No Sewing, Only Yard Work

Not much sewing going on when there is so much yard work to catch up on before winter. We down sized our yard when we moved into this house two years ago, I thought there would be less to do but somehow it still seems like there is sooooo much clipping and pruning to do. I cut back the ivy, a couple of bushes and hubby mowed the lawn and that was 2 trips to the recycling depot, I can only put so much yard waste into the back of my Subaru.
Since I don't have any progress to show on stitching, I took a couple of pictures of these older quilts "old to me but new to you". I haven't shown these yet. The top quilt is a Blended quilt I made over 5 years ago and I would guess the crow and chicken stitcheries are just as old.
The chickens haven't been quilted yet....on my "to do" list...along with many other flimsies. I should finish this one, I like how the tea dying turn out and it would look nice in my kitchen.
Wendy

Polka Dot Girls Block 7 and Quilting at the Lake

I'm back....Wow did this week ever fly by, with painting and a few days at the lake it was a busy time and here it is Sept already and the kids are back to school. I hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend, I sure did. I'm not done the painting of the steps yet...too much rain last week and today is more of the same. The days I could have painted we were at the lake on Vancouver Island...it was excellent that we had wonderful weather while we were there. I finished another block of the Polka Dot Girls, I have one more of these larger blocks and 3 of the little ones and then.....I'm done...I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Here is a little basket I made last week, I've been using it for my stitchery. You can find the instructions here. Some of us have been extra busy making several of these baskets, check out Darlene's dozen...they are so adorable.
This is our view of the lake from my in-laws house. Would you believe in the winter the lake comes up close to that line where you see the railing. All the grass, brush and trees are under water and sometimes the lake will freeze a bit too. It's just incredible to see how close the water comes to the house. You can't see it from the picture but the house is on the side of a hill, so they've never had a flood.
While the guys were off Kayaking for the weekend, the girls were busy making this Double Irish Chain. My Aunt wanted to make a quilt from her oldest daughter and since my Aunt and MIL are both not experienced quilters, I offered my help. The three of us finished this queen size top in a couple of days. We don't know yet if the quilt will be a wedding gift or not...the engagement hasn't happened yet but my Aunt is keeping her fingers crossed. She wanted to be ready just in case.

Jo's Little Women and New Sheep BOM

This week I started a new BOM, it's from Buttermilk Basin and each block has a sheep on it. I decided to start with the pumpkin block because there is a lot of talk about fall in the bloglines and this would be a good chance to be way ahead for once...LOL Look over at Crazy for Primitive Quilts and Gardens, she has been working on these blocks for a while now and how quite a few already done. I'm having so much fun with these because they are fast to complete.
I finished the top for my Autum Song quilt which I started at the Jo Morton class in July. You'll find this quilt in Jo Morton's new book, it's really a nice book with lots of eye candy. There are 100 of the fussy cut stars in this quilt.
My Jo's club met last week, yes I'm way behind in posting these pictures. I'm still painting the front steps, we've had a few days of rain which means I have to wait until it's dry to paint, it would be better if I could just get it all done, rather than dragging on like this. The steps are looking beautiful with the purple.
Isn't this a sweet little quilt, I don't remember how big it is. Our next Jo's quilt we'll be using the left over triangles to make this little quilt.

There are a few emails that are showing up as "no reply email" and I've had a couple of questions. It would be easier if I could reply directly rather than relying on me to remember to post the answer here. Sorry if I've missed answering a question, I don't do that on purpose....the memory doesn't always work...LOL

Mary: The Polka Dot Girls I believe you can buy them separately but you would have to contact the quilt shop to inquire.

Carrie P: Regarding the applique bird quilt in the last post, sorry I don't know the designer but I will try and find out.

Quilt Walk

The LQS has a Quilt Walk and Antique Car show in Aug each year. I was helping them last weekend with hanging quilts and organizing them to return to it's owner....who would have thought there was so much to be done. The quilts are hung in the shop windows around Ladner Village and the streets are closed for the antique cars and vendors. This was my favourite picture, of course I've always loved this quilt but the flower shop has put all these lovely flowers outside and it just made the quilt even prettier. I like how you can see the reflection of the cars and the quilt almost looks like it floating.
Sorry about the reflection in this one, here's another of my "it's on the list" quilt to make someday.
Too much reflection on this quilt to really see it very well. You'll have to believe me that it's gorgeous.
This quilt was absolutely stunning and gigantic, it's done with nine patches and plain alternate blocks.
I don't know who made this car cover quilt....Oh Gosh there's so much to see on this quilt. And yes there is a car under all those lovely pieced blocks.
I wish I could have gotten this without the reflection....I tried, it just wasn't working. This quilt was done by a dear friend and I LOVE it!! She also won a ribbon for "Viewer's Choice" Well done Donna!!!
EDIT: I just 2 seconds ago talked to Jenny and my Midnight Garden quilt won 2nd place for "Viewers Choice"....woohoo. Oops sorry I didn't think to take pictures of my own quilts....I've seen them a million times....what a dummy...LOL. If you want to see it go here, its the first wool quilt in the post.
Cute puppy quilt, I believe this is a Buggy Barn pattern.
Quilted Bear is the local quilt shop that hosts the show each year. Jenny the shop owner does a tremendous amount of organizing to pull everything together and she does an excellent job. I think she's been organizing the Quilt Walk since she opened the store 7 years ago and then added the antique cars a few years ago. Gotta keep the guys happy too!!.
There she is!!! Isn't she sweet, that's Jenny owner of Quilted Bear. She has a talent for getting things done and has a wonderful staff of worker bees....they do a fantastic job behind the scenes.

