Trying to catch up

Chantal is the winner... she guessed right.  I was in Singapore.  What an amazing place to visit.  SO interesting... I took so many fabulous pictures.  Where to start??

Singapore Botanic Gardens!!  Always love visiting the different botanical gardens as we travel, especially since we've become friends with a fabulous horticulturist extraordinaire! (yes, PBR, that's you!)...  This garden is huge and I went twice!  Hidden in the foliage are a number of sculptures, which I think is where I'll start along with water features.  Here are the gates to gain entry (FREE)



















Loved this walkway!


That's enough travel photography for today.  Now a little sewing!
I did work on Lori's little sew-along once I returned, although now that I'm seeing the second step, I'm not so sure I'm going to stick with it.  Won't look good on point..  I'll be like Wendy Reed and make a couple of versions!  This one might become my October mini!! ;-)  Add a few more rows and VOILA!


I also went back to that local antique store and found another little wire basket for some more scraps.  I dumped moved my "dark" scraps into this one and it's already full!  Now I need one for the "lights" on my sewing table!


I'm off this evening and tomorrow to PIQF, the local enormous quilt show put on by Mancuso.  Looking forward to seeing some new friends.
If you're going to be there, please let me know so we can meet up!

September mini--delayed

I am hoping that the Monthly Mini Maven (Wendy Reed!) will still accept my submission for my September mini.  I picked it up from the quilter in September...does that count??  Plus I think I should get a ribbon because this was a UFO from a few years ago which I recently finished up at the cabin.  Just needs the binding.



and I decided I didn't want to add to the stash with the leftover fabric I accumulated in making this darling so I took all the leftover fabrics, cut them into strips and made a jelly-roll quilt, which I also got from the quilter.  Funny that the left-over quilt is much larger than the original quilt! vbg  The good news is that I don't have any more fabric left from this project!  And it'll make a great donation quilt.  I think I'll let Claire (the donation queen) direct me on that.


When I last posted, I had a group of friends at the cabin and we went hiking every day.  I got no sewing done, especially because I flew back with them and missed my drive time for hand sewing. ;-(
I showed you many of my scenic views.  We had a wonderful time and I loved sharing the cabin and Central Oregon with them.

Then, right after I returned from the cabin, my dh and I took a little (that's not exactly true...) excursion.  If you can identify this location, you'll win a FQ!
I'll post more pictures from this trip after the destination has been identified.  It was so interesting.



One small hint:  my hair, which is extremely curly, was beyond curly and frizzy.

Just a little to show for my week plus great nature experiences

What can I say?  Didn't get much sewing done-- I had a group of friends come up to the cabin last week and we were hiking every day... They aren't quilters (imagine that?! non-quilter friends!) so I wasn't able to sew.

I did finish another one of these darling baskets on the drive up to the cabin!


Before my friends arrived, my husband and I went on a hike with the Deschutes Land Trust organization and it was phenomenal.  We were treated to a history lesson about the area.  I hadn't known there were people living in the hills, miles from others, doing mill work.  There was evidence of these sites...dating back to the early 1920s.  Here is a pile of rusted metal cans, all of which are identifiable if you look closely!  There was also a cup and plate!
My inclination would be to clean up the area but historians are adamant that it remain intact to  tell the story from about a hundred years ago!




Then there are the gorgeous fall colors in Central Oregon.

This one was from the hike, in the hills outside Bend.  The next one is from the area by our cabin near Sunriver.


I'm sure all the leaves will be gone in a  matter of days... I love the fall colors!

Here are some nature shots taken during the hikes with my friends.

This was taken during a hike around Sparks Lake.  You can see the South Sister to the left and Broken Top to the right.  This is my favorite area of the Cascades.  The road is closed between November and May because of all the snow.  I hiked between those two mountains earlier this summer to Green Lakes.  This hike was a lot easier! ;-)

Then we went to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.  This area was formed thousands of years ago by volcanic activity.  The lake in the distance is Paulina Lake, which my husband and I hiked around a couple of weeks ago.


We also hiked up to the Obsidian Peak.  Have you heard of that rock?  It's a very sharp, shiny black rock from volcanoes.  This is one example.  I think it looks other-worldy, if you get what I mean.


This is that mountain from Paulina Lake.  It's quite a huge mass of rock just like the picture above.


Hopefully I'll be getting more sewing done!

A great find

I was on my way back from getting my flu shot this morning when I drove past a new shop with stuff outside (I thought it was an consignment shop--it's an antique store) and I saw something that caught my eye so I stopped.

