Happy Halloween

This little pumpkin man is stopping by to wish you a Happy Halloween! Lady Linda is just so busy again!

Canby Quilt Retreat 2013

I have been very fortunate to have been lovingly included in this quilting group from Central Oregon, The Scrapbag Quilters. I would never have become a quilter without them. When Jimmy was fly fishing on the Deschutes River, I became friends with these ladies and became a quilter.

This is one of the quilt retreats that I get to attend with the group. It's in Canby, Oregon and it's a beautiful setting. This is the lodge where we stay and have our quilting room.

This was the view outside my window! That's a river running through the property. So pretty in fall.
We all like this retreat as we get a private room and our own bathroom.

Kathy had to share her cute quilt with us! She has become such a good quilter in a very short time.

Everyone was ready to jump in and get started right away.

Nancy had to add the binding and this wonderful quilt would be done!

Busy quilting bees at work!

Scrapy hearts-cute cute cute!

Nancy altered this to be a queen sized bed quilt. The purples were so pretty.

Kathy's 30/40's print quilt in progress. I just fell in love with this one!

Hi Roberta! I see you behind your quilt. Love the piano key boarder.

Ina was just starting this quilt and I can't wait to see this one finished.

A new fountain has been added to the property, complete with fish..

We enjoyed a brief walk over to the dining hall. It was decorated for fall.

Lights, a fire and fabulous yummy food. We were spoiled and we loved it!

We had to laugh at the sign on our table....

I finished two baby quilt tops and made these adorable fabric pumpkins for my Mary Engelbriet studio. They were fun to make and pretty easy.

I also made the little doll quilt and pillow for my Etsy site. It was a fun little project.

We did have a bit of action on the last day. The fire alarm went off and the emergency vehicles arrived! False alarm.

It was hard to say good bye, such a nice quilt retreat. Everyone got alone well and seemed to enjoy the time together. I stayed up way too late but it sure was fun. I already signed up for next year!

Sharing Denise's Birthday and Tea Time Thursday #26

I just returned from my quilt retreat which was just fantastic! I hope to blog about it with pix in a few days.

When I returned, a package was waiting for me! My dear blogger friend Denise of Denise's Delights in Her Coffeeberry Cottage did  a really cute and thoughtful thing to celebrate her birthday. She had a give-away and I was the lucky one chosen for her gift! I met Denise through a tea blog a few years ago and we just clicked. Isn't it funny how that happens with blogger friends? She was going through a tough time and I wrote her a message. I still remember that. She has sent me some very sweet little goodies over the years. I love her and since she lives in California, I do hope we will meet someday.
The box is just the perfect thing to share this Tea Time Thursday.

 She knows I love Mary Engelbriet so the box was decorated with ME tea time cut outs.  I'm going to keep the box in my ME studio. It's just perfect. Love the fairy Denise!

 Quite the box of treats! Denise is very creative and makes darling tags! Some goodies in the box to encourage me to make a few! Of course this wonderful box included some tea time treats... a darling tea book, a tea stamp!, tea sugar and the neatest box of two special spoons- one for sugar and one for jam. So sweet.

THANK YOU so much Denise. I just love my box of lovely things. I hope you had a great birthday. I may have to steal your idea when my birthday rolls around.  

Quilt Retreat Time!

Off to another quilt retreat with good friends! Beautiful fall weather to enjoy at a lovely conference center in Canby OR. 

I am hoping to get a lot of projects done- some fun projects and some NEED to do projects!

Tea Time Thursday #26 Teacup Exchange

My blogger friend Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose set up another teacup or mug exchange for her blogger friends. These exchanges have been really fun this year and of course, I chose the teacup.
Stephanie set us up and I received a package from Gabriele. She doesn't have a blog, so I hope she joins the link up on Stephanie's blog. Gabriele...thank you so very much for such a lovely box of Tea Time goodies. I'm sharing your package on my Tea Time Thursday.

I always get excited when I open the box and wonder what's inside! It was all so carefully packaged and everything was wrapped up with pretty tissue and ribbons.

