Weekend news

I have finally, FINALLY caught up on my blog reader. I'm sure it won't last long, but the unread blog count is at zero now--first time in weeks. Seems when I work several nights in a row, especially busy nights, everyone gets all chatty. Fri. night, when I finally woke up, there were 116 in queue--and of course, more get added daily.

So now, time to post a quickie myself. Oh, and thanks for the good wishes everyone. The world looks a lot rosier when my sleep account is not so overdrawn.

It's also nice when Marty the mailman (with the help of the UPS guy) loads up my porch with goodies. Below are a few things that have come in this last week.

Look at this awesome package I won from Mary at Quilt Hollow:

The first is a fall apron, with two patches for trivets, but which I'll probably use as pockets on the apron.


There is also an autumn panel, which I may or may not rearrange:

A cute scarecrow to stuff and put together (probably for Thanksgiving):




A cute vest that I'll need to figure out how to enlarge. Maybe I'll just applique the items onto a larger denim vest. But it's just what I need for the season:



And, just in case I run out of things to do, a Christmas tree skirt, that I might just make into a table topper for a friend.

The panel comes with a couple of stockings to sew, too:


And lastly, these three little appliques to place somewhere:

Wasn't that a great package? This time of the year, panels will really come in handy. They're so quick to do, not a lot of piecing, and enough to keep me satisfied while I'm getting ready for Pumpkin Day!

Speaking of which, some of the things I ordered came in this week, also.

Three of these books were ordered by me, but the 4th one, "Making a Monstrous Halloween:, was a belated birthday gift from my daughter.

My foam tombstones came in:

The large one is a cheater tombstone that lights up. A little distressing, some moss, and it'll look pretty good. I really couldn't resist this one.

I like the color on this one--it looks more realistic to me, and just needs the epitaph carved onto it.

The Nordic-looking ship on this one was unique:

I only bought one of these, but I think I'm going to order another so I can place them on either side of the sidewalk leading to the porch:

Another cheater item: a skull whose eyes light up.


DD and I talked for a long time by phone last night, planning the party. I'm going to decorate it in sort of an after the "Masque of the Red Death" style. Each room will be done in a different color.
I think I will be dressing as the Bubonic Plague, or maybe the Red Death itself. It needs to simmer in my mind just a bit more, but having a "theme" to decorate helps keep me focused.

One last note on the weekend. I started painting the front porch railing this weekend. All I got done was the primer, because the rest of the weekend was very humid, with threats of rain, and finally, some rain.
This is how the porch looked (photo from Halloween '06) before this weekend:

This is how it looks with the primer on it:

The railings will stay white, but I'm thinking of painting the porch and steps a dark gray. The wood is beginning to weather, and there is a place on the bottom step that stays slick when it rains (the gutter leaks) and is icy in the winter. If I add some fine grain sand to the paint on the steps, they should be much safer to climb.

I actually did some quilting on a Halloween table topper for a friend. It's one I started a couple of years ago, and really want to get it finished this week. When it's done, I'll repost the photo of it. And yesterday I did some more hand quilting on a table runner I put together from some swap blocks I received probably 8 years ago. There are more blocks from that same swap that I may try to place on point and make into a table topper. At any rate, when I finish the runner, I'll post a photo of it, too.

It's going to be the usual very busy 2 months, so don't expect too many quilty pictures. Only 52 days til the Halloween party!