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.

 

Sections sewn..............................

It was time to jump in and start piecing sections of the butterfly quilt.  I'm just winging it so far and haven't pressed any sections yet.

I pieced more sections and then it came to a standstill while I stared at it and tried to decide how to sew the center section.  I think there will be some partial seams to sew it all together.  I need to press all of the sections that are sewn so I can accurately measure the spaces.

I went outside to check on some plants yesterday afternoon.  The Lenten Rose plants are doing well.

The Hostas haven't been killed by a freeze yet but they are starting to dry up.

The Viburnum leaves are several colors this fall.  The little yellow leaf Redbud volunteer in front of it gives a nice contrast of colors.

This is one of the oldest Redbud trees.  A few trunks have been cut off and this is what is left.  Someday it will probably fall over.  Meanwhile it gives me good shade.

 

Strata sewn..................

I had a lot of loose ends to tie up yesterday and  didn't get home until early afternoon.

Last night I finished sewing the strata which I started a few days ago.  I don't know why I thought the strips were 1.5", they are 2" so the strata came out wider than I thought it would.  It's about 31.5" wide and 43" long.  I think it will be close to square after I slice 2" strips from it and make a design that is diagonal.

I also cut some strips of the background fabric of the butterfly project so I'm getting closer to sewing sections.

Little butterflies...................

It took 2 hours to sew 30 Broken Dishes Hourglass blocks, 2" finished size.  This is a possible layout.  I'll know more after I start assembling parts of it.  There will be spacers of the same background fabric between the 'little butterflies'.

I spent an hour with garden clean up yesterday.  It was cool enough that I needed a jacket.  There were quite a few branches to pick up as well as pulling out the spreading bellflowers and goldenrod.  I think I'll go out and clip the dead flower stalks on the hostas this year.  I read you should cut your Hosta plants down to the ground in late fall/early winter.  I have never done that and have great success with them not doing it.

 

Autumn scenes..................

We had an outside visit yesterday at my house.  The little great-grands are growing so tall.  The littlest one in this family is 5.  After they left I took some photos around my yard.

I have 3 of the compact Burning Bushes on the south side of my house.  This year is the most vivid color they have produced in the 4 years they have been there.  The one in the middle doesn't get quite as much sun as the other 2 so it is still half green.

I had to walk all the way into my backyard neighbor's yard to get a compete photo of my maple tree.  This is the first year it has had color other than gold.  All of my previous years' photos show a totally gold tree.  This one planted itself fairly close to the property line.  It is a huge tree now and I'm trying to figure out how old it is.  I think it was a small tree when in 2011 my neighbors had their 7 walnut trees cut down (because they were all leaning toward my house).

In my front garden I have a second volunteer Columbine under a Sedum plant.  The roots are right next to the sidewalk so I don't know if I can successfully move it to another location.

The Black Eyed Susan in the sidewalk crack has a new batch of blooms.  We are supposed to have 2 really warm days Tuesday and Wednesday so maybe I'll try to cut it out.  I have been putting it off long enough.

Possible layout.............

This is a possible layout for the butterfly blocks.  Now I just have to figure out what will fill in all of the blank areas.  I have enough of the background fabric to just use it but I think I need to do some piecing and add a little more color.

While I was waiting for the dryer to stop yesterday afternoon, I started cleaning off the table that I baste small quilts on.  There was a box with leftovers from previous Trip Around the World projects.  The back story on this one: when I worked at one of the quilt shops we cut kits for TAW.  I also cut 1.5" strips and sewed a small sample so people could see how the selections looked.  There were a couple of those groups that never got sewn because the kits sold before I could sew them.  This one was cut somewhere between 1995 and 2002.  I still have 8 more strips to sew onto this strata.  I think this will turn out about 20" x 28".  It is just a nice 'in between' project while I think about the butterfly quilt.

Another old WIP.......................

I posted this photo in 2008 and mentioned that I had made the blocks a couple years before that.  There was a line of fabrics by SSI that was called Kid Stuff. I have a large collection of these fabrics plus some others that go well with them.  I have considered putting them in a de-stash sale and I think I have a plan for how much of it I need to keep now.

I took a new photo of the completed blocks.  I need to come up with a plan and get these made into a baby quilt with lots of the other prints.

I added a few dotted fabrics to the mix too.  These pieces were in the bag with the book and the blocks.

I have one more project that the blocks are made for that I could also work on.  The only problem here is I'm making more tops instead of finishing some quilts.

I finished my baking around 3 yesterday and then delivered all of the treats to the house where the family will be staying.  I had plenty that I could stash in my freezer too.  Now I have a good variety of desserts for the next month or two.

Where this year stands..................

Eleven of the quilt tops that I finished this year were WIPs with either some or all of the blocks already pieced or pieces already cut.  I have made 26 quilt tops so far this year, and I'm sure there will be more.

I have finished 28 quilts so far this year, just 2 short of the number finished last year.  I gave 2 to my longarm friend last week so potentially I can tie last year's total without finishing any more for the rest of the year (but I hope that I will get more finished since I still have 38 tops waiting in line).  I'm limiting the amount of time that I stand on concrete floors in the basement to keep hip pain at a minimum, 0 pain some days, mild pain some others.  Lots of hours down there = discomfort.  I have the foam puzzle piece flooring in many of the areas down there and that helps a little.  I have anti-fatigue mats in key areas, by the ironing table and by the die cutter.  So, on I go, making more quilts.

Yesterday and today are baking days, once again anticipating the family visiting from a state away this weekend. 

Sorting scraps.............

