Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.
~Mason Cooley
Today is Halloween! Are you ready for all those little ghosts and goblins to come knocking on your door? Our porch light will be off and we will not be answering the door. So many of the kids that come knocking are in high school and not wearing costumes that it has taken the fun out of Halloween for us. I used to love answering the door to the little kids in their darling costumes but so few of those come calling any more. I think there parents have gotten smart and are participating in the group parties where it is safe and the candy isn't tainted by weidos. So, no, we won't be smiling at little devils and divas this year. What is your experience with trick or treaters?
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LITTLE FACT OF THE DAY
Jack-O-Lantern
The term jack-o-lantern comes from an old Irish folktale about "a stingy drunkard of an Irish blacksmith named Jack" who outwits the devil.
At the end of the rather involved tale, Jack is deinied entrance into heaven and hell and doomed to walk the earth until Judgement Day with only a turnip housing a burning coal to light his way (hence the name Jack's lantern, later changed to jack-o-lantern).
The upshot of the tale was that people would dress up in costumes, leave treats, and carve turnip lanterns to both appease and scare away wandering spirits on All Hallow's Eve.
When the Irish Potato Famine devasted Ireland, over 700,000 fled to America, bringing the carved-turnip custom with them. Unfortunately, turnips were not as readily available in their new home. Pumpkins, however, could be found in abundance and were a whole lot bigger and easier to carve.
Have you carved your pumkin?
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SWAP BLOCKS SENT
I have gotten way behind on sharing some blocks I've made over the past month. Let me start with......
This Antique Tile block was made for Shannon on of two hostesses for September's Let's Bee Together. Everyone was supposed to sign their name in one of the white blocks, but as you can tell, I totally vegged and forgot.
Look! One of my "favorite" blocks. This mosaic was created with fabric sent by Bailey for the October Let's Bee Together. I really like the fabrics she sent. Making the block.....not so much.
I think I may have finally figured out how to make a decent log cabin block.......
Foundation Paper Piecing! Using a foundation pattern and my Add A Quarter Inch ruler I was able to create.......
These two 6 inch blocks for Jen for this month's 6 Inch Block Swaps Australia. She requested log cabin blocks made from batiks. As my batik stash is rather limited, this was the best I could do. Definitely time to add to my baticks. But at least the blocks came out true to size and are square even if the photo makes them look a bit wonky.
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WINNING SQUISHIES
Last week I received a few squishies in the mail for giveaways I had won.
Gene had a giveaway for this book. I'm so looking forward to reading it but I have the previous one to read first. Thank you, Gene!
Isn't this the cutest little needle case? I won this over at Primitive Quilts and Projects. The wool is so soft and will be a great place to store my embroidery needles. Thank you, Leah!!
And remember when my little bugs quilt won the Quilting Gallery weekly contest? Well.....
I have been neglectful in publicly thanking JoJo's Quilt and Gift Shoppe for their generous donation as the winning prize award. I received this gorgeous double fat quarter bundle of Rural Jardin by French General. It still sits in its stacks until I can find the absolute perfect quilt pattern to use these on. Any suggestions? Thank you so much to both Michele at the Quilting Gallery and to Jojo's!!!
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ANOTHER PRACTICE SQUARE
I have another free motion practice square to share with you.....
Graphic Flower gave me a few fits once I got past the first layer of petals. But once I got into the flow it was really fun! This sure used the thread but I really like the look. I also noticed that it made the block shrink up a little but I don't think I had my sandwich tight enough so things shifted just a bit.
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TODAY'S GOAL
Today I hope to finish my little mini quilt for November - after all, tomorrow it the first!
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GIVEAWAYS
Crafty Imaginings By Jen is having a giveaway. You could win 4 Fat Quarters of Ghastlie Fabric, 1 Fat Quarter of Pink Kona Cotton Fabric, 1 Spool of Grey Coats and Clark All Purpose Sewing Thread, 1 100 Pin Package of Dritz Straight Pins, 1 Package of Schmetz Universal Sewing Machine Needles, and 1 Hand Exercise Ball. This giveaway ends Friday, November 4.
