Afternoon Roadtrip with Frank and my Husband

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis must realize by now that I often stitch in the car and today was no exception. My husband and I had the afternoon to ourselves so we took a drive in the country with a few stops along the way. I did some stitching on Frank in the car on the way to our first destination.

 

I actually did some stitching one night this week when Christine came over for a couple of hours of stitching.  You can see her project on her blog here.  She is making a wool candle mat for a Christmas gift.

I took this picture at our main stop this afternoon.  Some of you may recognize this place...Country Patchworks Fabrics and Quilts. 

I purchased some orange thread--I have been wanting to get a new spool of orange thread for months! Also, three pieces of fabric came home with me.  I love the snowmen riding in the trucks!

I also purchased something else while I was there but you will have to wait a few weeks until I can show it to you.

Our next stop was at the Dairy Queen, but I did not take any pictures of our ice cream!

On our way home, we were on the lookout for some pumpkins for our front porch.  We stopped at a farm on a country road where they had apples, onions, squash and pumpkins for sale.

 

I bought two types of squash ( a green one and a striped one) and white and orange pumpkins.

 

 

These pictures were taken at the farm. I decorated my porch when we got home but did not take a picture and now it is too dark.

We also saw some farmers out harvesting their soybeans.

It was a perfect day for a drive in the country!

There were even some leaves changing colour on a few trees.

I will be linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching tomorrow.

Quilt Show Photos

My friend, Karen, and I took our husbands out for dinner last night and then we all went to the London Friendship Quilters' Guild "Harvest of Quilts" show at Rowntree United Church in London.  It was a cold, wet night but the quilts were warm and cheerful!

Several members made the "Stars for my Friends" mystery and finished their quilts in time to hang them in the quilt show. Each one looked very different even though the same pattern was used for each one.

M added an extra row of frendship stars at the top to make it rectangular.

This one was made from batiks.

I like the extra star blocks in the corners!

 

I like the scrappy majestic mountains on this one.

 

This quilter likes to make smaller quilts and stopped at the snowball border before adding her own borders to frame it.

 

There was at least one more mystery quilt there made by my friend Jacqui but I did not get a picture of it.  :-(

 

Charlene made this charm quilt. It took a while to collect all of those fabrics.

 

This wool penny rug quilt was one of my favourites!

 

This quilt was displayed in the vendors' area. Do you recognize the blocks?  They are all the blocks that my husband and I saw on our Middlesex county barn quilt tour a couple of weeks ago.

 

The quilt show is still on today from 10-4 so you still have time to go over and see the quilts. The 9 vendors would be happy to have you visit them as well. I lightened my wallet a bit at the vendors' mall...

 

It is rainy and cold today. Clean up jobs to do this morning and then some sewing this afternoon...

 

Have a great weekend!



Middlesex County Barn Quilts

My husband and I took a drive this afternoon to look at a few barn quilts in Middlesex county. This one is a "Broken Heart" block.

It was a bit overcast but bright enough to take lots of pictures. "Old Indian Trail"

I loved the look of the weathered barns with the bright quilt blocks on them.  "Tall Pine Tree"

"Butterfly"

This "Spools" block was one of my favourites.

Those soldiers were made from straw bales.

"Old Rail Fence"

"Fireside Visitor"

"Basket Weave"

 

"Geese in Flight" remind us that winter will soon be here.

 

My Grandmother made a "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt for my cousin when she got married.

 

"Elm's Strength"

 

We had a booklet with us entitled "Southwest Ontario Barn Quilt Trails: History Made Local". We read the story behind each quilt block as we stopped to take the pictures.

 

 

The fall colours were a bit spotty--we have had some wind and rain over the last few days and that tends to bring the leaves down.

"Peace and Plenty"

 

 

It was hard to get a good picture of this quilt block "Baby Blocks".

"Drunkard's Path"

 

"Broken Dishes"

 

"Dogwood" was another favourite of mine today.

 

The barn quilts were mostly installed this past Spring and we had hoped to get around to see most of them this summer, but alas, life got in the way and it didn't happen. 

Today's tour was a good excuse to get out of the house and go for a drive in the country.

I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did!

A Gift

My friend, Christine, celebrated her birthday earlier this week. Tonight, we got together for our usual sewing night together. I gave her some wool pieces for an upcoming applique project as well as this pincushion which I finished tonight.

I got the pattern from the Moda Bake shop.  I think I would like to make a few more of these!

It makes me smile when people like the gifts that I make for them...

On Mother's Day, my husband and I spent the day with our parents. We went on the annual London Free Press "Shunpiker Tour"--a car rally featuring stops at local attractions, some well known, and others more obscure. We took my Dad to see Fanshawe Pioneer Village before meeting my husband's parents for lunch and some more of the tour in the afternoon. This picture was taken at the pioneer village...

This lady was demonstrating how she makes braided rugs...

We stopped to see a new barn quilt in Delaware on our way home. Several new barn quilts have been put up in our area in the last few months.

I see another barn quilt road trip in our near future...

A Quilty Weekend Away

My husband and I spent the last 4 days in the Traverse City, Michigan area with my friend, Christine and her husband. We stayed at a bed and breakfast (The Country Hermitage) where we indulged in wonderful homemade breakfasts, fed the fish in the pond and relaxed at the end of each day's adventures.

 Of course, the trip included a few quilt stores where we enhanced our stashes!  This store was in Davidson, MI.

Nice to have designated quilter parking!

We went on a Barn Quilt tour on the Old Mission Penninsula and managed to find all of the quilt blocks.

I had to get my telephoto lens out for most of the pictures since most were quite a ways back from the road.

Part way through our tour, we found Felipe's Chicken Ranch where he decorated with chickens rather than quilts!

Funny thing, the hen house was home to some ducks!

More Barn Quilts...



Some of the blocks were designed by a family member with symbols representing important aspects of their family history/life.

It was hard to get a good shot of this one:

This one was my favourite--I like the way the block depicts the fields on the farm.

We ended our day with a drive along the Eastern shore of the penninsula to watch the Supermoon rising over Grand Traverse Bay.