Tradition and Inspiration...

 Every year, my mom and four sisters and daughters, daughters-in-law and cousins get together this time of year and go to Historic Gardner Village and Womens Conference...

 Gardner Village is always decked out with witches and Halloween this time of year...I love seeing how they accessorize the outside and gets you really in the spirit of fall and Halloween...

 Part of my family, extended and wonderful...

 Halloween decor...

 Some more witches...

 I have noticed tutorials on pillows like these all over the internet in the past few months...

 This year, particularly, there was so much texture...

 these floral felt pillows were everywhere...

 I loved this quilt for a little girl's bed...it combined so many fabric choices and the flowers added a touch of feminine...

 Being of British heritage...I fell in love with the crowns...

 This lovely flocked chair would look great with my red couches...

 Loved the tailored look of this pillow with the simple pleating...

 you could always have a toad nearby...

 I loved this simple argyle pattern...wouldn't this be great in a little boy's room.  It has clean lines and would be so fun to decorate around...

 Pine Needles--one of my most favorite quilt haunts...did not disappoint this visit...

 I used part of this fabric line to make my pirate quilt, but I thought this was a fun quilt for the fabric...

 Great pillowcase idea to memorialize missions, traveling or anything significant in your life...

 Last time I was in the store, I bought this snails trail pattern...gotta get it done...

 Halloween quilts and projects at every turn...

 My mom getting acquainted with one of the witches hanging out...

Found this little picture in an antique store at Gardner Village...reminds me of a quote from The Help, where Skeeter's mother tells her, "sometimes courage skips a generation..."  I think you have to have great courage in today's world...Hope you enjoyed how we spent our Saturday on my birthday...I sure did!!!

I'm a winner...

 This fat quarter collection is called "Whimsy" designed by Heather Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures.  Henry Glass is the maker of the fabric...I left a comment on Heather's blog and she picked me...I'm so excited.  I got it in the mail on Friday morning, just in time for my birthday...

 This is the first time I have seen this collection in person as none of our local quilt stores carry this line...I love it.  Each and every piece!!!  I am thinking about what I might make and it is just exciting to figure this out...

 I took some close ups so you could see the designs...The colors in the photos are not really true...it is much brighter and so happy...I did take the photo in full sun, so that may have some bearing on it...

 Each colorway has a fun design from polka dots to geometrical to floral--just a touch of whimsy...

So Heather, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful gift and for having such a great talent for design...I love it and it was a wonderful birthday present!!!

Melrose...

Well, I finished piecing Melrose...off to the quilter and then to the store!!!

The Loaded Weapon...and Suppose...

 It all started when I was going to meet my little sister, Rosie at the Suppose quilt store in Preston, ID...While waiting, I thought I would check out their solid collection for this quilt I want to make in the near future...The Mona Lisa...wouldn't it be fun to have some fine art and enjoy making it in the process???

 The store had the following solids for my quilt, but I need to get about 10 more colors...After I completed the fabric hunt for solids, my sister, Rosie, arrived and we went to go on a search and destroy mission for their scraps by the pound..(we needed some fresh scraps for our scrap quilts).  My daughter, Leah came up to me and said, Mom, I need help.  Cooper (grandbaby) has had a blowout.  Luckily we were prepared and went to the restroom to remedy the situation.  He was covered in poop all over his onesies and his outfit...and I proceeded to clean him up.  I just got the new diaper under him when he lifted his little legs and fired like a missile and it shot all over me  hitting me all over the front of my shirt and down my pants and on my shoes...we were just getting him cleaned up again and a new diaper inserted when the missile went off again.  By this time, Rosie came to assist as we were laughing hysterically.  4 or 5 diapers later, wiped out of baby wipes, a change from skin out on the baby, cleaning up the bathroom, running my shirt under water to remove the carnage and trying to wipe the destruction from my pants and shoes, we purchased our bag of scraps and fabric and left for our 1/2 hour drive home...Our biggest regret is that we didn't have the camera handy in the bathroom---but trust me, a memory that will not be soon forgotten...I had 4 children with their occasional bathroom stories, but nothing like this little one...he takes the cake.  He is the loaded weapon...I will have to be more prepared next time we take an outing with him...

 This is the precious culprit last Sunday in his church clothes--could he look more innocent???

A shot of some of the carnage on my pants taken in the car on the ride home...my shirt was soaking wet...A very handy tip for anyone in similar situations...Hydrogen Peroxide works wonders on protein stains such as blood and especially poop.  I have a bottle at home that I have a spray nozzle attached to.  I gave everything a really good soaking, let sit a minute and then used liquid hand soap to rub out all the stains...It all came out lovely...Such a nice ending to the disaster at hand!!!  Moral of the story--be like a Boy Scout and always be prepared!!!

Camping and a New Store Quilt...

 On our way home from camping, we passed this billy goat.  There were two wandering in the mountains...

 There were two small salmon in this creek..next week will be the big salmon spawning so we missed it, :(...

 The following are some shots of Porcupine Dam...the water levels are much higher this year than last...

 Porcupine Dam...

 more dam pictures...

 yet another dam picture...

 We got home from camping and I cut out this quilt I am sewing for Bernina's...

The quilt is called Melrose and the fabrics are by Red Rooster...

A little bit batty...

 I found the inspiration for this pillow on Pinterest...I went to JoAnns over the weekend and bought some wool felt to make this pillow (it was 40% off!!!)  You can find the tutorial here...

 I arranged my bats in a different order because I cut them larger than shown on the tutorial...

 Found this spooky Halloween dot at Bernina's on Saturday for the back...Try this out.  It was a lot of fun to make and not too time consuming...

 Finished Little Birdie Stitches block for September...

A bit of embroidery...

 No completed projects yet, but September Birdie Stitches is in the works....

Baby Cooper in his blessing finery...He is 6 weeks old today and so very precious...and have a wonderful Labor Day Holiday tomorrow!!!  We are going to chill at our house!!!