HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday.  Since this year has been so upside-down and sideways with moving and getting the house ready to sell (plus my Halloween kitties are all in Santa Fe), I am posting some classic photos of the cats to celebrate this year.

Stella as Vampira Bella.

Edgar Poe as Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"  Heeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeeee's Edgar

Remy as CATZILLA, Destroyer of Boxes

Gomez as a Gargoyle

And me....well I've been watching "The Walking Dead" too much lately............

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Hope everyone has a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

A Boo-thday Party

Michigan Trip (continued)

My sister-in-law planned the most awesome BOOOOOthday party for me and decorated the house to full effect.

She made the place mats and napkins rings and covered bottles with new labels

And made these really cool pumpkinsAdding balloons, spiderwebs, and creepy crawlies everywhere.

My mom finished her Hocuspocusville quilt and had it on display.  

 Don't forget the eyeball punch!

Sweet and Savory Bakeshop in Oxford MI makes THE BEST CAKES!!!

It was a great booo-thday party.

  

Full Moon Friday

How perfectly Halloween-y a full moon tonight!  Even more Halloween-y was last night's visit to the oak tree outside of my bedroom window. I had just dozed off and S. woke me up saying "listen... an owl."  And sure enough, we heard "hooo hooo hoo hooo" about a dozen times.  Not having an iPhone with a bird app (whoooo wants an iPhone? me!), I looked up owls and figured out we were visited by a barred owl. 

Photo courtesy of http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/owlp/

Living in town, it's rare to have owls visit.  One year at dusk, I did see two Eastern screech owls in the oak tree, which was amazingly cool.

I didn't see this owl but am overjoyed that we were honored with his/her vocal visit. I love owls!


Well I am taking a vacation day today and am off to sew. Don't forget to go to this post and enter my b-day giveaway before noon tomorrow (owls not included).

A Monday Off

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada!!! I know Smudge and Lester are enjoying some turkey bits today.
Well my three-day weekend is nearing an end (it's Columbus day and government workers have the day off). I didn't get as much done this weekend as I wanted to (weekends are never long enough...).

Halloween season officially started here at Chez Stella Bella with an annual viewing of one of my favorite movies Tim Burton's Sleepy Hallow.  We also watched Martha Stewart's Halloween special. I wish I had the time and supplies (and staff.....) to do everything on her Halloween Central website. 

Today, Edgar Poe and Stella went to the vet for their annual check up.  They were not happy but did check out all healthy.  For being good kitties, they did get treats and just to make it fair, Morpheus and Gomez got treats too.

I'm a little over halfway through sewing rows together for this year's Halloween quilt.  I had hoped to show a finished top today but here's Stella with a little look-see. 

Another Finish and Celebrating October

I LOVE October!  Let's all do a Snoopy Happy Dance for October!  It is my absolute favorite month of the year.  October is the beginning of Autumn in the ATL; fall festivals; my favorite holiday Halloween; time for pumpkins, apples, squash, apple cider, stews, soups, and yummy comfort food; and oh yeah my birthday month!!!  I've been gathering some goodies for a big b-day giveaway later this month (check back or better yet sign up to be a follower if you are interested). Onto my next finish...
Voila! 

This poor quilt was lingering around without its binding for a couple of years(!!) and I finally finished it.  The pattern is by Gundrun (who is hosting a super fun October blog hop).  I can't remember what the real name of the quilt is but I call it "Sleep Deprivation" because I made the quilt while working insane hours at two jobs and the crazy colors and pattern perfectly fit my zombie life at the time.  Gorgeous colors in this Moda line.  My quilt holder was outside mowing the lawn so I thought I'd get photos in daylight so the colors would be true.

Yesterday was Groovy Girl day at Bad Melisa's.  Tons of fun at 8:30AM. Check out Melisa's new fall display as you walk in the store.

The project for this month is the best set of drawstring bags ever. I'll be working on several this month.
 
Melisa also has a great display of Dr. Seuss fabric. I love me some Dr. Seuss!  Especially the Grinch and Max.
 
















After a lengthy visit at Sweet Home, I went to Old Navy to finish up a little goodies box to send to Mackenzie.  I bought a great little bib for her at Target this week and rounded out the outfit with a Halloween shirt and socks at Old Navy. How cute is that shirt with the little black cat????!!!???  I bought some other cute fall outfits (no pink!) on clearance so she'll be stylin' this fall. I love being an aunt :)

Autumnal Equinox, Harvest Moon, and Wrathy Grapes

Happy Autumn everyone!  My favorite season and my favorite time of the year.  Although the weather is STILL not cooperating (still 90F during the day) and I am wearing sandals at the end of September. Even without looking at the calendar, I could tell it was a full moon tonight because of the wacky phone calls today. The full moon closest to the autumnal equinox is called the harvest moon.  Nothing to harvest here because we haven't had any rain in weeks!  I'm beginning to feel like a John Steinbeck character in The Grapes of Wrath; the garden and yard are hard-packed dirt with dead weeds. 

Martha does Halloween the best.

Since October is almost here,  it's time to get out the Halloween coffee cups (my usual beverage vessel--the coffee cup--good for everything including wine, white or red, doesn't matter) and stock up on this year's Halloween themed magazines. 

Make lots of projects with Halloween fabric. This fabric reminds me of myself--running around with cats everywhere.

