Fall leaves

We have taken several drives through the country side to take pictures of the fall leaves. Oregon dosen't have much red in the native trees, but lots of bright yellows in the maples and alders. I took a bunch of pics along the creek in Tyee and up along the North Umpqua by Fall Creek waterfall. The trail to the falls was closed but the lower area was very nice, we had a picnic along the creek perched up on the rocks. I am playing with the pics in photoshop, one of my favorite methods is to increase the contrast a bit, and then turn it into a negative. This makes the yellow leaves a beautiful blue/purple, I'd like to use several of these types of pics in my next wall hanging.

2009 Portland Quilting Expo

Begining of September I took several quilt ladies to the 2009 Portland Quilting Expo, we had a great time. We laughed all the way up there for a 3 hour drive. We found the Expo center with no problems, and made it through the gauntlet of raffle quilts on the lobby. There must have been 10 raffles from different guilds and charity organizations. I only bought tickets for my favorites. The quilts at the show were amazing, I took lots of pictures, but I'm not going to post any of them, do to copyright issues. The machine quilting was most impressive, very dense, detailed and creative, lots of different patterns and threads, hours and hours of machine quilting on each quilt. They also had the "Hoffman Challenge" from Hoffman fabrics company, a national contest with a challenge fabric. I have never liked the fabric they choose, so I've never entered, this years fabric was a paisly in gold, tan and bugrundy. It created some very toned downed quilts, not bright colors, but they were very beautiful and creative. They also had an Art Bra display for auction, to raise money for breast cancer. They were lots of fun, especially the names, I love a good pun or funny title. One that had grapes and leaves on it, was called "Squeeze me, crush me, make me whine" an ode to a mamogram. One had gold lame, rhinestones and mega size tassles, called "Titz 'n Glitz", one with teacups on it was "T-cup" you get the idea. My favorite quilt was of a sea turtle, in blues and teals with batik fabrics, very realistic and creative quilting in the background. Another favorite was a portrait of a girl with a collie in ther lap. I could have spent alot more time there, just looking at the quilts. We went across town, and had a picnic lunch at a park, and went to Fabric Depot, a huge fabric store that had been invaded by the hoards from the expo. On our way home we stoppped at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest in Salem, several of the ladies wanted to know how to find the place. It is one of my favorite stores, we all bought some Paula Nadelstern kalaidascope fabric and matching prints, in different colorways for a challenge. I haven't the faintest idea what I'm going to do with it, but it is beautiful. We got back just before 8pm, a very long, fun day, we are on again for next year!

Balloon Ride

Last weekend Charlie and I went to Myrtle Creek Balloon Festival, it was a small local event, they had a small art fair, pancake breakfast and several balloons from Rouge Valley Balloons in Grants Pass/Medford area. They were giving tethered Balloon rides for $4, a great deal for me, I want to go!! It was getting a little breazy, so they were going to shut it down, but took a few last people for rides. I got to go, but we didn't go up very high, you could feel the wind on the balloon, fortuneatly it was pushing us down. It was lots of fun, a real thrill, next time we'll go earlier in the morning when the wind is calmer. They said the day before they had four balloons, but the wind had come up and broke the ropes! They ended up crashing on the other side of the airfield and a lady broke her shoulder, and two of the balloons were trashed. The guy I was with said it was a wild ride and he was hiding in the bottom of his basket. They were big heavy ropes tied off to pickup trucks, hard to imagine them breaking. Charlie said he saw me on TV news on Monday morning too.