Since I didn't have anything lined up to sew last night, I decided to sort through my Marcia Derse scraps that were in 3 project boxes.  The box on the left is now all strips of various widths and lengths and the box on the right is scraps large enough to cut 2" finished triangles or larger.  In the plastic bags are small irregular shaped scraps in one, and pieced strips left from previous projects in the other.  Now I'm down to 2 boxes.  I will reserve the empty box for any new MD scraps that I create with the next project.

I had to take another picture of the tree across the street.  It still has green leaves on the interior branches but the outside is brilliant color.  This was taken as the sun was almost set last night.

While I was out there I checked on the yellow coneflower.  One bud is almost ready to fully open.

There are 6 more buds that may or may not open before a hard freeze.  We have above average weather predicted for all but one day for the next 7 days.  It's even warmer at night now than it has been.

Judi, you are a no-reply blogger (your email address is not enabled in your Blogger profile) and you asked about the stitch length for my staystitching on the edge of my quilt tops.  When I turn on my machine it is set for a 2.5 stitch length so that is what I am using.  When piecing I use a 2 stitch length.

Staystitching the quilt top edges...............

 Someone asked a while ago how I do the stay-stitching around my quilt tops.  At the time I didn't have one to demonstrate on.  What I do is put on the zigzag foot and move the needle to the right.  I have 9 needle positions from center to right on my 22 year old Pfaff and I set it at 7 to the right.  This allows the whole foot to be on top of the edge of the quilt top and still stitch less than 1/4" from the edge.

This shows that the stitching is approximately 3/16" from the edge of the quilt top.

I piece most of my quilt backings with a seam top to bottom and there is always a leftover strip.  I measure them and mark the sizes on a note that is stapled to the strip.  This is the group of brown and beige which could make a backing for the current quilt top.

I also checked for pieces that were long enough for one strip of backing and found this green one and brown one.

These 3 pieced together would be wide enough for the quilt.  I have plenty of time to think about these choices since this one won't be the next to be quilted.

Looks better sewn together......................

A quilt top always looks so much better than just blocks on the design wall.  I love the rich colors in this one.  I think it would look great thrown over a leather chair in a wood paneled library.

It would have looked a little better with one more row in length for a better rectangular shape, but I was done working on it.  It is 64" x 72", a nice throw quilt size.

How did I choose the fabrics for this quilt?  I was looking for some no-brainer sewing so I opened 2 boxes full of 2.5" strips.  There wasn't a great variety because this was what was left from 5 drawers of strips cut over a 15-20 year span.  As I looked through the strips, the ones that were green with orange/rust in them inspired me and I paired them with dark brown or black strips.  Eventually I had to go to yardage to cut strips in specific colors/values.  This is the way I usually work.  I rarely choose all of the fabrics for a quilt first, but instead just keep choosing fabrics to add as I realize what I am making.

In this case I started out thinking I was going to make a traditional 16 patch quilt and then veered off with the idea to make "the other 16 patch", the one with rectangles instead of squares.

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

This is not a great photo but it is my working photo in case anything gets mixed up during sewing.  It looks a lot different in person so I hope I can get a good photo when it is all sewn together.  I was lazy last night and just did clean up in my computer folders instead of sewing.

In the morning a friend came over to get the big rocks along the path in my back garden.  They are a tripping hazard for me now so they need to go.  She got quite a few for the first load and will come back a couple times to get some more.  I hauled all of the pots of dirt that didn't have anything currently growing in them to fill the spots where the rocks came out.  I have almost all of the peonies cut down now. 

First layout................

All 32 blocks are sewn and pressed now.  This last group of 4 will add more color to the group.

Last night's layout. There is one block I want to exchange with another but I haven't made the decision which one yet.  I thought I would wait until this morning to look at it again.

These are definitely the colors of the outside in my town.  Still lots of green but more colorful trees every day.

 

Prepping time......................

I continued cutting batting and backing for quilts that I will do the quilting on.  I think this might be the first time I have used a non-Kaffe fabric as backing on a Kaffe quilt.  The top is 48" wide which would have meant piecing a back.  I had this 58" wide fabric that looks great with it so no piecing required.

I was able to get both battings from one width of batting off the roll.  I decided on a large print floral for the back of this small quilt.

Next I searched through my batik stash for the last 8 fabric I needed for the current quilt.

I got the strip sets sewn last night but didn't turn on the iron.  I'll do that today and get the last 8 blocks pieced.

Carol C, you are a no reply commenter (your email is not enabled in your Google profile) and you asked for key words to search for posts where I have made quilts like this one.  I call this one "the other 16 patch" because the traditional 16 patch is all squares and this one has rectangles.  So the way to search is enter other 16 patch into the search box at the top left of this blog post.  If you read on a smartphone you have to go the the bottom of the post and click on view web version to find the search box.  It is tiny and is at the top left above my header photo.  This will take you to all of the posts for all of the quilts I have made with this block.

A little progress................

Four more strip sets are ready to be pressed and then made into blocks.  This is my favorite of the 4.

I added the other 4 blocks of the original 24 to the design wall.  I need to take this to the basement for a larger design wall before I add any more blocks.

This one that might look like pink on your monitor is actually a coral color and goes well with the other orangey/rusty spots in other blocks.

I got one more batting cut and a backing pieced so my longarm quilter can pick up 2 to be quilted.

 

Testing..................

This is 18 of 24 blocks that are sewn so far.  I just had to see them on the design wall and confirm that I want the blocks to run horizontal instead of vertical.

I have strips chosen for 4 more blocks.  I need at least 32 blocks so I need to choose 4 more pairs.

I covered a few of my tomato plants last night, hoping they will make it through the freeze.

 

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.