I had recently seen that someone used an antique metal laundry basket to hold their scraps and I thought that was a great idea.  Looked on Amazon and it was pretty pricey.

So I saw one at this little antique shop.  I didn't buy it but I found something else adorable and much more affordable.  I'm guessing it was a bread basket in a former life (pain means bread in French)...note my toile window seat cover!  I do have a bias towards things French for sure.


I thought it'd be perfect to hold my scraps... so I quickly dumped my previous tupperware container's contents, thinking I'd have plenty of room leftover...
WRONG... Filled it right up, but now I can SEE what's inside.  I'm really excited about this...



Don't want to mislead you into thinking this is my only pile of scraps... NO... it's the one by my cutting mat.  I have two others overflowing near my sewing machine... Oh and another basket on the floor.  So many scraps... so little time!!

Quilts in the garden

This weekend, a local nursery held its annual quilt show in the garden.  I don't usually go because it's about an hour away but this year, since we didn't have the kids, we decided to take the drive.  What a treat.  This is one of the nicest places to buy plants I've ever seen.  The majority of the quilts were by Eleanor Burns, who was the featured quilter and displayed probably close to 100 quilts!  Alex Anderson lives nearby so she was prominently featured as well, including a booth and her demonstrations.


This was what we saw as we entered the nursery grounds.

I loved the wool applique so had to take a closer picture.  Up close I noticed that the quilter did not do buttonhole stitches.  She did a different kind of stitch, which looked equally nice.  I couldn't get a closer shot to show you as the quilt was too high up.



Look at the size of this tree!!  This was just one of many.  By the way, the pig quilt on the right had the most adorable pig fabric on the back, too!


This was one of my favorites of them all!






I really liked this log cabin variation.  It's an Eleanor Burns quilt as are the ones above, I believe.
 The sashing was printed not pieced.  I am always looking for the right pattern for me to make a quilt using some of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics I've been collecting.





This one is a mini.  I loved how she did the mini stars and the flag.  Remember I tried to piece a flag recently and it was pretty sad.  This one is adorable.



There was a really interesting exhibit by one woman who sewed people as if they were sitting on a bench.



Clever, don't you think?

This one was right by Alex Anderson and is called "Sizzle"-- it's the 2019 BOM by thequiltshow.com.   It was designed by Becky Goldsmith.  Thank you Dottie Daybell and Barbara Black for giving me the correct information about this quilt. I love the colors.


Hope you enjoyed the little show.

Tomorrow I'll show you my second quilt using the rest of the Triangle Gatherings blocks.  Used them all up! WOOHOO. Just need to put on borders.

I realized something this weekend.  I have so much fabric and so many quilts I want to make that the temptation is sometimes overwhelming.  I want to make this one and that one;  then there's another one I want to make.  Where to begin??  Know what I mean?? 

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2018

Thanks to Wendy Reed (Constantquilter) for pointing this out, I've decided to post a picture of one of my favorite completed quilt.

This was a Temecula Quilts sew-along a few years ago.  We didn't know how it would turn out but ultimately there's just something about it that I love.



It's kind of an online quilt show.
https://www.amyscreativeside.com/2018/09/17/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2018-edition/

There's a great variety of quilts which I think you'll enjoy!

Triangle Gatherings quilt FINISHED!

Many of you participated in the Primitive Gatherings Triangle Gatherings sew-along last year, as did I.  I put together most of my blocks (there are 98) and just got it back from my fabulous machine quilter, Sandy Lachowski in Bend.  I had an 8 hr drive back home this week from our cabin and spent the time sewing down the binding. It's a king size quilt, so it took be the full 8 hrs to get it done!  No wonder I like sewing bindings down by machine!! It wasn't going to work on this quilt, so I did it by hand! VBG




I had to lay it down on my driveway in order to get the whole thing, although I still cut off the corners.  My binding is scrappy;  I also did the borders in differing fabrics, as are the setting triangles and cornerstones.  It's a truly scrappy quilt!  I put it on my grandson's bed this weekend and he loved having the quilt on his bed~  you may remember that he helped me sew some of the blocks last year by following the diagrams and arranging the half square triangles in the proper configuration.

I also was able to finish more of the little freebie basket blocks from Primitive Gatherings.




When I returned from the cabin, I was also able to pick up my mail containing the fabulous little basket mini quilt from Janet O.


Those tiny tiny baskets are all of 2" finished!!  Aren't they amazing??!! Just beautiful.  I hung it immediately next to my computer so I can admire and marvel at its beauty all the time.  And those feathers??!! WOWZER.  Just love it.  Thank you Janet O, again.  I don't mean to forget either the fabulous soaps she included in the package.