AUTUMN HAS ARRIVED

 The rains have come, bringing their friend the wind.  And the colors are spectacular!

WALKING IN THE RAIN

 They forecast an 'atmospheric river' of rain for the next 24 hours, at least.

But, we headed out for a walk in Lincoln Park around 8:30 anyway, just as the rains began.

The colors of the season were absolutely incredible.

It was a very nice walk - and my new rain jacket actually repelled the drops.

SATURDAY SLOW

 We went for a nice walk this morning finally.  It's been over a week since we've been able to do much outside because of the unhealthy air quality from the wildfires.  It's amazing how much the season had changed everything since we were last at Lincoln Park.  I love the fall colors.

Back home, I planted the Coral Honeysuckle plant I bought from a dealer in Florida through Etsy.  Live long and prosper little plant.  I placed it next to the deck.  The plan is it will grow up and along the railing and have a beautiful fragrance, and it should attract hummingbirds, too.

We've had rain the last few days (which cleaned the air), but we realized we should have picked our beans (Hidatsa Reds) before they get too wet.  

After we picked the dried shells off the plants we laid them out in the shop to dry.  Once dry, we'll husk them.

LABEL

I inked in the label for 'Seasons'.  The back is now ready.

The dogs were good dogs for a few minutes again today.

The colors this autumn are spectacular.

RAINY SATURDAY

Last night we were visited by lightning with very loud thunder that shook the house, strong winds and heavy rains.  

This morning was more of the heavy rains, but, alas, no more thunder and lightning.

We headed up to Carnation to see some spectacular fall colors.  It sounded like fun, but the rains put a bit of a damper on it and cut our outing short.   (But, it was beautiful.)

After a quick lunch at the Issaquah PCC, we headed home and I went straight up to work on my project.  I've got these sections done, and cut out the next section.

WORKING ON IT

I'm still working on  the Autumn Quilt - it's going slow going - there are lots of thread changes and a lot of stitch-in-the-ditch.  But, I'm making progress.

Jelly helped.

I'M WORKING ON IT!

I've been procrastinating about the quilting on my Autumn Quilt.  It's been on the machine for over a week.

I took today off, because they made me crazy yesterday.  So, part of the deal I made with myself was to get started on it.

So, I did.  It's looking good so far.

I started by doing stitch in the ditch around the leaves, then I put the 'wind' in between them.

Next, it was doing different designs in the leaves - with different colored threads to match the leaves.  (I think I need more thread!)

I got most of this part done, but had to stop - my knees hurt.

BACK FOR AUTUMN LEAVES

I didn't work today, the day after Thanksgiving.  I promised myself I'd never work on this day again.  It has always been the most miserable day of the year because no one wants to work and we end up being extremely short-handed and we get way behind.  I know -- my not being there just exacerbates the problem.  But, I've put in my time - and I don't care anymore.

I took the dogs for a walk in the park in the morning, did some housework and then went up to the studio to wait for the phone call from the guys delivering our new washing machine (we are completely out of towels).

They called with my 30 minute warning just as I was finishing up the back for the Autumn Leaves quilt.  Perfect timing.

I used up a lot of the leftover pieces.

A BUNCH OF LEAVES

It's the perfect time of year to be working on this fall leaf quilt.  I've been making the little blocks off and on for the last several weeks.  I got the big blocks done today, so all of the blocks are ready.  I just need to set them.

TO LA AND BACK - DAY ONE

The husband had to deliver some furniture to the LA area, so we decided to do it ourselves and have a mini vacation on the way down.

He would be staying on in Anaheim afterwards to teach a class, which meant I had to drive home alone.  So, I invited my Mom to fly down and ride back with me.  

Heading out on our Adventure - Lucy is interested.

Stopped in Grants Pass to pick up some AR Speakers he bought on Ebay.

From Grants Pass, Oregon we took Hwy 199 to the coast.

We were really enjoying the Fall Colors.

Spectacular Fall Colors on Hwy 199 

We stopped at a strange place called "It's A Burl", there was lots of strange art and lots of burls for sale.

More weird art at "It's a Burl".
We also logged in a geocache here.

LINEAR PARK & OTHER

Here's the painting I've been working on this week. I changed it quite a few times, in fact, now that I've looked at it here I see something that I must fix! One of the things was the sky, I wanted a little more drama than I had originally planned.

I remember the day I took the reference photo for this. It was several years ago when we lived in Renton. I was coming home on a beautiful autumn day when I noticed all the vivid orange maple leaves that were covering the park, Linear Park, and the street that runs parallel with to it. The leaves were probably six inches deep in the street. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing. It was spectacular! And I didn't have my camera.

We lived just a few blocks away so I hurried home and found my camera and headed back. I couldn't believe my eyes, the street sweepers were there cleaning the leaves from the street. What poor luck. I hurriedly took some photos, but the light had changed and the leaves were gone. But, the image has remained with me for quite a while. I love autumn.

I painted the image that was the gloomier, more emotional image. Someday, I'll do the one that's only in my head, with the brighter colors and the bright sun.

This is Linear Park, acrylic on panel, 12.5" by 20".

This next image is just at the first stage, I've got a lot of work to go on it. But, I was tempted to leave it as is, but as I looked at it, after a while, I noticed some things that need fixing.

This is Leslie, acrylic on canvas 11" by 14".