My sewing friends and I (we really need to figure out a name for our little group) are doing another fabric swap.  This is swap #3.  Have I finished the other 2 projects yet?  That would be a big no....

Here are my bundles all ready for swapping (with Halloween ribbon, natch!).  The little black kitty feet belong to Mr. Gomez.  He's Mr. Halloween 24/7.

September Thimbles

Yesterday was Silver Thimble Quilt Club. It was packed full and several people were absent at a quilt retreat (Karin, Becky, Cindi, and Brenda). To paraphrase one of my favorite movie quotes "Pat, we're gonna need a bigger boat!" I did manage to snap some photos of show n tell this time. There was not much room for quilt showing this time. I think we need a stage area too.

Here is Jane with her "Minnesota Hot Dish" quilt. I love the colors. Some lucky person is getting this quilt as a present. Wish it was me!

This quilt was made by Awesome Beth (she is behind the quilt and that is Trisha on the right). Beth is a longarm quilter and does amazing quilting. She did an amazing job on my Mardi Gras quilt, I just need a couple of quilt holders so I can photograph it outside.

Here is Trisha's quilt (Beth is on the left) and a detail...
This quilt had gorgeous fabric and is perfectly pieced.

I spent time chatting with Kristie and working on a new Halloween project. Here's a little look-see.

Today is more sewing. I made another Groovy Girls Club project using both selvages and a zipper for the first time (this little cutie is a pattern called "Cash n' Carry".
As you can see I am really getting into the Halloween spirit. October, my favorite month, is nearly here! I just love the spiders instead of the usual dots on the selvage in the center.
And the other side
As with all Atkinson Designs, the instructions were fabulous and my first attempt at a zipper went OK. I vowed I wasn't going to start saving selvages because I don't need one more thing to hang on to. Although I do have some neat jars that are currently empty. Maybe I'll just save Halloween fabric selvages...

well, maybe French General too....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Hope everyone is having a happy Halloween and over-indulging on fun-size candy bars :) What is your favorite? For me, it's a toss up between Butterfingers and Reece's Peanut Butter cups and sometimes Snickers. Twix are good too. Maybe I better try them again to see what I like best...

No trick or treaters this year so far. Bummer. It's damp and drizzly and cool outside and there are not many kids in the area anyway. I think the most that have come in a year is around 10. Someday I'll live somewhere with lots of trick or treaters and then I'll decorate my house big time! Just like Martha...

In the meantime, I took some photos of houses in Michigan for inspiration. Halloween is celebrated a lot more than in the South. If you aren't too scared, check out these great houses
I love the coffin with the vampire and the big ghoul on the front facade. Nice old house too.

This person went all out with all the well-known horror movie themes. The huge spider web is a nice touch.
This house is very spooky at night with great lighting effects too.
I would love to sit on the porch of this house and see neighborhood kids' reaction!!!

Happy Halloween!

From Zombie Kitty!!!!

Birthday month

October is my favorite month!! I love Fall, I love Halloween, and my birthday is a week before Halloween (I think I was born a week early) so this is my birthday month. Since I was a kid, I have had Halloween-themed birthdays with Halloween cakes, decorations, pumpkins, etc.

We have a great tradition in my family that not only can you celebrate your birth-day, but some years you may celebrate a birthday week or even a birthday month by doing fun things that you want to do for a longer period of time. You could also say things to your little brother like "be nice to me, it's my birthday month" or "the last brownie without edges is mine, cause it's my birthday week" (my brother and I always wanted the brownies in the center of the pan without edges so we would argue over the last center brownie).

Anyway----in the tradition of quilty bloggers, I am having a giveaway to celebrate my birthday. A couple of Moda charm packs, a great pattern by my friend Pat of Silver Thimble Quilt Co. and some Halloween stuff. I will probably add some more fun treats before this gets sent out to the lucky winner.

Here's the details if you are interested in the drawing:

1. Leave a comment on this post and let me know what your favorite Halloween costume was (in the past or last year--doesn't matter) and you get your name in the drawing once.

2. If you mention this giveaway and add a photo of yourself in costume on your blog, you get your name in twice! (if you don't have a photo of yourself in costume, you can use a child, pet, or something you want to be :)

3. Deadline is noon (EST) on Sunday, October 26. If you don't have a blog, make sure you add your email address in the comment.

I'll get y'all started:

Here is me as Isis (check out the blue eyeshadow!). In case, you didn't watch The Secrets of Isis on TV in the 1970s here's a photo and info from Wikipedia:

(see the resemblance? Mom did a great job on the costume!)

From Wikipedia: "The Secrets of Isis (also called simply, "Isis") starred JoAnna Cameron as Andrea Thomas, a high school science teacher who found an ancient mystical amulet on an archeological dig in Egypt. The amulet belonged to Hatshepsut, an ancient Egyptian Queen and it gave the wearer the powers of Isis... Whenever Isis was needed, Andrea would reveal the amulet and incite an incantation ("Oh, mighty Isis!") and she would be transformed into the goddess Isis. As Isis she was given great strength, the ability to move inanimate objects, and the power to fly and run at super speed...Unlike other superheroes who responded when people called their name, Isis often came to the rescue of people who didn't call for her, arriving in the nick of time and encouraging the wrongdoer to see the error of their ways through self-reflection." (Did anyone else watch this or was it just me???)

Thanks for helping me celebrate!!!!!!