The weather was AMAZING on Sunday. I called Kalissa and asked if she wanted to go on a walk. Happily she said yes!
Waucoma is a little river town. The river goes through the center of town with businesses and housing on one side and housing with the park on the other. One of the ways we walk is along the river. It’s always interesting.
Then we walk around the park where it is really pretty too. We had a lot of rain the three previous days so the water is brown now but still it’s pretty.
I don’t think there could be a nicer day for October. I’m so glad this day happened over the weekend so I could really get out and enjoy it.
After I got back to the house I decided that I was going to have a little me time. Even if it wasn’t a lot, I was going to squeak out some.
I’ve been lamenting Bonnie’s Hunter’s pumpkin quilt that was in Quiltmaker magazine. I watched Bonnie sew it last year at this time and wanted to make but there was something holding me back. Although I thought the quilt neat…I just wasn’t a fan of the gray background prints. I like my quilts warm and cozy feeling and the gray to me just didn’t cut it…well, I think I should rephrase that. I like the quilt but… For my house and the colors in my house, I didn’t like it, but boy-oh-boy, I did like the design of the quilt…so what’s a girl to do?
I have been mulling and mulling this over. It’s honestly been on my mind for about a month now…well if I was perfectly honest, it’s been on my mind on and off since Bonnie first picked a gray background a year ago. Gray just isn’t in my house and I knew if I made this, I’d want it in my house…..I saw the black ones she did and black didn’t quite do it for me either….That seemed to Halloween and not Fall.
In the meantime, here and there I’ve sewn and made all the string pieced parts of the pumpkin….finally it hit me. BROWN. It would look more like a pumpkin patch with brown in the background looking like dirt. It’s the farm girl in my to think brown.
Hallelujah!! I finally figured it out. I might not have figured it out had I not made the Texas Tumbleweed quilt. When I made that, I used this brown batik as the background. It was laying on the cutting table and I was picking it up to clean up the sewing room and WHAM! So I tested it out to see what I thought.
Was brown the right pick for me?? YES, YES, YES!!! 
These little pumpkins are so stinking cute. I’m in love. Completely and totally in love. I can’t wait to work on this some more. I am so excited to be working on this fun little project. I likely won’t have it done by Halloween, but I think I can have it done by Thanksgiving. It’s fun to be working on a project that’s fall themed while it’s fall.
The backgrounds are really easy to cut out from a 2 1/2″ strip of fabric so that’s what I did this week over naptime….I cut out the backgrounds. I can’t wait for tomorrow when I get some good sewing time. This little pumpkins will be happening in the sewing room tomorrow!!! I need to work on that deadline quilt too, but I’m going to find some time for these too.
Fun on my walk…fun in the sewing room…It was a great Sunday!
Love the brown background choice. I have my strings done but haven’t been able to figure the size for the corners . First one was too big reread instructions and still draw a blank.
I did that as well. I think there is a misprint in the directions as I didn’t see anything listed for the corners of the blocks. I ended up using a 1 3/4″ square and did a flip corner.
The brown looks great! I have all the fabric I need for the quilt and I’ve been itching to get to it but I have several other quilts I’m working on. But….I may just sneak a block in to get that itch scratched! Wonder if they’re like chips…once you start you can’t quit!
I’ve been wanting to start this one also. I don’t have much orange in my stash, so that’s been a snag. Someday, it might happen. I like your choice of background. I wasn’t fond of the gray on this one either. I’ll see what shakes out! Enjoy!!!
I have been wanting to make this quilt too. I have pulled the fabrics from my stash and maybe I can start this weekend. For the background, I am using text prints that a friend gave to me a few years ago. I have been saving them for something special and I think this is the quilt for them.
This is priming the quilt pump. I cleaned after work for the last two nights-crazy things like cleaning the ceiling fans and washing the decorative quilts on the walls, sweeping and scrubbing, so this weekend is a SEWING weekend! I am going to get some of these UFOS to top stage. Love the pumpkins with the browns. . .love the string piecing. . .not sure that I have a lot of orange, either.
The brown background is a great choice, though I like the gray too. When I got that issue of Quiltmaker, I was surprised to see that the pumpkins were paper pieced with a printed foundation sheet found in the pattern section in the middle of the magazine. Am I getting senile? I thought that on Quilt-cam Bonnie did those on on ordinary paper, and that she added the corners using the Simple Folded Corners ruler. Or am I getting this mixed up with a different Quilt-cam project?
I love Bonnie’s pumpkin quilt and was pleased to get the block in Quiltmaker magazine, but I, too, thought Bonnie, on Quilt Cam, was sewing them on regular paper and adding the corners by stitch and flip, using the the Simple Folded Corners ruler,. By measuring the template in the magazine, I now know the dimensions of the pumpkins, so will probably use the Quilt Cam method to make at least one block now but I have to fulfill some promises I made some time ago that I am much too late in fulfilling, so that comes first. I really, really like your idea of brown as the background for the pumpkins, because after all, pumpkins do grow in the pumpkin patch (smiles)! Thanks for your post on this! Can’t wait to see more more of your blocks!
LOVE your brown background on the pumpkin blocks! You inspire me…..as I wasn’t feeling the love with the gray background. Have that issue so need to start making the orange pumpkins! Thanks for your share and inspiration! You are also a GREAT writer….so enjoy reading your posts!!
I love your idea of using brown for your background for the pumpkins! I’ve been wanting to make this quilt too and now I have the perfect reason to, it will be Fall and not Halloween. Thank you for sharing!
Bonnie uses phone book pages for her foundation string piecing, then “snow balls” the corners. Quiltmaker magazine, and others, change the designers instructions to suit the “general” world of quiltmakers—-follow Bonnie’s instructions !!!! Have a friend that did this with navy blue for the background–too cool