Busy days

There have been no posts this week since I am really busy with a SAL again and getting Christmas presents wrapped and sent through the mail. I have started a new blog for the SALs. I will catch up with things here though soon.

For now, I thought I would share with you something that really made me laugh this past weekend. We buy all our eggs fresh from a place in a tiny village near out cottage up north. You never know how the eggs will look each Saturday. I like to have very large eggs since we love to eat eggs in an egg cup each weekend. This past Saturday I found a monster egg. Sorry the first photo is blurred but I just had to show you. My DH had that egg and it had a double yolk in it. It was very tasty but I would hate to have been the chicken that laid it! LOL!

Day of preparation

Today I am working on the instructions document for my online stitching list. We are having a pinkeep SAL next week. I am so excited to see all their results! This is a group of very talented ladies and I know there are going to be some beautiful pinkeeps to admire. I thought I would share the first photo in the instructions series with you. This show the items needed to make a pinkeep. I am making this pinkeep with a fabric rather than stitched back.

Progress of my Autumn Leaves medallion quilt

I have finally had some time to spend on my Autumn Leaves medallion quilt again. Since I last showed you this, I have added a one inch border around the Chinese Coins followed by little two inch four-patch blocks. I now have to decide on the next border.

My three options are:
a. I stop here and quilt it then add a bias binding of the black fabric.
b. I add another one inch black border and then a border of the pumpkin orange (probably about 1 1/2 inches wide) and after quilting add an orange bias binding.
c. I add a border of black fabric and then quilt it and sew on a black bias binding.

I think I know which one I prefer but am going to think about it first today. Which one do you like best?

An Autumn garden

The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.

~~ Henry David Thoreau ~~

Even in the autumn our gardens can be bright and beautiful. We went to the garden center and purchased some mums and winter violets in a warm rust color. Placed with some garden items and gourds and pumpkins, it really cheers a corner where plants have been going into their winter sleep already.

Thank you Sonja!

My very dear friend Sonja made me these candles. I save my old candle stumps for her and she melts them down and makes new and beautiful candles from them. One is even a scented candle which she made from a large candle in a jar which I had. It smells so wonderful! She gave me these as a gift last night. Bedankt Sonja!!!

The photo was taken in my kitchen. The quilt you see is a small one block quilt I made some years ago. I have it over my toaster since it matches my kitchen perfectly.

Monday's fall quote

November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.

~~ Clyde Watson ~~

Photo of our cottage's garden gate. We are busy each weekend working on preparing the garden for the winter.

Quick stitch for the weekend!

I stitched this adorable little freebie this weekend. I am preparing the instructions including photos of each step for a pinkeep SAL on one of my lists. There are alot of people signed up for it and it is going to be great fun. This is what I will use for the sample pinkeep which will give me a fun pinkeep for the holidays.

This freebie is from Tanya Anderson "The Sampler Girl" and is available on her website.

Another "guest" Autumn Leaves banner shared

Once again there has been a finish posted on our Autumn Leaves SAL. This time Peg from the UK has shared the photo of her beautiful banner. Great job Peg! I will look forward to seeing more banners from you in the future.

Don't hesitate to leave her a comment here on my blog.

Mother Nature's bounty

This weekend as we drove home from our cottage, we stopped to photograph some more toadstools along the roadside near us. We have had wet weather again lately and it has resulted in many toadstools coming up once again.

The 'fly agaric' or 'vliegenzwam' in Dutch is one of the best loved toadstools. I think it is because we are all children believing in gnomes for just one moment when we discover one. They seem to be coming up all over Holland this week.

November block for calendar

Here is the block for November for the quilt calendar. It now has to be sandwiched and quilted. I was so relieved to have it done last night and can never wait till just before the quit group's evening to work on it again. That was calling it close. I now have to add this photo to the newsletter and once it is printed I will be ready for this evening.

It unfortunately does not show the colors or the details of the stitching well on this photo. I hope to get a better one once it is hanging on the calendar. There is only one month to go and it is complete. This year has gone by so quickly for me as far as designing this goes. I hope the ladies in my quilt group will enjoy using theirs in the years to come.

Happy Halloween

No Will-o'-the-Wisp mislight thee;
Nor snake, or slow-worm bite thee:
But on, on thy way
Nor making a stay,
Since ghost there's none to affright thee.

