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.

High Water, Victoria Day Weekend.

On May 15th during my walk along the Quay I saw several signs set up warning people about the high river flow happening along the Fraser.  Higher up several communities have had some major flooding.  At least twice while I've been living here we have had massive sandbags appear but so far they have not arrived on the scene.

But I did spot a couple of sea lions feeding on some fish.  You may be able to see their ears if you click on the pictures.  Seals do not have ears Sea Lions do.

 When I first moved here I could often hear them having late night conversations with each other often in May.

 In preparation for the Victoria Day weekend there were hanging baskets placed below the support poles along the quay.

 Two for each support pole.

 The tulips usually are being pulled up and replanting happening.  I'm guessing they will wait until the threat of flooding has passed.

 I went to the local fabric store and found these mats and one of the cutters.  I already had a turquoise one but needed the pink one.

 I made the large and small Bionic Gear Bags in 2015.  Love my Gingher snips on the turquoise polka dot ribbon.

 I also found the latest Spring/Summer Quilt Sampler.  I think I have every issue.

 In almost every issue I've been to one or two of the shops.  Quiltworks in Bend is a lovely shop.

 Marilyn is a lovely helpful store owner.  I love the quilt shows she has in her upper gallery each month.

 Victoria Day Monday May 21 I went to walk along the boardwalk and as you can see it was blocked at each access from the brick walkway.

 Notice the darer mark on the support pilings?  The high tide was on the wan!  Despite the warnings I saw several people walking with friends or their dogs along the boardwalk.  Love the crow photo bombing the picture!

I also saw this huge log boom negotiating the bend of the river.  There was another tug to the right out of range of the camera towing, with these two helping ease around the bend.

 And a fourth one bringing up the rear!

 I missed the first bloom of peonies and the next are just starting to open, but caught this beauty.

 On the table I found this lovely Gerbera Daisy, I don't think I've every noticed one with the extra petals coming out of the centre.

 It was busy at Angelina's and I waited almost half an hour for a table with lots of others waiting behind.  The great news is that Eric is expanding the restaurant and hopefully the grill also.

 Spotted this pretty Iris in Rita's garden.

 These Snapdragons have a gorgeous colour to them.

 This poppy is starting to drop it's petals.

 I love the seed heads when the petals have dropped.

 This one is a fairly new bloom.

 One of her Allium breaking bud.

 Even a few buttercups.

 Queen Anne's Lace.

 I don't think I've ever seen so little of the diversion above water.  This was about an hour after high tide.  See some of the large logs floating past it.

 The hanging baskets are up and by summer's end will be huge.  New Westminster is known for it's hanging baskets around the main streets and along the quay.

 A slightly different angle where you can see a couple of huge tree trunks and their root balls have hung up on the diversion.  The river splits into the North and South arms at this point.

 One of the palms along the quay.

 Before I can stitch down that large yellow flower on the right I need to add my corner triangles.  I've added the centre flash with a heart in the centre of it.  I'm loving the Simple Folk Pennsylvania Dutch influences that Sarah has done.

 My two headed birds are pinned here but have been stitched down except for the hearts, eyes and centre dot. I still need to do the Grasshopper BOM.