This Is Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! 

We are finally back from trick or treating, thank goodness! It's fun walking around and seeing all the kids in their costumes, but boy was it chilly this year! Glad to be back and cuddled under a few quilts while the kids go through all their candy! I'm even gathering my own loot with some of the stuff they don't like! It's not even the yucky candy. I've scored Baby Ruths, Crunch, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Pieces!  Woo Hoo! :D

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and leave you a video to watch if you'd like. It's actually from the movie called Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's the Halloween bit. It's funny because I remember being in high school when this movie came out and going to the theater to see it. I even remember having Subway for lunch... :)

The whole movie is really good actually. I need to get my hands on a copy again so I can watch it in its entirety.

Be safe. Stay warm and don't eat all your candy in one night. :)

Much Love!!!

Are You Game?

Can you believe it's almost November?! I don't know where this year went. Somehow, time seems to fly by faster every year. 

Speaking of November...I have a challenge for you! :) 

NaBloPoMo! 

No, I didn't sneeze! ;) It stands for National Blog Posting Month. I've been doing this now for the last two years and I will be doing it again this year. 

What is it you ask? For the month of November, you post a blog post every day. That's it. You can even win prizes if you do! 

Its not always easy to think of something to say, especially every day for a month, but that is why I do it. I like the challenge. I like to talk too...haha!! 

So, I'd like to challenge you to join me. Post on your blog every day for an entire month, starting on Monday! You can write about whatever you want, there is no theme and there are no rules. They have even instituted Wordless Weekends "as an option for those who need the break that only YouTube videos, baby pandas, and pictures of your lunch can provide." You can still do a regular post if you want to though. 

So if you'd like to accept the challenge, hop on over HERE, sign up, and add your blog to the blogroll. If you don't add your name, you won't be eligible for prizes. If you'd like, you can also place the badge for NaBloPoMo on your blog by going HERE. You can see my badge on the left in my sidebar. You can even change the colors this year! Woot! :D

So who's with me? :)  

I've also been playing with some "oh to die for" fabric today!! Do yo recognize it? ;) 

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!! 

Much Love!!!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy from Amy's Creative Side is hosting another Bloggers Quilt Festival! I love this festival! It is so fun and amazing hopping from blog to blog looking at everyone's quilts and reading about their story. Talk about inspiration!! 

Crushed Diamonds

The quilt that I am entering is my Crushed Diamonds quilt that I made for Robert Kaufman's blog, The Swatch & Stitch.  I chose this quilt for a few reasons. One being that when I posted it here, I didn't really show it here, I just gave a link to it. I chose this quilt mostly because it has a lot of "firsts" for me in it.

First #1: This quilt came to be because I wanted to make a quilt entirely out of solids. This is my first quilt using only solids!! 

First #2:  This quilt was my first experience using Robert Kaufman's Kona Crush material! Oh my goodness.....I LOVE this stuff!! You just have to try it for yourself to believe how fantastic it really is!

First #3:  This was my very first tutorial for The Swatch & Stitch! Yay! Click HERE for the tutorial. :)

Besides all of that, I just adore this quilt! It's soft. It's a bit heavier than quilts that use your normal quilting prints, and overall, I just love the design. 

It looks so much more complicated than it is, but it only uses one block, rotated in different ways....

So this.....

Turns into this....

A different shot to show the quilting...

This quilt was just an overall joy to put together! I kind of want to make it again...only using red, or maybe purple. :) 

Have you entered a quilt in the festival? No!? 

Well just click HERE for all the details. Anyone can play along!

Much Love!!!

Modern Quilt Guild

Over and over I've seen blog posts about quilters getting together in a Modern Quilt Guild and they always looked so much fun. My dilemma was that there wasn't one very close to me. I kind of live in a podunk town. The nearest ones were like an hour and a half drive. I didn't have that kind of time. 

