The final quilt in this week’s quilt parade is the one that MINE ALL MINE!!!

As noted before, the fabric line is Kitty Corn, and the pattern is Chandelier. When I first saw the fabric last year, I instantly fell in love with it.

There was just something about those vintage kitties. And the colours… I loved how they were Hallowe’enish, but in a very, non-traditional way. I instantly knew I wanted to make the Chandelier quilt with it.

My version is a little longer, but not as wide as the original pattern, but it’s a great quilt for throwing over my legs while sitting with my feet up in my recliner.

The fat quarte bundle came with a panel piece that included some quilt labels, so I took advantage and added one to the back. And that backing fabric… not part of the Kitty Corn line… but the colours are almost an exact match. And of course, it’s not just a plaid, but a diagonal plaid which thrills me to no end!

The fat quarter bundle was quite large, and with the panel it included, I have enough for another quilt. So there will another Kitty corn quilt in my future… but probably not until NEXT Hallowe’en!

Next up in this week’s finished quilt parade is the biggest. The behemoth of a wedding quilt…

The pattern is the Layer cake version of Moda Love, and as written, it comes out to 72 inches square. I added a few more borders to get it up to a respectable 92″ square.

With the exception of the black fabric and the backing, it’s all made with batiks in nature prints – trees, flowers, butterflies, snowflakes, etc.

When I first imagined this quilt, I had planned on something very traditional with blues and creams. When I couldn’t find what I envisioned in my head, I moved onto the idea of using batiks. And when I finally got them in my hand, I knew they had to be done with a black background.

It’s definitely not the traditional quilt I envisioned, but I think it suits the bride’s personality more. The wedding is in November, and unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to make it. But I’m going to get this into the mail, along with my best wishes ASAP.

Hopefully it’s a good consolation prize to my presence on their special day.

First up in this week’s finished quilt parade is the smallest, but probably the cutest…

I am over-the-moon thrilled with how this one turned out.

I love how the cat looks against the ombre purple sky.

I love all the fun Halloween prints and pops of pink in the brick wall.

And I am thrilled with the backing and the binding. I love it when all of the parts come together to make the whole!

And this one is now available in the shop!

I made it to Mom’s for the weekend, and got all my quilting done (more to come this week). But there was an extra special highlight of the weekend too.

One of the pups Jem had last summer was adopted by a friend of my Dad. He came by for a visit on Saturday and brought the pup (Rebel) with him.

Now, just over a year old, Rebel is almost full grown (he’s tall and lanky, but still has some filling out to do).

Of course, Jem was thrilled to have a visitor, and the pair of them were just full of beans. As you can see, it’s hard to tell them apart. Rebel (the one with the chain collar) is taller, and skinnier, but when they are playing they are both just big, black blurs.

He visited for a couple hours, and I wanted to get at least one picture of the pair of them side by side. Unfortunatley that was not going to happen. So you have to settle for this pair of pictures.

It was quite the visit and Ms. Jem was pretty tuckered out for the rest of the day.

I can finally show the second Hallowe’en quilt. If you’ve been on the Bearbottom facebook page, you’ll seen glimpses this week, but not the whole thing.

But first, it starts with a little story. Ages ago, I came across the pattern for this quilt.

Naturally I fell in love with it. But I saw my version of it with a twist…. All Hallowe’en fabrics…..

And a scaredy cat!

I uses two different fabric collections for the bricks (Creep it Real from Camelot Fabrics & Midnight Magic from Moda Fabrics). And for the sky, I used Moda’s Ombre Fairy Dust.

My fraidy cat was sketched free-hand and fused with fusible web. He still needs to be stitched down. Hopefully while you’re reading this, I’m quilting it (just wait until you see the fabric I got for the back!!!)

And since the Kitty Corn quilt is for me… this one will be going in the shop next week!!!

Burton doesn’t think it will stay there long! I hope he’s right!

The garden continues it’s steady march into fall, though there’s still lots in bloom.

The mums are at their absolute peak

They are expected this time of year, but here are a couple things that are not.

The first is an oriental poppy. The second is a clematis.

None of the gorgeous poppies from the townhouse made the move, but I managed to get a couple new ones this spring, though it was past their bloom time. The plants have done well over summer, but I didn’t expect to see any blooms this year, that’s for sure. Yet one popped up out front. I’m glad I got a picture of it, because the next morning, a big storm blew through and battered the poor thing to the ground.

As for clematis.. it’s something I was never able to grow at the townhouse. No matter where I put it, it died. I got three plants on clearance this year and figured if they didn’t make it, I’d finally give up on clematis.

