Rain, Snow, Sunshine on the West Coast

Last weekend was a rainy one but left some interesting patterns on the leaves.

 The previous day I wanted to take a photo of the beauty bush in Rita's garden, but my camera battery was dead.  Love the contrast of the purple and yellow.

 Yesterday I brought my camera to work and took a picture of this Arbutus tree located just outside of the admitting department.

 I took this picture just before the sun rose looking out the window of my office.  Wet snow was coming down.

 At days' end the snow was melting, but an icy rain had also come down and covered some of the bushes and cars.

 Today was sunny and cold, the maple tree tucked by the entrance of this condo has some beautiful yellow, oranges and reds.

 The beauty berry in the sunshine.

 A closer view, love the contrast of the yellow leaves behind.

 Sun dappling through the leaves.

 A view east along the Fraser River looking at the sky train crossing the bridge, behind is the Pattulo bridge and Golden Eagles mountains beyond.

 A couple of green leaves still hanging on.

 

 A large log boom floating up the river to be delivered to a mill.

 A Japanese Maple tree in all it's colourful glory.

The red of the witch hazel tree with a few green leaves still enjoying the sun.

 Buds starting to form on the witch hazel tree.

 Some more interesting buds.

 Life on the west coast, Palm Trees and skeleton trees side by side!

 Roses still blooming in November.

 The crow checking me out while I take it's picture and wondering if I'll forget my food package.

 The view into my condo, almost no leaves on the cherry trees, but a few still on the maple trees.

 My ornaments ready to be shipped off for the ornament exchange with Mary Lou Weidman's online group.  Can't wait to see which ones I get back.

Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop and changing colours of Autum.

Yesterday I took my mom for a field trip across the border to Washington State.  One of my favourite places to visit is Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop in Smokey Point.  The stained glass window is a copy of Carrol's logo she uses for the shop.  I've taken a great workshop with Mary Lou Weidman there and it is a "have to go to" when I'm in the area.

 Carrol has her place loaded with wonderful fabrics and samples.

 She carries a bit of felted wool but mainly stocks cottons, batiks and lots of books and patterns.

 Love the Buggy Barn turkey quilt hanging in the classroom.

 Carrol is also a barrista and her coffees are very good.

 She is constantly working on samples and having fun with her customers. Check out her blog at http://auntmarysquiltshop.blogspot.com/

 Back at home I decided to show you some colour progression along the quay.  Here are the trees along the river in September.

 Early October you start to see a bit of yellow on the trees.

 October 13th a bit more red.

 Today all the leaves are gone...

 October 7th the maple tree outside my window is green with a bit of yellow on the edges.

 October 23 look at the red coming out!

 October 27th even more brilliant.

 October 30th the ornamental cherry trees in our courtyard still have a lot of green.

 Today there are less leaves and more red under cloudy skies.

 Different textures and colours along the quay.

 Witch hazel showing off it's red leaves.

 Oak leaf hydrangea another tone of red.

 Yellow leafed witch hazel.

 A crow having a mid morning snack

 Yellows, oranges and reds.

 A closer view of the reds...

 ...and of the yellows.

Autumn colours in all it's glory for a little while longer.

Mary Lou Weidman Out of the Box Fish Swap

I started with this group of fabrics for my most recent on-line swap with Mary Lou Weidman's yahoo group.  The fish you see below is the result of some fun sewing.  In total I made 24 fish to send away to swap.  36 fish were swapped in 3 groups, I participated in 2 of them.  We all used the same batik for background for our fish.

This colourful floral fish was made by Linda Ahn.

Next up was made by Maree in N.C.

Edie Faile treated us to this lovely duo.

Wendy Price put this long tailed beauty for us.

Janice Larson is the maker of this rick rack guy.

Liz Linebrink got inventive with prairie points.

Pam Toombs gave this lovely green wide eyed wonder.

Dawn Tonioli got inventive with these fish lips, I met Dawn at Mary Lou's retreat in Post Falls in June.

Molly Evangelisti got inventive with polka do lips on this dotty soul.  Thanks for the scissor fob!

Mari Linfesty who acted as our swap hostess sent along this starry wonder.

Mary Lou Weidman sent two options for eyes for this striped guy with the rickrack grin.

In the second group of fish I got this flirty long eye-lashed fish from Nancy McCain.

Beth McDonald combined checkerboard with prairie point fins and a yo-yo eye.

Watch out for the long tail on this goldfish by Robin Medley.

Love the blue and yellow in this fish. Once again, I don't know who made this guy.

You've got to love the stripes and polka dots that this fish is sporting. Once again, not sure who made this one.

Love the three D ruffle on the dorsal fin. One more that I don't know who made but

Karen Schmucker had fun with polka dots.

Dots and Batiks show off this beauty, love the eye fabric.

I surely don't want this guy to nibble on my toes, those lips look sharp.  The unnamed fish were made by the following, Liz Titus, Reena Kaplowitz, Karen McCaffrey, Michalee Sloan and Sandi Fisher.  If they let me know which one was theirs I will identify them later.

Rebecka Schaffer made this boy/girl duo to share with us.

Mary Lou Sanders went all out with this toothy guy chasing after some small appetizers!

This was one of the two fish that I had fun designing.  I used a Kaffe Fasset and got this incredible tail.

Another one of mine with two more Kaffe Fasset fabrics.

To keep my two lonely fish company while the rest of the school swam away I made this turtle.  Now to figure out how to put them all together in a wonderful quilt.

Many Thanks to Mary Lou Weidman for coming up with a couple of basic designs for us to use our imagination and develop our own fish.  Come and join us in the fun at her yahoo group!