Happy Halloween

Several years ago I made this quilt, I call it the Three Amigos. There are several 3-D elements on the quilt, the picket fence, cat tail and a spider pin in the cobweb in the corner. I love the two pumpkin head trick or treaters.

I have my mantle decorated with angels, moons and stars. I change the garland below with the seasons.

This whimsical quilt was lots of fun to make. I adapted the pieced pattern and made it paper foundation pieced. There are sunflowers, bats, moon and stars along with a vine quilted into the borders.

I have a mix of dried, silk and fresh flowers in this corner. The hand crank sewing machine was a gift from my brother and sister-in-law. Her dad found it for me!

Yesterday at our newsletter stuffing one of the gals brought this wonderful pumpkin flavoured ice cream cake that was decorated with marzipan pumpkins. Yummy!

I can hardly believe that it was amost a year ago that I was packing to go to Houston and the Quilt show! What a great place it is and a great place to tour around. We drove from Houston down to Brownsville and then back up along the gulf to Galveston.

Another spot we enjoyed was South Padre Island. It was very windy while we were there and we went beachcombing and found some interesting shells. The sunsets were beautiful there. As you drive over the bridge/causeway they have signs warning you about low flying pelicans!

I loved how warm it was and the blue skies. We did encounter a few thunder-storms along the way, but luckily they didn't last long. I think it would be very easy to become a winter Texan. The folks we met along the way were great.



I found some great antique shops when we were down in Victoria. The oldest Deli in Texas is located there called Fossati's, great sandwiches and service.

This guy was sitting on the edge of the dock as we took the ferry over to Port Bolivar. We saw lots of birds all along the Gulf of New Mexico.

Yesterday I had fun shopping at two quilt shops that unfortunately will be closing shortly. At one I found two delightful old quilts, both of them are appliqued quilts. One is about 48" square, it has a yellow background and has twelve appliqued swans on it. They are white, pink, pale yellow and lavender coloured and buttonholed stitched with black floss. It has two side borders that were sewn on and a scalloped edge all around. There is a cable around the whole quilt and then curved quilting to represent water/waves between the swans.

The second quilt is about 62" x 78" and is all white with white, blue, pink, and lavender morning glories. They also have been buttonholed stitched and there is a lattice that has been embroidered. Both these quilts have been done as whole cloth quilts. The morning glory one has been quilted in a vertical grid then cross-hatched at a 60 degree angle, making a diamond shape.

I haven't been able to get any history of them yet, but understand one was left at the door of the quilt shop by someone unknown to the owners.

Today was a warm sunny day, I went for a walk at lunch to enjoy all the fall colours around where I work. It was so warm I had to take off my sweater! We actually set some record temperatures in the area in the 20C range.

Here's hoping that we see the sunny days for a little longer.

I can't believe that October is already have gone, where has the month gone to so quickly.

I'm participating in a bead exchange and still have to organize my beads. The autumn exchage I'm doing should be easy to get together once I find out who I'm swapping with. The colours in the trees are just wonderful, I only wish we had some sunny days to get out and take some pictures. Athough the rain enhances the colour making them very rich.

View from my condo.

Walking down the Quay.

I finally got around to downloading my photos from Monday. Here is a sampling of them. I love some of the different colours in the flowers and trees.

The leaves that are deeply veinned are from the witch hazel tree. I've got some photos taken at different times of the year, it is a very interesting plant.

Fall is one of my favourite times of the year. This weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada and yesterday I took my mom over to my brother's and sister's-in-law for a great dinner. Three of their four children joined us.

We had a rainy drive out to Chilliwack, but a dry drive back. Chilliwack is about an hour drive from my home in the Vancouver area.



Today we had a lovely sunny fall day, I went for a walk along the Quay and took some pictures. This one was taken in October 2005, today was almost as sunny. I'll add some more pictures from today later.