The Frost is on the Pumpkins

Well we have come to the end of Oct. , today is our grandson Isaac's seventh birthday , where did those years go .Happy Birthday Isaac !!
It is a cold day here on the East coast today , brrr..... the worst part about that is it makes you realize what is to come . However my mailbox has been busy with postcards which always brighten the dullest day and this one is extra special as it came from Raewyn's nephew Max , Raewyn had emailed me and asked if I would be willing to exchange postcards with Max who is 11 as he had learned to sew postcards on a recent visit at her home. I was delighted to be asked so I did some research through Raewyn to see what type of things might interest Max  but before I get into that I will show you his sweet little postcard I received one day last week .

I think Max did an excellent job on making this card , his stitching is really quite good for a novice and I like his geometric shapes , excellent job Max, thanks so much !!So now back to my investigation , Raewyn told me that Max has a pet chicken that he carries around with him so I thought that would be perfect for a postcard and I think I am pretty safe in sharing the postcard  I mailed off to Max , I don't believe it has arrived just yet but it must be getting very close .

I sure hope Max likes my funky chicken , it was a lot of fun to create. 

Yesterday I received this lovely pumpkin postcard from Judy as part of the fall postcard exchange .

Isn't it great , love her stitching !! Thanks so much Judy and thanks for swapping with me.

 I have a finish for October to share , well technically it needs more quilting but I decided to say it was done for now as I had promised this banner for my granddaughters to hang for the fall .

I think this is an adorable project even though I was thoroughly frustrated with the mistakes in the Fons and Porter magazine Quilting Celebrations the fall issue . I am sure such major mistakes angered a few people . The girls loved their new scarecrow and I hope they enjoy having him hanging up for Halloween . 

I have been busy sewing but nothing to share just now , maybe in a day or so . 

 Off I go back to the sewing machine , I am sewing Christmas today  , thought I might as well it is cold enough :-) Thanks for stopping by and have a great day doing something you love .

 hugs Sheila

The Blueberry fields of Nova Scotia and other fall photos

I have to say that Fall is by far my favorite season of the year, I know many that will agree , it is so gorgeous with all the colors and also the cooler temperatures and you have to love that fall breeze .  On the weekend Bill and I went on a jaunt through the back roads, I know that I have told you before how much I love those little trips , I sometimes just need that to get centered .

 Here is a blueberry field in fall , isn't it amazing , the color is almost unreal . The fields are ablaze with red but you know many other colors show up as well.

Look at this photo, you will see pink and even purple if you look close enough and of course there is some green mixed in but it truly looked like a large flower garden , oh be still my heart .

To my partners in the last postcard swap , I did a little landscape and in each I did a strip of red to represent the lovely fields you see here .  . I already showed you the postcard I sent to Maria but I did not share the one for Judy but I can do that now as I know for certain that it has arrived , yippee .

Just a little reminder for those who have not yet sent me their information , please do so as soon as possible so I can assign partners , thanks.

Back to our road adventures , I think I also told you how much I love old barns and we just happened upon a great old farm ,long abandoned so we walked up to take a few photos . There was lots of evidence of wild life , deer, bear and coyotes but thankfully we did not encounter the last two . 

This farm is on a hill and the view down to the valley was just beautiful although a lot of the trees had already lost their leaves .

I did not enhance this photo in the least , isn't this fern pretty , completely blond and I thought looked rather artistic amongst the fallen leaves.

A lovely little water fall in a small stream by the roadside .

Bill is also busy taking photos , he had no idea I had my camera pointed on him but then he got me back ;-)

Deep in concentration here trying to capture the beauty of this river that was flowing with plenty of water after our rainfall.

I loved this spot , the rocks just had so much appeal with the layers of leaves at their base ,yes I love rocks too  .

This photo was beside a lake we discovered , no idea what it is called but it was quite large and there were a couple of loons but they didn't take long disappearing under water once they seen us. 

I guess by now you can see that I love nature , I love being surrounded by natural beauty , it just makes me feel good and I took a lot of photos but I think I have kept you long enough but before I go I do have one more photo I want to share and it is actually from the weekend before when we visited our son and family .

This is my granddaughter Elise , swinging the baseball bat while her grandfather,( Chad's FIL) is ready to catch it . The girls had such fun playing ball and as you can see there was quite a breeze blowing and it was a tad chilly . 

 Thanks for stopping by , hope you enjoyed my fall photos , I do have some sewing related things to share but that will be for another day .

 hugs Sheila

Christmas themed postcard swap

I have had some great response to another postcard swap and some newcomers so I thought I should explain what is involved . I will assign each participant a partner and you will send one postcard in a Christmas theme to that person before November 15 which gives you plenty of time and also gives the postal system plenty of time to deliver these little treasures before the holiday rush and this way you will have your postcard to display throughout the holidays . Postcards are generally 4x6 " in size and must be fabric on both the front and the back with some type of stiffening to keep the card from getting bent out of shape as it goes through the post office, they should not be floppy . If you feel more comfortable mailing your postcard in an envelope that is perfectly fine by me, I generally mail them as is but occasionally if they have embellishments that could either get knocked off or broken in their travels then I will use a clear cellophane envelope or a regular envelope .  There are several great tutorials online to make postcards so if this is your first time then it might be helpful to check those out and you can also check my pinterest page(on my sidebar) for both ideas as well as tutorials that I pinned the last time we did a swap. The person you will be sending your card to will also be the person who will send one to you , when you receive your postcard please email that person and let them know it has arrived and you can then post a photo of your new little art piece or you can wait until both cards have arrived and then post both at the same time but I really want those postcards shown on your blog if you have one . I would also really appreciate if you could let me know when your cards arrive , that way I won't be worrying that someone has not received a card. They can go missing in the system and I have had one that never did make it to the person I mailed it to ,which in my case was my son , I was so sad to know it had not arrived but someone must have really liked it ;-)
 I hope I have covered everything here , if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask and also please send me your information , name, address , blog address , email address ,if you could make that in a list form it would mean I can copy and paste which will save me a lot of time but also less chance of mistakes . Thanks so much and I hope we get a few more signing up , the more the merrier!!
 