Such sweet tea treats and everything matched. A nice break from all the fall colors. The teacup is just beautiful with pretty flowers and butterflies. I adore cups with the pattern on the inside of the cup.

The lovely tea towel matched all the varied colors of the teacup. So pretty, I'm not sure I can actually use it.

I was very touched by her note to me. I like the reminder to invite friends for a spot of tea! Gabriele, I wish you didn't live so far away...I'd invite you over for tea.

Isn't this so pretty? I have never had fun colored cane sugar like this for my tea. It's raspberry flavored too.

Another quick shot of my new teacup.

Just to let my bloggers know, I can do fall in colors other than the oranges and browns that I do love so much. I made these a few years ago and think I'd like to make a few more.

Thank you Stephanie for another fun teacup exchange. 

A Sunday Outing to Aurora

Every October, I wait for the quilt show in Aurora at the Aurora Colony Museum. This year was a special show called "Celebrating Our Golden Memories" as it was the 50th anniversary of the museum and the 150th anniversary of the colony's beginnings.

Another beautiful fall day in Oregon! It's always a nice country drive along 99E. Love to drive when you get off the freeway and out in the country.

The museum is the perfect setting for hanging all these beautiful vintage quilts. This year, all the quilts had a connection with the families of the colony. Usually, the show is open to anyone who wishes to exhibit their quilt or an old quilt that you might own.

Each quilt was numbered and the brochure told the history of each quilt. As is often the case, we will never know some of the quilt makers. That's why we encourage quilter's to put their name and date on their quilt when it is finished.

I have seen some of these quilts in the past. The one with the birds is a favorite of mine. The wool birds shapes were traced with a cookie cutter.

I liked the small prairie points on this log cabin quilt.

Jim is watching some of the volunteers doing hand quilting. We met an interesting lady who was visiting. She grew up in Saskatchewan Canada and was 94 years old. She is writing her life story and said she was only at her high school years, so she had to live a little longer to so she could finish.

She was telling Jim about her family and working on the farm when she was growing up.

I always enjoy the little doll beds upstairs. They added little doll quilts to them for the show.

Of course, I always love the dollhouse in the children's room.

Don't you think the boarder on this quilt is interesting? So nicely done.

This is the quilt that was made for the annual raffle quilt. It would be great to win this one! These are the winning blocks. Anyone can submit a block and they usually make 2-3 quilts from all the blocks turned in. They use all of them.

I liked this little block!

While we were there, I had to pop in and see my friend Karen, the owner of Time After Time. Her shop is lovely and I enjoy chatting with her.

I just cracked up when I read the names on the headstones outside her shoppe! If you're a Downton Abbey fan, you will appreciate  these. She told me her friends made these for her. We had to talk about
poor Matthew and how upset everyone is that he will no longer be on the show...sigh.

There's a new tea shoppe and little restaurant in town! On Sunday, they serve a little English Pot Roast dinner. Jimmy and the owner have this funny little thing going from last week. Jimmy went in to check it out while I was in another shoppe. He told the lovely English lady who owns the place that he was the Queen's boyfriend. Well, she is a riot and the two of them just were having so much fun. She said his name was Earl Grey from Aurora and she had called to Queen during the week to verify his story.She said it was true. Oh my, oh my, oh my! She kept saying he was a naughty boy with her English accent.

Her shop is named after a street in London called Pudding Lane. The really fun thing is that the little river that runs by Aurora and floods ofter, is called the Pudding River, so it all works together.

Th lovely owners who work very hard and do a great job!

When you order a dinner, you may have soup or dessert! Who can pass up all of this yummy assortment?

She asked him if he wanted a mug for his tea? My Jimmy? No way! He's an old tea drinker who knows how to enjoy a cuppa in a bone china teacup! It was fun.

We were on our way out of town when we spotted a new shop. Isn't it decorated for the season? I thought it was so cute, we had to stop and go in. It's owned by a young couple and it's only been open a few months.

Always a treat to visit one of our very favorite places! We are in for a whole week of dry weather! Yeah! How's the weather in your part of the world?