“Welcome All” and “Welcome Fall”!

Stitched in Color is having a “celebrate color” contest that I have mentioned here before and I thought it would be fun to enter it and see what happens.

Want to see what I made for the “home décor” category?

I have an interesting process for coming up with ideas. I think of the theme that I want to work with and then I “google” that item in the images and see what comes up.

 

Sometimes I find what I’m looking for and sometimes I find something different and like that better. I then copy and save each image that strikes my fancy and that I could possibly work with. I then turn to my supper-dupper partner in crime craftiness and he helps me come up with a layout. There is an awesome FREE program called paint.net, which Adam knows real well because he’s played around with it quite a bit. I tell him what I’m thinking of, I show him the pictures that I have found, and he helps me combine them all into a pattern that I like. Pretty cool, huh? (He’s pretty cute, too!!) He gives me wonderful critiques and ideas… I may be the crafter/sewer/quilter, but I wouldn’t come up with what I have with out him.

I don’t really decorate for fall (or any season, really) so I thought it would be a nice touch to have something for fall (and for winter, spring, summer,….). I LOVE all the colors of fall and wanted to incorporate as many of those wonderful colors into this little quilt as I could.

I wanted to have the leaves blowing in the wind and gathering on the ground, just like they do on a blustery day, but I did NOT want to stitch around all of those edges, turning this way and that. So I took the risk idea to applique each leaf, pumpkin, letters, and the tree with the free motion quilting foot. I like the “rugged” look of the frayed edges and the quirkiness of the stiches.

The best part about this quilt (aside from the fact that I’m going to keep it)? It used everything, from the backing to the batting to the piecing, from my stash! Even though it is a little quilt and didn’t use much of anything, it makes me feel good to use up what I have.

I was pondering what to do about the quilting, seeing that there is so little white space. After much thought (mostly while I was nursing Caleb in the wee hours of the morning), I decided to quilt it in tight circles and loops. I’m very glad I did and when Adam said that it looks like the wind, I knew I made the right choice, for that is what I was going for.

Don’t you love the texture of the tree bark? That was Adam’s idea.

I was concerned that the tree wasn’t a clear “f” and people wouldn’t get the fact that it spells “fall”. But Adam said that even if they don’t, it still says “welcome all”.

And that is exactly what this season is about for me. I love having people come over. I want people to feel welcome to our house, at any time (well, 2 am might not be the greatest of times…).

So there you have it: “Welcome All” and “Welcome Fall”!

“Thank you, Maacah, my wonderful helper!”

As a side note, Caleb is now 5 1/2 weeks old and he’s so long that he’s in 3/6 mths clothing already! Crazy boy!!