Almost there........................

I sewed until 10 last night and got this far.  I thought I was going to have to add a piece at the right side of the bottom row, but now it looks like I might need to trim it off instead.  Either that or trim the end of the 6" block section.  I'll make that decision today.  The camera is making the light fabrics a little too light here.  I hope I can get a photo with true color later today.

I noticed the first bloom on my cactus yesterday morning but it was overcast outside and I thought I would wait until a little later to take a photo.  Well, a little later turned into 6 p.m. so it was dark.  I took the photo anyway to have a record on my blog of the first bloom of the season.

Final layout.........................

 I made more blocks and played for a couple hours with the arrangement on the design wall.  This isn't at all what I thought I was going to do with the pinwheel blocks but I like it.

There were 4 of these parts to assemble.

There were also 4 of these to assemble.

I continued until I had 10 sections sewn.  Now I need to sew the 5 columns starting on the left side.   After pressing the 10 assembled sections I can also sew the column on the right.  I think I will need to make an adjustment on the bottom row but I won't know until I get the rest sewn together.

This has been a fun project but I'm ready to wrap it up at approximately 50" x 70".

October 2026 Monthly recap.........................

October just flew by and I was happy to have accomplished anything.  I had 2 finishes.  Nature's Colors is a 16 patch quilt with a large print cut into blocks sprinkled through the layout.  It is 70.5" x 87".  Zippers, a free pattern by Free Spirit Fabrics, has all Kaffe Collective fabrics in it and it is 58" x 80".  Both were longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

Shock Wave was the only top finished in October although I worked on a couple others.  This is made from one line of fabric.  I decided to make the blocks with one background fabric per block and multicolor for the darker value.  It's a big one at 72" x 90".

Four more dishcloths were knitted during October.

I need to spend a day cleaning up the studio.  I have a layout of the pinwheel blocks on the design wall and will begin sewing a few sections of it. 

Trimming another........................

My 9 patch quilt was next in line to be trimmed.  This one is smaller than the 16 patch with many of the same fabrics.

It is all trimmed and ready to choose a binding.  Looking at the front and back together, I think a medium brown or rusty brown might be best.  I need 7 strips so I need to find a piece that is at least 1/2 yard.

While I was in the basement to trim that quilt I also cut some more triangles for the pinwheels.  There are a few of all of the sizes and I sewed duplicates of some of them.

Today I will get ready for posting my monthly recap tomorrow. 

Rain was predicted for yesterday but we only got a few raindrops.  Most of the storms dissipated before they got to us.  I felt a few drops when I went out to check the tomatoes.

Second finish for October 2026.....................

I am so happy with this quilt.  All of the people who say they hate/dislike brown are missing out on the warm combination of nature's colors.  I'm especially happy that I was able to use a favorite large print as alternate blocks sprinkled through the quilt.  It ended up 70.5" x 87".

I went wild with this one using a chicken print on the back and a tiger print for binding.  This quilt has Hobbs 80/20 batting and was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

Here is a view of the binding against the front and back of the quilt.

I put all but 4 of the pinwheel blocks on the design wall.  I just put them up as they came off the stack, no planning and it looks pretty good, but too small, so more blocks will be made.  I need to move the blocks to a larger design wall or flip this over on its side for this design wall.

 

More pinwheels.........................

I did outside work in the middle of the day yesterday.  I finished cutting down all of the peonies, cut small trees, and picked up fallen branches.  Then it was time to sew.  There were duplicates of some of these too.  I counted all of the pinwheels.  There are 25 eight inch, 7 six inch, 29 four inch and 5 three inch.  That doesn't include 17 duplicate 8" blocks that may be used in another project.  I'll still be making more because they are fun.  I may put all of them up on the design wall today, grouped by size.

I only have 32" left to hand sew on the binding of this 16 patch quilt.  

Yesterday was the last day in the 70s.  Now it will be in the 60s for a couple days.  It looks like we will have a big cool down at the end of next week.

The forecast for Halloween changes daily.  They started out predicting 70 and last night one channel had it down to 58 degrees and rain.

 

Pinwheels are fun.................

I cut more triangles while I was in the basement doing laundry.  Shown here are 8", 6", 4" and 3" pinwheels.  There are 2 of most of them.  I have a few more cut ready to sew tonight. 

Making pinwheels was more fun than hand stitching so I only did 58".  That is 2 sides done and 22" on a third side.  The top  was 72" x 88" before quilting so it's probably and inch or so smaller now.  That leaves about 50" to stitch on one edge and 88 on the last one.  I figure 2 more days and I'll be done.