Hello colours!!

even our oak tree has some colour

looking over my veggie garden

Yes the colours of Fall are really showing themselves these days. All around our yard you can see them. My garden is almost not visible under a layer of elm leaves and our precious oak tree that my dad planted from an acorn is doing well. We have moved this tree 4 times...so we are fortunate to have it doing so well.

not sure how she fit in there

Life with a new puppy is settling down. My daughter thinks she is my dog...well by this photo maybe. She spent one morning following me around the sewing room and finally settled into a spot for a nap!
She continues to grow, in one month she has gone from 11 to 22 pounds! She is very energetic so I am not sure how she is gaining so much, but puppies do grow!!
I have been trying to get old projects done from my sewing room. Ones that maybe have sat long enough. I mean really what am I waiting for, they aren't gonna finish themselves!! haha
So this barbie top was already sewn and I sandwiched it and did a simple grid work on it. Now it is ready to go to Project Linus. These snowflakes(from a shop hop in 2011) I made back in July during a girl's weekend for my birthday. I added some sashing and some hand quilting(which was what I did on slow stitching Sunday) and now all I have to do is finish the binding. I am not sure yet where this will find a home. There is no end in sight to the UFOs I can be finishing.

Scattered on my cutting table is the next project. An embroidered quilt with patchwork blocks around the embroidery. Once I have it started I will post some pictures.It was suppose to be done as redwork but I am going to do it in blue instead. Now to find just the right shade of blue thread to do the embroidery. hmm a trip to the store is in order.
I have to start thinking about what projects to take in October to my quilting retreat. I am thinking that if I have the projects in kits it will be more productive but I have to get on that. Hmmm wonder how many projects I can get done in a four day stretch!?!

Fall has arrived!

baby quilt with puppy prints machine quilting

one of the best paws

Although it isn't officially fall till tomorrow, I do believe it has arrived and is staying! It is a very damp and dreary day outside which makes it a good day to be inside sewing and slow stitching with Kathy. I might take a page from her blog and start a new project today. I have a blue work embroidery project that I would like to do that is then surrounded by quilt blocks. That might be what I start!
It has been a productive week and weekend for me. I have finished a small baby quilt for the hospital, a puppy quilt which is in Belle's cage,single bed quilt is ready for gifting and some blocks for the Marcus challenge. And yesterday I made a batch of mincemeat with all the green tomatoes I have, that made the house smell heavenly all day!

two more Marcus blocks

waiting to deliver

With all my recent finishes, I won a draw and  was gifted a 8 pack of fat quarters from one guild for finishing a project  over the summer. My week has also been busy with the new puppy Belle. She is growing like crazy...17 lbs already.

sitting still on her new quilt...for a second!

sleeps but not at 4 am!!! arggg

First Frost

It has been cold the last couple of days but this morning we got our first frost. So there I was at 7 am outside dressed warm including a toque, picking green tomatoes. I am hoping some of them ripen but I will have to do something with the rest of them, just not sure what maybe mincemeat!?!

some of what I made today, the rest is in the freezer already

When you are up that early you either whine about being up early or get all those odd jobs done, and that is what I did!
One batch of pastry made 2 apple pies, 1 apple crumble, 2 shells for pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and 1 dozen mincemeat tarts. I also used up 3 zuchinni and made 2 loaves, 2 dozen muffins. Don't you wish you could smell it...it is heavenly!Most of this is for thanksgiving and some DH will take to work tomorrow. I really don't need or want it at my house...I will eat it!! Now that everything is cleaned up and put away...I have a cup of tea and the computer for a bit before thinking of supper!
All of this so I can have tomorrow to sew. This pile of scraps has to be made into two blocks for guild on Tuesday and I have to finish the binding on a quilt also for guild.

large scrap pieces to make two blocks

So my slow stitching with Kathy will happen after supper into the evening but I will have all of Monday to play at the sewing machine.

I'm not perfect!!

Had to eat a little humble pie yesterday. Well really is it my fault that people think I don't make mistakes? Everyone does but this was a big one. I sent a quilt to my friend to be long arm quilted. She called me to say the backing was too small for the top. OOPS!!!! But how could this be. Well she thinks and I agree that I measured the quilt top before adding borders and made the backing to fit BUT then I added borders to the top. YIKES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I DID!!! My borders are the same fabric as the backing and I had to make sure I had enough fabric for both and somewhere I screwed up....that's right I am not perfect, I made a mistake. Will I ever live this one down? I will just settle for the fact that I will have another quilt finished, actually by the weekend I hope to have 3 finished.

96 " square to bind No 1 of 3 to finish before Tuesday

Old dog reluctantly sharing her bed

Another week gone!

when we first got her...she is 8weeks old now and growing

Well life in the house is becoming more routine with the new puppy.We are getting more and more use to each other and I am becoming more productive when she is sleeping! I got her quilt quilted this week and will spend this evening hand sewing the binding in place. Now some of my friends think I am crazy but I think even puppies deserve quilts. And I hand quilted it because experience (from my older dog's quilt)says the quilt holds up better than if you machine quilt it! Zoe my older dog will be 13 in a couple of weeks and the quilting is good on her quilt but the fabric is disintegrating. I have had to make a few repairs lately.
We also celebrated yesterday with my sister and her hubby, 25 years married. I consider this a milestone in this day and age. My hubby and I were their maid of honor and best man all those years ago.
Hopefully next week I will have more to show from the sewing room. I am waiting on two quilts, to put their bindings on so I can show them at guild in two weeks as UFOs I got finished over the summer.So there might be a lot of hand stitching in my near future. Check out what others are up to this week with and slow sunday stitching.
Kathy