Then my good buddies at my stitch ~n~ bitch decided what a great idea it would be for the three of us to start our own Modern Quilt Guild group!!! **jaw drops while doing happy dance** :D Don't picture that..it's scary! LOL!

 With much excitement I introduce to you the Rock River Modern Quilt Guild.  If you live in the stateline area of Wisconsin and Illinois, feel free to join us!! We'd love to have you, even if you don't consider yourself a "modern" quilter! Everyone is welcome. The only requirement is to enjoy, share, be inspired, and have fun! :)

We are having a meet and greet on November 6th from 1-3 pm at Mocha Moments in Janesville, Wi. If you want to join us, click HERE, sign up, RSVP that you will be there and just bring your happy selves. It's just a meet and greet. No sewing. Feel free to bring show and tell though. :)

Yay!! So excited! Hope you see some of you there! 

Much Love!!!

A Second Look at Binding Thread

I get so many comments from readers that tell me how much they enjoy my "tidbits". (Thank you!). I think I like them more than you because whenever I post them, I get additional suggestions related to that tidbit! (Thank you!). 

Yesterdays tidbit was in regards to using silk thread when doing the binding on a quilt as it glides smoothly and does not knot up. 

In my excitement, I may have posted in haste. I'm not saying that what I said is wrong or bad, but I really hadn't worked with this type of thread to really be able to give it a fair assessment. So let me share with you some of the suggestions I received, and you can make your own decisions on what you'd prefer to use in your own quilts. :) 

A lot of people said they used hand quilting thread to bind their quilts. I guess you can find it coated to help prevent the tangling. I don't know why I never thought of using hand quilting thread, since essentially, that is exactly what you are doing. I am going to have to give that a try too. I know that the thread is thicker than normal piecing thread so that would lead me to believe it would last longer. 

Julia had said that she had used silk thread and in a year or so the thread snapped. *gasp*. I'm a bit worried about that happening. I did a test.....I took my 100% cotton thread that I piece with (and used to bind with) and pulled it to see how much uumpfff it took to break it. Then did the same thing with the silk. To me, there wasn't a difference. If there was, it was unnoticeable to me. This made me feel a little better. 

Someone else also suggested to use a product called Thread Heaven. This product is supposed to condition your thread for ease of use AND it is supposed to lengthen the lifetime of the finished work. I'm totally getting some of this!! Once I receive it and have a chance to use it, I will do a review here. Thank you Diane for suggesting this!

Then....Sequana said she used straw needles. Who'd a thunk it?! Not I! She even shared a tutorial she found for her binding and now she loves doing binding! Check out the tutorial she shared HERE.  I am a bit worried after reading the tutorial because it speaks of using regular cotton thread for piecing and if you use it for binding, it should be doubled up. I've never done that. I hope my bindings don't start coming off.  (o_O)

So I've decided I need to change my ways.

I think I am going to try two things. No, three. I am going to get some hand quilting thread and I am going to pull out my straw needles and give that a go. I am also going to get some of that Thread Heaven and use that, perhaps even on my hand quilting thread. Can't hurt.

Even though I loved using the silk thread, I'm not sure its my best option unless I double it up. I say that because it's the same weight as the thread I used for piecing. 

So I apologize for being so quick to post on the silk thread and I hope that this post will help you make a better informed decision on how to bind your own quilts so they last forever! :D 

I also haven't shown any sneak peeks lately..... I know how you all love to be teased. :) 

Have you seen this line? Sweet Divinity by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake?! 

**Swoon**

Well, I've been playing with it...I can't show you much right now...but soon. I promise. :) 

Is it ironic that it is waiting for binding to be tacked down? LOL

I tried a new quilting technique as well. The lines are spaced about 2" apart in a cross hatch design. I can't wait to see it washed and all smooshed up!!! 

Much Love!!!

 

 

Tidbit Tuesday #23

Binding. 

Does that make you cringe? Or maybe you are one who enjoys to do the binding on your quilts? 

