Winter is making an early visit!

Yesterday morning I woke up to find that we were having a light dusting of snow.  It has been hovering at and below freezing here for about a week and the weather people keep saying we are going to have snow. In the distance you might be able to see that there is some ice on the Fraser River.

 Looking at our water feature you can see that the upper and lower pools not only have ice but also snow covering the ice.  The water is still spilling over the waterfall feature, but some years it has frozen over.

 This morning it was snowing again, usually it rains before snowing but this time because of the cold snap it didn't happen.  As a result the snow flakes were very small, often we have large clumpy snowflakes.

 The trees are now lacy with snow on their branches.

Sunday afternoon my mom and I went out for dinner and then checked out the lights at St. Paul's Hospital.

 They use the lights as a fund raiser for the hospital.

 This is a project that I'm currently working on, a mix of cotton and wool.  Kim Diehl designed this mini quilt and you can get the directions here.  The templates are located here.  You don't get an layout so I just winged it.

 I'm interviewing my blocks for the borders and working on my star corners.  As you can see I went for a much brighter white version than the creamy Kim Diehl version.

One last thing I saw a delightful story about the Canadian company WestJet and I thought I'd share this link with the Huffington Post.  Below it for me is a slide show about Christmas Giving in Vancouver that features some lovely photos.  I hope you enjoy these both.

Mary Lou Hoochy Mama Basket Exchange

Remember this group of Tonga Treats Sugar Batiks and Sketch Deft fabrics that a group of us from Mary Lou Weidman's online yahoo swap group use to make baskets?







Well just before Thanksgiving I got my last basket delivered. It spent more than 20 days back and forth across the U.S. before finally arriving at the doorstep. This first basket is courtesy of Cyndi Strohmier I think.







This one was made by Mary Kate Wilde.







This little beauty is by Micki Groth.







Another rick rack handle one by Sandy Fisher.







This group of four were from Diane Harris.







Mary Greaves made this yellow handed beauty.







Mari Linfesty did the rainbow rick rack basket.







Edie Faile share one with us.







Kathy Garcia used extra wide rick rack and folded it in half, love the scallop effect.







I think Camille Vlasak made this little appliqué basket.







Linn Jencopale made this zig zag rainbow beauty.







Kim Kerschl made a vertical rainbow and added a second blue batik to her background.







This rainbow appliqué handle basket was my contribution.







Maree Whiteley made this whimsical pedestal rainbow one for us.







Mary Evangelisti made this stripped basket.







Now to figure out how to put them all together. This is going to be fun. Thanks to everyone especially Mary Lou for spurring us on to get out of the box with our creative baskets. I love them all!



-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Last look at Houston IQF, some shops, some buildings, a quilt, home and some purchases.

On the first day of the show I was waiting to catch the bus down to the George R. Brown Convention Centre and I started chatting with the woman in front of me in the line-up.  It turned out her name was Phyllis Paul and she owned a booth called Cozy Quarters.  That is her in the blue sweater with the blond hair.

 Most of the things in her booth are her design and she a lovely country feel to her work.

 Here is a link to her on line store.

 Are the snowmen holding up the quilt not just too cute?

 This is part of the show floor looking to the left.

 Looking to the right, there were 20 aisle of shops and services to choose from.

 The Little Red Hen was another whimsical booth I enjoyed looking at.

 Crows and sunflower picture was cute.

 Penguins and snowflakes make a cute design along with other winter designs.

 Red, White, and Blue with stars along side of a framed Welcome saying.

 A touch of Halloween, great use of a snowball block.

 Snowmen, Halloween and a black cat a great mix of characters.  Check them out on line here.

 A favourite shop of mine, sorry the photo is a bit blurred.

 Their Summer freebie block all finished. Their on line store is amazing! Check it out here. I should have posted this sooner as they have a great Black Friday sale with some freebies, sorry.

 A closer look at those blocks.

 Beautiful quilting by Linda Hrcka; she also quilted their Block of the Week that I didn't take any pictures. Here is a link to her blog.

 On Saturday night I went to the Gala on the Green, the tree trunks were decorated with white lights across from the convention centre.

 I met these lovely ladies from Tasmania in Australia.  They are from left to right Margaret, Judith, Louise and Lisa.  They flew from Tasmania to San Francisco to New York.  Toured around and then went to Washington D.C. and Amish Country in Pennsylvania before flying to Houston.  The next day they were flying to Las Vegas before heading home later in the week. 

 One last quilt that I enjoyed at the show on Sunday was Eight Ravens by Judith Roderick.

 She painted a friend's pet raven Po and depicted him in many of his behaviours residing in New Mexico.

 These are wonderful in person.

 Returning to the hotel for one last time a quick view of City Hall.

 The Art Centre captured with a reflection of another building behind us in the windshield of the bus.  Interesting angles.

 Looking at the courtyard of the hotel as I had brunch.

 My courtyard at home the next day.

 Some of the bags I received as freebies along with the souvenir bag from the show.

 The Adventures of the Amazing Alphabet by Pam Holland.

 Quilts, Unfinished Stories with New Endings by Gyleen X. Fitzgerald.

 Some goodies from Primitive Gatherings.

Some variegated thread from YLI, I behaved myself with my purchases this year.

But who know about next year?