A finish............

This one was finished too late last night to get photographed up on the design wall.  I trimmed it and sewed the binding on last night.

I sewed 4 long strips together for the back of this one.  They were all cutaway pieces from piecing previous backs.  I'll have to photograph the whole back when I do the front today.

I have 3 compact burning bushes along the south wall of my house.  This one is usually the prettiest and sometimes it gets too cold for the other 2 to completely turn color.

This is the middle bush and it usually has the least of the bright red leaves.  This is the best year so far.  The bushes were planted in June 2021.

This year the one nearest the west corner of the house is pretty too.  The last couple years it dropped its leaves when they were just starting to turn red.

The leaves on the lilac bushes are prettier this year too.

My maple tree in the backyard looks like it is just starting to turn color but I couldn't get a good photo while facing west in the afternoon.

 

Working on the border...................

On the left side is one row of 4.5" squares and a little patch of 3" squares, the components of the pieced border.  I need to move all of the blocks to the left to have room for both the left and right borders on the design wall.  I ended up grocery shopping and doing laundry instead of continuing to work on this.

The 4.5" squares were all sewn into sets of 2 to speed up the design process.

The tree across the street was glowing with the sun from the south beating down on it, but no matter how many photos I took at different times, I really couldn't capture the sparkle that I could see.  I don't remember this tree turning all gold before.  Usually it had more red all the way to dropping its leaves.  This might have to do with 3 dry summers in a row.

The Sedum blooms are not pretty this year.  They suffered without enough rain and obviously I didn't keep up with watering them. 

Finish # 3 for October 2025......................

It only took 8 years to get this quilt to the finish line.  I made the top in 2017 and considered ditch quilting it but ended up having it longarmed this month.  It is all batik fabrics and there are 3 sizes of 16 patch blocks in it: 4", 8" and 16".  I paper pieced the star before 2017.

It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and it measures 38.5" x 51".  Most of my batiks are a half yard to a yard so I was happy to find one that was a larger cut to use for the back.

I'm linking to Alycia for her finished or not Friday.

I planted some mixed flower seeds in August and they finally bloomed in October.  These are Marigold.  Every day I add a few more tomatoes to the windowsill from the boxes in the garage.  There are usually 3 or 4 every day that are turning color.

Working on the binding......................

I had a few sessions of hand sewing on the binding of this batik quilt yesterday and I have about 20" left to stitch.  The star in this quilt was paper pieced many years ago.

Other than that I paid bills and ran an errand and that's it.  Oh, yes, I talked to all of my cactus plants a couple times too.  There are buds on about 10 of them now.  The red ones were the latest to set buds.  The one closest to blooming is white with pink edges.

Prep day...................

I finally sewed the three Aboriginal fabric blocks together and chose a backing and cut batting for it.  This will be a table runner.

This little piece is about 12" square.  Batting and backing were cut for it too.  This will be a small table mat.

The binding is cut for this quilt now.

Since this quilt is small I decided to hand stitch the binding.  I have one side completed.  The back and binding are both batik but they are easy to stitch through.

We had a warm Sunday, around 60 degrees.  Now we will be in the 50s for the rest of the week.  Rain is a maybe for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Finish # 2 for October 2025..................

This older quilt is finally finished.  It was started in 2011 so it is 14 years old.  The border was added in 2022 and then it hung on a hanger while I agonized about what kind of quilting and what color thread it needed.

There are 2 fabrics on the back, a wide piece of orange with roses and a narrow strip of the other fabric.  I love the Folk Art by Kaffe Fassett for the binding.

It is 47.5" x 58.5".  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and the quilting thread color is Almond, which blends into both the light and dark fabrics.  It was quilted by Robin Diaz.

After staring at the purple Rosy layout for 2 days I came to a decision for it.  I couldn't handle the layout with the 3 light squares down the center.  I need more of a random layout.  I changed from the pattern by putting in one more 9 patch where a square of fabric would have been.  It works for me and I don't think it is that noticeable.  I actually moved 3 pieces of the 'dream' fabric after I took this photo.  It is the 4th fabric from the left in the bottom row.  There are 4 squares of it in this layout.  Now I can start planning the borders with the 2 sizes of squares.  I will assemble them into blocks the same height as the 9 patches and then they can be webbed right along with these blocks.  It will be a slow process so I will finish the other binding I showed yesterday soon.  I might do some cutting for another project too so I don't get bored with the border.

Binding choices and a finish.................

This quilt dates back to 2017 but it's going to be finished now.  I trimmed it yesterday and chose the dark blue at the bottom for its binding.

I also trimmed this one and chose the Folk Art Kaffe print for the binding.  I made the center of this quilt top in 2011 but didn't get the final border on it until 2022.  

This one became my sewing project for last night.  There is mostly the orange with roses on the back with a narrower strip of the other fabric.

My purple Rosy blocks are on the wall in my main floor studio and I didn't want to go down to the basement for photography last night so you will probably see the full quilt tomorrow.

About a week ago I potted some Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus plants.  When I buy a new one and it is in a large pot, it is usually about 7 or more little plants in the pot.  I divided up the white one into 7 pots.  My daughter-in-law got 2 of the small ones yesterday.  She didn't have room for another large one.  I know my grandson's new wife will probably take one or maybe 2 of these so I still have a couple to share with friends.

