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??

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!!!

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

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.

Here is my block for the Thimbleberries Lovers 2 online group monthly lottery:And, this is my April block for our 2009 BOM “Building Blocks”:All the BOM blocks from Jan-April:On a family note: DD, Justine, and her BF, Stephen, are heading back to Vancouver tonight. They are making the cross country trip via Grey Hound - should be in Vancouver by Wednesday. Unless DH and I can get to Vancouver this summer, we won’t be seeing them again until Xmas!  So, I’ll be filling the void over the next 8-9 months with lots of quilting and knitting! Thank goodness that I have crafting in my life!

Finally completed the Thimbleberries Bear Paw runner. It’s  fairly large  (24″ x 52″) - but our table is long and narrow, so it works out fine. The woodsy lodge colours, the pinecone applique, and the bear paw block coordinate quite well with our our log home living style (can you read “relaxed & casual”?).

Thimbleberries Bear Paw runner

This pattern is one of the four patterns that make up the 2008 Thimbleberries BOM Club “Lodge & Lakeside” queen size bed quilt. The bear paw centre of this runner –>

bear paw block

is actually one of the blocks in the bed size quilt.

Of course, I chose to make the “Lodge” colourway quilt (Queen size) - but, I’ve yet to get the borders on. They are all cut and ready to go, I just need to psyche myself up to sew a large bed quilt. Am I the only quilter with this problem? I can get all the blocks done for a bom or, a bed-size quilt, but then when it comes to putting on the borders, I freeze. Once they are sewn on, and I get it back from long arm quilting, I then freeze at the prospect of putting on the binding. I actually need to set aside an entire day to get the binding on a queen size quilt.  One more goal for 2009 : get over it!!

The long week at work is finally over — now time to do what I truly love. After a nice long walk (well, how nice can it be with two bum knees, hobbling down the road in pain?), but I digress, what I love to do on a Saturday is to hunker down in my sewing room and get to business.  Right now, I’ve got to get a bunch of quilt tops done — even though every neuron in my body is crying out to start on a new piecing project — I really have designated 2009 as my “finishing” up year.

So, it’s back to hand quilting the Thimbleberries Vacation Houses:

vacation houses ALMOST finished hand quilting

And, switch to Thimbleberries Bear Paw runner…..mostly machine quilted in the ditch, but I’m hand quilting in those empty squares:

Bear Paw runner in progress

I’ve got this love-hate relationship with hand quilting. When I first started quilting about 4-5 years ago, I simply fell in love with hand quilting - the peace and tranquility of sitting there pushing and rocking in little stitches, trying to improve and get them smaller and smaller all the time — how you can stitch ANY pattern — not reliant on a machine — it was great, and the method just really spoke to me. At the time I stated that I would never, EVER, start machine quilting MY quilts, NOR, ever, ever, ever have them sent to a long arm machine quilter. Well, ahem….that’s great when you are just starting and learning how to quilt, and you’ve got like, ONE project on the go….Fast forward a year, and all of a sudden, you are taking numerous classes, started some block of the month programs, so-and-so is getting married, or a family member has a birthday coming up, and well, they just love your quilts, and quilt tops are piling up in the sewing room, no time in the world to get to them…..And, VOILA! off to the long arm quilter they go.

And, runners, oh my god, I love making runners — my ultimate goal is to have 52 runners made up some day - one for each week of the year! (FYI, I am no where near the 52 - but I’ve got “seasonals” done). So, I am not going to send runners and smallish quilts off to the long arm quilter. So, I decided (again, that was a few years back), to send out bed size and large laps off for machine quilting, but I’d keep hand quilting the small stuff.  Today, I am more realistic — for some special quilts, and to keep my hand quilting skills honed, I hand quilt - but mostly I machine quilt on my home sewing machine — I really can only do “in the ditch” sewing on my machine, so I will do some hand quilting on some of these to get away from the linear quilting.

Do I still love hand quilting? Yes, I love being able to do it - I love the look and feel of a hand quilted piece. I don’t like my mangled up finger from the needle — I don’t like the S L O W process of it…But, I want to keep up this skill.

Do I diss machine quilting and long arm quilting? No way. I’ve had some quilts machine quilted that are absolutely gorgeous and no amount of hand quilting could come near it.

So, for me, it’s a balance of both — probably more leaning to having quilts sent out to be done on a long arm — and my runners done by me on my machine.

FYI - the vacation houses are done by hand - and the bear paw runner is done half & half. Two methods living in harmony.

March 2009 Thimbleberries Lottery block

I belong to an online group who love Thimbleberries fabric - TB2 Lovers - and each month there is a block lottery. I have participated in the lottery since February 2008.

This month’s lottery block, chosen by Carole S. — winner of February’s lottery –a pretty star block using Thimbleberries cream, floral and coordinate. It was very quick to put together. I will be mailing it to Carole shortly.

Thimbleberries Vacation Houses

This is a terrific pattern from Thimbleberries called Vacation Houses. I first saw this pattern in a quilting magazine and found it at Ericas and purchased it along with the Subtle Solids fabric.  Even though I have never been to Tuscany, the look of these colourful houses make me think of Tuscany.

I got most of it pieced while at the country quilter retreat Jan 22-25, FORGOT to bring the border fabric(!) - but now I’ve got the borders on and am in the process of hand quilting it.

This quilt will be for either our house or my office at work.