Very quick trip

     A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I did a quick overnight trip to Berlin, Ohio to look at wood and fabric and the awesome scenery. We are not going again in November because we hit wet, heavy snow from Erie to Akron on the way down, the days are too short and thus it is dark way too fast in Amish country, and the ride back was in the dark and, again, some snow from Erie to Angola, NY along Interstate 90 (or the 90 as we call it in NY). 
    Despite the conditions, the land is so beautiful. We stayed at an Amish B&B and it had a room that I chose, called The Quilters Room. It had a treadle, decorations, quilts, a quilt wallpaper border and neat little wood houses and shops displayed. The B&B was on a big hill, so I was able to take some phenomenal photos from there. Beautiful landscapes get me all the time.

If anyone knows where to buy these little houses, let me know. None in giftshops there, just China junk.

The start of the road up the hill.

Near the top of the road. A real treat coming back at night from dinner with no lights at all.

    We went to Keim Lumber in Charm, where my husband drools more than me in a fabric store. I went to Millers in Charm and Zinck's in Berlin where I found some things I could use.

The stripes are for binding, the black and white for a block exchange, and the others, because. I did not get a shot of the RWB fabric I bought at Zinck's before I cut it up for the Mystery Quilt by Alycia.

 

A view from the opposite side

     The other side being Canada, just across from the photos I took last time from Fort Niagara. Last week Tuesday sounded like the last nice day for a long while, so my husband and I drove across to Canada and biked around Niagara-on-the-Lake, one of my favorite spots ever. The little town, founded in 1792, is so charming. It was just gorgeous that day. I was able to photograph the Fort from the Canada side and walk through the little park that has my lovely gazebo. So fortunate to do this. On Thursday, 60 mile an hour winds whipped through our area and ripped off all our beautiful fall leaves, so enjoy them here.

Looking through the yards of NOTL across the Niagara River to Fort Niagara, NY

 Fort Niagara that we toured a couple of weeks ago. Niagara River in front, Lake Ontario to the left and rear

Part of the Park

Part of the Park just an hour later

Right over the ridge is the River and then the American side

My favorite little gazebo. The equipment is fixing shoreline erosion caused by record high Lake Ontario waters that backspill into the Niagara River.

On the River shore of the Park. Great question, right?

Two more out the door

     The past week had a lot of demand for comfort  quilts. I had to really hustle to finish them. The Cats Lattice left Tuesday. The Disappearing 4 patch left today, and the Plus quilt is leaving Tuesday. The quilts were kitted up with a tote bag, book, pocket quilt, card and bagged in an XXL zip plastic. I pray that they deliver their comfort to the recipients who surely need it. Hope I get a little break before another request pops in. I have plenty of tops, but they need quilting and kitting up. And my quilting has a lot of problems with the longarm that I am not going into right now.

Blocks left from a bigger Dis 4 Patch, added lattice and bigger border.

The back

The Plus quilt with piano keys border

The back

Squeezing out every bit of color

     On Sunday, the rain and wind hit. Saturday, for a brief period, the sun was out so I ran to photo the trees around my street. We have not received a killing frost yet, so the leaves were slow to turn and flowers still blooming. I refuse to yank out the flowers so I can plant the bulbs. This means I will probably be planting the bulbs in very cold weather, but I am not letting one flower get by me. It will be a long winter with nothing.
     When I look at the fall leaves and see the great variety of shades and colors, I know why I am a scrap quilter- I just don't want to see just one single shade or hue. If only I could make my quilts sparkle as wonderfully as these trees.

The best shaped coneflower I had all year

The biggest grouping of hydrangea blooms all year

Lace cap hydrangea

Leaves of lace cap/endless summer variety

Hardy mums that actually come back every year

My neighbors rose that always saves some blooms for late fall

The last snapdragons

I can't pull these out to plant bulbs

Cats Lattice

     This quilt was started in August for a friend's friend who is 64 and in a nursing home, refusing to rehab. He was noted for his dinner parties, cats and plants. This quilt is for his comfort and, I pray, motivation to not quit and give up. My friend and I pored over fabric selection and ideas. 
     The print has cats, plants and a vintage house- which he had. Because I had to order online, I did not realize how small the print was. I cut the print squares larger to fit in more cats. This disapppearing nine patch no longer was sewn from the planned 5" blocks, but 6.5" ones. The green batiks that I had were not big enough to be 6.5" square, so I decided I would use strips cut 6.5" long. This meant I could not sew a disappearing nine patch block. 
   Each print block was sewn with a batik strip. Another batik strip was sewn to a white square, and then pieced to the print square with strip. I chain pieced all this, so I am not sure if it really took more time than sewing a nine patch and cutting it up into fours.
    I liked the idea of garden lattices. To give it that look, I used 1.5" strips between the small blocks and group of four blocks. The quilt is 3 large blocks of four prints by 4 large blocks of four prints- a total of 12 large blocks.
     Sewing 1.5" strips straight for long seams makes me nervous to keep things even and straight, so I sewed lattice pieces first to the right of each big block, and the left for the sides. Then I sewed a strip to the bottom of each big block. The only long seams were the top lattice as every block got its lattice piece attached before all the blocks were joined. The white Kona makes the seams pretty invisible.
    The top and back are reversible in case the guy gets bored looking at the same cats- took a bit longer. I free motion quilted the top from the lattice side for my placement. The back with the grid of cats just had to take what the front gave. Striped binding is my favorite and this quilt just wanted it. 
     I am trying to get in touch with my friend to work out when she can deliver this comfort (and hopefully motivating) quilt. 
 

On the long arm

Quilted without binding- good lighting and texture visible

Without binding

Three different sets of flowers for center white blocks

Yes, I know the chalk is visible- it washed out

With binding- not as good light

Back, sort of