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.

Sunday...

The fall colours have been quite the thing here this year.  I choose to think it because we have had such wonderful weather unlike other years.  Usually September and October are super rainy and the leaves are just... well, a little bit coloured.  This year our super dry summer was followed by more summer right into the fall.  Mum asked me to make her some fall pillows.  She sent a list of colours and an inspiration picture or two.  I made a few string blocks and I just wasn't happy. Yesterday I stitched some long strings together for one pillow but needed another one.  I started another pillow and it wasn't making me happy either so I ditched it and walked away from my sewing machine feeling like I was wasting my sewing time.  Harumph.  I think it was a good thing to just walk away and start fresh.  This morning I grabbed a bunch of linen and heavy natural cotton scraps.  I cut some strips and some squares and made something far more satisfying.

Who would think a little thing like a pillow would get me all in a sewing frump? The moral of the story is... pillows are done.  And I am happy about them.

In Progress...

It is growing.  And fluttering in the breeze on the barn wall.  I have another border or 2 to add and then we will see if it is big enough.  Fun!

And then Mum asked me to make some fall-ish pillows so I got a little stringy with those colours and put this together yesterday.  I will see if she likes it before I make into an actual cushion cover.  I have an idea for another one too but that will have to wait for the weekend.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced and the Needle and Thread Network!  What are you working on?

Today...

I braved the great outdoors to take this picture yesterday.  Husband stood guard with the air horn.  My favourite barn wall is on the bear trail.  How do you like my lovely pink cotton/linen blend tea towel designed by my quilty buddy Cynthia?  She printed them up at Spoonflower.  It is gorgeous and I cannot imagine it touching a dish.  It is hanging in the sewing room instead.  It was a door prize at quilt guild the other day and I just hoped and hoped and... I won it!  Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Marvin!

Meet Marvin, the teenager bear.  He was checking out all the pillowcases on the clothesline.  Earlier in the morning, I was looking out the window admiring all the birdies flying around in the fall sky.  I was still in my jammies and I didn't have my glasses on yet.  I was being quite lazy.  My gaze wandered over to the bird feeder which is about 10 feet from the house.  I thought, why is there a man at the bird feeder?  It was an odd thought.  I almost voiced it to husband when the "man" at the bird feeder turned slightly and I had a view of Marvin's very bear like nose as he munched some sunflower seeds from the bird feeder.  He was standing on his back legs with his front paws resting on the bird feeder.  It was then that I hollered that Marvin was at the bird feeder!  Husband sprang into action and grabbed the air horn while I yelled at Marvin from the house.  It was most exciting in a close encounter with a bear kind of way.

Marvin went off into the woods and we thought that would be that.  It wasn't.  The whole time I was hanging the pillowcases on the line, I could hear crashing and stick crunching in the woods.  I went into the bedroom for something only to see Marvin in the back yard.  I insisted that Husband let me take some pictures before he blasted him with the air horn again.  The really scary thing is that when Husband went out into the yard with  air horn, he saw Marvin but he also saw Edwina, Marvin's mother, at the compost.  She is a MUCH bigger bear and was MUCH more frightened of the air horn.  Thank goodness!!!

...after the air horn, all you can see is a black blob in the flower bed.    He was actually peeking at Husband from the shelter of the shrubs before he took off through the woods.

Oh my goodness.  Happy Thanksgiving, Marvin and Edwina.