For me, it's not my most favourite part, but it's not my least favourite either. I think I like it because it's a sign that all my hard work is about to pay off with a finished quilt. :)

One of the reasons that I didn't enjoy it very much (notice the past tense) was because my thread would always tangle and knot up and I'd say some not so nice words. I tried cutting my thread shorter, but still had issues and in most cases, I wasn't using "cheap" thread. 

Then...someone (was that you Grey Cat?) told me to try silk thread. At first I thought no way. I'm an Aurifil girl so I wasn't so sure about this but I was frustrated enough to give it a go. Off I went to JoAnn Fabrics and I picked up one spool of silk thread by Gutermann. 

 

 

Let me tell you, not once did my thread knot up. Not once!!! The thread slid through the fabric so smoothly. I couldn't believe it!! It also washed up just like my cotton threads did!

From now on, I am only using 100% silk thread for my binding! :D 

How about you? What do you use? 

Much Love!!!

Boxed In With Lollipops

Sounds kind of fun huh? Well, it would be if you liked lollipops anyway. :)

I'm not talking about the sweets though, I'm talking about Sandy Gervais' new line for Moda called Lollipop! Ohhh...her lines are always so fun to work with. They just make me smile!

Here's a peek at my latest Moda Bake Shop Goodie using these fabrics...

"Boxed In"
Began September 22nd, 2010
Finished September 26th, 2010
Quilted and Pieced by me

Click your mouse right HERE if you'd like to see the entire quilt and the tutorial that goes along with it. :)

Enjoy!!!

Much Love!!!

...and the winner is...

Mr. Random generator chose lucky number...

Which belongs to....

 Woo Hoo!! Congratulations!! I will be sending you an email to confirm your address. :)

Much Love!!!

Process Pledge

Something I  learned from doing these give aways was a lot of you asked for more photos and more information on my process. I guess I never really thought that other people wanted to know that kind of stuff. But hey, I'm happy to share that too. :) 

So...I've seen a lot of other bloggers take the Process Pledge and I've also jumped in too. I will definitely try harder to share my thought process in designing and quilting in general. 

I'll even start right now! LOL! How is that for fast? ;)

I love wonky stars. I don't care for wonky in itself, but wonky stars, I love those. Try and figure that out.  Anyways, I signed up for the pillow talk swap again and this was a little bit for practice and a little bit for a gift. (***psst...actually it was totally for the gift, but shhhh... :)***) So let's begin with that. 

I would say 99% of my designs begin on my favourite graph paper.  This particular one is 4 squares per inch. I like to use each square in 2" increments. I also have other paper that is 10 squares per inch. Sometimes that is easier for bigger projects, but those squares are tiny!

I am almost embarrassed to show you the inside of this notebook.  Mostly because there are pages that look like this.... 

Scribbled on. Math written out. A lot of gobeldeegook...lol. I have to do this though, to keep in all in one place. If I do it on scratch paper it will get thrown away and I will end up having to do it all over again. 

However, ALSO in this book are my designs. Such as my very first one for Moda Bake Shop, Random Reflections. This is how that began....

I made an angel pillow for the last round of of the pillow talk swap and the only amount of design that I did for that was this....

Notice the page on the right with more chicken scratching? Heh!

This is how it turned out afterwards...

There's not a lot of high tech stuff going on there is there? Nope. This just goes to show you that you can do it too! Just grab some graph paper and a pencil and a good eraser and start drawing. Heck, I don't even use a ruler to draw straight lines. I just get the idea on the paper with the measurements and go with it. It doesn't matter if you "can't draw". What matters is that YOU can interpret your own work to put it into your project.  Go ahead...try it. :)

I mentioned the wonky star pillow.....let me show you how it came to be. 

First. I needed a gift. A good one. One that I loved just as much as I think the recipient would. Personally, I feel that if I don't love a project that I did, how can I expect the person it is going to, to love it?

I started drawing, knowing that I wanted it to be a wonky star pillow. 

