More play time........

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I sewed one more section on the Australian fabric triangle quilt and then decided to play with the blocks I made inspired by the work of Maria Shell.  I don't know at this point if I'm going to sew this or wait and make more blocks.  Maria's new book is starting to ship now so I will have more fun looking through it.

I brought in all of the lighter weight pots that have geraniums in them.  We are supposed to have 3 nights in a row of very cold weather so most of the pots are probably done for the season.  I wore my lightweight winter coat yesterday for the first time this season.  

Playtime.........

It has been a little over 2 months since my 2 friends have been here to sew and they are coming today.  I am going to play with the Australian fabric pieces sooner than I thought.  It is great to be back at the design wall.

I have these pieces to play with too.  I may get 2 quilts designed; I may just play and have nothing ready to sew.  It will just be a fun day.

Playing with stash.........

Yesterday I pulled out my black and white batiks.  Most of them are from the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Here is the photo on the pattern I showed Saturday on my blog post.  The size I am making takes 10 black and white horizontal bars.

Here are the 10 I pulled as possible choices.  I am wondering if the white on top will work for the little background squares.

By tonight or tomorrow this bud should be fully opened on my cactus.  This plant has 7 buds and I have another that has smaller buds and they will be white blooms.

Borders on.........

I had enough of the leaf batik to cut 3.25" borders so now the top is somewhere near 61" x 76".  The stars are floating now with the border sewn on.  I pulled out another project and did some sewing on it.  I will give it to someone who does service projects.  It was a sample when I was teaching the disappearing 9 patch I don't care for the fabrics.  I also found a bunch of floral blocks in the box, some 9 patches not sliced yet as well as many strips ready to make more blocks.  I may finish that one some day.

My burning bush is not at all pretty this year.  It is usually a brilliant red.  The long dry spell we had at the end of summer has dried up some of the leaves already.  I'm hoping after the frost (predicted for Tuesday night) that maybe it will turn more red before the leaves all fall off.

Top sewn........

I thought I would get so much done yesterday because I started sewing the cross seams in late morning.  All I got done though was the four seams in this top.  It is SO much prettier in person.  Somehow I didn't expect to like it so well and that is why it stayed unfinished in a box for so long.  The fact is I love it!  I want to add a 2" border of the same leaf batik all around it.  I found another piece of it in my stash so I do have enough to do that.

Starting to sew rows.......

I had a long list of errands to do yesterday plus boxing up the last 2 sales from my pop up shop and a trip to the post office.  Last night I sewed 6 long seams in one direction on the kite star quilt top and 4 seams the other way.  I have 4 seams left to sew.  I did move the light block from the top row before stacking the rows to take to the sewing machine.  I exchanged it with one that was just a little darker.

Final layout?.........

I took the last 3 blocks down to the design wall and then spent about a half  hour rearranging blocks so I could space out the blocks with red/pink and also the very dark  and very light blocks.  The only block I'm still questioning is the light one in the top row.  I could exchange it with the second star from the left in the second horizontal row.  It should finish at approximately 56" x 72".

Last night I just wanted some mindless sewing while I caught up on some TV shows.  I brought all of the 2" finished triangles upstairs and got all these sewn.  I need to cut some more light triangles to pair with the remaining dark  triangles.  I'll probably do pressing tonight while I watch a couple shows.

3 blocks........and Kaffe.........

I had a rest day yesterday, only stripping beds and doing laundry and sewing 3 blocks.  I will get to the design wall today and rearrange the blocks in a pleasing order.  Then I can sew the top together.

My amazing daughter left here (60 miles west of Chicago) at 5:45 a.m. to drive to Jonesborough TN to attend Kaffe Fassett's lecture on her way home.  I wasn't sure she would get there in time and when she sent me this photo it made my day.  She had purchased tickets before I had my pacemaker surgery and I didn't think I was ready to travel yet.  She said the program was really good and I'm sorry I couldn't be there.  Brandon and Kaffe both have shirts made of their own fabrics.

Cutting.......

All that got done yesterday was cutting.  Since these 3 blocks have repeats of the light colors I will have to rearrange blocks to space them apart.  My daughter and I were wrapping up all of the things related to my website for the rest of the day because she is leaving soon. 

Here is another mock-up created yesterday to place in my pop up shop (which closes late in the day on Oct. 25).  I had 3 more sales over the weekend so today is shipping day.

More blocks........

I added 7 more large squares and 5 more stars since yesterday.   I have to find fabrics for 3 more stars and then I will rearrange the blocks.  

Rain, rain, rain....after almost a month and a half of dry weather we got a lot of rain yesterday.  I would guess that it was over 5.5" and maybe way over that.  My rain gauge was running over yesterday morning and it holds 2".  I emptied it and we got another inch before it got dark.  Then it rained hard again and there was 2" more in the guage.  The trees and perennials are probably loving it as they prepare for winter.