All three have grown since summer, and seem to like their spot on the side of the catio fence. I knew one of them was a “later-blooming” clematis, but I never expected it would bloom now! But there it is. I actually have three of those pretty dark blooms, with a fourth on the way.

There’s still lots of other things blooming too, as you can see. But the real gift in the garden is this…

Remember our Praying Mantis friend? Well she spent all summer in the butterfly bush and we watched her get bigger and bigger. The other day, I just happened to be outside at the right time to capture her laying a pile of eggs on a branch.

There could be up to 400 baby mantises in there. They will chill in there all winter, and come spring, hatch and spread out into the garden. Naturally, not all of them will live, or even stay in the garden. But hopefully enough of them will as they are a great little bit of natural pest control!!!

Normally our favourite Lord Burton Bearbottom is all sweetness and snuggles. But every so often, he like to get a little rough… and snuggle with his teeth!

I finished up the last hat – the one that will go with the Fox and Friends quilt. I did consider making a fox hat, but I didn’t have the right shade of orange in the stash. So.. I decided to go with a bear instead (there are bears in the quilt, so it works)

The pattern is Bearly Bonnet. This is the third one I’ve knit, and it’s a pattern I love. So easy with an adorable result.

I didn’t have anything proper to model it on, so my fountain lady had to stand in. I used up the last of my Regia 6-ply tweed on this hat. (I got a sweater, hat, pair of fingerless gloves, and now this bonnet out of it, so that was a good run!)

Sadly…. as cute as the bonnet is, I think it’s going to be too small. It’s not a fault of the pattern (which as I said, is great!). I wasn’t thinking and made the smallest size. But the babe its going to is already born – and a few months old, already.

I’m going to dive back into the stash and see what I can come up with. I should be able to whip a slightly bigger one off before the weekend.

This one can get tucked away until there’s a smaller head to give it to.

Today’s walkabout is a bit of a cheat because these aren’t my pictures… but it is within walking distance, so I’m counting it…

When I’m bored, I frequently look at real estate listings. Why? I don’t really know… maybe to see where prices are at now… but more likely just to see inside other peoples houses… Whatever the reason, I was looking the other day, and a new house came up for sale in town.

It was the little asphalt sided one I posted about in mid-August – one that was the same style as our own.

This was VERY exciting for me, because from what I could tell, it hadn’t been changed much from the original. Because of that, I wondered if it would still have some of the original character that was stripped from ours.

I started clicking through the pictures.

Like ours, it was in desperate need of a new refresh… but look at that baseboard!!! And door and window trim!!!!

The funny thing about that is Dave and I were talking about putting those same circle corner pieces around the windows. Not just because they look nice but because he won’t have to mitre as much!!! Now there’s no guarantee they are actually original because those windows, while not new, have been changed at some point.

I also wonder if that little bump out with the windows is original. I’ve seen it on a few, but not all of the houses of this style in town. If it existed on our house, it’s long gone now, because that’s the side where they added the addition to ours (and contains Dave’s studio).

But the baseboard I’m pretty sure if original, because we have some like it on our staircase, the only place where they didn’t strip it our in our house.

And speaking of those stairs…

I can confirm that we have that EXACT newel post and bannister spindles, so I’m guessing that’s original. Ours is completely painted though (and will be repainted when we get to that part of the house). What’s interesting is we have original baseboard running up the stairs, but they seem to have taken it out in this house. And I wonder if that floor is original it looks like pine to me, but I’m not an expert.

The real estate listing for this house is here, but as it’s sold already, I’m not sure how long the link will work for.

Dave was VERY upset when I showed him the listing and he saw that the price was about 1/3 what we paid for ours. But I reminded him that prices in general haven’t actually dropped that far – someone must have REALLY wanted to get rid of this one.

Also… though this one does have an addition for the kitchen, it’s a fair bit smaller than our place – we have two extra bedrooms, and our rooms are bigger in general. There’s also only one bathroom in this house (we have two full bathrooms), an it’s only a single garage. And there’s no basement at all, where we have half basement/half crawl space under ours. And when you go through the other pictures on the site, the original plaster is really bad in some places, so we’d still be hanging drywall (his biggest peeve about this place).

That made him feel a good deal better. I for one, am still thrilled with our place. And with these pictures, I have somewhat of a historical reference, so we can add some of that character back in!

There is still knitting going on here… not as much as I’d like, but enough to finish a simple yellow hat to go with the duck feet.

The pattern is Baxter Beanie. I omitted the stripes, but kept the pom pom, because nothing is cuter than a wee little pom pom.

Now I can get this and the quilt packed up and in the mail to Mom and baby. One more hat to go and then I can get back to the Christmas sweater.