Binding done, next in line.....................

The binding was finished a little before 10 last night.  I'm looking forward to seeing it open and checking out the scrappy binding.  Photo shoot today.

Earlier in the day yesterday I trimmed the pink/gray zig zag quilt and cut the binding.  I'll start prepping this one today for the hand finishing of the binding.

There was almost 2" of rain in my gauge from 3 days of storms.  I'll check it one more time this morning.  We really needed the rain and I'm thankful we got that much.

Many different fabrics in binding.............

I have about 60" left to hand stitch on this binding.  Six of the different fabrics in the binding are shown here.  There are 3 more fabrics in the last 60".  I hope I can finish this one today and then start on the binding on the pink/gray quilt.

I decided to open up the panel that came with the Charley Harper fat quarter selection I showed a few days ago.  It might end up as part of a backing for a quilt.  It is 36" x 45".

 

Backing, binding...................

I was happy to find I had enough of this print for the back of the butterfly quilt.  It is used as the large wings on 2 of the butterflies.

I trimmed the 'Sunday Only' quilt and found the group of partial width Kaffe strips.  Some are over 30", others as short as 10".

After sorting through them, this the batch I decided to use.  I pieced one long strip and when I sewed the binding onto the quilt, I didn't need the last 3.

I originally planned to sew the binding on this quilt all by machine, but when I decided to use a scrappy binding, I think hand stitching is the better choice.  I got one short side and part of one long side hand stitched last night.

Binding audition...................

This Kaffe stripe fabric is the one I had been thinking about using for binding on my pink/gray zig zag quilt.  I looked last night and found 2 small pieces of it.

I think it will work OK and just add to the quirkiness of the quilt which is titled "1956".  The pink/gray combination takes me back to my sophomore year in high school in 1956 (yes, I'm really that old!).  The flowers will be in parts of the binding and other areas might just have the gray/white wide stripe.  This binding will probably be hand finished somewhere near the middle of the month.

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day, I can't even remember what I did for most of the day.  I did some grocery shopping around 5 p.m., just before it got dark.  That is the last evening shopping I will do until it is light again at least as late as 6.  Daylight savings time ended at 2 a.m. today and it will be dark before 5 p.m. for several months.  I had a few clocks I needed to reset manually.  I'm glad the Fitbit, Smartphone and computer all update automatically.

New stash.................

One of Charley Harper's newest lines is Michigan Audubon.  I thought it was cute enough to purchase a fat quarter pack.  There is a panel included in the pack too.

Yesterday afternoon became a social time so most of my effort in the studio was cleaning off tables.  If I could learn to not make so many piles I wouldn't have to do the clean up so often.

I got this quilt back from my longarm friend Robin yesterday.  Since the quilt is so scrappy I'm thinking about making the binding scrappy too.  I have lots of 2.5" strips of Kaffe collective fabric that aren't full width that I could use.

 

October 2024 monthly recap.......................

It was all new quilt tops in October, no finishes.  I still have one more finish than new tops though for the year.

Kaffe Blue Pinwheels is 60" x 72".  These were the leftover triangles from the pink/blue triangle quilt.  I guess I cut a few too many for one project.

The butterfly baby quilt top is 35 "x 45".  I think I made those blocks about 20 years ago, maybe a couple years before that.  They were probably started to promote the book that the patterns were in.  It's publication date is 1993 and that is over 30 years ago.....so maybe the blocks are closer to 30 years old.  I pulled the blocks out many times and just couldn't come up with an idea of how to use them unless I made more blocks...and I didn't want to do that.  I'm just happy it's a quilt top now.

Fall batik quilt top is 64" x 72".  It was just a quick project to use some strips in 2 project boxes and to give me some stress free night sewing.  I do most of my sewing at night while I watch TV.

Yesterday I was searching for a backing for the 72" x 96" neutral batik 16 patch quilt top.  This piece was hiding between 2 others and when I pulled it out and measured, it was a 9 yard piece.  I got it pieced and pressed and now it is ready to go to my longarm friend.

I'm glad I got another photo of my maple tree 2 days ago because we have had a couple really windy days and lots of leaves drifted down to the ground.  We only got a quarter inch of rain with the wind but we have 3 days of rain predicted early next week.  I'll probably have a bare tree later next week.

 

Butterflies sewn.................

It turned out to not be as difficult as I thought it would be to assemble this quilt top.  There were 4 partial seams.  I added 3" strips all around so the butterflies would be surrounded by background fabric.  It is 35" x 45".  I'll check so see if I have enough of any of the bright prints for the backing.

The yellow Coneflower bloom is finally opened.  We don't have any frost or freeze warnings at night for the next week so maybe another of the buds has a chance to bloom.

The plant has grown so tall this year compared to its miniature size last year.  I have a wide overhang on my house and most rain doesn't hit this area so I watered the plant every week.

This is another of the older Redbud trees in my backyard.  Many branches break off of this one every year.

The tree reaches over into my neighbor's yard so I try to keep the branches picked up.  This neighbor's house is for sale and I see the lot has been surveyed so maybe there will be a new owner moving in soon.

I wonder what Google is up to now.  Yesterday almost all of the comments sent to my email had no-reply instead of their email addresses.