See? I don't even worry so much about straight lines. :)

Next, comes choosing the fabrics. This varies from project to project. Sometimes I will stay with in the boundaries of one single line, sometimes I will venture and grab some from different lines. Just depends on the mood I am in. :)  For this project, I decided on Riley Blake! Mmmm!

It's a bit blurry. Sorry about that.

After I had my sketch, I figured out what I needed to cut for the entire pillow. I don't want to have to stop sewing when I get in a good groove to cut more pieces. I usually do this for each project. Cut everything, then sew.

Then of course, piecing the blocks and sewing them together according to my sketches. 

Isn't it pretty??!! Oh how I love this! :)

Then I layer the backing, the batting, and the "quilt" top together. Then I stare at it aimlessly until a quilting design jumps out at me. No really! Sometimes I will even get my daughter and ask her how I should quilt something. She's 12. :) 

For this one, I thought, hm...it's wonky. Let's quilt it wonky too. So I took my blue painters tape and created a straight line from the left edge to the right edge at an angle. Stitched my line next to the tape, removed it and did the same thing going from top to bottom. This created 4 quadrants. When I straight line quilt, this is how I work. Quadrants seem to make it much easier to handle.

This is one quadrant completed.

Part of the process is also showing what NOT to do. Uh. Anyone who has read my blog for some time now, knows that I'm not afraid to show my mistakes. Well guess what? I did it again. I sewed the batting to the backing because it flipped over on me while quilting. Doh! 

However, I didn't fret. This was a pillow after all so the back of it really wasn't ever going to be showcased because I still had to add the casement part so I made a funny out of it and left it like this. :)

I think the new owner of this pillow will get a kick out of me leaving that there. Mistakes remind us that we are all human. No one is perfect, even those really famous quilty people that if we ever met we'd probably stand there and go "ga ga ga"..haha! They make mistakes too so don't worry about them. Use it to your advantage and learn from them. Me, well this was my THIRD time making this same mistake....perhaps the third time is a charm. :)

After all of that....this is how it turned out. Had it not been going to a very special person, I may have kept it for myself because I adore it that much. However, I will share that I plan to make this design into a quilt. :)

 

Dear recipient...I hope you love it!! :D

I hope you enjoyed my process and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment, leaving your email address in the box provided, and I will happily get back to you. :)

Much Love!!!

Ask And Ye Shall Receive

The Giveaway is still going on....click to go to THIS POST to enter up until Saturday at 10pm CST. :)

I wanted to thank you all for your sweet comments and suggestions!

There seemed to be a few that were repeated so I've taken some time to "git er done"! :)

If you hadn't noticed, I added a bar at the top of my blog that has links to all my tutorials AND all of my Tidbit Tuesdays so they are all in one happy place for you all. :)

The other suggestion was for more pictures of my kittens....LOL! I love that you love them too! :)

So, I couldn't disappoint....

Awww....sweepy kitty. :)

I tickled her feet and she stirred a bit. :)

She looks irritated here, doesn't she? Kinda like me in the morning...LOL! 

I think she spotted a fly. I snapped this just before she took off! :)

I hope you like the changes, and if you have suggestions on what else may be useful in that toolbar, suggest away!

Much Love!!

Winner and Give Away #2

Soooo....are you ready to hear who the winner is of the Kona Color Card??!! 

I had to chuckle when I saw who the Random Generator chose because she is actually in one of my bees!! 

Drum Roll Please......

Who is lucky number nine????

Congratulations Kelly!! I will get that out to you this week! :D 

Now I suppose you are all wondering what the second half of my give away is..... how about a Freebird Layercake??!! Would you like one of those? This is a gorgeous line by MoMo for Moda that has reds and purples and oranges and blues and whites and browns in it! Yum!

All you have to do to enter is leave one comment to tell me what you think you might make from this layer cake... AND... what would you maybe like to see more of on my blog. :D

One comment per person please! 

