One more step.................

All 24 strip sets are at this stage now, ready to cut into 2 strips of rectangles.  I need to find 16 more fabrics for 8 more pairs.  I'm trying to decide whether to repeat some of the fabrics.

The new NCIS shows were on last night so I had 3 hours to sew.

One of my white cacti has 2 buds on it.  This is the time of year that the first buds form.  I need to get busy and repot a couple of them.  This morning I have my wound check from pacemaker surgery and then I can get busy on some projects.  I need to cut another batting and make another backing.

 

More green strips..............

I needed to take one final look at all 11 pairs of strips to see if I needed to change anything.  Then I started sewing them while I watched the first 'Tracker' show of the fall season.

I sewed 10 out of the 11 pairs.  I decided to look for 2 new fabrics to pair with the 2 strips in the 11th pair.  I now have 24 sets sewn which will only make 48 blocks so there will be more fabrics chosen.

I finally remembered to take some photos of the fall color in my neighborhood.  This tree is straight across the street from me.  There is still a lot of green on it with puffs of color arranged over it.

Looking north are 2 more colorful trees.

The burning bush in my south neighbor's yard is the earliest one in the neighborhood to turn color.  I'm not sure what his front yard tree is but the leaves turn yellow and fall off rather quickly.

I walked into my backyard neighbor's yard to get this photo of her tree at the front of her lot.  You can see lots of leaves have fallen from that one already.  

It's only going to be in the 50s the next few days with possible frost Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

 

Getting ready..............

Cutting batting and making backings has been on my mind for a couple weeks so yesterday morning I finally got to it.  I haven't pressed the backing yet but it is pieced.

Yesterday afternoon was the birthday party for my 1 year old great-grandson.  He didn't want anything to do with the cake that was put in front of him.  He started pushing the plate to the front of the tray on his highchair.  Luckily his mom caught it before it tumbled.  He is walking now, even outside on unlevel ground.

6 more batiks................

I had many things to take care of yesterday so the only time in the studio was to find more green fabrics for the current strip piecing project.  A lot of my batik stash is 1/2 yard or less so there is a large variety on every shelf.  I only need a few more fabrics so I'll spread out everything I have so far and see what I need to add. 

A change of plans...............

Yesterday I started the day by baking chocolate chip cookies.  I was planning the next thing to bake when I got the news that one of the travelers wasn't feeling well so they aren't coming.  (Poor photo, they look much better)

To free some space in my freezer for cookies, I baked half a package of cinnamon rolls.  It was only 65 degrees inside because I haven't turned on the heat yet.  We're supposed to get up to low 80s today and then only high 50s early next week.  They are even talking a frost or possible freeze warning Tuesday night.  I guess I'll have to turn on the heat Sunday or Monday.

Last night I looked through the shelf of 'batik quarter yard or less' for fabric for my current quilt.

I pulled these 4 to cut into 2.5" strips, one of each for the current quilt and the rest to go into one of the 2 boxes of strips.

Both of my kids celebrated 40th wedding anniversaries this year, one of them yesterday.

 

Miscellaneous..................

 I have 10 more strip sets up to this point as of last night.

This is my favorite set so far.

In addition to a 16 patch I could make any one of these 3 patterns with my strip sets.

I had a wonderful visit with my niece and her mom (my sister-in-law) yesterday afternoon.  Last night I started baking because some family a state away is coming to the area for a party for the first birthday of my youngest great-grandchild.

Garden clean up and no-brainer sewing...........

The weather was perfect yesterday for doing yardwork.  I cut down many peonies and volunteer trees.  I was so tired last night I needed some no-brainer sewing.  I checked out the 2 boxes of 2.5" batik strips.

These 2 project boxes hold all that is left of the strips I started cutting about 15 or more years ago.  I took them out of the plastic drawer units (5 drawers that used to be full and was now down to 3 drawers) and put them in these boxes so I could get rid of those 2 drawer units.

In the first box I saw several orange/green strips so I paired them with dark strips (black, brown, green).  I ended up with 20 pairs and got 14 of them sewn to this stage.

Three of them are sewn like this now.  There are many combinations that I could cut these sets into but remember, this was no-brainer sewing, so no further decisions were made, just wonderful long seams to sew.

The weather will be nice today too, but I think 2 days in a row outside would be too much.  In fact I may wait until next week when it will be even cooler to finish the garden clean up.