Knit One Quilt Too

Happy Halloween!

 

It turned out to be a decent day after all.  The weather was nice enough to go to the park for our homeschool group Halloween costume party.  Chloe and her friends went with the Christmas theme.  She was very popular all around town with her Santa costume.  Ryan is Indian Jones today. 

 

 

 

 

How do you like those felted elf slippers made by my friend Sarah?  They were actually still wet from being felted last night!

 

 

Some of us went out to lunch where the kids got to make their own pizzas.

It's been a fun day, but the fun isn't over.  Chloe is out trick or treating with her friends tonight and I'm about to take Ryan to his friends for the evening.  I hope you're having a very fun Halloween too!

Pumpkins, Apples & Leaves

 

You couldn't have Fall without them! 

 

 

 

The other day it was pumpkin carving time at our homeschool group.  I just love the variety!  Chloe's is the big one.  It's actually the pumpkin that Ryan picked out, but he doesn't care for carving so he lets Chloe do his.  I'll have to show you the other one that Chloe did when I get a photo. 

In the meantime here are some apple picking photos.  It was such a lovely day!  I could live in apple country!  I have decided that October is the most perfect month.  Perhaps this year's October spoiled me.  I've always loved Fall, but now I know that this month is Fall at its most perfect.  The days have been warm and sunny, nights downright cold.  We wake up to frosty mornings, but by the afternoon are wearing short sleeves and taking another wonderful bike ride.  I'm sorry to see this month go because our weather is finally turning.  I'll not dwell on that now though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boo!

In the final countdown to Halloween I wanted to show this little mini quilt I made for my October swap partner, Kay at The Wonky Quilter, in the 6"-12" mini quilt swap.  I had a lot of fun with this one.  I really wanted to do a word and you know how much I love Halloween.  It went together very quickly, even with the hand quilting.  As much as I enjoyed this I think I'll have to bow out of any more swaps for the next couple of months at least. 

 

For the most part October has been a marvelous month for weather.  The notable exception being the day we went to the pumpkin patch.  It was frigid and we only went because it was the only day that our homeschooling friends could go.  We did have a great time doing the corn maze and came home with a couple of huge pumpkins.

 

 

On another day we went to this pumpkin patch which had one of the most adorable kitties I've ever seen, who even posed for a photo.  They also had a fantastic zip line.  We were the only ones there on a Sunday morning, so the kids could take as many rides as they wanted.

 

 

Our camping weekend was fantastic.  The weather was warm, the wildlife was abundant and Mark and Chloe had a wonderful time making some ghostly photos.

 

This mule deer came right into our campsite, looking for a handout.  We didn't offer any, but did get several photos.

 

We had lots of good bird sightings including a red-breasted sapsucker, magpie, ruby crowned kinglet and this handsome great horned owl.  It turned out the owl's roost was right over our campsite.  We found lots of owl pellets around the base of the tree.  My mom took this fabulous photo the day after we left.

 

Yesterday we took a trip to the Hood River Fruit Loop for some apple picking.  Photos of that next!

There's no place like home

My newest quilt top is coming along.  This red and white number was inspired by Lazy Gal Tonya's newest quilt together for house, home or pantry.  I immediately thought of the quote from the Wizard of Oz, one of my favorite movies.  I decided to create a house for each of us.  Mine has the shoofly door, Chloe's has the dog bones, Ryan's has trains and Mark's has sweet nothings written on it.  I'll have to take some closeups soon.  I also made a little dog house for Scrabble. 

I plan to include names in the quilting and will make another tree for the middle top space.  I'm not sure what to do with the words, but I'm leaning toward having them go around the outside border.  I found these trees to be a lot of fun to do.  I've made a few before, but really got into it this time.

I had so much fun that I made this extra little house into a small top.  Fun, fun, fun!  I've always wanted to do red and white. 

Owly favorites

 

Some of my favorites from the 6"-12" mini quilt swap on Flickr.  Owls/mushrooms was the September theme.  I just recieved my lovely barn owl quilt from Calamity Kim (bottom left).  It's amazing how many hand stitches are in this one! 

I also got a bonus because it's 15" square!  Don't you love how different all these owls are?  Kim wrote a really lovely blog post about the quilt she sent, you really should go there to read about it and see her amazing photos!  Kim's blog is very inspirational too.  Thanks so much, Kim!

 

I don't deserve it!

 

Sorry for the long delay in posting.  Things have gotten out of hand here what with the good weather and too many things to do!  I've been outside as much as possible and we even went camping for the last time this season last weekend.  

Anyway, Linda at Colorplay Fibers has presented me with this award and I was quite surprised!  Thanks Linda!  By the way, Linda has a great sock pattern available for free on Ravelry.  It's called Crow's Feet and I think I may give it a go sometime soon.

I'm not much for memes, but I will play along with this one because I do have a few new favorite blogs that might not be known to some of you.

Here are the rules for the award recipients:

1. Please put the award on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.

4. Add links to the recipients.

5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.

Please stop by to check out these four blogs I love:

Berlin's Whimsy

Skip to My Lou

block-a-day

House of Krom

Hope you have fun checking out these blogs!  I hope to post more regularly now.  I've got so many things to show! 

A little fall color

A few weeks ago I won a contest over at Syko.  If you haven't seen Kajsa's blog yet, you must get over there and look at her whimsical appliques.  This interactive project is especially delightful (and if you participate you might even win it!).  Well, I kind of forgot about it, but the other day the most lovely package arrived in the mail.  Such a treat to see her work up close.  Thank you so much, Kajsa!

 

In other news, we had the most amazing flock of Evening Grosbeaks invade our pond yesterday.  There must have been at least a hundred of these guys and they seemed like they hadn't seen water in ages.  We often have flocks of robins or cedar waxwings, but this is the first of this kind.  They were in and out, flying all over and hitting the windows too. 

 

I've got a new project going and it's all Tonya's fault.  I'm still working on the old stuff too though.  Photos to come!

A ripple in time

 

Scrabble was groomed last week and the ripple is back from hiatus so naturally, a photo was in order.  I'd really like to be done with it, but I have more colors to add and it's just not quite long enough.

 

I have, however, had occasion already this fall to use it to warm me while I quilt or knit.  It's very cozy!  Happy Autumn everyone!

Owls, owls everywhere

Owls have been a theme of late what with the previous quilt and these little quilts I've been working on.  First there were the owl coasters I made for my sister from the sweet Japanese owl print.  These coasters are 4"square.

 

Then, I heard about the owl theme for the 6"-12" mini quilt swap on Flickr and I just had to do it.  I took the same owl fabric for my inspiration and created an applique based on those owls.  I sent one to my swap partner, Calamity Kim, and made another one for me!  These measure about 8.5" square.  These are hand appliqued and hand quilted, with a little embroidery and the cool beads that I got at an antique store.