I will close the post for entries on Saturday (10/23/10) at 10 pm central time and randomly draw a winner then!

Good luck!! 

Much Love!!!

Tidbit Tuesday #22

I think I've mentioned that I attend a Stitch ~n~ Bitch on the second Saturday of each month. Or at least I try to, because I have so much fun!! 

The last one I was at was one I will never ever forget. 

You see, we have this attendee..her name is Pat (*waves to Pat*). Before I went to my first one I was told that everyone called her Crazy Pat. Can we say red flags? I was a tad worried...LOL! Let's just say we clicked right off the bat. She is so funny! You say something and straight off the cuff she has a come back that just makes you laugh into tears. She calls me "Girl".... Ain't that sweet? LOL!

I guess she had been asking Sandi (she's the host) over and over if I was going to be at the last meeting and Sandi assured her that I said I would be there. 

It wasn't until show and tell did I find out why she kept asking.....

Out of Pat's bag came two quilts that she made from my tutorials!! The Chocolate Blueberry Squares and the Charm Pack Quilt Along. Oh. My. Gosh! She brought tears to my eyes. I was so happy and delighted that she made them!! Pat got lots of hugs from me that day!! I'm not sure who was happier. Me or Pat. I love her! :) 

{{**waves to Pat again**}}  :)

Not only do we laugh and enjoy each others company, I swear I learn something new each time I go! It always happens out of the blue too. We'll be sewing and chit chatting then all of a sudden someone will be doing something and we'll be like..."uh...wha cha doin'?"...LOL! 

That's how today's tidbit came to be. Jeannie over at Grey Cat Quilts, once again, found a great way to make half square triangles, the speedy way!! If you need to make a lot of HST with the same fabrics, you can do it using strips!! Yes strips!! So cool!! So Fast!! Thanks Jeannie!

Well, y'all know how much I love my half square triangles, right? Well, if you didn't, you do now! :) I love them because they offer so many different choices in layouts and designs! The possibilities are endless!!

I was going to do a tutorial on my blog, but everyone seemed to like having the PDF instead, so I'm leaving the links for that. :) 

I am also including a PDF tutorial on how to trim your Half Square Triangles. So you get a two for one Tidbit Tuesday. :) 

PDF for Trimming Half Square Triangles 

PDF for Making Half Square Triangles from Strips <-- Today's Tidbit :)

One of these days I will get a tab up at the top of my blog that has all my tutorials in one place! It's a goal, I just have to get there. :) 

What are you waiting for? Go make some HST's! I know I am! I will be back soon with my results! Would love to see yours too!! :D

Much Love!!!

Attention Kona Lovers!

**This give away has now closed. I will announce a winner tonight (10/20/10)** 

Happy Saturday everyone!! 

Remember when I said that I'd do a give away when I reached 500 followers? Well guess what??!! I have 509 now!! Woo Hoo!! Thank you so much...for listening to me babble...LOL! :) 

I appreciate each and everyone of you so I am going to do a two part give away! Why? Well because I have two things to give away of course! And because I love you all so much! :)

I will do one today, and one on Wednesday so keep your eyes out! 

Today's give away, I think, is a very useful tool. It also so happens to be hard to find at the moment. So.....if you love solids, Kona Cotton solids, to be specific....you may enjoy what I have for one of you!

A brand spankin' new Kona Cotton Color Card!! That's right! :D

If you think you'd find this handy, just leave a comment telling me why. One comment per person please. :) I will randomly choose a winner on Wednesday and also announce the next give away item. then :)

Much Love and Good Luck!!!

Everyone Makes Mistakes

Thank you all so much for your kind words and your feedback on the Autumn Strings tutorial! 

Thanks to a very observant reader (thank you!), a mistake was found in my tutorial. Not a huge one, but still a mistake. I wrote it using only 7 strip sets, well this will only yield you 35 blocks and you need 36. Easy enough to figure out how to get that additional block, but I've updated the PDF, corrected the link in the original post, and am now posting it here in case it was missed. 

