The other Winding Ways quilt top.............

 The friend who cut the hand dyed fabrics for me with her die cutter also cut batik fabrics.  There were enough pieces to do 2 quilt tops but I just made one and a friend took the others.   I made this top in 2011 and a friend bought it from me to finish for her daughter.

This is my preferred pattern to get the circular look.  I have made more than these 3 but the others were before digital cameras and I don't think I have a photo of them.  These are all strip pieced Kaleidoscope quilts made before 2010.  Click on the photo for a closer look.  The one in the center is all floral fabrics.

My Sedums have turned a really deep rosy red.  They don't always get to that stage before the first frost.

Digging deep...........

Since my other finish this month was from 12 years ago I decided to dig deep into the box of works in progress for another oldie.  This one is from 10 years ago.  I planned the layout back then and had had the rows clipped together and numbered so all I had to do was sew it together.  It still needs pressing and that is a pain with the bulk where the points meet from block to block.  It's going to be pretty chilly here tomorrow and I haven't turned the heat on yet so pressing might be a joy after all.  

If you like to search the history, here is where I posted about this last.  I see I had more blocks in that post than in this quilt so I guess I'll look for the rest of them.  

The block is Winding Ways and a friend cut the pieces for me on her die cutter the year before I bought my Studio die cutter.  

The hand dyed fabrics are a combination of all of the ones I had purchased from 1993 to 2010.

Here is a nature photo to match the quilt top.  The asters are in full bloom in two colors.

A few more fabrics.........

I found a few more fabrics to add to the assortment I showed yesterday.  I spent a large amount of time outside so I didn't get anything cut.

This is what I am doing outside, clearing the space in front of every window so the painter can get up to them.  What you see growing on each side of this window is Rose of Sharon.  I have literally hundreds of them growing all over, all volunteers from re-seeding.  I didn't keep up with removing them so now I have to do it.  There were at least 15 in front of this window alone.  The south side of my house is worse and that is where I was working yesterday.

I couldn't resist taking some photos of the coneflowers.  They are beautiful even at this stage.  This seeds on this one haven't dried up yet.

The really dry ones are back farther toward the lot line and that is where the goldfinches have been eating.

The weatherman changed the prediction for rain and we will get very little the way it looks now.  It was raining lightly last night and possibly will linger into this early morning.  It looks like Thursday is the next best chance for another light rain.

More Illinois autumn...........

I was looking out the window as I sat at my computer and wondered what these yellow leaves were.  I went out to investigate and they are on my forsythia bush.  I don't think I have ever seen them with such bright red veins before.

 Here is another group of them deep inside the bush.  

The Viburnum is the next bush along the way and it had just a few leaves turning red.

I'll have to keep checking them to see if they turn darker red.

I'm not sure what this one is.  The petals are pale lavender and very skinny.  It is past its peak of prettiness.  I don't remember it ever being in the back garden before.  The leaves don't look like Asters but the flowers have that same delicate look.

This is a bloom on one of the green leaf Coral Bells.  I don't have the old fashioned green leaf/coral flower Coral Bells any more.  I think I'll look for them next year.

I decided the tall stack of Kaffe Fassett fabric wasn't going to put itself away so I spent a few hours on it.  While I was at it if I had 2 pieces of one of the fabrics I saved out the smaller one and I realized most of them were falling into the fall range of colors.  I just might have to make something out of them.

Still surfing the books..........

I'm still gathering ideas for what to cut out next.  I like this quilt a lot but it is square and I would like it to be rectangular so I would just use the idea but figure out all of the measurements on my own.  I love pinwheels and I love the colors in this quilt.

The other style quilt I'm drawn to is the simple medallion with just plain border after plain border instead of pieced ones.  Again I love the colors and I have a lot of these fabrics but would probably add in a couple substitutes.

I'm still doing a lot of clean up outside getting ready for the painter next month.  Rain is predicted Sun.- Wed. next week and it isn't a lot of fun to be chopping down volunteer tree shoots and pulling weeds while it is wet out.  I can get to the studio once the rain starts, and we really need the rain.

 

Fall is here...........

 When my live broadcast was done yesterday afternoon I walked out to the living room and looked out the window to this glorious sight.  It seems like the trees just start changing suddenly.  This tree wasn't this pretty last year.

I decided to take pictures of all of the pretty blooms in my yard.  These 3 were dug out of my front garden last year when I tried do irradicate the invasive ground covers.  They wintered over just fine in the pots and will stay this way until next year.

I never know what color the asters will be because they keep re-seeding and I had 2 colors originally.  They keep coming up in different places.

These were next to the other color asters.  They aren't as dark of a purple as previous years.

I have Sedum planted in 3 places and 2 in pots.

This is 2 kinds of Sedum planted next to each other and I see I missed a Goldenrod when I was pulling it out early in the summer.

