This little piggy came to my house :-)

On Friday the postman delivered this adorable postcard from New Zealand , Max who is a nephew of Raewyn has taken a real liking to making postcards and we have exchanged once before so I was delighted when Raewyn asked if I would like to do another exchange with Max . He wanted to show off his improved sewing skills and indeed they are improved .

Isn't it adorable , who wouldn't love this little piggy , he has so much character . Thanks so much Max it is fun swapping with you :-) 

 While on the subject of postcards , I have approximately 16 particpants in the Christmas swap , any more takers ? Sign up by November 1st , mail out by Nov. 30th . Thanks in advance. You are swapping just one postcard and receiving one postcard unless you request more . So come on send me your info , your email address , blog address and your mailing address so I can just copy and paste , I appreciate this bit of help .

On the weekend hubby and I along with another couple headed over to the eastern shore to the town of Guysborough then on to a little rural area just a few kms. away , we were checking out a property that is for sale . I think you may have noticed I love the woods , the smell , the fauna and just being in there makes me feel good  so I have to share what I found .

The road way in , the trees have lost a lot of their leaves now and are making a nice bed along the road , so pretty .

Moss covered large rocks and as you can see even ferns grow in this rich moss , oh I love it !

The trees were also covered , obviously a very healthy forest .

A dead tree giving new life to some fungus .

I couldn't resist this little heart shaped leaf amongst the fallen leaves , so cute .

I am not sure what this is but it is was so lovely and green, teaming with life . I enjoyed this little stroll through nature so much , it truly is good for the soul , you come away feeling refreshed . Of course the air was incredibly clean so that helped too ;-) We enjoyed a delicious chower at a local cafe , I will be going back again , their biscuits were great too :-)

 I have been busy sewing but nothing to show right now , maybe in a day or so until then hope life treats you right . Thanks for stopping by and welcome to my new followers it is so nice to have you .

 hugs Sheila 

Some Christmas sewing and some mail and a postcard exchange :-)

Oh I know you are probably cringing when you hear the word Christmas but the reality is it is not that far off so a person needs to start  preparing .  I have been a  busy little beaver these days with the peddle to the metal and I will share just a few things here as some need to be kept secret if you know what I mean .
 First off I will share some Christmas postcards I have made which reminds me I think a postcard exchange with a Christmas theme would be fun ,what do you think . I would like all the names no later than November 1st with names assigned a few days later depending on how fast I can get it done and then mail out no later than the end of November but preferrably sooner so they will arrive well before the holiday season and we can then enjoy them for a longer time .  The same as before if you are interested please email all your info to me regardless if you have take part before , this saves me oddles of time and also a little easier on my hand . So what info you ask, well ,your full name , email address , blog address if you have one , and of course your mailing address ,thanks for your help.
 Now back to my postcards .,

                                                           A little snow scene

                                                     another one ,even simpler

                                                 Holly leaves that I did some stitching on .

 A christmas tree with some presents , Eglea , you might recognize the background , it is the vintage fabric you sent me :-) Thanks I love it .

                                And just because I could I did another blueberry field scene :-)
 Now for other stitching , some simple little wallets , a pattern by Valorie Wells

                                        How about a Christmas pillow

I even practiced some FMQ on this and was quite pleased with my results .

                                                   Finally a little candle mat

 I also wanted to mention that I had won a giveaway on Carries blog a little while back and I should have shared this sweet pattern earlier but it just slipped my mind . It is just adorable and I hope to make a dress or two for my granddaughters .

The great thing about this pattern is the range of sizes from 4-8 yrs. Thanks so much Carrie , I look forward to making this pattern .
 Thats it for me today , I am off to start stitching again , times a wasting . Take care and thanks for stopping by .

 As a side note I have just created a flicker page where we can add photos of our postcards , those we have made as well as those we have received , I have added just one photo so far to make sure it works but will add more later . Here is the link and it is open for all to view .
here is the link , hope this works .https://www.flickr.com/groups/2785330@N22/
 Hugs Sheila

A day in the quaint town of Amherst

Saturday morning Bill and I headed off to the town of Amherst which is about a 1.5 hour drive give or take ,now it had been many years since I had been to Amherst but I assure you it won't be so long next time . The reason for our little trip was so I could attend the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival , this is a week long event with many wonderful displays and workshops taking place , well worth the visit . My first stop was at the Town Hall where my friend Linda of Scrapmaster  was the hostess for the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild  , this is a fairly new guild and this was their first display , it was just awesome .

 This is their banner which members contributed blocks for then Linda did the awesome machine quilting . It was so nice to spend a little time with Linda , she was super busy with the many visitors who came by to see the display .

Here is Linda's pillow which recently appeared in the Quilters Connection fall issue and I had my copy signed by the artist herself :-)

Linda along with the president  Adrienne  of the Modern quilt guild are holding up one of the many quilts Linda had on display , isn't this a fun quilt . It was so nice to meet Adrienne too .

                                       The quilts were just so pretty , fresh and vibrant .

     Another of Linda's quilts which I beleive she will be  doing a workshop in their guild .

 I thought this one was really fun , lots of little boys would love this one . To see even more great pictures of this event head on over to visit with Lesley as she also spent some time in Amherst .

