Sunday 31 October 2010

Halloween Colours

Happy Halloween to you all, today I went for a drive to check out the colours of Halloween.  This Japanese Maple tree is just up the hill from where I live, what a great contrast to the yellow leaves behind and the blue sky.
 The red the maple leaves are just gorgeous on this tree down by the Fraser River.
 Hints of yellow amongst the red and orange.
 There were two of this bush, great contrast against the green.
 Mountain Ash leaves turning from green to orange.
 The yellow was just beautiful on this tree.
 The Japanese Maple tree at a local garden centre was just spectacular! 
 Back closer to home the leaves turning on this Elm tree.
Some of the leaves along the walkway. 
 Some more spectacular colour with a Victorian house all decked out for the Trick or Treat children coming soon.
Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Wool Crazy Round Robin Update

Here are our completed wool crazy round robin pincushion tops.  First off is Sandi's Autumn theme.  Isn't it lovely?  I added a little heart and a moon and star to my turkey block.
 Here is a closer look at Ethel's portion of Sandi's piece.
 Ethel added a person to each of our pieces!  On the west coast you often need rain gear to go pumpkin picking.
 This is Ethel's Mr. McGarrity's garden, Sandi added a lovely house, some trees and look at that flock of sheep!
 Here is a closer look at her details, flowers climbing the white picket fence and house.
 This is Debbie's Halloween theme, Sandi added a purple witch's boot with some spiders and candy corn.
 The spider body's are black beads and that crow looks ready to have an appetizer.
 Here is my Flower and Bugs top, Sandi added the dragonfly.  She used metallic thread in the wings so they sparkle!
 Here is a closer look at Sandi's dragonfly, love all the flowers she also added to the left.
 Ethel asked if there was room to add this wonderful fairy,  Isn't she cute with her wand and wings!
The next step is to finish them off.  Once they are completed I'll post some more pictures.   But I have to admit I'm addicted to wool applique!

Sunday 10 October 2010

Thanksgiving Weekend

Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend, last weekend I took some pictures of a couple of different flowers.  I'm not sure what this one but it reminds me of an artichoke.
 The colour the leaves of this peony are turning are very pretty.
 The coleus looks like it was gilded with gold.
 This birch tree has a luscious lemon colour to the leaves.
 A straw flower in oranges and yellow.
 The ladybug came for a visit to this zinnia, this week they have all been removed from the gardens.
 I like watching how the leaves of the witch hazel change colour over a couple of weeks.
 Red coloured oak leaf hydrangea.
 A snail found it's way up onto this witch hazel leaf.
 The beauty berries and leaves are so pretty.
 Today is much like the photo in this picture, blue skies with the sun shining.
 This is one of my favourite seasonal quilts.
 This another of my favourite autumn quilts, I ran out of the black pumpkin fabric and substituted the orange polka dot one..you might not have noticed if I didn't mention it.
May you all enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Kaffe Fasset Lecture and Workshop

Friday night I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on colour with Kaffe Fasset.  Saturday I had an all day workshop with him and Brandon Mably.  It was a wonderful experience to spend time with these two creative gentlemen.
 They suggest using a grey, taupe or cocoa coloured flannel as a background for your design wall.  Here is an early start on the piece I was working on.  I didn't do a lot of pre-cutting before class.
 This is my neighbour Lynn's piece.  She has a circle theme going on with some  of her fabrics.  It was fun to see how different people placed their fussy cut florals.
 Across from Lynn was Ione who had some luscious reds and orange florals in her piece. 
 Across from me sat their friend Yoshiko, she had some amazing large florals that I wish I had found.
 Farther along from us was this lovely pastel piece by Marilyn.  It looks so cool.
 Here is my piece after lunch.  I decided to interview some different corner stones.  There is a mottled black in the top left, below it is a turquoise blueberry print.  To the right is a batik of green and turquoise bubbled on a black background and below a blue/green geometric print.  Right away I knew the turquoise was too light and the black made holes.  The is idea is to create a snowball shape of circles.
 This is Kathleen's piece, she has a great print of Brandon's called scribble that will be her cornerstone.

 Here is Lynn's piece with a great red cornerstone fabric.
 Ione pieced a terracotta cornerstone.  Here piece is just lovely.
 The room had a small children's corner that utilized.  That border fabric would look great on either one of the quilts.  It is pencils laid end to end designed by Kaffe.
  A lovely yellow and orange quilt.
 The room was alive with lots of florals and colour! 
 This gal chose to use some bold graphic fabrics along with some black and white.  She has a black and white cornerstone in the top right and a green one in the right middle area that she is considering. Oh I just noticed a mossier green one in the middle left side also.
 This one has some more life-like florals used.
 Gaye stared with only 6 fabrics.  Kaffe took her fabric shopping to expand her stash.  At the end of the workshop there was a door prize of some fabrics and one of his books.  Gaye won it!  Lucky girl.
 This gal and her friend were only using greyed Thimbleberry/Jinny Beyer style fabrics.
 The room had lots of space and light in it.
 Everyone was busy cutting, auditioning, creating.
 Piles of fabric were all around.  Options were welcomed from everyone.
 This started out as one quilt and became two!
Yosiko's quilt on the left, mine in the centre and Lynn's on the right just before we packed up for the day. It was a long but fruitful adventure.  We were so glad to be the first stop on his 5 week lecture/workshop tour finishing in Houston.  Many thanks for Barbara and Maria from the Cloth Shop for hosting this event!