Time to change homes for the winter.

September was an awful month for weather but October is glorious and I am loving the cool temperatures and the glorious sunshine.  I was actually motivated to do some housework today with the brightness coming in the windows and it felt good.  I don't say that very often.

Had a fun night last night at the modern guild meeting and I won a fabulous set of fat quarters.  Thank you to Jean! And Val handed me some awesome Canadian batik fabric which will get used in a Quilt of Valour.  Thank you to Val!

Earlier in the week, I opened a fun package from my Ovarian Teal mini swap partner in San Jose, CA and was thrilled with her choice of fabrics, pattern and quilting design.  So much fun and so happy!  She had taken a class with Christa Watson (am so envious) and was playing with some of the things she learned.
Thank you to Susy!

I love the back of the mug rug as much as the front.  And I laughed at the lint picker... it is as if she has seen me leaving the house and picking threads off myself while sitting at a red light.  The card is a picture of two of her pugs and of course, who wouldn't drool over a charm pack of zen chic?
Thanksgiving dinner was a delicious turkey feast at our neighbour's house and I managed to bake a lemon meringue pie!  Plus, Gary loves my yams in orange sauce so my contribution was minimal but Susan had the rest all organized.  So nice to go out for a nice family dinner with good friends.

One of my goals got met.  All seven of the preemie quilts I started at the retreat last month are quilted, bound, labelled and off to the NICU at our local hospital.

I only made one block for Canada Stitches.  I had to make one to ensure the instructions for the guild were accurate and I was really impressed with a quilt made from this block pattern. It is garlic knot and am happy that the guild went full steam ahead making blocks and they will be in the mail in the next few days to the rep in Alberta ready to made into another quilt for a deserving first responder attending Can Praxis to help them heal from PTSD.

I met up with my naval veteran friend and he picked up a stack of quilts to deliver to deserving veterans through the Naval veterans association.  They meet at HMCS Discovery in Stanley park monthly and we are trying to cover those deserving armed forces members with a quilt.  I think that Real deserved a quilt for all the good work he does for these veterans.

On Tuesday, we had Toonie Tuesday at our guild meeting where members pay a toonie to take six classes, moving every 15 minutes to a different session.  I normally do a quilt block that is easy, quick, simple and great for using scraps but I changed my class offering, which, sad to say, upset a few people who were looking forward to my quilt block ideas.  Oh well.. next year!  Instead, I demonstrated making the small buckets from 3 fat quarters.  Perfect for small, quick gifts for Thanksgiving, Autumn, Hallowe'en, and Christmas.

I got the binding done on my Pow Wow quilt.  This was a kit from Connecting Threads 3 years ago and simple as it is, took forever to get it out of the bag and onto my cutting table and under my needle.  All is done.

This quilt was a bit smaller and I bought the kit at Quilt Canada earlier this year.  When I finished the top, I decided to add borders to make it slightly larger, and I put flannel on the back. It will be a perfect quilt to donate to Victoria quilts which are quilts given to patients fighting cancer.

My block of the week, Sparrow mystery blocks are finished but they won't be put into a quilt top until 2019.

And, am very excited that I have quilted both my Canadian 150 women's blocks quilt and my Sew-Sisters quilt.  The bindings are added but am hand stitching them down so expect pictures soon. They are crossed off the list and are UFO's that are only a year old, not too bad?
So, I am down to seven tops that need quilting and I am not upset if they wait until next spring.  I have accomplished all I wanted to get done in the last seven months.  I also have a bunch of blocks waiting to be stitched into quilt tops and again, they can wait their turn.  There are a couple of bunches that really need to be worked on next spring and I will try to get them finished.  But, lots of time, right?  At least the blocks are made which is much better than a labelled container of fabric and half finished blocks.  These tops are all destined to be donation quilts so their time will come, eventually.  

Among those blocks that are hanging and waiting are some panels that were available last year while we were celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary and I saw this quilt, made by a good friend in my Wednesday Diva group and think it is a great way to use the fabric.  Love how effective the panel looks in this quilt. This picture inspires me to use those panels next spring.

Off to work on handstitching my binding on my quilts and hopefully will have another post before I leave on a jet plane!