Quilter In The Gap is having a giveaway. You could win a ghastlie sewing machine cover. This giveaway ends Friday, November 4.
Bee In My Bonnet is having a giveaway. You could win a Daisy Cottage fat quarter bundle. This giveaway ends Tuesday, November 1.
Lily's Quilts is having a giveaway. You could win either Electric Quilt 7 software or Quilt Album software. This giveaway ends Wednesday, November 2.
Hawthorne Threads is having their weekly giveaway. You could win a So Sophie layer cake. This giveaway ends Wednesday, November 2.
Vrooman's Quilts is having a giveaway. You could win 7 pieces of Ghastly fabric (assorted sizes) and a wonderful but unfinished table runner. This giveaway ends Friday, November 4, at midnight.
Moose Stash Quilting is having a giveaway. You could win MyMemories software. This giveaway ends Thursday, November 3.
Have you entered the giveaway for the Traveling Stash? You still have time to enter HERE.
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FINAL THOUGHT
Happy Halloween!!
27 comments:
Happy Halloween to you too, Linda!
Not many little ones in the neighborhood... maybe 4 total... but I'll be waiting for them!
The teens w/o costumes are not so much fun... I only see them once in a while...
We usually get about 500 little trick or treaters. We do get a few older ones but they come dressed. All are extremely polite. We sit in the driveway in chairs and pass out lots of candy.
Teresa's Heartfelt Stitches
PS - Like your log cabin blocks
Nice log cabins! I'd be in trouble if anyone asked for baticks from me.
thanks for the history of Jack-o-lanterns. And I like your final thought picture. Happy Halloween!
We'll be doing a Trunk Or Treat in the church parking lot for our little ones. We're out in the country and nobody comes to our door there. My husband gets a bigger kick out of it than I do!
Love the log cabin blocks!
Happy Halloween! We don't get many trick-or-treaters, but I still love putting a costume on and answering the doorbell. The teens we get wear costumes, and I love seeing them - I'll gladly reinforce their trick-or-treating rather than have them get into some mischief. Only once did I have a teen without a costume. I told him, "Dude! Put a costume on and come back!" and shut the door. OK, I'll be honest. My biggest reason for liking when the teens come is that my girlfriend and I like to sit dressed up on the porch and throw the candy at them. . . ;D hehehehe
Halloween was never one of my faves - guess it's part of being a farm girl - no neighborhood to go walking around. However, DH loves it and so does DS, who plans to be either a vampire or Transformer Bumblebee. He's 4 and last year I bought several costumes on clearance at Wal-Mart that he dresses up in from time to time.
We get itty bitty, just walking kids up to young teens. The last few years we haven't had many older teens, I think there are other activities for them. While the malls in our area are open for trick or treaters, none are super close. DS is appeased by ringing about a dozen door bells in our neighborhood and talking to everyone, he is quite the Chatty Charlie. DH takes him and I stay home and hand out candy, we may have to buy some more as the chocolate was a little too tempting this weekend - LOL.
We're getting fewer and fewer trick or treaters each year. I think we had less than a dozen last year. I miss them, but guess it's a sign of the time. The Trunk or Treat places provide them an opportunity to get a lot of candy without so much exercise!!!!
Our kids and grandkids all come over for dinner tonight and then we go around to the neighbors. No big deal, but fun anyway.
Your modern block looks terrific and the Log Cabin is gorgeous in those colors.
Paper Piecing log cabins...now that is better! Much easier than trees and water mills, huh?
