I'm sure you will have to click on this photo to enlarge it to see the goldfinch ready to eat some coneflower seeds. The garden is dying down and I need to cut down the peonies this week.
I was taking these photos from the kitchen window so I couldn't tell which direction the little bird was facing with my telephoto lens. I have seen several female goldfinches but it is rare to see the yellow males. It was an overcast afternoon so the colors are pretty dull.
The only activity in my studio was with the vacuum cleaner so I'll show you instead the nature's bounty picked during a break from cleaning. I'm hoping the rest of the tomatoes start turning color before the cold air hits this coming weekend.
In one of the piles I went through yesterday I found this project started too many years ago to remember. I love the look of the quilt (click on photo for a closer look) and I have all of 2 blocks made. There are more photocopied patterns so there really is no excuse.
This is the magazine that it was in and even though it is from 2006 I didn't start this that long ago. The odds of continuing this project into anything large is 0. Maybe I'll do enough pieces for a table runner....maybe not.
This pile of mottled batiks has been on this chair in my studio for close to a year, maybe longer. They need to be moved and while looking through them I'm pondering whether a quilt made of ALL mottled batiks would be great or mush.
Some of them are one color mottles but most have more than one color in them.
I have a few favorites in the pile. And no, I didn't find a place to move them to yet.
Instead I mowed 2/3 of my yard while the temperature was 58 degrees. It was in the 40s the last 2 nights. I guess we can safely say fall has arrived. Now I have all of the yard work to do, cutting down all of the peony plants, planting a few hostas that have been in pots all summer, and cleaning out all of the milkweed plants. We have had rain off and on recently and cutting wet plants is not a fun project. It sounds like we will have a few dry days at the beginning of next week.
My new little great granddaughter was born yesterday, 6 pounds 14 ounces. She has dark hair like her daddy. So now there are 3 "greats".
I was looking through Kaffe Fassett's latest book and decided this is my favorite quilt. The book has all medallion quilts which I happen to love. What I don't love is that it is square. My feet would be sticking out the bottom and I would have it wrapped around me 3 times. I need a rectangular quilt. This one will be easy to adapt by putting a rectangular center picture in there. I might have to do a little math to see if those on point squares in the borders will give me any trouble. I'm not opposed to putting a spacer in at the center or in 2 places in a border to make it all fit. I might use the same fabric choices but will definitely change some colors to make it more me.
For this quilt called "windows" the plain rectangle can be in any one of 4 different positions in the block. I want to make this quilt with special prints commonly called conversation prints. There are 3 Alice in Wonderland blocks in it so far. I think it will get some Charley Harper and Laurel Burch blocks too.
I didn't get any sewing done yesterday. I baked for 4 hours to make a variety of cookies to send to my granddaughter's house. The baby is supposed to be born on Friday and she will need some treats to pull out of the freezer for a couple weeks. I'll send some more to her when a family member goes west to help her out in a couple weeks. I know the 2 great grandsons will love the cookies.
As I start cleaning up my basement I needed to know what colors are missing from the framed 9 patch blocks so far. I have 31 blocks made and I need 80 for the size quilt I want to make. I knew I had a lot of black and white in it so far. I laid it out light/dark/light/dark but I don't think the final layout will be like this. I can see I need a lot more bright colors in this and a lot more medium tones. I'm sure I'll find some candidates as I start putting away fabrics.
On one of their visits here from TX my sister in law said she loved this table runner so I gave it to her. She loves to decorate her home for the seasons so here we have her Halloween display. Pretty cute!
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| Red and gray 48" x 71" |
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| Kit colorwash 28" square |
I only have 2 quilt tops to show for the month of September. I really have more border to add to the red and gray quilt but I'm considering it a finished top in case I don't add it. I really intended to quilt something but there was more family time with my youngest granddaughter's wedding in the middle of the month.
I continued to make blocks for all of my solid and print quilts, inspired by Lynn. (If you go to her blog scroll down to her label Solids on prints series. She has made more than 30 different patterns. You will find her postage stamp quilt under the postage stamp label. She gives all of the measurements for the pieces of every quilt and pressing directions on some of them.) I'll show some of these groups up on the design wall later this week. I have pinned on notes of how many blocks are in the piles and later figured out how many blocks I need to make quilts in approximately 60" x 72" size.
