Happy Halloween, Happy "Book" Club

 

And my Halloween candy is also running out, even though the trick-or-treaters haven't arrived yet. I've been eating it. I'd forgotten how much I love Butterfingers!

And speaking of eating, "Book" Club was last night and Beth showed us how she made linguine from scratch.

It was absolutely delicious, but we all agreed we probably wouldn't be making it ourselves.

Our potluck followed an Italian theme, so there was the pasta with Bolognese sauce, focaccia that Beth also made, a Caprese salad, antipasto salad, antipasto skewers, fruit, cannoli and plenty of red wine. The book, which had nothing to do with Italy, was a delightful thriller titled "First Lie Wins" by Ashley Elston.

Have a colorful day

The poetry of trees

 

"Trees are poems

that the Earth writes

upon the sky."

-- Kahlil Gibran

I'll let the trees, from the places I've lived and visited, speak for themselves.

My daughter, Julia, 

behind our Illinois home

Have a colorful day

Christmas projects under way

My mini charm packs of cheery Christmas fabric arrived from the Fat Quarter Shop, so now I'm ready to make Juniper's Christmas stocking. I got some ideas on Pinterest and think I'll go for the diagonal look of the one at middle right. 

I'm making it pretty big so Santa can stuff it with lots of goodies. It'll look something like this, except I have to organize the color runs into reds, greens, pinks, and cream. Then I'll give it a white cuff and embroider her name on it in sparkly green (because Juniper trees are green).

I also started my wool appliqué blocks from the "Tinsel" Sue Spargo pattern. That's her picture on the left and my in-progress one on the right. I'm doing my own thing for the embellishment, so my next step will be adding colorful beads instead of her embroidered ornaments.

I made the red ribbons with the whipped chainstitch. I did the chainstitch with red pearl cotton and then whipped it with a sparkly red thread. I think I'll use that stitch for Juniper's name in a fun font.

I have my bowl of stitching supplies ready to take out to the patio. Then I pulled out a selection of trims that I might use in the other eight "Tinsel" blocks.

Before I started the Christmas projects, I gave my worktable a good cleaning. I threw out the paint-stained plastic and replaced it with a clean piece where I paint fabric.

All the sheer scraps from my collage projects went in a basket and the painted scraps went in color coordinated piles on the cutting table. Now it's not such a mess in there.

Here's one more project idea, posted on Facebook during a discussion of art quilters about how nervous we are about the election!

Have a colorful day

First hike of the season and baltering!

It's finally cooled off enough in the mornings to go hiking! I went on my first hike of the season at seven this morning in Catalina State Park. It was the first time I've been there since May and it felt good to be back.

 

The morning moon tipped this giant saguaro in the west, and in the east the morning sun backlighted a saguaro family.

There is no snow on our southern Arizona mountains, but a friend sent this photo of snow on the peaks in Flagstaff in northern Arizona.

It's enough to make me want to dance, except in my case in would be baltering!

Have a colorful day