The end of the Decade is upon us.

I left my last post saying I would finish off the Summer and talk about Autumn.  Well here it is Winter and I haven't said much. August was lovely and warm and lots of flowers and sunshine.  Fortunately our fire season was not as bad as 2018 so we didn't have the poor air quality although there were a few days of warning.

 I love that our city planted Palm Trees along the quay and other parts of New Westminster and the lower mainland.  We jokingly are called the Banana Belt of Canada.

 Each year we have a Boardwalk Garage Sale and all the condo and townhouse owners can buy a table for the one day sale.  I usually don't find much but while walking down this pink lace edge depression glass bowl caught my eye.  Even better was the price $3!  I've seen them on line for ten times that price.  Perfect for holding the threads of the current block I'm stitching on along with holding some extra scissors in the holes of the bowl.

 At the end of July Rita and I drove down to La Connor to go to the Quilt Museum but first a quick stop in Sylvia Pippen's shop.  This was her previous BOM of sea life.  I saw this just before it was released when my friend Anna came to visit and speak with her. I ended up being her videographer giving G a day off by himself and Enzo.  You can see part 1 here.

 And you can see the second part here. Sylvia also took us to a room where she stores her mother Kitty Pippen's quilts which was why Rita and I were in La Connor.

 We thought the display was ending that weekend but it was extended for another month.  Sadly Kitty passed away in August 2018.

 One of her early works an Hawaiian quilt.

 August brought out some beautiful flowers along the quay, I love Rita's echinacea or cone flowers.

 At an antique show i found this lovely dove tailed wooden box. It had one of the crayons for marking wood in it.  I plan to store some quilting tools in it.  Haven't figured out which ones yet.

 I love re-purposing items especially ones on sale.  Most people would see a cutlery caddy I made it into a Quilting tool caddy.  Where you would keep your napkins I keep my smaller square rulers.  It has a wire frame and woven plastic strips so it is very sturdy.

 Rita gifted me with two glass flower frogs which I'm keeping some of my often required tools.  Perfect for storing my brushes I use when I do my starch and freezer paper method of applique and it houses tweezers, pens, pencils and scissors nicely.

 September brought some amazing colours to our trees along the quay.  We had beautiful blue skies to show them off.

 Another fun box I found this time at Value Village.

 It has two compartments and a stain on one side.

 When I turned it over I discovered why.  I used to have some limited honey pots inside.  Woodward's was an iconic department store in Western Canada.  The Douglas Lake Cattle Company was owned by the family for many years.

 Another find on that visit was this turquoise hinged box.

 My rotary cutter and some larger paper scissors fit in the bottom large compartments.  I'm going to make a small square pin cushion for one of the top compartments.

 And check out my great prices!  I recently saw a new hinged box at Winners/Homesense which was about 3 times the price of mine!

 Another lovely find was gifted to my by my friend Irene, she found this lovely lace edge depression glass fishbowl style at a thrift shop.  Unfortunately even the shortest scissors hit where the glass bowls out.

 It is a bit different shade to my other shallow thread bowl but I love it.

 Doesn't the bowl have a pretty etched bottom.

 And it is perfect for storing all those thread ends when you are cutting strips and straightening fabrics.  I plan to use some of these strip worms to stuff some pin cushions.

 The star flower bush started showing off it's pink and indigo flowers.

 I went to the Portland Quilt show and found a pair of these candlesticks.

 Which became something else in my eyes.

 A pin cushion holder.  The pumpkin was designed by Lori Moore of Homespun Whimsy.  She has a Facebook page that she is sharing some different BOM and she adapted the pumpkin to be made into a circular pin cushion.  My bowl is smaller than the one she designed so I reduced the pattern so it would fit.

 It fits snugly inside the bowl.

 Here is the flip side for when it's not Halloween. My initials are shh meaning quiet the moon and the stars are out time to sleep.  Not SHH that you hear in a library!         

 Another side view. By the way I do hang some of my smaller scissors in the holes and they dangle quite nicely.

This year was a bumper crop of these mushroom/toadstools.  Yes I know they are poisonous I only photograph them I don't handle them.

 They usually start out white and progress to the red with spots before flattening out and growing tall.

 Autumn crocuses.

 A family of three with dad protecting mom who protected their child.

 Another threesome.

 My Halloween wreath that I created of bits and pieces and add more each year.

 My favourite witch is out all year.

 Beautiful colours.

 I got this limited cross stitch from an Etsy shop.  Sorry I don't recall the name it isn't on the pattern but all monies raised went to a no kill animal shelter.  I added the little moon and star to it.

 The beginnings of a new project.

 Adding some stems.  There were wool, cotton rusched, silk ribbon rusched, silk bias and again wool being added.

 In class interviewing some new shapes.  That blob below the two tulips was an attempt at a poppy profile which failed miserably.

 Changing some of the shapes into wool and some silk.

 My friend Rita working on hers.  This was a Sue Spargo workshop that we went to Calgary Alberta to take at Out Of Hand quilt shop.  Rita allowed me to share this picture and of her work.  We were asked not to share anyone else's work or Sue's.  But if you go to her Sue Spargo Facebook page you can see some of the other people's works.

 Rita's is progressing nicely.  Sadly she had to leave the morning of the last day so I couldn't share what hers would have looked like after the class when we showed ours off.

 This is mine, our background wall was Kaffe Fasset bolts of fabrics!

