Today was the mister's birthday...67 years young!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

And...
 He has now been retired for 6 whole months!
He had a very pleasant day today...went golfing with his friends.
 It was a little cold on the course he said.
I asked him the night before if there was anything special he wanted  for dinner. " No" he said.  Hmmm...what can I make that is one of his favs?  He has had pasta for the last two days,  one dinner was seafood pasta and the other was delicious lasagna that our daughter made, so that is out of the question.  (for me anyway!)
Then, I thought!
 FAJITAS! 
He loves fajitas! 
I took out all the ingredients, all set to make fajitas.
He came home from golf and said..."hmmm....I'd like schnitzel."...
Too late to defrost the pork for pork schnitzel.
Well, we could go out for dinner! One of our favourite restaurants makes awesome schnitzel.   But, no, he didn't feel like going out.
So, fajitas it is (or was)!
 I promised, Thursday or Friday we will have schnitzel.
  I just have to remember to take out the meat!

Quilt Guild was the other night, so I returned the last 2 quilts that I've been quilting for Outreach.  Rosemary was pleased to see them back so soon.
I didn't take any more quilts to quilt.  I need to get some of my stuff done.
Well, at the end of the meeting, I asked one of the older ladies, Trudy,

Trudy's blocks

 who helps co-ordinate Outreach, if she had all her kits taken.  "No" she said.  There were originally 4 kits and she still had 3.  
I took them.  All.
I did them in one evening....all done!  Less than an evening!
I will return them to her next week when we see each other at the other guild meeting.
She (and I) can't understand why no one will do these blocks.
There are 10 blocks in a kit (actually 9, one is done to show how to do it), all you have to do is applique the motif to the block...any way you prefer.
I machine sew them...3 kits done in one evening!
Next, I worked on my B.O.M. for guild.
I had my block chosen, all I needed to do was make it up and print out 35 copies of the  instructions.
All done!  I'll give it to Mindy next week also.

B.O.M. for Mindy

NOW, on to my projects!                                                                                                

I decided last Thursday to go out to the local quilt store and  pick out my 3 free fat quarters that quilt guild is supplying for our 20th anniversary to each member.
I knew that I would NOT be taking home 3 fat quarters....nope ...not me!
I picked out 5 fabrics.
And I had them cut 2 metres each.  (a metre is 39 inches)

 I picked out this purple batik just because I loved it, but it will go with the others in a fall creation

 These two batiks are stunning in person...I had to have them.
Could you imagine settling for just a fat quarter of these three batiks?

 

I bought these also, but they are prints.  They look much brighter in the picture, but they go nicely with the batiks.

I was a little surprised to see the store busy...really busy!
Oh!  There was a shop hop going on!
I hadn't heard!
I got a little 6 inch ruler by Creative grids as a gift.
I like their new non slip rulers...
The next day, I went to the quilt store here in my town.
I was the only customer!  Mind you, they did have a class going on.
But, I wonder why it wasn't busy?  They were part of the shop hop.
Well, they didn't have what I was looking for, a book or pattern. So I left without making a purchase.
Maybe everyone was out at the various quilt shows that are on at this time of year!
Any whoo...I have been looking on-line, on Pinterest, and in my own patterns for ideas on what to make for our anniversary challenge.
I have a few ideas kicking around in the old melon.....the challenge is so wide open...but I must get at it!
But first.....I must get this other quilt that I am quilting for outreach off my worktable.

Happy Thanksgiving !

We've had "Culture Days" in the last weekend.
Both guilds that I belong to were asked to participate.
I volunteered to demonstrate machine quilting.
I took one of our Out Reach cuddle quilts with me to quilt at the cultural centre.
Boy, it doesn't take long for me to remember WHY I don't like sewing or quilting away from home.
The table that I work on at home is low, very low.  My chair is set so that I can reach the machine comfortably.  My foot control is raised at least 2 inches off the ground.   Even then, I sometimes find myself over stretching.
When I was quilting at the culture centre I was really uncomfortable and my quilting showed it.  The table with my machine on top of it was far too high for me.  I brought my own chair, that helped a bit but I could barely reach my foot peddle. I raised it, but I had to chase it around. 
I muddled on....
Some little kids came into the room with their parents, they watched for a few seconds, then I asked them if they wanted to try sewing.   I ran the foot control and let the kids guide the quilt in the machine.
It was a BIG hit!   Even the boys tried the machine...What fun!
I  finished quilting and binding that quilt at home and started on the third quilt I took home last summer to quilt.
This third quilt has the older type batt in it.  You know fluffy poly type thing that was the only thing we could get more than twenty years ago.
I now realize how lucky we are now to be able to find the better quilt batts available now.  This one is real crap.  I actually hate to use it.
But, I guess I will just muddle on with this one too.

Boy oh boy!
We have just had the longest stretch of nice weather!
It has been sunny and warm (sort of coolish), perfect for fall walks and leaf peeping.
That's what my sister says people who sight see the fall colours are called down in New Hampshire..."leaf peepers"!
The birds, squirrels and chipmunks are cleaning out the feeders faster than I can fill them.  We must be in for a long winter.
I still have lots of tomatoes in the garden...I still have some blossoms on the pepper plants, but no more peppers.  I don't usually get a lot of peppers and now it might be too cold to produce more peppers.
One of my neighbours squash plants has invaded my garden..it has taken over!
hehehe...AND producing squash!   I love squash!....I an watching those carefully.
The other day I made a large pot of chicken soup....then decided I didn't feel like just chicken soup, so I put a bunch of tomatoes from the garden in it.
Oh my,  was it ever good.
Now I am considering just making tomato soup.
The mister will eat soup anytime, summer or winter.  When ever we go out to dinner, he starts with soup....
When we were first married and I would make soup, he would complain it was too thick, more like stew.  He didn't really like stew.  He doesn't complain about that anymore.  Now he likes stew.   
Now the weather has gotten cooler still, and we have had a bit of rain.
Soon we will have to pull out the tomato and pepper plants and the neighbours squash plant.  The trees out the front are getting hit with frost, it won't be long and the plants out back will be nipped too.