Color play again

 Hello, everyone. 

It's color play time again. The floral fabric has been sewn onto the gray stripes.

As y'all noted in my last post, there are a lot of colors in this floral, and on the back overall.

On the left side, assorted purples

On the right side, assorted reds/pinks/oranges

After looking it over a few times, I think the purple has it. But it might be purple solid instead of the mix of prints...since there weren't enough 2 inch strips to finish the length. ;-)

Also the solid will be more relaxing to the viewer than a million prints all on top of each other. There are already a lot of prints going on here!

Latest on the quilt

 Hello, everyone. Today I have a small update on the vintage quilt top and new back.

First, the current status on the back.

Now, the washed and ironed top:

I found numerous little orphan blocks, Square within a Square type. Here are three of them.

Progress on the quilt back

 Hello, everyone. I was up to my ears with the pumpkin coasters and forgot to post for a few days. Sorry about that!

There has also been progress on the quilt back.

The orphan blocks--most of the log cabins, plus the triangle--have been sewn into short strips and dove-gray jelly roll strips are there to calm the busyness and unify the colors a bit. The pieced jelly roll section at the bottom was added to be sure of enough length. The side jelly roll pieces have been sewn on since this picture was taken. There is going to be a strip of 30's style floral on each side, then probably gray strips again, and finish out with a green 30's floral.

The top has been serged around the edge and washed. It awaits a session at the ironing board.

The lady, now unknown, who pieced the top did crumb piecing to make diamonds, which form stars, and bordered the stars with solid diamonds. After it gets ironed I will try to get a photo.

Until later!

Christmas is coming

 Hello, everyone.  Christmas is indeed coming, and the approach of the season was signaled for my by our most recent Sewing Club project. 

This beauty is from the Anita Goodesign Christmas cookie pattern set.

In doing this I learned how to incorporate craft foam sheets into an embroidery project.

I like the white on white look on the felt "cookie". Some of the other ladies in the club did ornaments without the contrast applique fabric. They were gorgeous!

Garden flowers

 Hello, everyone.  

I have been working on the little pumpkin coasters a lot, and so what I have to share today is flowers. Not that it's ever unwelcome to see flowers!

 The eggplants that I rescued from the garden, where the clay soil was just too heavy for them, are rewarding me with blossoms. 

This is a native plant that butterflies,  especially the monarch clan, just love. It needs water but it's just so pretty. Ankle high and no thorns, too.

When we moved into our new house, leaving behind the beautiful roses, DGD gave me a mini rose for Mother's Day. It's still going strong.

Last of the list, a rain lily. 

We have put compost and topsoil into the rectangular raised bed. I plan to put greens, radishes, and maybe some herbs into it. There are some basil seedlings that are now in gallon sized pots and would look pretty across the end.

That's our progress on the garden bed so far!

Garden season again

 Hello, everyone.  Before the garden, a picture of the sky yesterday morning.  

 This cute, little cloud was showing the dawn colors. Seeing the dawn is one of the best things about walking in the morning. (Almost as great as doing the walk before the day heats up!)

As the soil in my yard is very full of clay, and thus heavy, I have been somewhat disappointed in the yields of various vegetables. Other folks I know are having great results with raised bed culture. We decided that this is the year to try it out.

The first box. It's 12 feet by three feet. (A little over three meters long by almost a meter wide.)

There will be two smaller boxes added later. That will pretty much be all the rectangles we can tuck into our oval bed. And we have no particular desire to make the bed into a rectangle as that would require moving the critter-fence.

The depth of the bed will be about a foot: 2 fence pickets. 

We shall see how the fall garden turns out with boxes!

New coasters

 Hello, everyone.  There is a growing list of projects in process.

Today I am sharing a coaster. The ITH outline is from Sew4Home, and the center design is one of the free OESD designs that came with my Hatch3 embroidery software. 

One of my Altar Society sisters is thinking of doing the Halloween treat thing called "booing" for various folks in the parish.

This little combo is simple, but elegant, and doesn't take a lot of time. (Don't ask how many thread changes, though!)

It's fun and I got to practice combining two different patterns.