Autumn begins

Autumn is my favourite time of the year for so many reasons.  I don't particularly like the heat of summer, although I do like many of the things that summer brings- like Christmas, school holidays, beach time, and spending more time with my family.  I'm also not overly fond of summer fashion- I much prefer autumn and winter clothing.

This morning we had an early start so A1 could get to running club- and one of the first signs of autumn appeared in the sky- a hot air balloon.  The mornings are now also decidedly crisp and there was a hint of fog earlier in the week.

The tomato plants are drip feeding us little bursts of flavour at a frustratingly slow rate.  Now autumn is upon us, I am increasingly anxious about the large quantity of green tomatoes still on the vine.  I hope the frost stays away long enough for some more tomatoes to ripen.  This was today's harvest (our pesky possum has been helping herself to our tomatoes as well- I hope she is enjoying them!)

The harvest at the Show this year was spectacular.  I love seeing all the produce, baked goods, preserves and animals.  A2 and I spent an enjoyable day there with my aunt, cousin and her youngest daughter.  My very clever cousin won first prize for her beautiful hand made doll Molly that she is now giving away to raise money for the earthquake victims in Christchurch.

And finally onto craft... one of the fabulous girls I work with asked me a few months ago if I would make a quilt for her sister who is having her first baby soon.  We worked together with her other sister to select a pattern and fabrics both from my fabric cupboard and a few extras from a local fabric shop- being one of four sisters I was very comfortable with this approach!  I sketched out a few different options for them and they chose the one they liked the most- and here it is-

Fran quilted it with a snail design of her own.  The backing is some nice soft flannel I picked up for 99c a metre in a sale at Spotlight last year.

The binding was fairly quick because its a cot quilt- and this quilt was bound to the movies The Skulls and The Hurt Locker.  Obviously I had male company during the binding.  One day I will get the chance to bind a quilt to The Hours or Four Weddings and a Funeral...