Hi Linda! Happy Halloween! As I live on a street with only 12 houses and no small children, we don't get any trick or treaters. But we have a family tradition where we all go to my FIL's on Halloween...he lives in a large subdivision with a LOT of kids. We always order pizza, and hand out candy to the kiddos. But I've noticed the same thing as you...in recent years there have been very few small ones with cute costumes and LOTS of teenagers with NO costumes. It does spoil the fun!
Love that mosaic block, although it looks like it was hard to do. And I love your free motion, too!
XOXO,
Cyndi
What a darling needle case....lucky needles : )
That's so sad about Halloween near you :( in my old town that was the case, but when we moved 13 years ago to our new town we came across a different scenario - so many kids that we didn't have enough candy the first couple of years! I know there have been less and less kids every year but I still enjoy sitting out on the porch and seeing all the costumes. I love that FMQ by the way - looks like it would take some time though! I would hesitate to do that on something bigger than a mug rug =P looking forward to seeing your November mini quilt, Linda!
We got tired of the older kids, too...in our small town, the merchants downtown set up a trick or treat walk for the little ones. They have a lot of fun showing off their costumes!
There will be no trick/treat here - town is on 6pm curfew-lockdown - most homes are boarded up, torn down or no one living there. The school and fire dept are sponsoring an after school event today
We have had less and less trick or treaters too. I usually turn off my lights about 8 p.m. ... I figure the little ones are done by then. I do give big candy bars to the kids I know tho since they are the ones that come visiting EVEN when there is no treat involved.
Love the batik log cabin blocks. I don't have a stash of that either.
Great idea doing the log cabins by foundation piecing. What great winnings - lucky you. Your fmq practice makes you look like a true professional - very fun quilting :-)No trick or treating here for us - we're a bit far out in the country for that (plus the metal road puts people off!!), but I do understand a little happens in the towns/cities in NZ - the advertisers sure try pushing it and I think there are pockets of trick and treaters around.
Halloween experience: Last year was the first year I have handed out candy and there was an OK amount of little kids. Even though my front yard is well lit with a city lamp, one little tike tripped on their costume and fell down my cement steps. That was scary - but they didn't even cry! Good thing you bounce when you are little instead of just crack like I do now!
The info about Jack's Lantern was really cool, I had no idea!
Finaly my comment for your free motion sample if Holy Sh*T! That is beautiful!! Literally, that is what came out of my mouth when I got to it. I will definitely be doing a sketch of your graphic flower in my book for later reference!
Happy Halloween!
-Carolyn
Lots of fun stuff on your post today. Your giveaway win is amazing, that fabric is so pretty. Happy Halloween! We'll be sitting with the porch light off, too!
Great Jack-O info!
Trick or treaters - well, this year (please, don't beat me up), we are going to "hide", turning out the lights and just watching TV. All the years before, we have been so involved and BZ with Halloween...this year we are going to hide.
Traveling Stash - this sound like soooo much fun! But, alas, I better not commit to anything right now. =)
hugZ,
annie
rubyslipperz106.blogspot.com
Thanks for a good read this morning. I've already been over to some of the blogs you suggested.. so ThAnKs ! :)
I love the mosaic block. I may have to try making one of those. The black pieces in yours are so even. I suspect mine would not be so even. LOL
G'day. We didn't have many kids come to the door as I thought, but the ones that did were all dressed up and looked great. It was also good to see that there was an adult with most of them. Love the story of Jack O Lantern. Your FMQ is just lovely. I must try that one. Take care. Liz...
Awesome FMQ!!!!! Your blocks are just grand!
Wow on your practice piece. Lovely!
We don't do Trick-or-Treaters any more. In fact I put a sign on my door for them to not knock. We only got one little guy all by himself at about 4:30. Our community does a trunk-or-treat at the drive-in and then a cartoon after dark. I love you FMQ sample, very busy!
I really like the look of the flower in your free motion quilting. Very nice.
Another wonderful post. Love your logcabin blocks and your fabric choices and again another great Fee Motion block.
oh wow! Your graphic flower is AWESOME!!! I love it!!!!
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