Please delete the PDF you previously downloaded for my Autumn Strings quilt and download this one instead. 

Autumn Strings PDF Tutorial - Updated

Thanks for your understanding! 

Much Love!!!

Autumn Strings Tutorial

Remember the shots of this yummy fall fabric? I've put it to good use and I'm thrilled with the results!

I've wanted to make a string quilt for a while now but in case you haven't noticed, I like quick quilts. Not ones that will take me forever to complete, so I never started one.

Anyone else in that same boat? Love the look of a string quilt but just don't want to spend the time it takes to create one block by block? 

This kept nagging at me and then one day it hit me and I figured out a fast and simple way to achieve this look using a technique using tubes of fabric. It's not quite as variable as an actual string quilt, but depending on how you choose to piece it, it could be, but much quicker!

Began on October 2, 2010 - Completed on October 9, 2010

Pieced and quilted by me

Fabrics: High Society by Khristian A. Howell and Kona Cottons and Crush by Robert Kaufman

I actually made this in just a few days! Yes, you heard me right. A string quilt... in a few days!!!

What do you think?!! I absolutely LOVE it!! It's sooo....sooo....fallish! LOL!

If you love it too and want to make your own, you are in luck because I created a tutorial just for you!

Instead of step by step on my blog, I've created a PDF that you can download and print if you'd like.

Click HERE to download the PDF for the Autumn Strings tutorial. 

Note: It will take you to Google Docs where you can view the file and download from there if you wish.

I'd like your feedback on this though. Do you like it better posted on the blog AND a PDF or is it better with just the option of the PDF?

If you put one of these babies together, I hope you will share it with me! I'd love to see it! There is also a Flickr Group that you can add your photos to of any project tutorial that I share either here, on Moda Bake Shop, or Robert Kaufman!

Enjoy and happy quilting!!

Much Love!!!

New Look!

Hello everyone!!

I just wanted to say thank you for all of the warm comments in regards to my Kona Crush tutorial!! One of my favourite things about sewing/quilting is designing and sharing the tutorials with you! I am so glad you enjoy them! 

Another thing you may have noticed is that I've changed the look of my blog a bit. Nothing to dramatic or major but just a heads up, it's still me. :)

When I was editing my blog I noticed that I have 490 followers!! Holy cow!!!  Thank you to all who follow me!! It's quite the compliment when that many people are interested in what I say and do! **blushes**

As a thank you, once I reach 500 followers, I will be doing a give away on my blog so keep your eyes peeled! :D 

Oh!! I've also been working on that tutorial for the fall quilt that I showed a sneak peek of! I hope to have it posted tomorrow or Friday!

And just because she's cute...I'll leave you with this... 

(I know she's thinking "mom, you're such a dork! Making all those dumb noises just so I'll look at the camera for you"... LOL)

Much Love!!!

Psssst...

Ahem...I said pssstt.... ;)

Come closer...just a little closer...

ok...now that I have your attention... hee hee...

I have something I'd like to share with you that I am very excited about! :D

Do me a favour? 

I'd like you to visit a special place. 

If you like what you see there, please leave a comment. 

I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts!! 

Did I mention that I am TOTALLY excited about this!!??

Ok ok...you want to know where you're going? Right? 

HERE! :)

Much Love!!!

P.S. Tidbit Tuesday will continue next week :) 

Double Trouble

I was working on a quilt tonight and as always, the kitties like to help. Their favourite spot is right on my ironing board which sits by a window. The birds and chipmunks like to tease them... :)

They were just too cute sitting there so I snapped a few shots. Sunny is in the back and Odyssey is in the front with the "don't even think about moving me" look on her face...lol!

Odyssey wanted to help a little bit more by offering up a sneak peek of the quilt I was working on. She told me not to share too much though. :)

I hope you like what you see so far, because I will be doing a tutorial on it soon! My goal is sometime next week! Keep your eyes peeled!