And that concludes my little garden walk late afternoon yesterday.

More new Kaffe fabric...........

New Kaffe Collective fabrics are calling my name.  You know how it is, when you don't have time to start a new quilt all kinds of ideas float through your head.  I want to do something with pinks and burgundies but I haven't chosen a pattern yet.

 I have my first live broadcast today so I'm hoping for a good hair day, ha ha.  I hope all of my students have registered on the site for the broadcast.

Indoors and outdoors..............

 Inside I am gathering and preparing for my first live session for my Colorwash 360 class.  This is my backdrop for the first broadcast.

This is the photo I posted last year that shows my computer and mic set up with my camera mounted on top of my computer.  We needed a higher quality camera than the one included in the laptop.  This is sitting on my sewing cabinet and I usually leave it here during the weeks of all 6 live sessions so my sewing during that time is usually on smaller items unless I sew on one of the machines in the basement.

Outside I mowed the yard in 2 sessions.  I decided to do the backyard after it cooled down a little.  It was only 75 degrees but sunny so it was warm while mowing at cardio speed.

A finish for September...........

I showed this quilt a few weeks back and mentioned all it needed was about 1/4 of the binding to be hand sewn down after 12 years.......of waiting patiently.  Last night it got its last stitch.  It is 43" square from point to point.

This one is made of the earliest Hoffman batiks like another that I made last year.  Purple, gray, pink and turquoise were in most of the early ones.

 

There were a few gray-greens in the early ones too.  I love this little quilt and the binding is not the best job I ever did on a quilt but it was a tricky miter in miter out binding so I can live with it.

Go here to see the large quilt I finished with the same edge (scroll down to second photo).  I have learned my lesson, I don't need to ever finish the edge of another one like this.

I was in such a hurry to take this photo and get to the eating part that the photo is a little fuzzy, mainly because of low light in that area of the counter.  I thought I had gotten a little too much chocolate in my bowl but then I remembered there is no such thing as too much chocolate.

Searching for candidates..............

Sometimes the fabrics I pull as candidates for my solids with prints quilts don't end up working, mainly because the scale of print is too large.  I think the bicycles will only work on one of the quilts.

I think all of these will end up the remaining 3 quilts.

The print on the left will work but the other 2 are pretty large prints.  I will still audition them.

I think these are the right scale to work in at least two of the quilts.

It is warming up a little more each day so I think my yard work will be earlier in the day and I'll press and cut some of these fabrics in the afternoon.  I got all of the branches trimmed from the back of the lilac bushes yesterday.  I also dug out a small forsythia volunteer bush and cut all of the branches off of another one.  I gave up trying to dig out the root on the second one.  By another window it was all Rose of Sharon bushes that needed to be removed.

 

Easy Sewing...........

 I was looking for something easy to sew last night.  Easy...as in already cut and laying on my sewing cabinet.  This is the third of the remaining solids with prints quilts that I'm working on. This Shoo Fly block finishes at 7.5" x 9.5".  I have 11 blocks already sewn in a box in the basement and I haven't figured out how many I need yet.  This will be another small throw quilt.  I haven't pressed these blocks yet but I should have to warm up.  It's 65 degrees inside my house (warming up from 61 in the morning) and was about the same outside yesterday after a morning of 44 degrees.  It is going to warm up this week so I didn't want to turn on the heat yet.

I spent over 2 hours pulling out the black raspberry dead canes and any live ones that will be in the way when the painter comes to paint the window trim.  I cut them up in small pieces and put them in a box that will be burned after they dry out.  The thorns are wicked.  I had to cut down many volunteer trees to get to a lot of it.  The branches on the back of a bush had to be cut too.  I have cleared in front of one picture window and a 3 section crank out window over my kitchen sink.  Today I'll clear out in front of the other 3 section crank out windows in the kitchen.  Maybe I'll wash the windows too.

The stars.................

It's time to view the 30 star blocks together on the design wall.  They are part of the solids with prints series inspired by Lynn's quilt. 

I can see I need a lot more medium and dark blocks.  I have all of the solid triangles cut.  I just need to find and cut the prints.

You 'll have to take my word for it that there is a female goldfinch on one of the lowest Coneflowers in the photo.  The Coneflowers are pretty sad looking at this part of their season.  They started drying up early while we were in the drought period.  I will leave them all winter for the birds and clean them up in the spring.

Last day to register............

I always have to review the live sessions from previous classes to refresh my memory about student questions.  This is a shot from one of them.  You can see my daughter down in the bottom left corner because we do these sessions together.  She is my tech person and can answer all of that type questions from the students.

I also go back and check the colorwashes that the students made in a post here.

Gradation is a key component of many patterns I do. I teach hands on experience by making a Colorwash because it's my signature style and the design that so many have asked how to create. But once you understand smooth gradation, it can be applied to unlimited quilt patterns. 