I've been slowly working on mine along with some other projects that I'll share in the future. I loved this class and would recommend taking it if you want to learn about adding layers to your wool designs. I'm going to end this post with November as I've not downloaded my end of November or any December pictures yet.  I have to have something to say for the for the New Year.  

I wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2020 and that the new decade will bring you all that you need when you need it along with good health and happiness.  I'm working on my Word for the coming year.

Catching Up...June and July 2019.

In June I made the trek over to Spokane to go to the Farm Chicks Sale and then workshop with Mary Lou Weidman.  I love turquoise and this car filled with flowers at the entrance looked amazing.

 I was so tempted to buy this bird cage but decided it was a bit too much.

 Mary Lou has such whimsical signs and other imagination stimulating things in her home and garden.

 We all went out for lunch at the Coeur d'Alene hotel which is always a fun adventure and went to Bear Paw Quilting.

 This is my friend Janet, she grew up on a turkey farm and is doing this story quilt to depict her childhood there and other life adventures.

 Just outside of Bellevue Washington a semi truck decided to come into my lane.  Fortunately due to a previous accident we were moving very slowly and other than damage to my car and a bit of a scrap on his semi no one was injured.  The other good thing was he was also a B.C. driver so it didn't have to be an international file.

 Maybe I should have made my bird cage turquoise?  I decided to make this border look like trees, I've got enough for the bottom and just have to figure out the corners, but I think I know what to do with it.

 I also decided to add some kelp/seaweed to my fish quilt.  Have a few more ideas to add to some empty spaces.

 Love this border that's coming together.

 Doing some work stitching down the kelp.

 I also did a bit of stitching on my wool seahorse while away.

 And my Orca.

 Next in July I headed south to Sisters for their Outdoor Quilt Show.  Love this row by row Taste block by Fiddlesticks Quilt shop in Vancouver Washington.

 Check out that curve in the road coming up as I drove the old MacKenzie Highway.

 In Eugene I got their row by row at Pieces quilt shop.

 I also spotted this bee table runner but couldn't find a pattern for it.  Why?

 Because this was the actual pattern, and the flip size had the bee as an freebie when you bought the pattern!

 At the Sisters quilt shop I found this adorable gnome couple that my friend Robin sewed as a sample for the shop.

 The post card silent auction had Anna's bee hive piece.

 Sue Spargo's pot of flowers.

 This was the row from As the Crow Flies.

 I went out to Merrill and La Pine but something happened to my memory card and I had no photos.  Thanks to the staff at Best Buy they cleaned out the memory card slot and I was good to go for the quilt show day.

 My friend Lori made me this wonderful project pouch and needle case.  Perfect for my cross stitch that I'm getting back into.

 Friday night was an entertaining evening by Frieda Anderson and Laura Wasilowski which was a slide show of their creative history together.

 Anna and the twisted sisters do an ugly challenge each year and here they are revealing what they made.  Anna remembered just days before the reveal!

 I asked these four lovely ladies if I could take their picture.  It was the gal the second from the right first time coming.  Turns out her mom was Sue Garman a very prolific quilter.

 Firefighters putting up the quilts on the Stitchin' Post.

 The Twisted Sisters were featured quilters at the show this year.  Their husbands all came down to see the wives displays.  The guys even bought matching t-shirts for the event.

 Kathy Diggendorfer had an open studio to visit.

 Love this mural on the side of one of the buildings.

 All the quilts were up and the firetruck moved off.

 The Cherrywood Challenge was Prince this year.  It was very busy getting around to see the display.

 Self portraits to celebrate Freddy.

 She and another teacher stepped in when Rosalie Dace a South African teacher was denied entry to the US.  Apparently they changed the visa requirements from one visit to another.

 Freddy was chatting with a fan of hers.

 Prince made his appearance.

 Anna with her friends who own Fika Coffee. 

 Kathy Diggendorfer's car.

 Are these not too cute!

 Look what the original shape held!

 Outside were several vintage trailers.  Some airstream and other designs but the Shasta ones were my favourites.

 Many had open doors that you could peek into.

 This gal was ready for her own quilt show.

 Ironing board.

 Inside.

 Her bicycle powered sewing machine.

 from the other side.

 The iconic 3 Sisters view.

 I had to come home with this kit.

 Shasta trailers all over the place.

 The Sunday morning lecture was by Carolyn Friedlander.  She started out as an architect.

 After the lecture we went to Anna's for a bit of a break.  Some of her Bee Hive themed items.

 Love this one.

 The other side of the tablecloth.

 Cute soap dish pin cushion.  I have a similar soap dish I may have to design my own pin cushion for mine.

 Her Just Buzzin' by Jan Mott of Crane designs.

 Love this bee hive sampler.

 Then we went back and walked amongst the Pines and looked at Carolyn's quilts.

 She often does both hand and machine quilting on her pieces.

 She grew up on a farm in Florida.

 An overview of the quilts in the Pines.  If you ever go to Sisters make a point of trying to get to the lecture and walk.  They limit the ticket but you can walk along the trails after the tour is done.

 Such lovely colours.

 Anna surprised me with the needle wallet and pattern and some other lovely goodies.

 I made quick work of finding some of my own wool stash to get it together.

 Then I started to load it.

 Finally all loaded with extra needles and necessities.

 Folds up nicely.

 I still need to add the little wool pages for a pin keeper but keep forgetting to do it.

Stay tuned for hopefully another post next week about the rest of the Summer and early Autumn adventures this year.