So, what have you all been working on? I'd love to see! 

Much Love!!!

Tidbit Tuesday #21

I got to thinking....that I never really said that my Tidbit Tuesdays were always going to be about quilting. So I'm going to try and incorporate some other tidbits as well....because I know I love learning new tricks and I hope you will find some of these useful as well! :D

Today I bring you this... 

You're excited already aren't you? LOL!

Raise your hand if you ever get frustrated when you pull on your saran wrap or aluminum foil and the roll comes out of the box as you pull? Maybe you say a few choice words if you are in a hurry, and maybe a few more when you have to untangle what you just pulled out, just to begin all over again.

Yeah....that's a lot of hands... ;)

Have you ever looked at the sides of your saran wrap or your aluminum foil, or the like? No?

Well look what's there!

Hmmmm...Push Tab? To secure roll!!??  For realz!!

Just push in the tabs on each end like so....then you can do tricks....like this!

Saran wrap upside down! Hahah!! 

 

Yes...I'm a total dork. I'm ok with that! :D 

I have used these products for years....lots of them and I never had any idea they were ever there until I saw a friend messing with hers one day. I asked her what she was doing and well....lets just say I got a little excited over something so small. :D

Anything to make our days less frustrating, right? :) 

 

Do you have a tip to share? Even if it's not quilting related, please email it to me HERE. I'd love to share your ideas too! :)

Much Love!!!

Edwards Apple Orchard 2010

As much as I hate the fact that the warmth of summer is slipping away, fall is one of the most beautiful times of the year to me. I love the colors of fall and how the colors change in the trees and I love how fall smells. It's so rustic and crisp. 

Today we went to the apple orchard, Edwards Apple Orchard. It's a place we have gone every year for probably nine years or so. A few years ago I wondered if we'd be able to even go anymore. In January of 2008 (where normally we are loaded with snow) a tornado swept through our state. This is the aerial view of the orchard after that tornado.

After lots and lots of work, they restored their farm and re-opened in September 2008 and business has been booming ever since!!

Here are a few (*cough*) photos of our journey there today.... :)

 

A beautiful day....

A few sights while waiting in line...

And look at those colors....!

I tried to get some shots of the kids, but Andrew was worried about the line moving so this was his "hurry up and take the stinking photo mom" look...LOL

Once we got inside our senses were overwhelmed....apples, fudge, donuts, crafts, candles, decorations, Halloween stuff, candies, natural honey, jellies and jams, soups, spices, dressings....so so much to take in!!

Nostalgia...I love this kind of stuff! 

Apples... lots and lots of apples!!! Honeycrips are my favourite, but today we brought home some Jonathon's and Autumn Beauties! Mmmmmm!

Oh, and Cinderella pumpkins!! There were pretty cool!! They were kind of flat and squatty, versus round and plump!

As soon as we got back outdoors, we chomped on our donuts!! Mmmm....they were still warm!

I love this shot of Lindsay :)

Then of course there is the animal barn. It smells horrible but the kids love it! 

This is Mr. Pig. I can relate to his sleepy habits. :)

I was getting the "we are NOT the other white meat" look from this one ;)

And the goats! One of the wee ones kept jumping on the back of the larger one to stand on, but every time it took a step, the wee one would fall off! It happened to fast to get a shot of it, but was so comical!

Just a few more photos....the colors are just amazing...

Then a few more of the kiddos. Trying to get them to take a photo of them *together* is like pulling teeth. They act like they are gonna die if they touch each other...LOL!

This one seems so fitting....and totally makes me chuckle!!!

However, with much coaxing, I did get a nice shot of them...together.... :)

All in all it was  a great day!! However, you cannot go to the orchard and not have some of their cider! Hot or cold, whichever way, is sooooooo good!!

And look how polite they are....

I hope you enjoyed my little slideshow! I know I sure enjoyed the day! :)

Much Love!!!