Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  I spent the day amidst a sea of small superheroes, a great many witches, vampires, princesses and a few zombies.  It was a wonderful day!  We paraded through the whole school to the tune of the Monster Mash until we had gathered up all the students.  So fun!  I was pretty hot in my witch outfit by the end of it!  And let me tell you about witch hat hair.  Even worse than regular hat head hair!

I thought I would share some glimpses of fall at Mum's house.  Her back deck surrounds a huge and lovely maple tree.  It was a glorious celebration of all that is fall.  The picture just below is my new screensaver.  Think of the leaf piles?????!!!!!!

May you sample your favourite Halloween candy.  I love cheezies!  Linking with Random Thursday.

I do like wonky stars...

So I put this together the other day.  The squares started life at 2.5 inches.  Just scraps of mostly one of Basic Greys Christmas lines from a few years ago.  This might grow into a table runner but mostly it just kept me having some fun last weekend at Mum's.  I took my Featherweight along but I forgot also sorts of things like scissors and a stitch ripper.  Essentials.  I used Mum's scissors but her stitch ripper should be in museum!  I think I know what is going in her Christmas sock!

Linking up with the Needle and Thread Network and Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday.

Fall Weekend

I spent the weekend in the Okanagan visiting my Mum.  I raked  some the leaves.  Visited lots with Mum.  Ate the last grapes.  Watched the salmon spawning.   Visited a nice little quilt shop and scored some Pat Bravo Art Gallery fabrics at 50% off.

And some Sweetwater black stripe for Clothworks... Was that before Moda?  Anyway, it was 70% off.  Along with a Lecien print and the yellow/grey something or other.  Total deals!

Then I raided Mum's zipper jar.  Total score.

And Mum had some fabric for me too.  Red stripe cotton and then the blue is ticking.  Nice heavy weight and there is a lot of it.  These were thrift store finds.  Thanks, Mum!!!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013

Name:  It Looks Like My Garden

Design: Playing with values, 6" HSTs, inspired by Katie Pedersen tutorial

Size:  approx 84" by 90"

Fabric:  assorted fabrics and scraps in light and dark values

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in light grey (2615)

I made this quilt during the summer and yes, I have posted about it already.  It is just such a favourite that I thought I would enter it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I was such a lot of fun to make and it was also wonderful to use up a bunch of fabric that was lingering in my stash that I may have wondered if I would ever use.  When you start focusing, not so much on the print but, more on the value, all kinds of fabric, all of sudden, becomes so much more acceptable!  I will admit that there is a fabric in this quilt that actually has turnips, asparagus and brussel sprouts.  I think it was a Martha Negley print.  It works!  If you look carefully at the picture below, you might just be able to spot a bit of turnip in a few places.

 The explosion of colours and the play of values just hit all the right notes for me.  My friend Sue saw the quilt when it was on the design wall and she said, "Hey, it looks like your garden."  And it does so that is what I am calling it.  I have wanted to make a values quilt for years.  I have drooled over the values quilts that Katie Pedersen has made and I finally just had to do it.  

The back is a collection of bits and pieces from my stash that I am trying to use and a classic text print from Stof.  Before I knew it, the back had become a quilt in itself!

The quilting was done by me on my Janome Horizon. I used a light grey Aurifil 50 wt in the rows of straight line quilting.  Two rows on either side of the seams lines in the vertical.  I love straight line quilting.

Linking up with the Blogger's quilt festival!  Bed quilts category!

Random Thursday... more pumpkin

I guess we are a little pumpkin obsessed at this time of year.  So how pretty is this pie?  Husband fancied up a pumpkin pie the other day with this snazzy web design.  Just perfect for fall.  It tasted sublime.

Last Sunday afternoon, a car pulled up in the driveway and a man got out, opened the car trunk and pulled out a nice pumpkin. It was a gift from the real estate agent  we used when we bought our place several years ago.  Clever marketing.  He had a little ribbon with his name stuck on the pumpkin.  Random pumpkin delivery.  I was a bit lost for words and I think I got out a thank you with a bemused look on my face, I am sure.

And a few pictures of fall at our pond.  Happy Random Thursday... linking up with Cindy!

It's growing!

Okay.  So I think this is big enough.  I added the final border on Sunday.  I used a feedsack print because I am going with a retro vibe and it had all the right greens, pinks, reds and lots of black and white.  I made this final border 5" wide... wider than the final border in the pattern because I wanted it to finish bigger.  In quilting I am all about the go big or go home.  

The other thing that just seems to grow all on it's own is the basket of scraps that I keep on the cutting table.  I throw everything in their until it overflows and then I sort it all into piles of like colours.  The piles then go into the appropriate plastic shoe box for storage.    I do keep two containers and put my itty bitty scraps in this fabric bin.  The itty bitties get used for all sorts of things.  How small a scrap do you keep?  The leftovers bits of trimmings go into another bag for pin cushion stuffing.  

Itty bitties...  these need some sorting.  I see some scraps that need to go in the stuffing bag!

Pillows for Mum

Fall Pillow for Mum.  The top one is linen and natural cotton with some quilting cotton bits and the one below is just strings.  It looks a bit wonky but it really is square.  Trust me.  There must be an illusion going on.  I think she will like them.  I do.