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. 

 

2 more pinwheels and pretty trees.......................

I cut 2 of the Marcia Derse plaid fabrics for the pinwheels.  I made 2 of each of these combinations.  I'm going to use most of the duplicates in a separate project.  

I got 2/3 of a long side of binding hand sewn.  If I keep up this pace I'll get it done this month.

The tree across the street is almost fully turned and has dropped all of the leaves from the top of the tree.  We still don't have a frost or freeze in the forecast for the next 10 days.  In fact we have the 6th warmest October in Chicago records.

Last year I missed taking a photo of this tree south of me.  Their Burning Bush always turns color before mine.  

I love the combination of colors.

 

Binding and pinwheels.................

One short side is hand stitched on this binding.  I'm very happy how it looks.  I hope I can get this finished by the end of the month.

I got a few pinwheel blocks sewn.  The 2 smaller blocks are 6" and the larger ones are 8".  I need to do some more cutting today.

My only cousin on my mother's side of the family is going to stop to see me this afternoon.  He and his wife are visiting family in 2 states before they head back to the east coast.  the last time I saw them was May last year.

 

Cutting and binding..............

I got a few more new fabrics cut for the pinwheel blocks.  I even got 2 sets of the 3" triangles cut.  I thought I would have time to sew a few but I changed over to the binding instead.

This is the shape left over from some of the fabrics (center).  I can cut a 2.5" triangle from one section, and the portion left (right) is large enough to cut 1.5" triangles.  Maybe there will be some 2" pinwheels too.

I got the binding fabric pressed, cut and pieced together, ready to work on last night.

I had to get the first corner hand sewn before I quit last night.  I wonder why those stripes show up on a close-up photo.  It is just a plain light gold background behind the chickens.

In case you think I might be running low on brown, rust and gold fabrics, this is what is still in the big box after making 3 quilts.

I planted all of the leftover Begonias in this pot in the middle of summer.  I have had it over in front of the garage  most of the time but moved it over to the paver area where it will get rain.  Begonias are so hardy and are in bloom all summer.  I think I need to plant more of them in the pots next summer.

 

Binding chosen.......................

Here is a reminder of the pieces I pulled to audition for the binding of this quilt.  I auditioned evey one of them with just 3/8" showing and I liked all of them.  Now I had to decide how to narrow the selection down.  I decided I should find the ones that were unlikely choices in a future project.

These were the 2 that I thought were most unlikely to ever be used.

Then I had just a narrow strip of each showing and decided on the one on the left.  I put the one on the right with my African fabrics where it has a better chance of appearing in a future quilt.  I had the iron on, pressing the pinwheel blocks, and forgot to press this fabric so I haven't cut the strips yet.

While in the basement I cut more 4" triangles to pair with some I showed last night.  There are some more lively colors now.

I changed some of the combinations from the photo above and sewed a few blocks last night.

This is one of the pots that sits in front of my garage.  It almost died during one of the extreme heat weeks with the sun beating down on it from sunrise until 11 a.m.  

Some of the Geraniums in this pot are 4 years old and the rest are 2 years old.  I pull it into my heated garage (55 degrees) for the winter and water it 3 or 4 times and then put it back outside in May the next year.  It is a repainted pot and looking a little shabby but I still like it.