~~ Robert Herrick ~~

Where has this month gone? It seems hardly possible that we are ready to start a new month. I feel like I only just put up my Halloween tree and tomorrow it is time to take it down again. I hope everyone enjoyed October and the colors it brings.

I wish you all a very Happy Halloween!

Monday's fall quote

I am rich today with autumn's gold,
All that my covetous hands can hold;
Frost-painted leaves and goldenrod,
A goldfinch on a milkweed pod,
Huge golden pumpkins in the field
With heaps of corn from a bounteous yield,
Golden apples heavy on the trees
Rivaling those of Hesperides,
Golden rays of balmy sunshine spread
Over all like butter on warm bread;
And the harvest moon will this night unfold
The streams running full of molten gold.
Oh, who could find a dearth of bliss
With autumn glory such as this!

~~ Gladys Harp ~~

Artwork from Rebecca Barker ~ 'Quiltscape: Autumn Leaves'

Finally some fall colors!

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

~~~ Albert Camus ~~~

We finally have some fall colors here now. It has been unseasonably warm here in Holland and I have had to wait so long to see some color. This is our little maple tree in the corner of the garden. My red maple is also starting to go orange now.

Pumpkin people

I finished the pumpkin people block last night. This block went so fast. I am really pleased with how it turned out. It will bring a smile to our face each October as I put the block on the quilt calendar.

Autumn Leaves banner revealed

Today I am able to share another beautiful banner from our Autumn Leaves SAL group. This banner was made by Tanya Anderson. She is better known to stitchers as 'The Sampler Girl'. Tanya is our list mom for the cross stitching group and an amazing designer. If you have not already seen her site, you can check out her work at http://thesamplergirl.homestead.com/home.html . She just realeased a new chart: the Jane Austen Sampler Stocking and it is well worth a look!

This was my first pinkeep

I showed you my latest pinkeep a couple of days ago. It was only the second one I have ever made. I made one last Christmas as an exchange gift and loved how it turned out so had always planned to make one for myself also. The exchange gift was for someone in my quilt group and I wanted it to reflect the year's theme which was 'The Amish and their Quilts'. The front was Amish clothes and hats while the back had the theme title and date on it.

Since our Christmas exchange was a pincushion, I made a useable 'tuffet pincushion' out of some scraps of my Amish fabrics leftover from making my theme quilt. I wanted the person who received my gift to have a pincushion they could really use also as the pinkeep was just for decoration.

I want to make some pinkeeps as they are so nice when completed. I think my next one will be a Christmas pinkeep. It will be a fun project to plan to make over the holidays.

Sharing another Autumn Leaves sampler finish

I just love sharing all these finishes with you. This is Nancy in South Carolina's finished sampler. She framed this herself in a vintage frame she found at a yard sale. She is very lucky at finding great bargains like this. She placed it together with pumpkins and gourds in her fireplace. I think it all looks really wonderful especially since she choose the pumpkin for her center in the sampler.

What's happening in my quilt studio

My own Autumn Leaves quilt has to wait for now. I have lots of work to finish before my quilt group comes next week. I gave them a challenge for the October block on the quilt calendar. They have to make their own design with only one rule. There has to be a jack o'lantern somewhere on it. I want to surprise them with something very different. I am creating these pumpkin people for my block. I will iron the applique on today and start with all the decorative stitching. Sorry this photo is a bit dark and fuzzy but I will share a better one with you once I get the stitching done.

I also have to work on my drawing for the November block. I will be using a cornucopia filled fill fall's bounty for this block. In between, I really need to add more to the newsletter for the group also. It is going to be a very busy week needless to say.

Autumn Leaves banner from SAL group

Here is another great finish from the Autumn Leaves SAL. This has been such fun to do together. This banner was sewn by Joni in Pennsylvania. She, like Diane, who's banner was shown last week, says she doesn't really sew but look at this great job! I think they are all looking so nice and hope to share more photos of the finishes with you soon.

Halloween pinkeep

I was beavering away this weekend on a cute little freebie which I finished today into a pinkeep. This is only the second one I have ever made and I would like to practice making more of them. I used a scrap of quilt fabric for the back. This was part of an October challenge in my stitching list's WIP SAL which I am pleased to have finished in time.