I love fall! It is my favourite season. I just love the crisp cool days, the colours, the leaves changing, the smell of fireplace smoke in the air, walking through crunchy leaves, pumpkins and spice and everything nice.

I even like the dull rainy days. Those are the days that I stay in, and we put a fire on in the fireplace, make a nice mug of tea, and either quilt or knit the day away (usually both!).

This weekend, on Saturday,  I was up in Northbrook at Log Cabin Yarns for a yarn dyeing class. It was terrific. Look at the yarn twelve of us dyed:Mine is the third from the left - one of the olive hanks. All round it was a fun day.Summer of 2008 I had taken a fabric dyeing class, and it is a similar process.

Sunday, DH and I went for a 3.5km hike in the Lanark Highlands:The leaves are not yet at their peak, as here in the maple forest most of the younger trees are still green.

There are some trees that are in full blaze of colour:DH in a winter deer yard:A little bit of colour here:And some nice specimens of fungus/mushrooms:After our wonderful hike, I managed to get up to date with my TB Lovers 2 (online Thimbleberries group), and got my October lottery done:

Waterwheel Variation

And, my  BOM Building Blocks October block:

October Building Blocks a Nancy Rink Designs BOM

January to October:And a HOF (hearts of friendship) block for Tina’s new grandson:Happy Fall everyone!

It’s catch up time again…Long time since I’ve posted about what I’ve been up to in the sewing room.

Usually, I don’t spend much time in the sewing room over summer, but, since this has been our summer:I have spent a fair amount of leisure time crafting.

Mostly, I’ve been working on some redwork, namely Bronwyn Hayes’ The Wish Quilt from Homespun magazine (vols 9.7 -9.9). Here are the blocks that I’ve completed so far:And currently working on this block:I am really enjoying these blocks, and I really enjoy the magazine. I am subscribed to both Homespun and Country Threads. It’s always a treat when these mags  publish Bronwyn Hayes’ patterns.

I needed to fill a vacant spot on the kitchen wall, so I whipped up this folk art wall hanging. The pattern was for needle turned applique, but I used the fused method. I compensated by hand quilting it.

Signs of Spring designed by Tonee White in American Patchwork & Quilting April 2002

Finished this trio:

With regards to the TB Lovers2 internet group, I  finished and mailed off my August lottery block:It was oh, so nice and easy, And, I completed block #8 for the Thimbleberries BOM, from Nancy Rink designs:

Block #8 Nancy Rink Designs

I finished these socks:

Sleepwalker socks knit in BMFA Socks That Rock "Rose Quartz"

I started this lacy scarf:

"Alexandria" knit in Estelle Cadenza Merino & Tussah Silk

Outside, well, even with the bummer of a summer things are blooming:

Ollie among the Coneflowers

Here’s Kiwi saying ta-ta for now…Like her haircut??

Madonna by Catharina Breedyk Law

The Lanark Quilters Guild sure has some talented quilters! Their show this year “Quilts on the Tay” (Aug. 7-Aug 9) is once again pheonmenal. I took a lot of photos, but trying to balance a cane, a camera, my bags, didn’t allow for me to make notations of the talented quilter for each piece. There are a few of these ladies that I have met, or taken classes from, and I’ve included some of their works here, since I can credit them for it.

From one of my favourite “redwork ladies”, Marilyn Crawford, some miniatures:

Miniature patchwork by Marilyn Crawford

Redwork doll quilt by Marilyn Crawford

This is another by Catharina:

Sheep by Catharina Breedyk Law

A few more shots, but unfortunately, I don’t know the quilter - if someone recognizes he/she, please email and let me know so that I can give proper credit:Bravo, Lanark ladies (and gents) on a great show!

I like to start my month off with my “obligations” - the online TB Lovers2 BOM and the monthly TBL2 lottery:

Building Blocks BOM - Block #7 JULY

July Lottery

The BOM is really starting to get there:

Nancy Rink Designs -TB Lovers2 2009 BOM

Last year I had signed up for so many BOMs at the LQS that I couldn’t keep up. This year I’ve designated as my finishing up year, and didn’t sign up for any BOMs. It’s nice (and free!) to do the BOMs that I am doing this year online. I need to start/continue with all the ones from last year, but life (and knitting) seems to have gotten in the way.  But, I am plugging away at some wips, getting them finished off and clearing the way for 2010!!!

Three cheers for the Vermont Quit Festival! I never would have thought that day-trippin’  via bus tour would be so much fun. Well, whaddaya expect with 40+  quilting gals cruisin’ down to Vermont together on a luxury bus? Getting up at 4:30am wasn’t so much fun, but other than that, it was a smooth ride down and a great day all together.

Unfortunately going to Vermont meant that I had to miss my lqs’s quilt show. I had three quilts in the show:

Holiday Sampler BOM

Angels Watching Over Me BOM

Spruce it Up!

I could have entered a bunch more, but time wasn’t on my side and I’m just happy that I managed to get these finished up in time.

Where does time fly? Well, I’ve been busy in the garden:I also got dad’s table runner done in time for father’s day:

I just love making runners!

I’ll update later with some of my recent purchases, including what I got in Vermont.

Hard to believe that we are already in May. Well, here are my blocks for May:

May BOM

BOM progress: January-May blocks

May lottery blocks, one for the lottery, one for charity

Kudos to Amy of park city girl blogspot for creating/organizing this online quilt festival! What a terrific idea.

This lap quilt is my submission to the festival:

It is not my best quilt. It is not the prettiest or nicest of my quilts. There was no pattern for it.  It started as a store challenge with a small scrap of yellow rooster fabric. The fabrics I added were scrappy and uncoordinated, and mostly leftovers from some other quilts.  I never even met the person I gave it to. But, this is a special quilt, and I feel that it deserves to be shown and acknowledged.

This quilt is special because it was given as a comfort quilt to a lady who had terminal brain cancer. The process of  giving it to her, and knowing that she used it in her last year of life, and knowing that it brought her some joy, makes me proud to be a quiltmaker.

The quilts that I make are made to be used and loved. My quilting career so far has been fairly short - I basically learned how to sew 5 years ago, and quite often I still feel like a novice quiltmaker. But, every quilt I’ve made since I started  is either used in my own home, or has been given to family & friends. I am always so pleased to give someone a quilt, but giving  the comfort quilt made me the happiest.

We made table runners at my LQS’s Friday Fun Nite. There was no “real” pattern, just grids and ideas on how to use charm packs and coordinating fabrics to make a table runner in whatever size we wanted. This is how mine turned out:I used Moda Holly Taylor “Trail Adventures” charm pack  and fabrics. I will machine quilt it.

This morning I put on the final borders for the Thimbleberries 2008 Lodge quilt. I will post a photo later on.

Happy Easter! It’s so nice to have the extra time off this weekend, and I’m using that time to put together last year’s Thimbleberries Club Lodge quilt. This morning (between lattes) I got the centre portion sewn together:

Thimbleberries 2008 club "Lodge"

now, I’ve got to trim it to 64 x64 and start adding the borders. It will be queen size once it is all together.