Autumn 2018 Where did September go?

Saturday night Autumn arrived and Sunday was the first full day of Autumn.  But what happened to September?  This has been a busy summer for me and I've not had much time to post.

 The New Westminster Esplanade aka Quay was in full bloom this year as always.

 Love seeing the Dahlias putting on their colour blooms arrive.

 We has a lot of sunshine with some rain at times and the worst fire season ever.

 A view thru the lobby window.

 September brings our guild meetings again and my friend Ethel was once again a featured speaker.  She was one of the early members of the Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild and also helped for the Canadian Quilters' Association.  This is one of her first hand pieced quilts using cardboard templates.

 I love the soft colours and the ghost blocks that you can see pieced in this lower photo.

 This was a self portrait of Ethel, her family has a long English history of being warriors.

 Some of her family lived on the North Shore which has some of the wealthiest people living in Canada.  Her grandmother raised chickens and this story tells of them getting into the fermenting raspberries. Ethel was a former school teacher and made some mistakes in the printing of the story.  She went back with her red pen and corrected them much to the horror of some of her guild members!

 This is Ethel's version of Cheri Payne's free basket quilt.  Ethel added a word each month.  Sadly Cheri passed away this year but what a lovely tribute to her.

 Japanese Anemone spotted along the quay.

 Cyclamen but notice there are no leaves.

 I love this tree, I don't know the name of it but check out the buds.

 Which become these blossoms...but there's another surprise that will soon arrive.

 The succulent jellyfish are so spectacular.

 I added a bullion frog to my Sue Spargo piece.

 Bought some bee inspired fabrics.

 Couldn't pass up this colourful one.

 Hard to see but the scissors have small bees on it/

 I love these hexagon boxes.

 After some stormy weather the skies cleared for some great views.

 Looking west after taking the photo to the east.

 RiverFest celebrating the Fraser River happened on Saturday and the work boats came out for a parade.

 The surprise this year was this huge container ferry spewing water from it's canons.

 This guy was having too much fun, they help to form the log booms.

 They are very agile and almost unable to be tipped.

 The honeysuckle smells so lovely.

 Now the cyclamen has leaves.

 Sunday I made a little sketch.

 Then I enlarged it.

 Then I sewed, and quilted it and voila a 6" mug rug!

 Last night was the Harvest Moon, such a gorgeous sunset.

 A wider shot.

 Buildings to the east coloured by the sunset.

 Older couple enjoying the sunset.

 Flash picture of the rising moon.

 No flash.

 Looking west at the gathering colours deepening. Flash

 No flash.

 Catching the small tug helping the log boom navigating the bend in the river.  Flash.

 No flash, closer to the orange/yellow colour of the moon.

 Block 10 of Simple Folk.

 Block 11, needs some dots added.

 Block 12 needs an eye.

 1-9 photo shopped together.

 4-12 all together.  There will be a pieced alternate block that I've not chosen colours for yet with a nine patch corner stone.

 The Grasshopper waiting for this month's birds to be added beside and below the flowers.

And that is about up to date.

Marmalade Dreams and a walk in the pines.

One last look at my trip to Sisters.  On the Sunday morning after the show a featured artist does a lecture at the Five Pines Conference Centre and has some of their quilts hung outside on the grounds amongst the Pines.  It is a wonderful setting and if you are lucky you can walk with the artist and hear about what went into making the quilts and fabric lines and more of their story.

This year the feature artist was Valori Wells, Jean's daughter who is now taking over from her mom.  Her featured line was Marmalade Dreams and her lecture focused on her twenty years designing forty different fabric lines and her journey once she graduated from photography transitioning into fabric and quilt designs.

 I apologize for all the heads in the pictures but had I stood up I would have blocked others views.

 Some of her paintings and sketches that inspired the line.

 I love these colours as you know from seeing what I work with when I make my own quilts.

 I love the combination of log cabins and diamonds in this piece.

 The illusion of a curve with straight piecing and skinny strips.

 Love the curved strippy triangles in this piece.

 Zigzags.

 Valori carves her own stamps and will stamp over printed fabrics.

 The details are quite amazing.

 Her own design of Ganesha.

 The walks are limited to a small group due to the fragile ecosystem but you are free to walk the grounds before and after the artist escorted tours.  These quilts represent the 40 different fabric lines she developed over 20 years.

 This trip around the world incorporated fabrics from each of the 40 collections.

 The buildings are cabins that can be rented on the grounds.

 Beautiful blue skies above the grounds.

 The quilts are hung early on Sunday morning.

 Wild flowers amongst the grasses.

 I loved the three colours that Valori did for this line. I love the yellow flowers in front of this quilt.

 These three quilts are all the same design just different fabric colour placements.

 I love the black and grey and blue and black ones the best.

 Such a peaceful serene place not far from the main highway thru Sisters.

 I love the lily pond.

 Such delicate strong blossoms.

 Of course at least one bee.  I also saw some Dragon Flies and some pond skimmers but they were to quick to photograph.

 Sometimes you need to take a step back to enjoy the surrounding.

 Outside the entrance to the conference centre.

 A perfect quote.

 Sometimes nature can mess with your focus but the overall effect is still there.

Finally block 10 The Little House on the Hill for Simple Folk.  I'm working on block 11 and have templates cut but need to choose fabrics for block 12.  Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be prepping them to stitch.