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.

It's been awhile since I did a post.

Can you believe it is July 10th already!  Today is the 119th anniversary of my Grandmother's birth!  She passed away just shy of her 93rd birthday in 1992.  She loved flowers and I'm sure she would have loved these ones in my friend Rita's Garden.

 Love the different stages of how far open they are.

 The jellyfish succulents are growing nicely.

 Some have more tentacles than other.

 I was asked how they did them.

 Well it appears they flipped one of the hanging baskets upside down and then planting the succulents, mosses and trailing vines on a pole which delivers the water to them.  Rita has this display close to the front of her condo.  Apparently the water isn't quite getting to the top of the plantings so the gardeners had to borrow one of her water cans to help augment getting the whole plant watered!

 I finally made a decision of what fabrics to do last month's Dresden Plate on The Grasshopper Quilt.

 Originally I was going to use some of the colours of the leaves for the blades and then chose to use the yellow, orange, pink and turquoise polka dot fabrics from one line and the greens of the leaves.  I'm pleased how it has turned out.

 Remember these birds from my Simple Folk, they were a test for the larger birds for The Grasshopper.  But after making them I found a different turquoise accent for the wings to use.
                           
I kept the darker dimples fabrics turquoise as a contrast against the Kaffe Fassett print which I think worked well.

 Sarah Fielke does needle turned applique, I've never mastered it to my liking so I use the freezer paper and paint starch along the seam allowance and press it back.  I find a get a clean smoother edge to my pieces.  The birds were just pinned to see if I liked how the fabrics work together.

 For circles and repetitive pieces like the leaf shapes I use non melt Mylar and cut out the shapes.  I have a selection of circles from Karen Kay Buckley or I cut my own if she doesn't have the right size.

 I thought the linear turquoise and leaf prints contrasted nicely against the Kaffe prints and mimicked the feather shapes.
                               
Here are my next two Simple Folk blocks pinned and ready to stitch. These leaves will overlap on one side, think they will be a bit tricky to do.

 I've already stitched the stems, flower and vase and currently working on the dark leaves right now on this block.

Hope it isn't so long till I post again, have a surprise in store the next time!