Long weekend in October

Friday night I came home to a pleasant surprise.  "They" had predicted a wet rainy day and I enjoyed the sun setting on the river instead.

 This morning I went for a walk and despite the rain overnight and lots of clouds, the sun decided to play peek a boo with the clouds. The droplets of rain on this leaf looks so inspiring.

The oak leaf hydrangea is turning colours.

 This looks like it should be hanging off a Christmas tree. 

 A closer view of the interesting visual texture of the petals.

 Looking west along the Fraser River and starting to see the leaves turn.

 Fuchsia as a autumn colour.

 I like the blossoms of this flowering tree.

 Pink and orange zinnias for some interesting colour.

 Variegated geranium leaves contrasting against the feathery silver dusty miller.

 More droplets of rain,

 Droplets of rain with some great visual curves.

 Love the small leaf all twisted waiting to unfurl like it's big brother.  The asymmetry in the leaf is inspirational.

 Recurring pattern and design.

 Droplets looking like crystal accents on the leaf.

 Orange and yellow, the colours of Autumn.

 Some last blooms of the hydrangea plants.

 A blue flower amongst the pinks!

 More yellow and orange.

 I've never noticed the berries on this plant before, check out the eggplant coloured ones in the background.

 Droplets and leaves caught in the papyrus.

 A double Rose of Sharon still blooming brightly.

 My first Primitive Gatherings Block of the Week finished...due to a postal strike I got a late start.

 Block number two is also done and I'm started on block three.

Have a safe and happy long weekend everyone.

Happy 10th Anniversary Angelina's

One of my favourite places to go and eat breakfast is celebrating it's 10th anniversary!

 Angelina's is only open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday to Sunday on the New Westminster Quay, if you are ever in the neighbourhood please drop by and enjoy their company and a meal.

Angelina on the left and her husband Heinrich are the owners and Joanne is one of their regular helpers.  For the past week they have had some specials on that if you purchased from that menu they donated $3.00 towards the Union Gospel Mission.  They also have an raffle of one of Heinrich's photographs.  The lucky winner will be chosen today...unfortunately I didn't get in earlier to hear about this wonderful fund raiser.  But they also do some other donations throughout the year.

 Just next door is the renovated River Market.  They reopened last year and slowly are getting new tenants to join Donald's Market.  I like the sign on the side of the market.

She slipped softly from the summer stream as seamless as a summer dream.

 This is the upper entrance where the Circus school is located.

 This is the graphic on the wall of the ladies restroom.

 Here is the men's

 Outside walking along the boardwalk a seagull lost a feather.

The beauty berries are turning from yellow to mauve.

 Rita's Rose of Sharon is in full bloom.

 Echinacea showing off.

 The rose named after New Westminster, the Royal City Rose.

 Another bloom of the Royal City Rose.

 Some strawberries still looking lovely

 Straw flowers starting to unfold.

 Morning glory and another colourful climber.

 The Rhododendrons are turning some of their leaves.

 A hint of yellow and red on some of the larger trees.

 Zinnias spilling over their beds.

 Autumn crocuses bending with the sun and wind.

 A bit of red on their split leaf Japanese Maple tree.

 Rubeckia or black eye Susans with the oak leaf hydrangea

 I love the veining on this leaf.

 This coleus looks as if a fairy painted it with gold.

 This chenille plant is going to seed.

 Sunflower heads heavy with seeds.

 Some more sunflowers seed heads.

 An Angel's trumpet flower.

 More zinnias just full of colour.

The colour of Autumn are starting to put on a lovely show.

Cinnia Block of the Month

Last year The Cloth Shop a local quilt shop offered a Block of the Month called Cinnia.  The idea was to fuse and either satin stitch or machine button hole the blocks.  All we knew was that it was going to be a garden of flowers in different sizes done in batiks.  They had the firs sunflower block on display.  I decided to sign up.

 Shortly after receiving my first block I broke a bone in my left foot and could not easily access my sewing machine so I decided to do traditional freezer paper applique by hand instead.

 The echinacea blocks are some of my favourite.

 This whimsical flower brought in some more pink/wine tones.

 Lots of sunflowers, each month one of the fabrics from the previous block was brought forward into the new month,

 Can't you just see the bees buzzing around this garden?

 The largest block was 12" square. The largest rectangle was 9" x 14".

 How are we going to get all these blocks together?

 More sunflower blocks, but more of an aster this time.

 The final block!

 Here is my top before the borders.

 The top with borders, my friend Ethel reversed the triangles and has already machine quilted hers. 

I'm going to hand quilt my piece over the winter and have it ready for next autumn.  It is bound with a green batik.