I'm still here

Good afternoon , it is a sunny beautiful day here on the East Coast , we sure can't complain about the weather , it has been fabulous .
 On the 13/14th of October I had the opportunity to share my love of quilting at the Fibre Arts Festival in Amherst along with my partners in crime , Linda Smith of Scrapmaster , Lesley Carruthers of the Cuddle Quilter and Karen Roy of KaHolly fame . I can't think of three other ladies I would have more fun with .

A photo of the three of us , Karen,  Lesley,  Linda and myself  standing in front of one of our displays at the Town Hall in Amherst.  We had a change in venues so our space was limited however we made the best of it and I think we had a very nice display.  We talked to lots of people from all over , including a lady from Alaska,  one from Australia and another from BC so that made it extra special . We already have plans to return next year . It really was a fun weekend .
 Before I headed off to  Amherst I got busy finishing up my RR we had done as a group over the winter months . I had been procrastinating as to quilting this wonderful quilt made by my friends . I was unsure how to even tackle such a job and there wasn't time to handquilt it so I did what any smart girl would do , I asked for help.  I emailed Fiona of BubzRugz and asked her if she could give me suggestions on how I could quilt this quilt . I sent her a photo of the quilt and being the sweet person she is she sent me a few drawings as to how she might tackle this . Well I have to admit when I first  looked at her drawings I said to myself,  oh yeah sure I can't do feathers but you know what I can , they may not be perfect and certainly not as nice as what Fiona would do but they are done and they are mine lol
 Now I will admit I didn't do all that Fiona had in her drawings as my skill level is pretty minimal and I wanted to use the walking foot where I could so my orange peel is all done with a walking foot , oh I know i could do it FM but no time to frog stitch so I went with the safe method . Want to see what I did , don't look too close , it is far from perfect.

 I will even be brave enough to share the backside .

I was quite pleased it was nice and flat,  no puckers and all quilted , yeah ! Thanks Fiona for your help , I really appreciate it .
 I also did something else I had never done before , I had gotten my snowball quilt back from Lynda Campbell and she did a great job of the quilting and my time was short so I knew I didn't have time to sit for several evenings and hand sew down a binding which is my normal method so......I did it by machine , something that normally takes me days took me less than one hour , how great is that.I don't have a full picture of it but here is a corner so you can see the quilting and the binding

Sorry not the best picture but you get the idea  and it just shows you can teach an old dog new tricks 😉
 Talking about old dogs , unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our old dog Luke , a most faithful,  loyal , wonderful dog we had the privilege to have in our lives for almost 12 years.  We miss him terribly,  just not the same without him around .

This is one of my favorite pictures of Luke,  he is a labradoodle and I would highly recommend this breed , a perfect family dog . Will I get another dog , that has yet to be determined , my heart says yes but my body says maybe not .
 I am doing some secret sewing at the moment and I can't even share a peak as the person who owns these fabrics just might be lurking . You see our guild is doing a brown bag challenge , how does that work , well we put 3/4 fqs or fabrics of our choice in a brown paper bag and then we must staple it so not even a thread is poking out and there is to be no identification what so ever on the bag or inside the bag . We could type up a note with suggestions as to how we want our enclosed fabrics used but not hand written as that might be a clue . It's a fun little challenge and it was a tad challenging coming up with a way to use the fabrics I am working with and now I have to hope the person who owns them will like what I have done . I promise to share once it is it is given  back along with the project I receive . We are also doing a postcard exchange and tomorrow I will help those who haven't made one before , that should be fun .
 Well folks that's it for me for now , sorry I am so slack at blogging but life has a way of keeping me busy .
 Thanks for taking the time to stop by .
 Hugs Sheila