I Like/Love #21

This month's I Like/Love post kind of sneaked up on me. October doesn't end until next week, but next Thursday is November 1, so here we are, and here are my 10+ likes for the month.

1. I got to see this in the piecing stage and it was breathtaking then. I got to see it in the finished stage, and she quilted it to life! No surprise; Judy is an incredibly talented quilter.

She entered this into the quilt show in Payson, AZ, and won an Honourable Mention ribbon.🙌 Well-done my friend!
It's a Tartan Kiwi pattern, and is not for the faint of heart, apparently. I bought the Lion, have to do it one of these days for Brady. Isn't this zebra incredible? I believe those are Blueberry Park prints by Karen Lewis. I have a FQ stack in blues and greens to use. Anyhow, Judy's former blog site is Quilt Paradigm. Real Life has taken over so she no longer blogs, but she still quilts,as beautifully as ever, occasionally for herself, more often for others, (she does a TON for Covered in Love). Judy's blog is still online, with tons of great eye candy and great humour to accompany it. I feel thankful to have her in my life, both as a friend and as inspiration, sister quilt-lover, fabric-petter of mine.

2. I like, no, I just love this humongous tree that is in our back yard, a mystery tree I asked about in this post, mystery no more. It is a black maple! I took a leaf of it and two other trees from our back yard in to a local, long-established tree nursery/farm earlier this week. She didn't know what exactly it was, other than a maple of some kind she was pretty sure, but she noted the fuzzy soft underside of the leaf, and said to include that distinguishing characteristic in my Google search (had already done a few searches, nothing definitive) as well as the fall colour (a beautiful gold, as you see), and I found it. Here's the link:
University of Guelph Arboretum

3. I love that we have a Linden tree in our back yard. It is the deep green one behind the English oak in the foreground. This Linden is the second mystery tree, the tree farm easily identified it by its leaf shape which resembles the overall tree shape. It doesn't have as potent a smell as some Linden trees I've smelled, but I will pay closer attention this coming spring... Also of note is that there are like 30 varieties of Linden trees around here, and yes that was taken yesterday October 24, and it's not started to change yet at all. Not all of Canada is arctic! We are south of many of the northern states too, and on the shore of a Great Lake, which tempers our climate big time.

4. I'm in love with this fabric, Island Batik, of course, a basic called Marbles. I'm using it in the current October challenge project, paper-piecing.

5. I really like this mug, a gift from Brianne when she and Brady were here for their annual visit.

6. I think these two frogs are the best. They are in one of the bathrooms at the yoga studio in Windsor where I practise Ashtanga in the early mornings.

I'm going to have to find out where they got them...

7. I am really enjoying my current book, Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs. It's the third in the trilogy; nope, apparently the fourth one has just come out, Hollow City! I really enjoy YA Literature. The book I read before this, The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson, was also an excellent read; I was totally invested in the characters and living in their world in my head even when not reading...that, to me is the sign of a good story.

8. I am still knitting, and loving this new project:

A scarf, done in Moss stitch

Brady's hat should have been delivered, but Canada Post is in rotating strikes, sigh, so it's probably going to be delayed.

9. I love Bella, even though she can be a real bee-atch at times: she's made me bleed, by biting me and scratching, and she doesn't like MacGyver no matter how hard he tries to win her over. She provides much amusement throughout the day, and is pretty smart. She can open doors (not by their handles, but still) and she is ingenious, as most cats are, of finding good places of repose.

Looking rather vampire-esque, getting her Halloween on, caught her mid-miaow actually, as she finally rests her elbows on  a little rug that Rose made for her. Rose, you might just get her yet if she bites through my nail like she did a few months back!

In a good sunlit spot...

...even if it isn't the most comfortable! This is our kitchen table, and those are placemats

Note the tube of hand lotion on the one chair, plastic shopping bag on another...a deterrent to keep her off, as she detests the scent of hand lotion, and insists on using all four at alternate times, as places to snooze. The fabric on these chairs is bad for attracting her abundant fur, so I am experimenting with these odd but so far effective ways of keeping her to one kitchen chair...this was clear a third-claw-salute to my deterrents!

10. I like soup, homemade, of course, is best. This was my first attempt at making Roasted Butternut Squash soup from scratch and it turn out fabulously well. The recipe I used is here although I also bookmarked this one to try sometime, which might be today, as I roasted another squash yesterday! I make it vegetarian by using vegetable stock, not chicken. I used yogurt instead of cream and almond milk instead of cow milk.

11. I've said on a few of these posts that I love chocolate and I eat a bit each day, usually dark. When Brady and Brianne were here we had our traditional lunch at Lakeside Bakery in Leamington. Here's a like inside a like, as I really like that place to eat and to buy baked goods and even various gift items. I tried this fudge, new to me, made in Canada, and wow was it good!

One for me, one for MacGyver, shared both, both excellent.

12. I like candles. I especially like the safe battery-operated ones of which I have several, and now, remote controlled battery operated ones! They have such a realistic flicker, and waxy feel.

13. Back to Brady's visit, we mostly made together one of the snow globe coaster kits I won from Dione at Clever Chameleon. It's a great design, and don't you love the backing fabric I picked up in Chatham when Cindy of Stitchin at Home and I were together. The grey 'stand' and the dark grey polka-dot fabric 'sky' are both Island Batik.

14. There isn't a week goes by where I'm not thankful for the community of quilting friends I have. Thank you for reading, for writing, for being patient when I can't comment on your blog (issue still not fixed), or for when I either don't get back at all, or in a timely manner to your posts. Thank you for sharing your personal life with me, and for listening and commenting back when I share some of mine, both good and bad parts. It's not all warm and fuzzy IRL. Thank you for sharing your makes of a pattern of mine (I am going to have another one to share from my friend Debbie very soon with the pattern release!) and for a myriad of other things. I value you, I truly do.

15. Last, but not least, another community event in which I took part, the 100days100blocks2018, has come to an end. Here are my 100, laid out on the spare room floor, to see how the rainbow effect might work. This isn't the final arrangement as I think I'll split the pink from corner to corner.

It's sideways because that is the best vantage point in that tiny room! I guess I could have rotated it, but the perspective would have been odd. You get the idea. I'm not sewing it together until I get my 150 Canadian Women quilt top done.

Linking up with more grateful peeps at LeeAnna's
Not Afraid of Color
and with the Wandering Camera linky at Soma's
Whims and Fancies

Just a query whether you have had a "Oh! I have to MAKE THIS!" moment this past month? Did you literally Drop Everything And Make it? Well that's a DrEAMi! The linky party opens this Saturday, so feel free to link up a post you already wrote about a squirrel you chased, or write up a new one. I did chase a couple squirrels between lots of paper-piecing this month...