Quilting square

Last Saturday the Assiniboine Guild that I belong to met, and Leona taught how to make this star block.  It measures 24X24 inches so it's a fair size for a table center or wall hanging if you like that.  The block is actually square but the intent is to fold the 4 sides in to make it an octagon shape so you are looking at the block "on point".
Of course I had the fall colour theme going but it might be nice for Christmas and I actually was going to make one for my daughter for Halloween but that thought went out the door this morning when I went to buy  spooky, creepy material for it, I am not paying full price for material, consequently the center piece will just have to wait till next year and I will keep my eyes open for some bargains, and for material that I really wanted, like the candy corn for the background material!!

PUMPKIN PINATA

So, my granddaughter Ryann is going to be a Pirate this year.  I thought maybe I would do something different for her so I made this pumpkin pinata for her.  I made it with the old flour water and salt recipe and all I can tell you is that this thing is as solid as cement!!
It did not mould inside as I feared it might, I drilled a large hole in the top to stuff all the treats through and to attach the "stem".  Then I thought, there is no way she is going to be able to break this thing, so I drilled small holes in various places around the pumpkin to help in the break for her.  I think that perhaps she is still going to need some help with that!
I will try and take a short video tomorrow night and post it, it should be funny.  Now I have to carve the 3 pumpkins I have out front.

and. . . . . . we're done!

Ryann's "Christmas blanket" is now complete.  I wanted to take a pic before I washed it, heaven knows what it will look like after that!!  It will either be delightful, or I will be disappointed.  Either way, it's done!
My goal was to make quilts using a new pattern each time, after doing this one though I think I will make more, of course the colours and design will be completely different, however I do like the way they turn out, so snugly and warm.
My daughter's eyes lit up when she saw it the other day, I said, so do you think it's long enough for you too? I added another 2 rows!  Pre-washed size is 43X65 1/2 inches, just right for her and Ryann to snuggle up under!

now completed, I really like the way it turned out, and not pink!!

Ryann's Christmas Blanket

Ryann has requested a Christmas blanket, so I got started, you know me, everything to the last minute.
I chose red and white, I was going to add a blue, but I like the look of just the red and white and there is enough for a pillow cover as well.  just a quick guage of the approximate size..
We have snowflakes on the white print and the red print has little snowmen on it.

Well, it shouldn't take me too long to wrap this one up.  I'll post a pic after I snip and wash it, I just hope the whole thing doesn't come out pink!

GARDEN BLOCKS

Slowly, I am getting the raised garden bed area the way I would like it to be, so far.. . . . raised garden beds, check.     blocks, well in the interior portion anyways. . check.

Next year, bricks around the exterior and who knows, maybe that pergola will happen . . . .who knows!!  Like my little forest?  I plunked them in there last fall, they survived the winter there so I just let them be.
Oh and Ken was talking about a fence around the entire raised garden area, instead of all the wire fencing around each unit, that would be nice.

Do we have Leaves?

We had leaves and plenty of them, notice that only 1 neighbour has 2 bags out for collection?  I think all the leaves in the bay blew into our yard, now raking and sweeping all of them was actually a lot of fun this year as the weather was grand so it was like gathering giant corn flakes.  The problem was with obtaining the paper bags to collect them in, (new rules) I ended up just bagging them in the big old orange plastic ones first, which ended up being a good idea due to the weather turning to snow, anyways we just transferred them into the paper ones once the stores finally got more stock in.
Well that's the end of the fall clean-up.  My garden is empty.  I put wooden stakes behind every perennial plant in my flower bed so that I now know exactly where they are.  I had put everything on computer but when you can't be exact, it's easy to dig things up in the spring as I found out this year.

A Quilt for August

My little niece August was born Aug 15 on her Grandma's birthday, how special is that!!  I had the quilt top made in 2 weeks.  Then after this and that, I finally finished it, I had to go back up to Stonewall to get more of the colour for the binding.  So it will be off in the mail soon.  I went out of my comfort zone and actually did some leaves here and there, I free handed them so they are not perfect in way shape or form, however I will never get past stitching in the ditch if I don't do something other than that will I!

Violet loves her quilt, I gave it to her mom when she was up last week, I put her picture on the label on the back and she totally loved that little special that makes it hers.  Not that all the colours don't say, this is Violet's quilt!!!

Now Ryann said she wants a Christmas blanket, thinking of ideas there. . . .a rag quilt stands out, however whatever it is, I will have to start soon as I take forever to complete anything.

My Friendly Squirrels

Well, this is what those little guys can do in a very short period of time, this lattice is very strong and thick!
My sister asked if I was sure it was squirrels and not beavers!
ok, this was last month, I'll have to get on this blog more often so I can figure some things out.