Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I just love this quilt!  This cute quilt–two dogs on their way home from trick or treating with their loot – was made by LindaJ for me in October 2010 and was given to me for my birthday in November of that year.  I have hung this quilt for Halloween every year since.

Our daughter and son-in-law came over to visit with us tonight.  They had just received their wedding photos back from the photographer and could hardly wait to share them with us.  When our DD and SIL visit, Sarge also comes along.  This is a picture of Sarge in his trick or treat costume–dressed as Frankenstein or Frankendog.  This picture doesn’t make Sarge look too happy.  He is tolerant of most of the costume ; he just doesn’t like his ears covered.

Happy Halloween!

A New Iron

DSC_0210Today my iron quit.  An iron lasts me on average two years.  This was a great iron for a quilter–it was heavy, it produced lots of steam, and it had a removable reservoir that you could take off the iron and take to the sink to fill directly from the tap. DSC_0216

This is the new iron that I bought–a Rowenta, the Eco model.  So far, I love this iron.  It is heavy like my old iron and it produces lots of steam.  The reservoir does not come off, like my old iron, but that is a small thing.  http://www.rowenta.ca/Pages/catalog/ironing/stream-irons/Eco-Intelligence.aspx

I don’t usually purchase the extended warranty when I buy small appliances like this.  However, the extended warranty was for two years and given that I usually only get two years out of an iron, I thought it might be worth it so I bought it.  We will see how long this iron lasts.

Quilt Show Weekend

This weekend was our local guild’s quilt show.  Set up was Friday.  We opened Friday night from 5 pm to 9 pm.  This was the first year that we opened our show up to the public on Friday night.  Saturday we were open from 9 am to 4 pm.

This was the view as you came in the door of the church.

This was our raffle quilt.  This was the first year that we sold all of the tickets that we had printed.

This is our guild banner.

We had a small merchants’ mall as well.

And now….on with the show!

I spent all day Saturday demoing crumb and string quilting.  This was my table – set up in front of one of my quilts, Got Stripes that was entered in the show.

1.)  I entered a total of 14 quilts in this show.  Got Stripes is 99.5″ x 115.5″.  The Pattern is by Terry Atkinson  from Terry’s Time Out Quilts book.  This quilt is part of a collection of quilts gifted to my daughter and her husband on the occasion of their wedding on September 1, 2012.

This was the display that I looked at as I demoed on Saturday.

This display was also in my field of vision as I worked away at my demo table.

2.)  This is where my quilt, Love Is was hanging.

A closeup of Love Is.  This quilt is 37.5″ x 49.5″.  This pattern is by Paula Stoddard and was on her blog, Quilt Happy, Quilt Often, at one time. This quilt was presented to my daughter at her bridal shower in August.

3.)  This is another one of my quilts–Minnesota Hot Dish.  This quilt is 86″ x 101″.  The pattern is by Terry Atkinson and is also part of a collection of quilts presented to my daughter and her husband at their wedding on September 1, 2012.

4.)  This is another of my quilts, Butterfly Trails.  This quilt is 64″ x 77″.  The pattern is by Atkinson Designs and is from Terry’s book, Time Out Quilts.  This quilt is part of the collection of quilts that was presented to my daughter and her husband on their Wedding Day.

5.)  This is where Bento Box hung at the show.

Bento Box was the fifth quilt that I entered in this show and is 61″ x 75″.  This pattern is by Tracy Brooksheir.  This quilt also forms part of the collection of quilts that were presented to my daughter at her bridal shower.

This picture shows the long row of quilts that hung on the far wall of the hall.  Two of my quilts are visible in this picture – Pansies and Fire Escape.

6.)  Pansies is 51.5″ x 68″.  The pattern is by Kari Nichols.  This quilt forms part of the collection of quilts that were gifted to my daughter at her bridal shower.

7.)  This is Fire Escape.  This quilt is 59.5″ x 71″.  This quilt was presented to my daughter at her bridal shower.

8.)  This is where my Jelly Roll 1600 quilt hung at the show.

This is a closeup of JR1600.  This quilt is 47.5″ x 62″.  This quilt still belongs to me!  The pattern for this quilt can be found on You Tube.  The online quilting group that I belong to–the FABs–celebrated each quilter’s birthday in 2011 with an online birthday party.  This quilt was assembled during Pam’s birthday party.  After the presents were opened, we were on to the rest of the party.  Pam and Cher used commercial Jelly Rolls and Linda, Pat, and I used strips cut from our own stash.  After joining 40 – 2.5″ strips end to end you have 1,600 inches of fabric.  Take the end of your strip and match it with the beginning of your strip and put the pedal to the metal and sew!  You will be working on one long seam–800 inches long.  You repeat this 5 times and you end up with a lap sized quilt.  There is to be no pressing of seams until the top is done.  The women on the video claimed to be making their tops in 35 minutes.  It took longer than 35 minutes for me to complete my first seam!  After sewing my top together I thought my top needed something more.  All the green fabrics looked like a lawn to me so I thought about adding some bugs.  After the quilting was finished, I appliqued the 5 ladybugs to the top–one ladybug for each FAB.

