I had some "help" with the final construction of Piccadilly Square.  I told her she was going to gte her tail ironed if she kept jumping into the middle of my fabric, but I don't think she believed me. 

For better or for worse, the Piccadilly Square design decision has been made and the quilt top put together.  Next step - finding a fabric for the back.  I'm not sure what I'll find for this one....

I love fall!!!  Of course, I love every season at the beginning of the season.  I like that I have all four seasons, and that winter here is mild - I'm not a huge fan of snow.  I'm not a huge fan of the heat either, but I'll take the heat over freezing snow and wind!

While my Piccadilly Square quilt is hanging around on the design board, waiting for me to make up my mind, I made a new table runner in fall colors.  I even did some free motion quilting!  Most of my quilting for small projects like this is the standard stich-in-the-ditch pattern, following the lines of the pattern.  This pattern has a large area with no blocks, so I improvised.  Not bad!  The fabric is all from my leftover fabric, so it feels like an accomplishment two ways - expanding my skill set AND using up fabric.

 

The "community puzzle" is complete - almost....we were missing a piece by the time we got it put together.  I'm still hopeful that I'll find it under the couch or somewhere....

We started the next puzzle, and I don't think we need to wonder for too long how we could be missing a piece of the last puzzle - we have helpers that don't always play by the rule of "leave the pieces on the table".... 

 

I completed the blocks for the Piccadilly Square quilt, but....don't like how they look together.  I made 13 blocks from the bundle of fabric I got (coordinated to work together) so I'd have an extra block to play with.  The colors all go together, but...don't work well together in the quilt.  This one has a light purple on the bottom right - it's too light.

  

This one has a light pink on the upper right - again. too light. 

I tried moving the light pink to a different row, but...still not working.

I pulled a yellow out of my stash, but....still not working....sigh.....

Better?  I pulled a lighter orange out of my stash.  I like this one better, but....still undecided.  Should I stick with the original light purple or the new orange?  This is going to sit on my design board for a bit before I put it all together.

AJ left Coco for the first time since he got her on Monday night, and I think she's definitely bonded with him.  She checked every window she could find, every door she could find, etc. looking for him.  She settle down pretty quickly (especially after I played a game of fetch with her).

 

 

Are you tired of photos from my morning walks?  I'm sooo enjoying my morning walks with Ripley in the current weather and the leaves changing color.   

 

And...the first casualty......

I think James was asleep on my bed when Coco went running into the bedroom, startling her.  She ricocheted off the lamp on her way to the window.  Down one lamp.....

The cats are not happy about Coco in the house.  Luckily Coco doesn't seem to be trying to do them any harm, but if they run, she will chase.  And yes, they will run.  Or climb, whatever.  Luckily for them she isn't in the house much - AJ has her with him.  We think she may have been crate trained in the past because she has zero issues with the crate.

Meet the newest addition to the family - Coco!  AJ and I went to Mt Shasta Friday to check her out, and brought her home.  She's 5 years old, and is a sweetheart.  She was a bit nervous when we first met, but settled down pretty quick.  

AJ spent at least an hour yesterday throwing the ball for her once we got home.  (He ordered a bunch of tennis balls for her yesterday - she has a tendency to destroy them....)  The other dogs are not as impressed, but since Coco spends her time with AJ in his house, they are not interacting much at this time.

More photos from our morning walks... 

 

Progress on the Cascade quilt:

 

The quilt top is done - now to quilt and bind it!

I added two more chickens to the flock this weekend.  A friend of a friend needed to get rid of her chickens, so I got a couple.  I didn't necessarily need them, but I was looking at getting a couple more next year, and they needed a home.  One is a Sapphire Gem, which I already have, and one in a Adirondack, which is know for odd feather growth.  This one has no tail feathers, poor thing!  They are both about the age of my Wellsummer, I think, but are much smaller.  My Sapphire Gem, at least, is much bigger, fluffier than the new one.The white one is very small and very timid.

It's apple season!  I made mini apple pies this weekend.  They turned out great! The recipe is from the Pioneer Woman (mini apple pies recipe) and was easy to follow. (Using premade pie crust helped make it easy, not that I can't make a decent pie crust.  I was going for easy!)

Yes, I just finished Falling Leaves, so....I need a new quilt!  It's not like I wasn't working on  Cascade or anything, right?  A semi-local designer had a class at Sew Simple for her Piccadilly Square quilt on Saturday.  I've always heard that she teaches a lot of "tips and tricks" in her classes, so signed up for it.  She didn't disappoint!  I walked away with a few more ways to do things, and 3 completed quilt blocks (out of 12).  

Falling Leaves is done - just in time for fall!

This was a fun quilt to make - the leaves are all from my fabric stash, so it makes me feel like I'm being thrifty (even if I do have to buy the background, backing and binding fabric, lol!)

Cindy M and I took Ripley, Cooper, and Roo to the off-leash dog park on Friday.  Cooper and Ripley aren't much of a concern off lead, but Roo is a different matter.  She did great!  When she's on the lead, she still barks and pulls toward other dogs, but when she was off the lead, she was pretty well behaved.  She is scared of the other dogs, so would go see them, then retreat back to Cindy when she overloaded.  

We had a great meet-up with a couple of ladies with a dalmatian, pit bull, corgi mix, and a puppy (10-12 weeks old?? - too cute!!!).  The pit bull wanted to be in charge, but everyone else ignored him - fun to watch!.  Ripley did her normal meet-and-greet and then went to the river for a drink. Then, the dalmatian saw a squirrel - the chase was on!  Ripley joined in the action.  Roo did great with all the different dogs bustling around, being dogs - barking, sniffing, etc.

I followed Ripley over to the river bank - the river was beautiful!  (I did NOT join her for the squirrel chase....)

Ripley found a squirrel...hoping it would come back down to play??

Once again, I have help when quilting, even if I don't need it.... 

 Somehow, having the 60 pound GSD in front of the batting roll does NOT help!

Ripley and I visited the off-lead dog park off of Bechelli yesterday, and she was perfect!  I have only had her off lead with dogs that she already knew, so was a bit concerned how she would react to other dogs. She's been good on-lead with other dogs, but the dynamics change when the leads are gone!  I'm still not sure how she will respond to an aggressive dog, since all the dogs we met were also acting properly.  Hopefully, no one takes their aggressive dog there! 

One part of the trail goes under Highway 44 - kind of a cool view.

Cindy M and I met up with some of the book club ladies in McCloud yesterday for the Apple Harvest Festival (which should not have Apple in the name - no apples were in attendance!)  Mt.Shasta was hiding the first part of the day, but was clearing up by the afternoon. 

Some of the ladies were staying the weekend at a "cabin" at the Friday RV Park, and this was the view from their deck.  

I was getting Alli's breakfast ready, and noticed that her TV wasn't working correctly - there were a bunch of pop-ups on the screen. It didn't take long to see the cause....Jessie was pushing buttons again....laptops were not made to be cat warming stations!!

Progress on the Cascade quilt:

Note the Doxie head on the right???  I've converted Cindy M to the dark side, she's making the All Wrapped Up quilt for her sister who has multiple Doxies.  Too cute!!!

Ripley and I took a walk at Turtle Bay - I measured it at just over 1.25 miles per my workout program on my watch (always subject to accuracy), so it will be a nice walk when I'm short on time and want a different path.   

Some more photos from along the Sacramento River.  Ripley is loving the morning walks we are getting.  She looks so upset when I go somewhere without her now.  (Trust me, she doesn't want to sit in the car on the college campus for two hours for my class, but she doesn't agree.  It was 100 degrees here yesterday!)