Sunday, October 16, 2011

Wrap It Up



Reanimated mummies are more recent Halloween invention, a product of Hollywood. Mummification has been practiced by a wide variety of cultures throughout history. Mummies are found in China, Japan, Tibet and Peru. Natural (and presumably accidental) mummies have been found in a variety of arid or frigid climates. Not all mummies were human. Archaeologists have discovered the mummified remains of jackals, baboons, horses, and even a lion! Unwrapping mummies was a popular, if distasteful, pastime in the Victorian era. Hosts would purchase a mummy for the purpose of unwrapping, then throw parties at which the unwrapping served as the evening's entertainment. Today, when a mummy is portrayed in Halloween art and costumes, it is a tall, lumbering figure, arms outstretched, bandages hanging, and fluttering in the air. Pure Karloff. (Real mummies have their arms bandaged to their bodies, and their feet wrapped together. They would have hopped, not walked.)


WRAPPING UP BLOCKS


Playing with some charms to make little house blocks.


I hope to catch up with the 'Sew Happy Sewalong' blocks - only 7 blocks, but 4 are released (only available for a week). I have the others onto their fabric block, just need to get stitching. I am using glass seed beads instead of French knots - a little added bling.


My triangle scrap barrel was becoming rather stuffed. I find it relaxing to work with these - mindless feeding thru the machine, pressing out, trimming up. I have a nice assortment of 1.5", 2", 2.5", and 3.5" HSTs now. Ready for use in a scrap project. BUT lots more to go. Maybe I can wrap up that project by the end of the year.


I wrapped up the stitcheries for Clover & Violet's Stitch and Quilt along. Added the second border around the blocks - was easier to stitch them with the single - then set them up with skinny sashing and actually since this photo, have added a pieced border. It is ready for sandwiching up and hand quilting.

TRAVELING STASH

Box #1 is moving on to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Box # 2 is still at Mama Spark's World - watch for it to be moved on.

REMINDERS

The Ghastlies will be coming soon, you won't want to miss the line-up of daily blogs. Lots of fun projects and give aways.

Block Party at Sew We Quilt will be running all November. Daily guests with simple block tutorials for lots of inspiration, tips, and techniques. I will be hosting Nov. 22nd and keeping to my 'Squared Up' project. New button on the side bar.

Comfort & Joy - Christmas projects all thru December at Sew We Quilt to help us with those quick gifts. New button on the side bar.

X-mas Quilt Show at SewCalGal - hop over and get the info. New button on the side bar.

CLOSING THOUGHT

Q: Why don’t mummies take vacations?

A: They are afraid they might unwind.



Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

lovely visit Sharon,see you soon,have a great week.

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...

So many wonderful creations!! Thanks for a wonderful post and for the reminders!!

StitchinByTheLake said...

You just amaze me - you get so much done! I love the Santa. :) blessings, marlene

Flo @ Butterfly Quilting said...

Great idea on those little glass bead! That will really add some sparkle! I really like the bottom quilt, love the colors!

Quilter Kathy said...

Love the stitchery block...great idea to use seed beads!

Miss Hillbilly said...

I love the colors you used for your Clover and Violet quilt!!!!

I just read that about the mummies to Seth. Interesting!

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

You look so organized. Wow...maybe that's one of my many problems. I love the background you used for the redwork.

Great effect!

Debbie said...

thank you for keeping up with the traveling stashes!

krisgray said...

Those Victorians - that sounds very ghoulish!!

Love your Christmas sew along block with the beads - very cool. And your Clover & Violet top is adorable, even before the pieced border.

Have a great, Sharon.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Yea! Sarah won! You know that box will be in good hands.

Brita said...

You do such lovely stitching projects! I guess a hopping mummy wouldn't be quite as scary, but I wouldn't want to encounter one in any fashion :-)

Michelle said...

There always the naturally mummified ones -- so we can still have shambling mummies, we've just got to change their backstory a bit! :-)

Shannon said...

Great fun info about mummies. One of my favorite movies is The Mummy with Brandon Fraizer. I love your fabric that looks like wood for your houses, perfect. Thank you for keeping us all caught up in the Traveling Stash. It is so fun.

Snoodles said...

Love your idea of adding beads instead of french knots - inspiring! Also a great help....no matter how carefully I make my french knots, they always seem to need another tiny stitch to hold them down neatly! LOL

Rosa said...

You have been very busy.Love your stitcheries blocks.