This was the amount of tomatoes I brought in before the freeze.  I will toss some of the tiny ones after I go through them.  I just cut little branches with anywhere from one to 4 tomatoes on them and I will only save the ones golf ball size or larger.

 

Layout 2....................

I took out the square that was too light in this purple Rosy quilt and cut another of the second lightest fabric.  I decided to try them evenly placed down the center.  Then I cut 2 more squares of "dream" fabric and placed them evenly around the center.  I usually use a random layout but I was having a hard time coming up with anything I liked.  I'll let this one simmer for a day or two.

Last night I counted the squares that will make up the 2 borders.  I only need 3 more of the 4.5" finished squares.  If I do a double 3" border I need 58 more.

There are some leftovers from the strip piecing I did for the 9 patches.  I can cut 2 segments from each of these strips.  That would give me 28 more squares.

I was checking the plants on my porch at dusk and noticed the pretty colors looking south from  my house.  Their burning bush turns red before my compact burning bushes do.

The tree across the street is almost all turned color too.  They were pretty at dusk and are much more vivid in full daylight.

We were expecting a hard freeze by this morning so I spent over an hour yesterday late in the afternoon harvesting the remaining green tomatoes.  I usually cover the plants for the first frost and freeze but with my back problems I decided to just call it quits for the year a couple weeks early.   I picked about 2 dozen tomatoes that had started turning color the night before.  Most of the green ones eventually turn red in my garage.  Last year I ate my last home grown tomato on December 3rd.

Layout one......................

These are the two newest blocks I made yesterday for the purple Rosy quilt.

All spots are filled in on the layout now but I don't think this is the final layout.  I'm not sure about the light large square 4 blocks down on the right edge.  It is pink, blue, and lavender but maybe not a bold enough print.  I have nine 9 patches left over so I could make it a row wider and a row longer but I don't know if I want it to be that large.  I still have 2 or 3 rows of squares to put around the perimeter of the top (either 15" or 21").  The top as shown here would be 45" x 63".  Add 15" to that and it would be 60" x 78".  Add 21" to that and it would measure 66" x 84".  I'll look at this for a couple days and decide on size and layout.

Layout so far...............

I didn't get any more fabric cut but I did sew some new combinations of 9 patches from the remainder of the first cutting.  I have one more lighter fabric cut and will pair it with a dark and then remove a couple of the duplicates and put in the new ones.  I also need to cut 2 more fabrics into large squares.

This is one of the original photos I showed when I was pulling all of the Kaffe collective purples.  There are a few in here that I haven't used yet and some of them will be used in the 2 sizes of border squares.

 

Working on two again................

 I sewed on the right border and hoped the bottom border was going to fit.

It did with a tiny bit trimmed off one end.

I haven't made a final decision on the top and bottom borders and these strips are just pinned on the wall.  I moved this over to the left on the wall so I had room to start working on the next quilt.

I placed a little of each part of the purple Rosy quilt on the design wall.  The center is the 9 patches and large squares, the first border is one row of squares half the size of the 9 patches and the outer border is 2 rows of squares the same size as the squares in the 9 patch.  The original Rosy only has one row of the small squares and I may revert back to that.  

I'm afraid this one will be a little more boring than the green Rosy that I made.  I might have to search for some more purples with other colors in the print.

Playing at the design wall...................

I have a box full of 2" x 4" Flying Geese blocks made with Kaffe and Martha Negley fabrics.  I tried a row flying all the same direction, and maybe because they are facing the opposite direction than the triangles in the center panel, I didn't like this.

I thought maybe going both directions might work.  I still needed to try some more ideas.

Two geese joined into a diamond shape is an improvement.  I wasn't sure how many I would need to go across the bottom.  The strip on the right isn't sewn on yet.

Since I have so many Flying Geese blocks I decided to go ahead and sew a strip of these blocks.  I changed the top strip and it is better than the previous choice but I think maybe it needs to be green like the right and bottom strips and the triangles on the Snowball blocks.

Also I sewed one set of strips for 9 patches that will be in the Rosy quilt.  

We ended up with another 3/4" of rain from 12 hours of the storms moving through so .85" total.  I picked tomatoes just before dark.  I was surprised how many more were ripening since I picked 2 days ago.  There are lots of green ones on the plants and the temperature is going to go down to high 30s a couple nights this week.

First finish for October 2025.................

I love this little quilt.  I made blocks from my supply of cut Kaffe fabric strips and then hoped they would all work together at the design wall.  It's pretty simple, 1.5" and 2.5" strips sewn together to make the blocks.  Lots of the strips were cut 15-20 years ago so there are a lot of early Kaffe fabrics in this one.  

The backing is a Brandon Mably fabric and the binding a Kaffe fabric.  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and it finished at 47" x 67".

  It was quilted by Robin Diaz.

The binding choice is a Kaffe fabric.

I wanted this binding to blend into the quilt rather than framing it.

  

The tree across the street is starting to turn color.  I was afraid it was going to just dry up and not be beautiful this year.

Our "rainy" Saturday turned into a tenth of an inch of rain in the morning and no more rain until 10 p.m.  They were promising heavier rain overnight and up until noon today.  I hope so.