Last weekend was warm and sunny and the leaves were at their peak color for viewing, we made a pot of chile, packed up the Coleman stove and canoe and went north to our favorite little lake.

The grand kids we're excited to ride in the canoe and later went out one at a time with grandpa and got to paddle themselves.

While they canoed I warmed up the chile and set up a area to play around with pounding leaves on fabric.

I brought along some white (premordanted with alum) cotton, we collected leaves, laid them on the fabric, covered the leaf with clear packing tape and pounded it with a hammer.
The tape keeps the leaf from breaking up and keeps the dye in place.

Everyone pounded a leaf or two during the day.

We ended up with pleasing pattern, I'm going to make my daughter a round quilted mat for her table with machine embroidery accenting the leaves and quilting in between.
I did this years ago when my kids we're little and didn't use premordanted fabric, it took just fine. I would make sure the fabric is prewashed.

We took a wonderful walk through the woods.

Found this fallen birch tree, the boys took turns learning how to take off the bark.

At the end of the day Melissa carried up the canoe to the vehicle, the boys were a lot of help!

OK, back home and the boys still haven't gotten enough of the leaves, Grandpa rakes them up and they dive in. Have you ever seen a swan dive into a pile of leaves?

Or a cannon ball dive?

And one more dive!