Here's what I've been up to

It took me a few weeks to "settle in" after our trip.  After a brief hot spell, the weather in Southern California has turned a bit wintry which encouraged me to get back to my sewing room.  Here are some recently finished projects.

A friend from our quilt club gave me the pattern for these cute Halloween placemats.  The pattern is Pumpkin Party by Susie C. Shore Designs.  I know they'll be covered in sticky food residue once I give them to the kidlets, but I still couldn't resist them.  Can't wait to give them to my favorite Halloween goblins!

The September/October issue of Creative Machine Embroidery has a fun project that tempted me.  I haven't used the embroidery module on my Bernina in quite awhile.  I've enjoyed stitching these doorknob hangers - one for my daughter, one for my sister, and one for me!  It's not exactly a quick project since there are multiple steps.  Still fun, though.

I found a tutorial for a small bag that intriqued me.  I thought maybe I'd reduce the weight of the bag if I used a smaller one!  I do like the finished bag, but I totally messed up the directions.  I had one of those flashes of understanding in the middle of the night and realized what I had done wrong with the pattern.  The bag is actually supposed to be a few inches shorter and not so narrow looking.  This is something that I need to be aware of when using tutorials from blogs -- it's lovely that bloggers give these patterns away for free, but they aren't professional pattern writers.  I need to scrutinize the patterns a bit more before diving head first into a project!

I love the fabric, though, which I purchased last week during our group's shop hop.  We stopped at Quilt in a Day in San Marcos, and Eleanor Burns was actually in the shop!  She graciously offered to pose with us for pictures (didn't have my camera - shame on me), and signed patterns and even a fat quarter!  Then she gave us a personal tour of the room they've remodeled to give them more cabinetry, cutting areas, and sewing tables for creating the quilts.  Quite a lot of fun for all of us.

I'm generally not a fan of yo-yo's, but I thought the bag needed an extra something once I finished it.  I do like the yo-yo trim, especially with the addition of the button from my button jar.  I used the button sew-on program on the 640 along with the #18 foot.  Worked perfectly!