Welcoming Fall

Buck at Omega Park

This post is dedicated to fall in all of its glories.

The leaves are turning and there's lots of red this year! The nights are getting colder and the bucks are checking out the ladies. This is one of the bucks my sister-in-law, niece and I saw at the Omega Park near Ottawa a couple of weeks ago. We didn't approach some of the bucks, but this big guy was more hungry than protective :-)

Fall door hanging

As you may know, I have hangings for my front door for every season - yes, the door is protected from the elements. Here's the fall one on the door now. It's got colourful leaves, flying geese and even a basket with fall goodies. It was great for practicing my free motion quilting (FMQ).







Here is Fall Tree, one of my landscape art quilts featuring a close-up of a tree with changing leaves. This project was a class taken with Elaine Quehl. I finished the quilt last fall after spending a month looking at the way leaves change colours.

Fall Tree by the burning bush

One of my first paper pieced project was Patches, the Pumpkin Patch Protector. He is one of my favourite wall quilts. This is a free project from Martingale, designed by Jaynette Huff. It's much larger than I expected and looks great in the front hallway. Patches comes out each fall, at the same time as my fall door hanging.

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector

This last quilt is a new one to my blog. Years ago I gave my friend Sonya all of my Halloween decorations. She sent me this picture while she was decorating her house last week. This is one of the first quilts I made - Halloween Night from the Sept/Oct 2005 magazine of Fran's & Porter's Love of Quilting. It's machine appliquéd and hand-quilted. It was made before I learned to FMQ.

Halloween Night

What I learned:

• I was pleasantly surprised to see a picture of one of my earliest wall hangings. I didn't realise that I made this so long ago.
• Although orange is not my colour, I do love fall colours - they are so rich.

I hope that you'll have a great fall. They're calling for wet snow (aka slush) tomorrow morning, but it usually doesn't stick around before Halloween. Once November begins though - anything is possible!

I am linking this post to the following linky parties. Please check out what's happening: MOP Monday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Oh Scrap!, Fabric Tuesday, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Free Motion Mavericks, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Off the Wall Friday. 

Invitation to the CTQG Quilt Show this Weekend

This weekend is the Common Thread Quilt Guild's quilt show. It is held every second year at the RA Centre's curling link in Ottawa. The RA Centre is located at 2451 Riverside Drive. I hope you'll have a chance to attend if you're in the area.

Patches

This year I will be exhibiting 3 wall hangings in the "pieced wall hangings" category. You may recognize these from previous blogs. "Patches" will be there of course!

Holiday Wreath

I will also have my holiday wreath as well as Lilliane's favourite - Winter Vacancy.

Winter Vacancy

Since the quilts were already completed this winter, this is the first year that preparing for the quilt show was almost painless. I did have to make and attach a sleeve to the back of each quilt since my hanging technique of choice is pinning them to the wall (you can even see the pins in the photos!) I completed Patches' hanging sleeve almost a month ago, but that's as far as I got. Of course, the night the quilts were due, I was busily stitching the last sleeve... so for me, that was pretty darn organised!

I am really looking forward to going to the show. There are always so many amazing quilts. Since I'm working on security Saturday afternoon, I'll be able to spend some quality time looking at quilts before and after my shift. I love looking at quilts, appreciating the work and getting ideas for my own creations. Now that I am free motion quilting, it's even more fun to look at the quilts since I finally understand how they are quilting it!

What I learned:

• Even if you do part of the work ahead of time, it's not finished until the last one is done!

Hope to see you at the show and Happy Mother's Day!

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector

It's completed! Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector, whose pattern is by Jaynette Huff is done! I downloaded this pattern from Martingale - it was free and I couldn't resist....but I didn't expect to make it for a while. One day, I felt like starting something new and voila! The rest is history.

I blogged about Patches in my last post, but I'm so happy with the result that I had to share it (aka show off!).  My husband's comment was: "No offence, but he rather looks like a Calvin Klein scarecrow". No offence taken...I'll choose to take that as a compliment (it might be the white linen shirt!)

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector, pattern by Jaynette Huff

Here he is in all of his glory!  For now, he resides at work - it's frankly too large to put on the wall at home! That's what happens when you don't look at the measurements of a project before you start.

I want to thank Martingale for the free pattern and I need to give credit to Craftsy: First to Carol Doak for her Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing course and then to Leah Day for her Free Motion Quilting a Sampler.

I also hand appliquéd the birds - and I used the skills I learned in Kathy Wylie's class.



Free-Motion Process:

• I marked the clouds so that I would get them right.
• I used multi-coloured thread to stitch the wheat - both on the wheat fabric and on the horizon. I like the way it came out.
• Quilting around the pumpkins makes them "pop".
• You can't seem them in this picture, but the black border has pumpkins quilted on them. I made a template so that the pumpkins would all be the same size and also made a template of a pumpkin leaf since I had the horrible time trying to draw them!

Isn't it great to be putting all that learning into practice? Don't give up - it is all about practice!

Ambitious Paper-Piecing Project

I’m not sure why I started this project. I had many projects in mind that I was going to make. This one wasn't even near the top of the list but somehow it was at the right place at the right time (on the top of the pile when I got bored!)

It’s the perfect time to make this project since it’s a fall scarecrow with pumpkins. I also didn't realise how large it would end up being (it’s 24 by 36 inches). The project, Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector by Jaynette Huff, was free on one of my favourite book publishing  internet sites – Martingale. You just have to sign up. They’ll ask you to get their newsletter, which is great if you want to find out about the books that are coming out and if you want to know more about their authors. It’s one of the few newsletters that I read fairly regularly.

Here’s a picture of the pattern as well as my unfinished version.  I just need to add the patches and finishing details and then quilt it. Doesn't that black border scream for some cool quilting?

I was going to make an elaborate backing using the four pumpkins in the corners of the original pattern….but then I got side tracked with needle-turn appliqué. I also found some great backing fabric when I was taking the course last week, so I may actually finish this project before winter comes!

I have no idea where Patches is going to reside, but he’s sure to spend a few days at work with me.

What I learned:

• It might be a good idea to look at the size of the finished quilt before starting it (I keep saying that but I’m having problems learning that one!)
• I had the perfect hand-dyed fabric for this quilt – but I didn't want to use it! After some serious self-talk, it’s in the quilt!
• The pattern called for 1/3 of a yard of fabric for the field background. I only had a fat quarter – but that’s the fabric I wanted. Thank goodness, it turns out that you can do a lot of fudging with paper piecing!

Happy fall from Patches and Andrée!