 Here are a couple of postcards I made last Christmas  just using some themed fabric , let your imagination go wild , check pinterest as well as flicker for ideas , there are so many available. 

Enjoy your day .

hugs Sheila 

Postcards and I won the LOTTO !

It is now past the middle of October , can you believe that ? Well that means that all postcards in my little swap should now be in the mail and hopefully even delivered . If you have received your postcard and did not already let me know would each of you please do so ,thanks.
 Oh I bet you are wondering about the second part of my title for today , yes I won the Lotto but before I start getting reams of mail asking for financial help let me just explain , I did not win any money even though that would have been so wonderful ,hey I would be able to travel all over the world and visit you all but no such luck , I won the lotto on postcard pizzazz which means my mailbox will fill up with postcards all this month from those who signed up to try to win this great little prize. How many will I receive you ask , well a whopping 9 cards , pretty incredible huh , I was pretty excited actually and so far two have arrived  but before I show you those postcards I would like to share the two postcards that arrived from Maria and Annette .

I received this gorgeous fall pumpkin card from Annette , she was not my partner in the swap she was just being extra nice and sent one to me along with the two partners I assigned her , she was so kind to take on an extra card when I had a last minute swapper join us , thanks so much Annette you are a sweetie . You probably can't see it here but the leaves are three dimensional  with some lovely stitching for  detail. Annette your card will be a lovely art piece to display for the fall season but I think I will leave it around all year long .

A couple of days ago I received this really wonderful Halloween postcard from Maria ,I was so pleased that it arrived in record time coming from Australia and now I can decorate for Halloween .

Some adorable goblins and they don't look the least bit scary , rather friendly little ghosts I would say and even some bats in the upper corner with their beady little eyes looking down on the ghosts . I love it Maria , thanks so much . I still have one card to arrive but I am sure it will soon be here and I will share it once it arrives. Maybe before I show you my lotto cards I will share the card I sent to Maria . 

I had to borrow this photo from Maria , as I don't seem to have taken a picture , naughty me . A little landscape to represent the fall here in NS. , the falling colorful leaves , the green fields as well as the red fields of the blueberry fields and the beige of the farmers fields that have had their crop cut. 

This cute little owl postcard was my first lotto card, those little googly eyes are kind of cute don't you think . This card traveled from Georgia and is from Sukochi .

Karen from Virgina Beach sent this card with the pompom flowers with a little bee getting some nectar and congratulations stitched across the top , so sweet . My postcard collection is really growing and you must wonder what I ever do with them all , well they are on display around my sewing space and some are stored and I change them now and then but my favorites stay out for me to enjoy all the time . 

 I know we are just finishing up a swap but Christmas is just around the corner and I am wondering what you feel about doing another swap with a Christmas theme . Let me know so I can make plans on a date for starting and sending , you can start making one right now if you are interested , this is an easy theme , Christmas has a broad range of ideas you can choose from so be creative . I think we could aim for the middle of November that way everyone should have their cards received to enjoy in time for the holiday season . What are your thoughts , speak now or forever hold your peace ;-)

I am off to do a little sewing so I will catch you all later , I have some lovely fall photos I want to share but time is running out for me today . Take care , enjoy your day and do something fun and creative. Thanks for stopping by .

hugs Sheila 

QAL #2 POST

I have now added the sashings and the border and I am pleased , I have never made a Christmas project that did not have red or green so this was a wee bit challenging to do , however I do love a challenge now and then ;-) Want to see the gray??

 There you have it , a grey sashings with a grey border and  with a narrow border done in a silver grey . I had intended for the lighter grey to be used as sashings but it got washed out so this way it works better I think . What do you think ? Here is a close up of those borders.

I really love that inner border fabric . So that is it for me today as I have some errands to do to prepare for Thanksgiving this weekend . Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians , may you enjoy a wonderful time with your family . Thanks again for the visit and I will be back soon.

 Hugs Sheila

Christmas QAL

                                                                    

It's beginning to feel like Christmas , it sure is crisp out there today only 10 C. but with a brisk wind it feels much colder but inside I am toasty warm and working away on my Christmas challenge piece . Today is the Christmas QAL with Joanna at Needle Thread Happiness and I was busy preparing and sewing my next block .

 Making HST'S , then sewing the pieces together to create this block .

As you can probably see it is not yet sewn here but I did get that done and now for the little line up I have so far. Oh wait , there was one block I was not happy with so I deconstructed that as you can see here .

I removed the center block and replaced it with the pink square so the blocks will each have pink . Now for all of them together .

When I first decided to join this QAL I really had no direction , just ok I would like to try this and so I made a block which was the blue's with the pink , second from the right , then the next month I couldn't find the pink so that is when I made the second block from the left and it had the off white in the center and somehow it just didn't look good today when I placed them all together so what is a gal to do but take it apart and replace that little block and I am so much more happy with this change. So I bet you are wondering what is she going to use for the sashings or what is she going to make with these blocks , well I am making a runner and the sashings and border will be gray , yeah I know it seems strange to use gray for Christmas but I found the perfect fabric at our local shop Atlantic Fabrics , it has snowflakes and is really quite pretty so that is my next step this afternoon to get those sashings cut and sewn . See you later and enjoy your day .
Thanks for the visit .
 hugs Sheila