9.)  This is a wall hanging that I made from a panel.  I called this one, Love.  (Not very original, eh?)  The pattern that I used was Sidelights by Kari Nichols.  This one finished 46″ x 53″.

10.)  This is where my quilt, Halloween Scrappy Log Cabin hung at the show.

Halloween Scrappy Log Cabin is from a pattern by Two Kwik Quilters and finished 47.5″ x 66.5″.  This was a pattern that many of us from our Monday night quilt group have made.

11.)  This is the quilt that I finished recently–Fall Rail Fence.  This quilt finished at 68″ x 86″ and was inspired by a quilt on the cover of the January 1999 issue of Traditional Quilter.  The quilt in the magazine was called, Christmas Village and had a border of foundation pieced houses and trees on it.  I started this quilt in 1999 and by the time I got around to finishing it recently, I decided that I no longer liked the border that was on the quilt in the pattern so I replace the pieced border with this green/sunflower print.

12.)  This quilt literally came right off our bed before it was hung in the show.  This quilt is 95.5″ x 103.5″ and is called, Rooster Twist.  The name of the quilt pattern is Strip Twist and is by G.E. Designs.  I belong to a group of on-line quilters called the FABs.  One member is from Wisconsin, two members are from Oregon, another member is from Alabama, and then there is myself.  Although we had quilted together on line since 2006, only a few of us had met in person before we got together for a retreat in 2009.  We had a great time–each of us piecing together our own version of this quilt.  Friendships were bonded together forever that weekend and we continue to quilt together most weekends thanks to MSN and e-mails.

13.)  This is a small version–61.5″ x 72.5″–of a larger bed size quilt that I made, All About Halloween.  This is another Terry Atkinson pattern–All About Me.  This quilt was gifted to my son and his wife after the quilt show.   This quilt was a healthy alternative to trick or treat candy this year.

14.)  This is the last quilt that I entered in our quilt show this year.  This quilt is Halloween contemporized Country Squares and measures 73″ x 85″.  This pattern is by The Stitchery in Olds, Alberta.  While attending a family reunion near Olds, Alberta in August 2010, I had an opportunity to visit a local quilt shop called The Stichery.  I fell in love with the samples of this quilt that they had hanging in the shop and purchased my own copy of the pattern from the mother/daughter team that designed the pattern.  This pattern was perfect for my Halloween scrap collection.  This quilt was gifted to my daughter and her husband after the quilt show and was a healthyy alternative to trick or treat candy.

This is a picture of one of the fresh flower arrangements that decorated the tea room tables.

By the end of the show, I was exhausted.  It is always a lot of work to put on a show like this.  However, it is all worth it when you receive the positive comments from the public like we did.  See you all in another two years!

More Trimming

Tonight we trimmed the second tree in our front yard.  I can’t believe how many times we filled the back of the truck with tree limbs before we cleaned up all that mess!  We have definitely reduced the amount of raking we will have to do later this fall!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.  We had our turkey dinner last night.  I like to have our turkey on the Sunday of Thanksgiving Weekend so that the kids do not have to worry about fighting traffic when they go to head home at the end of the evening.  Also, it is nice to have the holiday Monday to relax after the preparation of that big meal the day before.

We have had exceptionally good weather for quite some time.  Chilliwack has recorded the driest August in 82 years and the driest September in more than 133 years since the start of weather records in 1879.  In September we had just 6.6 mm of rain which all fell overnight on September 10 and 11.  The 30 year average for rainfall for August is 64.8 mm and for September is 112.7 mm.  The last day of significant rainfall for us was July 23.  Further temperature records that were broken were 31.8 degrees on September 8 and 30.5 degrees on September 17.
Because of the fantastic weather, we were able to enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner outside.  This will likely be our last picnic in the backyard for the season.

The weather forecast is supposed to continue through the week with a change in the wind for next weekend.  We have enjoyed this unusual run of dry weather.
Yesterday, while waiting for the turkey to cook, I put the last of the stitches in the binding of my fall rail fence quilt.  This quilt finished at 68″ x 86″.

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Canadians!