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.

Warp and Weft challenge.. done!

I finished my Warp and Weft Challenge.  It isn't due until November!  Yay! Warp and Weft has put together custom bundles of fat quarters for our guild and those that wish buy the bundle and make something.  How much fun is that?  Esmari put together a really lovely bundle and with a bit of other fabric I went to town.   I made a pair of cushion covers for the living room.  I really love them.    They are about 24" square with slightly rounded corners for fun and simple lapped zipper back.  I ordered extra Robert Kaufman linen for the back.  I needed more than the fat quarter that was in the bundle.  I used some Anna Maria Horner Hand-drawn Garden Social Climber fabric for the centre plus in the Japanese Cross/Plus blocks and added a bit of text fabric too for fun.  The Social Climber print is the perfect zing with the other fabrics.  I added a bit of cordless piping around the edges of the pillow in the same Essex linen as the pillow backs.  Theses just make me happy!

The quilting is the kicker!  I quilted a fairly dense grid with Aurifil 30 wt in a lovely gold-beige(2314).  It is a lovely more than just beige thread that added the perfect gilding to the pillow covers.

What more can I say?  I used the tutorial from Badskirt for the blocks.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for finish it up Friday.

Random and more

We have had a great grape harvest this year.  I love grapes.  You know who else loves grapes?  Marvin.  Who is Marvin?  He is our resident black bear.  How do I know he likes grapes?  Because he keeps leaving giant piles of... well, you get it, all over the yard.  This also answers the question, "Do bears poop in the woods?"  And I can answer, possibly but not always.  

It is pumpkin pie season and I have to say that my husband makes the bet pumpkin pie in the world.  It was so good that we actually just had pumpkin pie for dinner the other night.  It was good.  Really good.

Then he made these giant pumpkin cookies with white chocolate bits.  So yummy.  Daughter's recipe!  Yay!

More good news.  I won a give away from Teresa at Twistfully Yours.    So awesome!  6 lovely fat quarters from Michael Miller's Bella Butterflies and Blossoms line and a Sweetwater pattern arrived in the mail yesterday.  Nice!!!  Thank you, Teresa!!!

Then we have to talk about this plant.  It is obviously a Canadian Thanksgiving cactus not a Christmas cactus or an Easter cactus.  Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend.  This plant is huge. This is only part of it and it is covered in  flowers.  I am not the person responsible.  I cannot be trusted with house plants.  Husband takes the credit.

Linking up with Cindy for Random Thursday because we have talked about grapes, bears, pumpkin pie, cookies, fabric and a plant all in one post.  Random for sure.  Happy Thursday!

Progress..

This past weekend, I took care of business.  Bee blocks for That Stash Bee... Katey asked for Rugby Striped blocks in 2 different colour ways to help her out with some boy quilts.  Seriously fun and boy, did they go together fast.  These are already in the mail.  Just today.  Taking care of business!


I also worked on Marcelle but I am waiting for some fabric for the next border.

And I mailed this off to my partner in the Simple and Sweet Swap.  I actually mailed this a few days ago.  It is just so satisfying to check things off the list!

Somehow the list keeps growing.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced and the Needle and Thread Network.  

Oh my goodness it is a lovely day!

Today was the perfect, sunny fall day.  Blue skies and leaves beginning to fall.  I had lots of uninterrpted sewing time and managed to finish bee blocks, work on my Marcelle Medallion, finish my Warp and Weft challenge project and I made the Lucky Stars BOM block... Chaos Star.  This block, with a mere 72 pieces of fabric, went together like butter!  Yay!  Having all the pieces cut, and in rows according to their placement makes all the difference!  I swtiched up the grey pieces a bit for a little bit of extra interest.  Rather than have the greys alternating, I placed them together.  Does that make sense?  So there.  October's block done like dinner.  Only two more to go and I will have to think about turning them all into a quilt.
Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday!

Work In Progress Wednesday...

More progress on my Marcelle Medallion!  The funny thing is... well, more frustrating than funny is that I noticed after attaching many borders that 3 of the triangle borders were facing the wrong way.  Seriously.  So. Frustrating.  So there was a whole bunch of unpicking and a whole bunch of in my head complaining.  And just in case you wondered, there are 64 flying geese which measure about 3" finished.  Just saying.

My fabric arrived for the Warp and Weft challenge so I can get cracking on that this weekend.

Linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday over at Lee's!