't remember how I found Needle, but I love it. They are great with communications about orders, and quick to ship. I am a big fan. Anyway, I had wanted to "stock up" a bit on some nice linens and threads to do a bunch of monochromes for the wall in the living room, so I ordered. What you see above is Dirty Linen (on the bottom), Light Mocha Linen (middle), and Flax Linen (top), with my absolute favorite silk thread of all time--Soie Paris, made by Au Ver A Soie. If you like silk thread, you have GOT to try this stuff. I discovered it while looking for a shiny silk thread. It's actually shiny. Most silks are not. But this stuff is, and it's beautiful. It doesn't come in too many colors, so that would be it's drawback, but otherwise, oh, it's just gorgeous. I am so thrilled. And I'm even more thrilled with the colors, because finding a color chart is near impossible for this stuff, and the snippets they show you online are tiny, so it's so hard to see what the color actually is. But these colors are gorgeous, so much better than online. And they are perfect for what I wanted them for. So I am happy. I think I will need to try some out tonight.
.....as for my daughter's costume, well, I still have a week, right? And mom promised to help. It'll get done. And if not, I think the fall forcast for fairies is turtlenecks. They are all the rage.
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.
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!