Display inside the shop. Halloween is coming soon. Are you thinking pumpkins yet??? I sure am, I have a pumpkin quilt in mind to make soon.
More displays in the shop. That's it for today.
I have more pictures from yesterday's Jo's Little Women club to show, come back for that soon.

Show and Tell

A small stitching group I belong to meets once per month. For various reasons it's been a couple of months since we last met, thus the reason everyone had lots of show and tell. Here is our Little Jo's club quilt. Mine is the one on the left side. We have our next Jo's Little Women club next week so I'll have more of these to show you.
Two more Little Jo quilts. They are all so lovely.
This small tulip wallhanging is actually made from a paper napkin. Don't ask me how she did it.
Isn't this a sweet little pouch.
A couple of little friends that dropped in on the party....teehee. I wanted to take them home with me...I tried to hide them in my bag but they hopped right back out again....LOL
I love this bag, she's even added leather handles.
Another great looking bag.
This quilt is using 30's fabrics and grandmother's flower garden appliqued in the centers.
Just tooooo cute!!!
Little Jo club quilt.
These 4" LeMoyne stars are hand pieced and put in a frame that she bought for .50 cents. I love it!!

I'll have more Jo's Little Women club pictures to share next week.

Have a great weekend.

Building Going On

This last couple of weeks have been hectic with construction guys tearing apart our front steps and putting in new foundation. This little guy was busy last night making a web next to my computer, he's pretty little so I didn't mind get rid of him. Any bigger spiders I'd be screaming and I mean screaming for hubby to come and remove it....I don't like spiders in the house especially those big black ones....eek, they belong outside as far as I'm concerned....
The front stairs were looking pretty shabby, with the wood rotting away. They really did need to be replaced. It was hard for me to see them go.
Hubby's out there doing the inspection, making sure those construction guys are doing the job right. You have to keep a close watch on them I tell yah....make sure they are working and not goofing off. Stairs are completely torn out.
Look at how beautiful the new steps look, the construction part is done. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend.... painting of course. The stairs will need three different colours. The railings are black, the posts are a cream colour and the steps are a burgandy red. It's going to be hot this weekend but we have to get the painting done before the rain starts again....which could happen any day.
I finished this little sewing bird pillow yesterday. I made my own changes to the pattern and enlarged it to be 6" square. The pattern is from Artful Additions CD by Kathy Schmitz, you can find it here.

Have a great week!

Weekend Getaway and Gifts

I love this rusty garden decoration. If it wasn't so hot I could be sewing but then again I wasn't home for the last 5 days either. It's so hot here today, I just turn into mush and all I can do is sit and snooze, I don't know why the heat makes me sleepy, (no we don't have AC) I had to drag myself of the couch to get this post done...I bet you're a little happy I did...at least I'd like to think so. Hubby and I took a driving trip down the Oregon Coast on the weekend. It truly is a beautiful drive along the ocean with many little towns to stop and explore. We didn't get very far down, we'd need an extra week to see it all.
Oregon has many areas of covered bridges, we tried to find several of these but found the maps were not very good. Here are a couple we came across. The red one was built in 1890 and the while one I think was about 1920's or 30's.

I only went to a couple of quilts shops, believe me there were dozens I would have liked to stop at...that will have to be for another trip with my quilting peeps (that's such a cute name, I borrowed it from Yellowfarmhouse...teehee). Here is a couple of bundles I just had to take home. If you like reproduction fabrics then this shop is for you and me too, it's a jammed packed little house full of nothing but reproduction fabrics . There wasn't any fabric in this shop that I didn't like. The top bundle is Jo Morton plaids and the bigger one is Sturbridge Village Calicos. Sorry I'm such a bad blogger, no pictures of the store to share, I was so excited to see all the fabrics I forgot about pictures. The owner tells me she is working on a shopping friendly web site...oh my gosh I can't wait....I hope she gets that going real soon.
I've been a little slow in showing a some wonderful gits I received. I''ve been doing a block swap with a few other bloggers. We are just about finished with the swap and Darlene (what a sweet dear) sent each one of us this adorable "Stitching Angel", she is so cute and whimsical with rusty wire curls for hair. Thank you Darlene, she is a wonderful remembrance of our swap together.
Isn't this a cute little sheep, it's a wool pincushion or it will be when I get the stitching done. Karen sent this to me all ready to be finished. Thank you Karen when it's not so hot I'll be getting this sweet thing done.

I hope you've had a great weekend. I can't believe how fast July has whizzed by...holy cow we are well into Aug already. Keep cool.