HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I bought a peck of apples the other day so that I could make some apple pies for Thanksgiving Dinner with my family.  I spent last evening peeling and slicing getting ready for baking today.  I rolled the pastry and lined two pie plates, then filled them with the apples and covered them with the remaining rolled pastry.  Into the oven they went.  I ran into a  dilema though.  Do you know how many apples is in a peck?  Lots.  I had so many apples left over that I made some apple danishes, apple crisp and even an apple cake.  I still have apples left over - maybe apple sauce?  All my baked goods lined the dining room table.  They needed something to go with them - a fall table runner.  I whipped up this Patrick Lose pattern, using batiks, raw-edge machine applique and free-motion quilting.

Here's a close up of the centre leaf.  

I also just finished up two tiny Halloween wall-hangings:

I'm supposed to be completing my Group of Eight water challenge.  Why do I keep procrastinating?   I've lots of work to do and so little time left.  Hopefully I can post a finished piece by the end of our long weekend.

HARVEST MOON

I've been having issues with iphoto - recently installed upgrade.  In the install, I lost a lot of photos and have been trying desperately to get them back.  After hours of work, I think that I've done it.  At the same time, I removed over 3,000 photos.  I mean really, who needs that many photos??  I did find, however, a photo of a wall quilt that I made for the Brampton Fall Fair (that never did get submitted).

HARVEST MOON

I'm totally stoked today.  I just found out that THREE submissions have been selected to hang in the Burlington Art Centre, Literary Arts Exhibition in the Perry Gallery from September 29th to October 28th.  "The Greats" took a long time to complete.  Why do I always underestimate the time each work takes??  It is machine stitched with white and grey threads on a whole cloth black silk background.  It was given an Honourable Mention by the judge, Janet Morton.

Here's a close up.

"Writer's Block" was juried in as well.  There are four blocks that are machine pieced, quilted, stretched over frames and embellished.  

The third entry was "Heidi".  The inspiration came from the book of the same name.  My mother had a copy while she was a child and passed it along to me.  I still cherish it.  This piece was actually completed a while ago as part of a Group of Eight Challenge.  Heidi is printed on hand-dyed fabric, machine quilted, and embellished. The edges were finished with a zig-zag stitch.

The local fall fair is taking place this weekend.  For years I've been entering quilts into the "homecrafts" competition.  Every year I rush around at the last minute to organize my submissions and complain that I'm never going to do it again, until next year comes around and I do it all over again.  There are fewer and fewer entries into fall fairs so I have to do my part to keep the local fall fairs alive.  This year, the theme of the fair was CHICKENS.    Here is my contribution - "Chicken A-La-Carte".  The background sky is a hand-dyed fabric and the rest is mostly batiks using fusible raw-edge applique and machine quilted.   In case you want to make it, the pattern is from Bigfork Bay Cotton Company, artwork by Debi Hubbs.

I've finally finished a commissioned church banner that I've been working on for a couple weeks.  I was surprised that it took so long.  I guess I tend to under estimate the amount of time and effort that a project will take.  The upper part of the quilt represents the church building with the eternal flame.  The rainbow represents that this church is a safe steps congregation, accepting all peoples while the foliage below represents the new garden berm, complete with apple tree, wild flowers and a fir tree.  

I was having difficulty with my sewing machine while free-motion quilting.  I sandwiched a couple layers of white cotton fabric and Hobbs batting, threaded my machine with black thread and began stitching whatever path I chose.  I meandered all over, sometimes drawing and sometimes writing, all with stitch.  Eventually the machine tension was corrected and I ended up with a neat black and white piece. I thought it looked pretty neat, but then gave it to my sister to add a little colour.  Wow, what a difference a few colourful fabric markers make.

This one was just playing around with shapes using a black Sharpie pen on white fabric.  Some colour was added, and voila!

Now, what do do with them.  Any ideas????

Another busy Sunday.  I'd love to say that I'll be quilting all day, but the family is getting together to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday.  I spent my morning making cupcakes - white cake, white buttercream icing, gold paper liners and gold sugar topping.   Besides quilting, I love to bake and don't mind taking a little time away from stitching.

I had these great crystals to decorate the cupcakes, but there were no hangers to go with them so I created a DIY project and made my own - nothing but a little beading wire and nifty pliers.

So what do you get someone who's got everything and is entering their "Golden Years"?  Money is always a great gift, but seems so impersonal to just add it inside a card.  I took the bills, rolled them and tied each with gold ribbon; tossed them in a zip sandwich bag and topped it off with a little poem.  I hope he likes it!