This is the LAST DAY to register for my Colorwash 360 class, the last time I will offer the bonus live sessions with it.  

Oh, I almost forgot, here is the treat I baked yesterday morning for breakfast since it was such a nice cool day.

Making kits.............

 As much as I would love to show you what quilt I am working on, I have to continue working on kits for my Colorwash 360 class.  There is only one time to prepare for class and that is before it begins.....so that is what I am doing.  Yesterday it was separating the Kaffe 6" squares into kits and packaging them and making the little mini collage kits pictured here.  Oh, and driving to the post office after packaging up some orders.  

Only a day and a half left to sign up for the Colorwash 360 online class.  Go here to register for the class.

We will have mighty cool weather for 4 days this week starting today.  62 for a high and 47 at night.  This is sooooo much better that all of that heat and humidity we had this summer.  I have someone lined up to paint my house trim (my house is Crab Orchard stone from TN) so I have to clear a path through bushes and flower beds for the guy to get up to the windows.  I have 2 weeks to get ready so I'm going to enjoy the cool weather to start doing this.

What I forgot to mention yesterday...........

When I showed the pile of fabrics on the chair yesterday I forgot to mention they are all vintage out of print (OOP) Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  I have every Kaffe fabric except #5 which was a block printed linen fabric according to some sources.  His fabrics number up to 170s now.  The fabrics in the photo above (and in yesterday's photo) go up to #124, fabrics you only find for $30-$60 a yard if you can find them at all.  In the photo they are 4 fabrics deep in each pile, 65 fabrics.

Why did I have all of these OOP fabrics out?  They are for kits in my kit shop for students of Colorwash 360, optional purchases to expand their own collections for a Kaffe fabric Colorwash.  (I also offer a more recent set of Kaffe fabrics to expand a little further as well as batik and floral.) 

And for you super Kaffe fans, I have a photo catalog of his fabrics that is searchable by number, name and includes many quilts I've made over the years using just Kaffe Fassett fabrics and Kaffe Collective (+Brandon and Phillip). This could be one reason you might want to sign up for my online class.

The other reason that comes to mind is that this is the LAST TIME I will be doing the 6 live sessions with the Colorwash online class which adds a few extra tips and demonstrations and gives you a chance to ask a question which I answer on the spot. 

You would also be able to show me your progress and get help from me on YOUR PROJECT...making decisions on fabric selection, placement for smooth gradation, sewing...anywhere you feel stuck or need another opinion. No student left behind...

Registration for the online class ends this Friday, the 18th at 10 p.m. EDT.  That's less than 3 days away.

And now a treat for me........
 

And then I have to put it all away...........

 It's lots of fun to pull the fabrics that will go into a colorwash kit but then it has to all be put away again.  I have learned to neatly fold the fabric after cutting so that saves one step when taking it back to its residence.

There is still time to sign up for my Colorwash 360 online class here.  Enrollment ends on Friday night at 10 EDT.  The 40 day live part of the class starts on Sept. 21 and ends on Oct. 31.

I mowed the grass for the first time in 5 weeks.  There were still a few brown dry areas but there was lots of new green grass which had gotten quite tall.  The 4" total of rain that we got over a week's time is still a deficit from the average rainfall.

My new garage door opener is installed and the opener buttons in my van won't work with the new one.  My van is 16 years old, doesn't have its first dent and only has 71000 miles on it.  I won't be getting a new vehicle so I have to have a separate opener in my van at all times now.

Floral fabrics and fall photos............

When I first started making colorwash quilts I used only floral fabrics because that is what Deirdre Amsden from the UK used.  She was the first person I saw doing colorwash in 1987.  She used Liberty Lawn fabrics.

I only made one with Liberty Lawn fabrics.  A friend gave me some of the squares and also hand quilted it for me.

We are in the enrollment period for my Colorwash 360 class until Friday night.  Here is a link to the sales page if you want to learn this technique too.

I know this photo isn't very clear because I was using the super zoom on my camera from the kitchen window.  I think the photo will enlarge if you click on it.  It is a Goldfinch eating Coneflower seeds, a sure sign of fall in my back garden.  I rarely see the Goldfinches any other time.

The Annabelle Hydrangeas are just right for cutting and drying for a year long bouquet.  I cut a second bouquet yesterday and will cut a third one sometime today.  Last year my Hydranges were smashed by the roofers who were working on my house so I'm replacing a 2 year old bouquet.  

My garage door opener is going to be replaced today (I hope) and I think I will mow the  grass for the first time in 5 weeks.  We got about 4" of rain in the 7 days of on and off storms so we have some green grass again.

This spiderweb is outside my kitchen window.  It has raindrops on it from overnight showers a couple days ago.