 After my visit with Linda I headed down to the local quilt shop , Mrs Pugsley's Emporium , wow is all I can say , what a lovely quilt shop , the building was formerly the postoffice and is a large stone building with so much character and they have a great display of fabric and notions and as part of the festival ,Karen Neary's  quilts hung on the walls for all to admire . If you don't know Karen's work you are missing out on some gorgeous quilts , to visit her website go here .Karen's quilt New York New York graces the cover of the Quilters Connection fall edition so I also had Karen autograph her pattern . It was very nice to meet Karen , such a sweet person and talent galore . A year or so ago I took a workshop to make one of Karen's patterns , Oriental Beauty , it was a great class and our instructor was Anne Mattie a member of our guild .
 My next stop was to the rug hooking display in a local church , I am not a hooker but really admire the rugs and seeing them sure makes a person want to start a new hobby ;-)

                                              My favorite here was the beach scene .

                                                         A nice variety ...

                                      This one gave me a smile to say the least :-)

I thought this one was amazing , the detail in the church was incredible and I loved the old barn board frame .

This was the only one that was not hooked , it is just wool applique , I shouldn't say just , as I think it is delightful , I love wool applique .
After this we stopped by the YMCA were there were a few crazy quilts on display , some were for sale but the prices were well out of my budget .

hard to see the detail in the stitching in this photo but since there was also a soup luncheon taking place it was difficult to get a decent picture.

These were all done by the same person which I am sorry I don't recall her name .

My final stop was a quick one , I knew Linda Hubbard was having a workshop on minature quilts so I briefly stopped in to say hello and seeing all her work sure makes me want to get busy and start cutting for a minature . It was so nice to see you Linda . Your students seemed to be enjoying their class and what a nice bright room to sew in :-) 

 After some lunch we decided to take the shore road home , the sun had come out and the temperatures had risen to lovely spring time temperatures rather than fall so what better way to enjoy the day than to follow the scenic route along the water . 

This scene is along by Pugwash which is on the northern shore of our lovely province .

 Another little stop along the shore , it sure was a pretty day and I had the best company possible .

 Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a wonderful day doing something you love . I am busy sewing today , oh how wonderful it is to be sewing again :-)

 hugs Sheila 

`Some finishes and some wonderful mail

Since I haven't shown many finishes lately I will start off with two small finishes . First off I had bought this pattern last year with great intentions to make it before Halloween but alas all my plans fell through  but better late than never I suppose . I'd like you to meet Miss Froggy :-)

The name of this little frog pattern is Spell Gone Bad and is from Bloomin Minds . Next I decided  this kit had sat on my shelf long enough and  that it was time to stitch it up and I am happy to have it completed .

This is an Applepatch design and can you guess the name , haha yep it is Apples . A fun little pattern to make . 

 Now for the fun part , my yummy mail . As you know I have been having a postcard exchange here on my blog and I do hope that everyone has mailed off their postcards by now if not please do so as soon as possible , I know we all have things in life that can slow us down for various reasons so if you are late please let your partner know . Thanks . Anyway back to the business at hand , I had two partners in this swap , Susan who sent me the owl which you can read about here and Eglea whose lovely card arrived this week . 

Isn't it stunning , a tree with lots of leaves falling , just perfect for fall , Eglea is so clever , I just love how she has done the leaves as well as the tree and the ground below the tree , hey I love everything about it . Thanks so much Eglea !!Here is the postcard I sent to her . 

 I borrowed this photo from Eglea's blog since the photo I have is different , I added some different elements to it before sending it off .  Incase you don't recognize it , this is my interpretation of my header , the blueberry fields in Glencoe . Thanks so much Eglea for swapping with me , it has indeed been a pleasure . 

 Before I go I must share a photo of more blueberry fields that I took on the weekend . 

and this one that shows part of the field has changed but still some green poking through .

This looked like a flower garden to me , love it !! Now how about some water to calm your soul .

I am thrilled with this photo that the ripples are showing up so well and I was just using my little point and shoot Canon camera , got to love that camera . 

 Enjoy your day , you won't get this one again so make the most of it doing something you love . Thanks for stopping by I love to have your visits .

 hugs Sheila 

Fall in Nova Scotia

 I thought I would share a few pictures of fall around here , it has been a wonderful fall so far , the weather has been great and has been fairly mild for this time of year . It does cool down at night so the colours are just glorious .

 I took this photo of the blueberry fields in Glencoe , I am always amazed at the colour and I  took a few photos but this one I liked the best , you have the shadows of large trees that are too the left which gives the field a purple glow .

Another common sight along the roadways these days , can anyone tell me what they are ? 

I love the cattails in the ditches too :-)

And I love how the marshes turn a golden color ,so pretty .

a nice contrast of colour here .

I wanted to go down closer to these ferns but the bank was too steep .

Here are some a little closer to the road , don't you love the colour .

Park's Falls in the fall , the water levels are way down but it was still lovely to see and although you can't hear the roar it was definitely present .

Some pretty maples 

A peaceful country road .

A lovely old barn that has stood the test of time .

 Still lots of changes to be made here . 

Well I hope you enjoyed your countryside visit to my neighborhood , thanks for stopping by today and enjoy your day .

 Hugs Sheila